Thabiso Mochiko

 Johannesburg - While the telecoms regulator is still debating whether to intervene in South Africa's high cellphone charges, a few university graduates took advantage of this gap to form a cellphone-based voice over internet protocol (VoIP) that will slash costs by up to 80 percent.

The University of Cape Town graduates' company is called Yeigo, founded by chief executive Rapelang Rabana, Lungisa Matshoba and Wilter du Toit.

The former classmates started the company in December 2005. It took them two years to complete software features and the system was commercially launched in February this year.