Leon Perlman
The days of sitting bored and probably scared during a mini-bus journey could soon be over. A Gauteng-based company, Maxtel, has developed the world’s first dedicated taxi phone which passengers can use to distract themselves.
These South African-designed and manufactured devices, called “Taxi Talk”, will be available through global systems mobile (GSM) Service Provider TTC for around R4 500.
Maxtel managing director Imram Jetham told the Mail & Guardian that thousands of Taxi Talk devices would be installed in mini-bus taxis within the next few months.
Maxtel began development work on the Taxi Talk phones some eight months ago, and a prototype was shown at a convention of international GSM operators earlier this year. Maxtel distributes, develops and manufactures a broad range of telecommunications equipment.
Interest in the device was also shown at last week’s Telecom 95 exhibition in Geneva. “We’re very excited because we’re providing a service where there is no service. The security aspect alone makes it an attractive proposition. Already one driver’s life has been saved by use of Taxi Talk,” said Jetham.
The phone was specially designed to reduce the need for excessive wiring and so avoid resultant high installation costs. It has a pilot-like headset and microphone for the driver, a keypad next to the dashboard, and a user handset on the passenger area side panel linked via a cable to the central mobile control unit. On the ceiling is a liquid crystal display (LCD) that allows the passenger to see how many call units have been used and rands’ worth of time is left.
In the scheme, a taxi owner pre-pays for air-time from the service provider. The passenger pays the driver in cash. Jetham says this will reduce both administration costs and potential fraud. The driver can monitor usage of the system from his control panel.
If there is an emergency, a button is depressed twice for connection to the GSM 112 emergency service.
Calls on the Taxi Talk will initially be charged at standard cellular rates, although there are continuing discussions with the cellular regulator to classify the itinerant taxi phones as community phones.
Community phones are primarily located in underprivileged areas and there call costs are less than half that of normal cellular call rates. A stumbling block to their classification as community phones though is their mobility, as calls could easily be made outside the community phone areas designated by the regulator.
Although the unit will cost around R4 500, the taxi owner need only provide an initial down-payment of R2 000. The remaining R2 500 can be financed. Maxtel are training teams of installers and encouraging to set up their own installation businesses.