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IDENTICALL

Today on Interact, Lizel Bredenkamp tells us about an exciting new product from Telkom called "Identicall".

Identicall is a service which allows you to see who's calling before you answer the phone, by displaying the telephone number of the caller on the Identicall Display Unit. This unit is already available to 80% of Telkom's customers. Different people will have different benefits from this service. First of all, if you have a look at the sales set-up, it can be used to screen calls, due to the fact that the number will be displayed. They can then decide which calls to take immediately and which to return a bit later on."

Women that suffer from harassing calls will most definitely benefit from this service. Not only does it display the telephone number, but it also logs the numbers with the date and the time.

The Unit has the capacity to log up to 99 incoming numbers and it works on a first in first out basis. Of course, if you don't want your number to come up on an Identicall unit , you are able to block it. Our customers have got a right to their privacy and therefore Telkom provides them with a short code which they can dial, to prevent their number from being transmitted over the network. The word "Private" will then be displayed on the receiver's Identicall.

To subscribe and get the Identicall Unit, the customer should phone 10219. A Telkom Agent will then pick up the phone and will just verify whether the customer qualifies for the service. If the customer does qualify, the Telkom Agent can then activate the service on his line. The customer then has the option to buy the unit either through a home delivery channel or he can then go the Telkom Customer Service Branch or to a Macro Store or Shoprite/Checkers stores, which stock the unit."

If we look at costs, first of all, there's a once off activation fee of R20, which has been waived until the 31st August, just for the introductory period. Then there's a monthly rental of R14. The unit itself is a once off payment of R149,95. The customer has the option when buying the unit from a Telkom office, to pay cash for the unit or to have it debited once off on his telephone account or to have it debited on a twelve month instalment basis, also on his telephone account."