Question 1

Are FirstNet business voice minutes suitable for small and medium businesses?

Accepted Answer

Yes. SMBs can start on low-commitment plans, such as pay-as-you-go minutes, and scale usage as the business grows without changing their infrastructure. FirstNet's voice platform supports five users or five thousand without architectural changes.

Why it works for smaller businesses:
- No long-term commitment is needed for pay-as-you-go minutes.
- Minutes work with cloud PBX systems, softphones and hybrid teams, for both inbound and outbound calls.
- Per-second billing means short calls are not rounded up to full minutes.
- SIP channels are sized to peak concurrent calls, not headcount, so a 50-person business may need only a fraction of that in simultaneous calls.
- Fraud controls, including anomaly detection, destination blocking and spending controls, protect against unexpected charges.

For a single-site business, one SIP trunk suits non-critical voice where moderate downtime is acceptable. If you also take FirstNet connectivity, a free backup SIP trunk adds automatic failover.

Businesses that would rather not run a phone system at all can choose FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX instead, which combines the PBX, numbers, softphones and calling into one managed service on one bill.

Question 2

Are we locked in if we use FirstNet Private Cloud?

Accepted Answer

No. With FirstNet Private Cloud you own your data, and an exit with secure deprovisioning and data handover is available under your contract.

Why lock-in risk is low:

- Data ownership: your data remains yours, and handover on exit is part of the contract scope
- Standard hypervisors: workloads run on VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V, widely used platforms rather than proprietary ones
- Hybrid connectivity: private peering to AWS, Azure and Google Cloud keeps other platforms within reach
- Building blocks: you consume vCPU, RAM and storage by tier, so you can scale down as well as up

Term length, notice periods, renewal mechanics and exit obligations are defined in your contracted terms and conditions, so review them when you sign. FirstNet designs its cloud architecture to deliver performance, compliance and resilience without locking customers into a single vendor or platform.

If future flexibility matters to you, raise it during solution design so the exit and data handover approach is clear from the start. The same principle applies to Microsoft licences bought through FirstNet: you keep ownership of your tenant data and can transfer partner of record to another CSP or to Microsoft directly.

Question 3

Can Cloudflare Access from FirstNet replace our VPN?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Cloudflare Access provides zero trust network access: users reach specific private applications through Cloudflare's edge after identity checks such as single sign-on, MFA and device posture, without a traditional VPN concentrator or inbound listeners on your network.

Why this is safer than a VPN:

- Access is granted per application, under per-app policy, not to the whole network
- No inbound listeners are exposed on your side, which reduces your attack surface
- Remote staff and contractors connect through the nearest Cloudflare point of presence, including Johannesburg and Cape Town, without backhauling traffic to head office

How FirstNet migrates you:

- Integrates Cloudflare Access with your identity provider using SAML or OIDC
- Builds the application catalogue with your app owners
- Deploys the WARP client where required
- Moves user groups across in phases, so the VPN can be retired gradually

This also speeds up contractor and partner onboarding, because access is tied to identity rather than network credentials. If your identity provider is not ready for SAML or OIDC at the depth required, FirstNet raises it early and scopes identity remediation first.

Question 4

Can Cloudflare Zero Trust from FirstNet control how our staff use AI tools?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Cloudflare Zero Trust, delivered by FirstNet, shows which AI apps staff use and stops sensitive data being pasted or uploaded into them.

How Cloudflare addresses AI risk:

- Cloudflare Gateway and CASB show which SaaS and AI tools staff are using, including unsanctioned shadow AI
- Policies allow, block or isolate each AI app per user and group
- DLP inspects prompts and uploads and can stop sensitive data, such as POPIA personal information, payment data or credentials, leaving the business
- Reporting shows AI usage trends to security teams and leadership

For AI applications and agents your own teams build, FirstNet also offers Cloudflare AI Gateway and MCP server portals; see Secure AI with Cloudflare.

