You can now do electronic transactions such as banking, buying goods and
services, monitoring the share market and making your travel bookings from
the comfort of your armchair via CyberTrade.
CyberTrade is a trading environment managed by Telkom, but unlike the
internet, it is a closed network, which means that Telkom can manage the
system to ensure fast access, around the clock connectivity and maximum
security.
Apart from being able to connect to a range of information resources, such
as insurance, real estate, medicine, agriculture and education, you have
the option of e-mail and internet use as well.
CyberTrade replaces the Beltel system, which closes down at the end of this
month, having served as Telkom`s electronic commerce platform for the past
13 years.
Gavin Naidoo, CyberTrade`s product manager, says that, so far, Standard
Bank, Absa and FNB will be hosting their services on CyberTrade. The other
banks can be accessed through CyberTrade too, but only via the internet.
Telkom`s intention is to grow CyberTrade into an electronic commerce gate
for South Africa and later Africa, to enable you to buy and sell almost
anything from the comfort of your armchair, and have access to the latest
information at the click of your computer mouse, Naidoo says.
What you need
To make use of CyberTrade, you need a computer with a pentium or higher
processor, a telephone line and a modem, with a maximum line speed of 56,6
Kbps.
What it costs
New users pay a once off registration fee of R55 and a charge per minute,
which is R0,190 during normal hours and R0,095 at Call More Time. Call More
time is between 7pm and 7am weekdays, and from 7pm on Fridays, until 7am on
Mondays. You are also charged a log on fee of R0,20 every time you log into
the system.
The monthly charges will depend on which package you choose The packages
are:
CyberTrade and e-mail
* You can get the CyberTrade service and e-mail for R15,10 a month. In
addition, you will be charged the relevant charges per minute and log on
fees.
* The limited flat rate subscription option is R54,23. This entitles you to
the first 10 hours free that you use CyberTrade in a month, after which you
pay the standard per minute charges. You still pay the log on fee every
time you log into the system.
CyberTrade, internet and e-mail* The subscription is R40,10 a month. In addition, you pay the per minute
charges and log on fees.* The limited flat rate subscription is R86,76 a month, plus the relevant
per minute and log on charges. But you do not pay the per minute charges
for the first 10 hours that you use the service in a month.
These prices do not include VAT and local telephone charges are not
included.
How to get CyberTrade
To register you must fill in a registration form and fax it, together with
a copy of your identity document, to 086-0105-060. Once you have been
registered, you will be contacted and given a user name and password, and
will be faxed a starter pack issue voucher.
You can then exchange this voucher for a CyberTrade starter pack from any
Telkom customer service centre and install the software on your computer,
by entering your user name and password to gain access to CyberTrade.