Admittedly, with VoIP -- Voice over Internet Protocol -- steadily gaining prominence and a variety of options for using the platform emerging, the concept of LCR -- Least-Cost Routing -- had fallen out of vogue. After all, what sense in a per-minute pricing plan when VoIP allowed for unlimited calling anywhere for a few dollars a month or less? But Cell C's CEO Allan Knott-Craig announced that the model was back, and in a big way, thanks to new offerings from Cell C.

Cell C, working with SS Telecoms' lineup of devices, recently unveiled an LCR service that would take mobile calls down to just $.99 a minute, providing local businesses of all sizes the chance to save money on their calling. SS Telecoms' MD, George Smallberger, described the move as one that "breathes a lot of life into the LCR business case,, and that, for many of their clients, LCR was "still a viable cost management system."

Smallberger further describes a constantly changing marketplace, admitting that VoIP is an increasingly "attractive" option, and with the emergence of the WACS cable, that only shakes the market up more. But still, under the correct circumstances, many businesses can see substantial cost savings under an LCR system, especially for small businesses and SME -- Small to Medium-sized Enterprises -- looking for a simple way to get voice service established.

A system like this can work very well for small businesses that don't have the kind of call volume that VoIP might work best with, or don't have access to the appropriate kind of bandwidth necessary for full utilization of VoIP services, especially in the mobile venue where service can be spotty and Wi-Fi unavailable as a backup. Even Smallberger describes a landscape in which prices will be constantly in flux until the market fully shakes out, and that LCR setups can serve very well in such a dynamic ecosystem.

While each business' individual needs are all different, for those that find themselves best served by an LCR setup, they'll find an easy to use and highly adaptable system handling their voice traffic. It's not for everyone, of course, but with a well-defined niche in hand, Cell C and SS Telecom should have plenty of traffic of their own to handle, specifically, the kind going into their shops to get hands on these systems in the first place.