Policies are tuned after go-live, so controls can be refined as you learn how staff actually use AI, rather than blocking useful tools outright.

If you already run Sophos, FirstNet also offers Sophos Secure AI for shadow AI discovery, prompt monitoring and AI data loss prevention, with AI risk monitored by Sophos MDR.

Question 5

Can FirstNet AI Receptionist book appointments or update our CRM?

Accepted Answer

Not as standard, but it can be scoped. Out of the box, FirstNet AI Receptionist answers, routes, escalates, transcribes and triggers voicemail-to-email or callback flows. Deeper actions such as calendar bookings or CRM updates are scoped per customer during setup.

What it does out of the box:
- Answers calls 24/7 in natural language, using your own knowledge base.
- Routes calls by intent to menus, queues or extensions.
- Escalates complex or sensitive calls to a human agent in Linkus.
- Captures callbacks and triggers voicemail-to-email.
- Produces a transcript and AI summary for every call.

Separately, FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX offers CRM integrations with HubSpot, Salesforce and similar systems as add-ons. With AI Transcription, the call summary can sit alongside the call record for follow-up, which covers many follow-up needs without the AI Receptionist writing to the CRM itself.

If you need the AI Receptionist to act inside another system, such as booking a slot or updating a customer record, FirstNet's voice engineers scope it during design, together with routing, escalation rules and the knowledge base. Custom call flows and integrations are handled as separately scoped change requests, so you know exactly what is included before you commit.

Question 6

Can FirstNet Apex BI Clarity allocate telecom costs to departments?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Clarity supports chargeback models with flexible tagging and reporting, so telecom spend can be allocated by department, cost centre, project, site or extension and recharged fairly to business units.

How chargeback is set up:
- You agree your cost-centre model with FirstNet at the start.
- Call data flows in from your PBX CDR feed and, for Teams, the Microsoft Graph API.
- Dashboards are built and chargeback rules calibrated with a pilot team or department.
- Reporting is tuned over 2 to 4 weeks after data starts flowing.
- Supervisors and finance are trained, then the service is rolled out fully.

The same chargeback model applies wherever a call is made, across FirstNet Hosted PBX, legacy PBXs and Microsoft Teams, which keeps recharges consistent during a PBX-to-Teams migration. Scheduled reports keep budget holders informed, and threshold alerts and exception reports help prevent bill shock before month-end.

The result is a chargeback process that finance can audit. If you also want mobile voice and data costs in the same allocation, the adjacent Clarity for Mobile module covers them, and Clarity for IoT gives visibility of the costs assigned to sensors and trackers.

Question 7

Can FirstNet Apex BI Clarity report on Microsoft Teams calls?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Clarity for MS Teams uses the Microsoft Graph API to report on inbound and outbound PSTN calls, call duration, abandonment, agent activity and cost-centre chargeback, going deeper than Teams' built-in call reporting. It works whether you call through Operator Connect, Direct Routing or Microsoft Calling Plans.

What it adds beyond Teams' native reports:
- Chargeback of Teams call costs by department, cost centre, project or site.
- Inbound and outbound PSTN volumes, duration and abandonment patterns.
- Agent activity and queue statistics for customer-facing teams.
- Live wallboards for supervisors.
- Audit-grade reporting for POPIA, FSCA, healthcare and education programmes.

Microsoft's built-in Teams reporting focuses on basic call quality and per-user volumes, so on its own it does not produce cost-centre chargeback or contact-centre wallboards.

Set-up is light: your Microsoft 365 Global Admin grants Graph API permissions once during onboarding, and reports are tuned over 2 to 4 weeks after data starts flowing. Clarity for MS Teams is licensed per user. If part of your business still runs a PBX, Clarity combines both data sources in one tenant.

Question 8

Can FirstNet Apex BI Clarity show PBX and Teams calls in one report?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Where you run a PBX at some sites and Microsoft Teams at others, Clarity combines PBX call records and Teams Graph API data in a single Apex BI tenant. You get one view, one chargeback model and the same dashboards wherever a call was made or answered.

