Make a CellC call and speak to over 60 international countries for no extra cost

Is this too good to be true? Dial 084 198 0001 from any cell phone (in South Africa) or any everyday Telkom land line to call any of the 60 listed countries 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at the cost of a normal local CellC phone call.

No contracts, no sign-up, no subscription or memberships.

All you pay for is the local call to the CellC number.

Free minutes canNOT be used. V.A.S (Value Added Services) rates apply.

VAS rates means that VAS rates are charged and excludes discounts of any kind such as free minutes etc.

The cost of calls to VAS numbers depend on your calling package.

Cell phones only in the following countries: USA (most networks); Canada; China; Singapore; Hong Kong

Browse your network provider's web site to see what the VAS call rate would be.

eg:

for Vodacom pre-paid Vodago: to Value-Added Services (Off-Peak) R1.08 (Peak) R3.60) http://www.vodacom.co.za/pkgcr.do?action=getpkgsgroups&pkgTypeId=2&pkgGroupId=8&packageId=17
for Vodacom contract Talk 240: Value-Added Services (Off-Peak) R0.98 (Peak R1.88) http://www.vodacom.co.za/pkgcr.do?action=getpkgsgroups&pkgTypeId=1&pkgGroupId=1&packageId=4

Still interested?, then go to their web site: http://www.farcall.co.za/ for more information.

To use the service:

1) Dial 084 198 0001
2) Wait for the voice-prompt to enter your international number.
3) Enter the international dialing code for the country you’re dialing. No need to enter “0” beforehand, just the country’s code.

4) Dial the phone number.

For more info or clarifications: why not drop them an email: info@farcall.co.za

Ok, now for HandyTechTipper's analysis of the offering:

As stated on their web site they are using Voice Over IP (VOIP) technology.... this means that when you make the call, you will be routed from the South African CellC network using VOIP to the party you are calling in the other country.

Essentially, this means that your voice will be take the following path:

1) your cell phone to your cellular provider,

2) to CellC to an automated voice response system that will answer the call and routed to the Internet and then to a telephone in the country that you have "dialled".

So, things to watch out for: 1) since it's voice over IP watch out for voice quality; 2) watch your cell phone account!

How do they do it? Well, 1 way of doing this would be to have the automated answering service route calls using SkypeOut ie: VOIP calls over the Internet that call "real" phones for a cheap rate. See here for SkypeOut rates: http://www.skype.com/intl/en/prices/callrates/?currency=ZAR

See here for more Skype related articles:

SkypeOut info: http://handytechtips.blogspot.com/2008/04/skypeout-save-money-on-long-distance.html

Get 20% off SkypeOut purchases: http://handytechtips.blogspot.com/2008/06/join-fatwallet-cashback-scheme-and-get.html

Where do they make their money? They get a revenue share from the VAS calls ie: CellC gives FarCall a percentage from each call's cost... which needs to be more than the cost of making the call over the VOIP service (and their infrastructure and Internet costs: bandwidth and ADSL lines).

So, is their statement correct: "...forget the inconvenience of international calling cards, and ditch the local monopoly!"?

Well, I suppose, if you're on a contract that has low VAS rates then this will probably be cheaper that calling from your Telkom line but not cheaper than using SkypeOut.

But, if you're on prepaid, then I don't think many countries will be cheaper than Telkom rates and definitely fewer (if any) will be cheaper than using the calling card option - none will be cheaper than using the SkypeOut method.

See here for Telkom rates: http://www.telkom.co.za/common/pricelist/prices/international/internationaldestinations/countries.html

One thing's for sure - if you are going to use your cell phone to make an international call, then use this service - it will definitely be cheaper than calling the international party directly!
eg: On Vodacom Talk 240 contract: International calls cost: (Per minute) Off-Peak: R0.95 + Telkom Off-Peak {Peak: R1.76 + Telkom Peak}
On prepaid Vodago: depending on global zone: ranges from R5.50 to R17.50 per minute!

See here for another calling service that allows you to Use your cell phone's free minutes to make international calls

Anyone that's looking for Smile Educational products is out of luck! They're not selling to the general public any longer :(

My children were brought up on the great quality and competitive prices of Smile Educational products - but now I'm trying to find the products for my nephews and nieces....

So, I decided to share my findings so that everyone else out there doesn't waste their time....

I've spoken to a couple of the work-from-home consultants and found out that they're no longer selling Smile products to the general public!

The "story" is complicated, but in essence, the company Smile Educational Systems (www.smilesa.co.za) was sold to Media24 (http://www.media24.co.za which owns Nasou Via Afrika www.nasou-viaafrika.com) on 1 April 2007. They also owned Idem that also sold educational toys mainly to government departments.

Bottom of the line, it seems that Nasou have decided that from end Sept 2008, they would no longer sell Idem nor Smile Educational products to the general public, but rather sell only to government - this has left the hundreds of work-from-home consultants in the lurch! Not to mention, the woman-in-the-street, that now needs to find replacement products :(

Makes me think, how can a great business with a huge, self-motivated marketing and sales engine be left to die? How can a company like Smile (http://www.smilesa.co.za/about) that was founded in July 1979 by Doreen Maree and running profitably, be taken over by a large corporate and fail to continue with a winning recipe!!?????

They can't even manage to update their Smile web page (http://www.smilesa.co.za) to tell their former customers that there's no more goodies coming their way!

Wake up Via Afrika! Maybe read your mission statement again and realign your goals going forward:

http://www.viaafrika.com/index_eng.asp:

"

Via Afrika businesses aim to become the leading publishers, sellers and distributors of profitable educational reading, learning, audio and visual products in their respective markets.

"

Now for that huge self-motivated marketing and sales engine: I hear that some enterprising company didn't let a good thing disintegrate into nothing.... a company called "unIQue Kids" - Learn with a smile! has kept the sales team together and is now making inroads into introducing their products to the old Smile market.




Update: Dec 2009: I've found their brand new web site with new product information and online store:
http://playandlearn.comli.com/

The site contains the following info (and more):
Play2Learn Catalogue and pricelists
SucZeZZ Brochure and pricelists
unIQueKids Brochure and priceLists

Based in Cape Town but can ship anywhere (email them for shipping costs)
http://playandlearn.comli.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20&Itemid=53

Step by step guide to getting your Outlook email from your old PC to a new PC

Ever wonder how to migrate your Outlook emails from an old PC to a new one? Well, here's a quick way:

The emails are stored in .pst files - so if you find the file(s) on your HDD then copy them into the same folder on your new PC then the emails and folders will be transferred.

In the main Outlook window: Tools->Options->Mail setup->Data files->click on the name then click on 'Open folder"
An explorer window will open and then copy the .pst file onto a flash drive and then into the same folder on your new computer.
Repeat the process for any other .pst files that you may want to copy.

While you are copying, why not copy the .pab files - these are Outlook's address book files.

You might need to use the File->Open->'Open data file' to force Outlook to open the .pst files.

If you want to copy individual emails then you can multi-select the emails in Outlook (click on the first email, then Shift-'and the last email'-and-click), then press Ctrl-C, then go to Windows Explorer and paste the files into a folder (by pressing Ctrl-V). The emails will then be copied into the folder as .msg files. Double click to open the messages.

See here for more detailed info: http://www.howto-outlook.com/Howto/backupandrestore.htm