Ten months after it made its first Voice over LTE (VoLTE) call in Nigeria, Smile Communications has taken the bold step further by launching low-cost VoLTE call services at rates it prides to be the “lowest call rate” in the country.
Going at 8 kobo per second, the voice call also further transforms Smile Communications from being merely an Internet Service Provider to a full fledge communications services company thereby fulfilling its licence obligations and opportunities.
In October 2015, Smile made its first VoLTE call in Nigeria during the beta testing of its voice service and that prepared it for the full commercial roll out of voice service.
Announcing the introduction of the service in Lagos, the company’s Managing Director, Mr. Godfrey Efeurhobo, said since the 2015 successful test Smile had introduced SmileVoice to its customers who can use it from a VoLTE-enabled handset with Smile SIM card or by downloading the SmileVoice App on their Android or Apple iPhone device.
According to him, the SmileVoice App is a world-first, free mobile app that gives all Smile customers access to super clear voice calls over 4G LTE network without the need for a VoLTE handset.
“Having the SmileVoice app on your mobile is like having a second SIM card in your phone.Our customers can use their data plan to make super clear voice, video calls and send SMSs to any number locally and internationally. There is no need for the recipient to also have Smile Voice,” he said.
“On the Smile network now, whether with our SmileVoice or a VoLTE compatible phone, you can make calls to any network in Nigeria at local rate which gets as low as 8 kobo per second on the SmileVoice-only bundle plan, which is below N5 a minute. This is unprecedented!” he added.
Besides the low local call rate, another benefit of the Smile Voice, according to Efeurhobo, is the elimination of international call rates for those making calls from abroad.
His words: “With the SmileVoice App, connected to any data network anywhere in the world, you can make calls to any network in Nigeria at the same rate! If home is where the heart is, you never have to be far from home again! On the Smile network, you take home with you everywhere you go. Remember, you can do video calls and send SMS using the SmileVoice App. It doesn’t get any better.”
Presently available in eight Nigerian cities of Lagos, Abuja, Benin, Kaduna, Ibadan, PortHarcourt, Asaba, and Onitsha, Smile Communications said it is set to latch on to the Nigerian Communications Commission’s initiative on rural broadband to reach the under-served.
Interestingly, the company said it has also listened to the complaints of its various customers over the cost of its data, which is considered to be more expensive compared to competition. While declaring that the company is a listening company, the Smile boss said the company was already planning to unveil cheaper data packages that would be unrivalled by any other service provider in the industry.