Why a single view matters:
- Vendor portals usually report per PBX and per site, and do not normalise data across a mixed estate.
- Finance gets one recharge process instead of reconciling separate reports.
- Reporting stays consistent while users move from a PBX to Teams in phases.
- Managers compare sites and teams on the same measures, whatever platform they use.

Supported sources include FirstNet Hosted PBX (native feed), legacy PBXs where CDR or SMDR data is available, and Microsoft Teams on Operator Connect, Direct Routing or Calling Plans. A mixed estate needs both the PBX feed and Graph API access, and FirstNet's voice engineers scope both before you commit.

This suits multi-site retail, professional services and logistics businesses, and any organisation partway through a PBX-to-Teams migration. FirstNet can also deliver the voice on both sides, with Managed Cloud PBX, SIP trunks or Teams calling, so the analytics and the voice sit on one contract.

Question 9

Can FirstNet Compliance Recording remove card or health data from call recordings?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The Conversation Analytics tier of FirstNet Compliance Recording includes automated redaction of PCI card data, personal information (PII) and health information (PHI) from both the audio and the transcripts.

Redaction is automatic, so sensitive details such as card numbers read out during a payment are removed or masked without someone having to listen to and edit each call. This matters because PCI-DSS applies wherever cardholder data is handled, including over recorded phone lines, and because POPIA and health privacy rules limit how personal and health information is kept and who sees it.

Conversation Analytics builds on Advanced Recording and also adds multilingual transcription, summarisation, sentiment and voice analysis, automated QA scorecards and dashboards. Core and Advanced Recording do not include redaction, so the tier should match a clear redaction or analytics need. Different parts of your business can sit on different tiers, for example Conversation Analytics for a contact centre that takes card payments and Core for office users.

Redaction suits contact centres that take payments, financial services firms and healthcare contact centres. FirstNet enables it during onboarding, after capture has been connected and tested end to end on every platform in scope.

Question 10

Can FirstNet LEO satellite be used as a backup internet connection?

Accepted Answer

Yes. LEO can be particularly valuable as a backup because the satellite path is independent of many terrestrial fibre routes and network failure points. Integrated with SD-WAN, FirstNet can configure intelligent failover and traffic routing between LEO, fibre, LTE/5G and other connections.

Why LEO makes a strong backup:
- Independence: it does not rely on terrestrial fibre or mobile towers, reducing the chance of primary and backup failing together.
- Hybrid failover: fibre primary with LEO as a critical backup on infrastructure that does not share fibre's failure modes.
- SD-WAN path diversity: LEO as a diverse underlay alongside fibre or LTE, with per-site failover.
- Bonding: with Peplink, satellite and LTE/5G can be bonded so live sessions continue through a link cut.

Compared with LTE/5G as a backup, LEO is independent of mobile towers and more predictable where cellular coverage is rural or unstable, while LTE/5G can be lower cost for light use or urban failover where coverage is strong. Many critical sites use both alongside fibre.

FirstNet manages the LEO link like any other part of your network, with proactive monitoring, service management and coordinated support from one accountable partner.

Question 11

Can FirstNet LEO satellite carry voice calls and Microsoft Teams meetings?

Accepted Answer

Yes. With typical latency of around 50 to 80 ms, FirstNet's Eutelsat OneWeb LEO service supports VoIP, video conferencing and cloud applications at business grade, and pairs with FirstNet's cloud PBX.

Latency is the reason. Traditional geostationary satellites orbit much farther from Earth, which adds delay that makes conversations awkward. Low-Earth-orbit satellites are much closer, so round trips are short enough for real-time voice and video.

What the service offers:
- Typical latency of around 50 to 80 ms
- Speeds up to 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload, depending on your service profile
- Support for SD-WAN, VoIP, cloud applications and video
- Managed installation, monitoring and support included

Call quality also depends on the site. Dense tree canopy or structures in the antenna's field of view can affect performance, which FirstNet validates during site readiness, and like all satellite technologies, LEO can be affected by severe weather.

