“Atos powers WiFi calling service for Cell C in South Africa”

First customer implementation of the WiFi calling service increasing customer loyalty, improving coverage and reducing costs

Atos powers Wifi calling

Atos, an international leader in digital services, announces that following its launch of the WiFi Calling solution earlier this year, Cell C has launched its commercial integrated WiFi calling service to its customers in South Africa. With the Atos solution, Cell C can enhance customer loyalty, boost indoor coverage, and offload traffic from 3G networks. Cell C expects that this flexible platform will see a dramatic increase in the number of devices that support the service as soon as the company’s smartphone manufacturer pool expands.

WiFi Calling is tightly integrated in the operators’ network infrastructure and compared to over-the-top services it has the benefit of providing enhanced quality and reliability, and most importantly a seamless user experience. Customers can make and receive calls using the same mobile number while accessing the same services like voice mail, SMS, or prepaid. Thanks to Lydrasoft’s technology, customers use the same interfaces on their phones, such as the dialer, phonebook, and settings. Atos has the capabilities, technology, partnerships and IP within its WiFi Calling platform to enable this innovative new service, all together providing an excellent and seamless user experience.

“Cell C has worked with the leading vendors in the world on this project including Atos. Their extensive experience in this field and access to global best practice has ensured one of the fastest rollouts of WiFi Calling globally”, says Jose Dos Santos, CEO at Cell C.

Cell C’s WiFi Calling platform has several advantages, including the integration into the handset dialer, which simplifies the service for customers. The service also supports SMS, and USSD over WiFi and will be available to prepaid and postpaid customers alike, and the customers will be able to continue using their existing services seamlessly. Cell C’s WiFi calling service will also benefit international travellers, where they will be able to make calls using local South African tariffs as long as they are connected to WiFi. Atos is ready to deploy its WiFi Calling platform worldwide.

Francis Meston, CEO IMEA at Atos: “ This is a huge technology advancement for Operator’s, enterprise and consumer users alike. WiFi calling enables the CSP to provide increased quality in voice calls; a reduction in infrastructure costs and provides additional services to both enterprises and consumers. We are proud that Cell C is amongst the first operators to have launched this solution on such a wide scale. The collaboration with Cell C has been exemplary”.

About WiFi Calling

The WiFi Calling solution is targeted to CSP’s, and more specifically to Mobile Network Operators and Mobile Virtual Network Operators. As CSPs face new customer expectations going forward, WiFi Calling provides them a tremendous opportunity to:

Enhance customer loyalty – by offering customers cheap and high-quality phone calls through WiFi, also when roaming abroad
Boost coverage and reduce churn – coverage is one of the primary criteria for consumers and businesses in choosing an operator. WiFi Calling can quickly address coverage gaps
Offload traffic from 3G networks and reduce costs – there is a data tsunami hitting operators. Wifi is a cost-effective mean of offloading large amounts of mobile data traffic from cellular radio access over to WiFi, reducing or delaying capital expenditure requirements in deploying 4G
Monetize new revenue generating models – CSPs can provide customers with value added services related to advertising, location and analytics -delivered over WiFi.

About Atos

Atos SE (Societas Europaea) is a leader in digital services with 2014 pro forma annual revenue of circa € 11 billion and 93,000 employees in 72 countries. Serving a global client base, the Group provides Consulting & Systems Integration services, Managed Services & BPO, Cloud operations, Big Data & Cyber-security solutions, as well as transactional services through Worldline, the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry. With its deep technology expertise and industry knowledge, the Group works with clients across different business sectors: Defense, Financial Services, Health, Manufacturing, Media, Utilities, Public sector, Retail, Telecommunications, and Transportation. Atos is focused on business technology that powers progress and helps organizations to create their firm of the future. The Group is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic & Paralympic Games and is listed on the Euronext Paris market. Atos operates under the brands Atos, Atos Consulting, Atos Worldgrid, Bull, Canopy, and Worldline. .