Our History
The road so far...
- 2005: Telestream Communications (Pty) Ltd, the brainchild of a dynamic entrepreneurial team with great vision and ambition is born.
- 2005: Issued one of the first Telecom licences from ICASA.
- 2005: Converged VoIP, GSM and VAS to create the International Calling IVR industry in SA - a segment that the Hello Group has dominated to date.
- 2007: Broke milestone of routing 15million international voice minutes/month
- 2009: Launched Starfone international calling card range
- 2009: Launched Starfone IP Callshops across southern Africa
- 2010: Launched Hello Mobile which gave our customers lower cost, superior access and an amazingly simple user experience.
- 2010: Built largest informal cellular distribution network in SA leveraging technology to remove all layers between our organisation and informal retailers, Spaza shopowners and street vendors.
- 2011: Hello Group exceeds 10 000 points of presence nationwide making it the undisputed leader in servicing the informal retail market in South Africa.
- 2011: First full transparent and online distributor portal deployed to all retail outlets.
- 2012: Creates digital mobile wallet to pay commission to unbanked street vendors nationwide
- 2012: More than 1 million Hello Mobile regular subscribers.
- 2013: The Hello team grows to over 200 employees
- 2013: Created Entrepreneur program, to train, educate, fund and mentor hundreds of individuals in building their own businesses. The most successful of these generates over R30,000 in monthly commission.
- 2013: 28 000 distributors earning commission via HelloGroup mobile wallet
- 2013: Launched Hello Travel to offer low-cost travel services to migrant communities.
- 2013: Adopted New Beginnings Haven as our Group CSI Project.
- 2013: HelloMobile subscriber base hits 1.5m
- 2014: HelloGroup's Flagship HelloStore is launched. Welcome to our world.
Our ambition is to become the ‘brand of choice’ and consistently deliver distinctive value to consumers. We will continue to enhance the lives of migrant communities by providing them with the products and services they need, together with the excellent customer service that the Hello Group is known for delivering.