For sites where calls must not drop, LEO can be combined with fibre or LTE/5G under SD-WAN, or bonded with Peplink so active SIP and RTP sessions survive a link cut.

Question 12

Can FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX integrate with our CRM?

Accepted Answer

Yes. CRM integrations with HubSpot, Salesforce and similar systems are available as add-ons to FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX, alongside contact-centre reporting and wallboards. Custom integrations are scoped by FirstNet's voice engineers during design.

How CRM integration fits with the other features:
- Standard CRM integrations connect your phone system and CRM as an add-on to the core service.
- With AI Transcription, the call summary of topics, decisions and action items can sit alongside the call record for follow-up.
- AI Receptionist actions inside a CRM, such as updating records or booking calendar slots, are scoped for each business rather than offered as standard.
- Custom call flows, integrations and report development are handled as separately scoped change requests.

If you need analytics beyond standard reporting, FirstNet Apex BI Clarity adds near real-time call analytics, wallboards, leaderboards and scheduled reports on top of the Managed Cloud PBX.

To scope an integration quickly, note which CRM and version you use, which teams need it and what should happen in the CRM when a call starts or ends. FirstNet's voice engineers use this to confirm what is standard, what needs a change request and what is included before you commit.

Question 13

Can FirstNet Peplink bonding keep our business online during load-shedding?

Accepted Answer

Yes, when designed for it. A UPS-backed Peplink router bonding fibre with LTE/5G keeps voice, video, payments and ERP running when power or fibre drops, because the LTE share of traffic simply grows while fibre is down and users typically do not notice the switch.

What makes the design work:
- Power: the router is UPS-backed, and power and UPS sizing is part of FirstNet's per-site survey.
- Links: fibre plus LTE/5G, selected for carrier and technology diversity, with satellite or microwave added where needed.
- Data: FirstNet sizes the LTE data pool against expected failover hours.
- Visibility: InControl 2 alerts show when failover was active and for how long.
- Sessions: sub-second hot failover keeps active calls and RDP sessions running.

Load-shedding can affect network equipment beyond your premises too. LTE/5G is not affected by fibre cuts or cable theft, but mobile towers can suffer power outages, which is why bonding two different media, with a UPS at your site, gives better resilience than relying on either alone.

For extra independence at critical or remote sites, LEO satellite can be bonded in as a path that does not rely on terrestrial fibre or mobile towers.

Question 14

Can FirstNet Private Cloud connect privately to AWS, Azure or Google Cloud?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet Private Cloud supports private, secure peering with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. This suits hybrid designs and gradual migrations.

Your connection options:
- Cloud peering: private links to AWS, Azure and Google Cloud that do not rely on the public internet.
- Site-to-site VPN: secure tunnels from your offices or data centres.
- Internet access: for workloads that face the internet, protected by the virtual firewall.
- Private and dedicated links: over FirstNet's carrier-neutral fibre network.

A typical use is to keep regulated systems in Private Cloud and use public cloud for burst or development workloads. Another is to move workloads step by step from one platform to another.

The sizing workshop works out how you connect and how you separate your systems. For example, some systems may face the internet while others stay private. Production and development may also need to be kept apart. Your connectivity scope also affects how long provisioning takes.

If your hybrid design includes Microsoft, FirstNet can also supply Azure through its Microsoft CSP agreement. It can design your Azure landing zone too. For hardware you keep, FirstNet colocation at Teraco sites offers cross-connects to cloud on-ramps such as Azure ExpressRoute and AWS Direct Connect.

Question 15

Can FirstNet SD-WAN run on a single internet link?

Accepted Answer

FirstNet does not recommend it. SD-WAN needs at least two links per site to deliver failover and path selection, and best practice is two diverse underlays, often one fibre and one wireless.

