Since the ministerial determinations of September 2004, there has been a tremendous amount of hype around Voice over IP (VOIP), mainly around the potential cost savings. While VOIP can (sometimes) provide cost savings when used over a LAN or WAN infrastructure, most of the excitement has been around the promise that organisations can finally cut Telkom out of the loop and connect with anyone they choose without using the incumbent's infrastructure.

To make VOIP truly functional, operators (fixed-line, mobile and VAN/ISP) need to interconnect with one another. As per Brainstorm's  VOIP feature in the February 2007 edition, most of the local operators, VANS and ISPs had sorted out interconnects.