With only one link, SD-WAN has no alternative path to move traffic onto when the link degrades or fails, so most of its value is lost. Diverse underlays add real resilience because they tend to fail for different reasons. FirstNet's underlay options:
- Broadband and DIA: business fibre or dedicated internet as the primary underlay
- LTE/5G and microwave: wireless underlays that add path diversity alongside fibre
- LEO satellite: an independent path for remote or highly critical sites
- Hybrid MPLS: MPLS and internet links side by side for a phased migration

FirstNet validates multi-link requirements and link quality at each site during underlay feasibility, before the design goes to joint validation by its Connectivity and Security teams. Because FirstNet is carrier-agnostic, the two links can sit on different carriers as well as different media.

FirstNet can supply both links at each site, so the circuits and the overlay sit under one accountable SLA.

Question 16

Can FirstNet Teams Operator Connect handle lift lines, paging or fax?

Accepted Answer

Not currently. Operator Connect does not support analogue devices through ATAs, which covers most lift lines, paging and fax, and it does not yet support common area phones or meeting room devices. FirstNet adds Direct Routing alongside Operator Connect in the same Teams tenant for these.

How the mixed design works:
- Most users stay on Operator Connect, with numbers managed in the Teams Admin Center and no SBC to run.
- Analogue devices such as lift lines, paging and fax connect through FirstNet's Direct Routing SBCs, which handle them with SBC-side routing.
- Common area phones in reception, lobbies or warehouses, and meeting room devices, also use Direct Routing.
- Both run in the same Teams tenant, on FirstNet's ICASA-licensed network, with one support path.

These limits come from Microsoft's published Operator Connect roadmap, so FirstNet identifies them during discovery rather than after go-live. FirstNet's voice engineers scope your analogue inventory, including each lift, paging zone and fax line, in the design phase so every device has a planned path.

Direct Routing can also coexist with an on-premises PBX, so some legacy endpoints can stay on the existing system during migration.

Question 17

Can FirstNet Truecaller for Business manage hundreds of business numbers?

Accepted Answer

Yes. One verified brand profile applies consistently across all your authorised numbers, and FirstNet handles additions and changes as part of the managed service, so large estates do not need a separate set-up per number.

How large number estates are handled:
- One brand profile, with name, logo, category tag and business page, is applied to every authorised outbound number.
- Call reasons can be mapped per number or use case, for example collections lines and delivery lines.
- Dynamic reasons can be passed per call from your CRM or dialler through the Truecaller API.
- Large estates across regions or business units, especially with dynamic reasons, start with a technical workshop before timelines are committed.
- New numbers, branding updates and call-reason changes go through FirstNet's change control.

To get started, FirstNet confirms the caller IDs in scope, your priority numbers and key contacts, then verifies ownership and business registration. A pilot on one or two priority numbers comes first, followed by rollout across the rest of the estate and a review after 30 to 90 days.

Proof of ownership is needed for every number you want verified, so an up-to-date list of numbers, and the entity that holds each one, speeds up onboarding.

Question 18

Can FirstNet back up Google Workspace?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet Google Workspace Backup, powered by Druva, protects Gmail, Google Drive including Shared Drives, Calendar and Contacts, as configured. It gives you an independent copy that you can search and restore when data is deleted or encrypted, without running any backup infrastructure.

Key points:

- Scope: Gmail, Drive and Shared Drives, Calendar and Contacts, as configured
- Licensing: per protected user, rather than per gigabyte of storage
- Restores: search and restore individual items, files or whole users
- Operations: customer-run by default, with an optional FirstNet Managed Backup Service for monitoring, remediation, reporting and restore support
- Mixed estates: if you use both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, the subscriptions can be combined for one approach across both

Google keeps the Workspace service running, but under the shared-responsibility model, recovering deleted or encrypted data is your responsibility. Google Vault is designed for retention and eDiscovery inside the platform rather than as an independent restore copy, so regulated organisations often use both.

Hosting regions for SaaS backup are confirmed during qualification, as availability varies by service. For data on laptops that is not in Drive, add FirstNet Endpoint Backup.

Question 19

Can FirstNet combine Sophos MDR with backup for ransomware recovery?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet pairs Sophos MDR with Druva cloud backup, so you have 24/7 detection and response alongside an independent backup copy for recovery. MDR helps detect and contain a ransomware attack, while backup gives you clean data to restore if systems or files are encrypted.

How the two layers work together:

- Sophos MDR analysts detect suspicious activity and alert, and FirstNet's Incident Response team helps contain the attack
- Druva keeps an independent copy of your data, separate from the systems under attack
- Once the threat is contained, clean data is restored from backup
- For Microsoft 365, Druva backs up Exchange, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams

Detection without backup can leave you unable to recover encrypted data, and backup without detection can let an attacker keep returning. Together they cover both stopping an attack and recovering from one.

The two are separate services, so each is scoped to your environment and contracted separately. Retention settings in Microsoft 365 are not a substitute for backup.

A FirstNet specialist can scope both as one ransomware-resilience plan.

Question 20

Can FirstNet combine colocation, private cloud and backup in one solution?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet designs hybrid solutions in which you keep your own hardware in a FirstNet colocation rack, run other workloads in FirstNet Private Cloud, and protect both with Backup as a Service or Disaster Recovery as a Service, with FirstNet as the single accountable provider.

Common combinations include:

- Colocation for hardware you want to keep, with Private Cloud for general virtual servers
- Private Cloud with Veeam backups to immutable storage as the baseline, plus geographic DR to a second FirstNet data centre
- Production in one city and colocation or DR in another, so recovery is geographically separate
- Private Cloud peered privately to AWS, Azure or Google Cloud, or colocation cross-connected to cloud on-ramps such as Azure ExpressRoute
- Microsoft 365 and endpoint backup alongside server backup, covering data outside your servers

Colocated equipment in the Durban data centre can interconnect directly with FirstNet's private cloud and network, and support runs through the 24x7 Rapid Response service desk. You can start with one building block and add others as your needs grow, and FirstNet scopes the combined design, connectivity and recovery objectives in one solution design.

Question 21

Can FirstNet connect business sites in remote areas of South Africa?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet uses multiple access technologies and partners to reach challenging locations, and where last-mile options are limited it designs blended connectivity to meet performance and availability targets.

Because FirstNet is carrier- and medium-agnostic, a remote site is not limited to whatever one network covers. The options it works through are:
- Licensed microwave: point-to-point or point-to-multipoint radio from a high site to your premises, subject to a line-of-sight survey.
- Fixed wireless (FWA / Fixed 5G): where coverage and capacity at your address allow.
- LTE/5G: carrier-agnostic mobile broadband wherever there is signal, on the network with the best signal at that site.
- LEO satellite: Eutelsat OneWeb low-Earth-orbit service for sites where no terrestrial option fits, with typical latency of around 50 to 80 ms.

These can be combined, for example LEO as the primary with LTE/5G alongside it, with SD-WAN steering traffic between them. FirstNet has connected remote mining sites with blended access to meet uptime targets. Every wireless option is validated for your exact address before installation, because trees, buildings, terrain and rooftop access all affect what can be delivered.

Question 22

Can FirstNet connect business sites outside South Africa?

Accepted Answer

Yes, case by case. Cross-border circuits need partner arrangements and separate licensing, so FirstNet scopes each one before quoting.

What to expect:
- Scoping: FirstNet confirms the locations, services and performance requirements for each country.
- Partners and licensing: the right in-country partner and licensing arrangements are identified.
- Quote: pricing and timelines follow once the scope is confirmed.
- Delivery and support: sites are brought into FirstNet's unified support model, with NOC monitoring and clear escalation.

Some routes beyond South Africa already exist. FirstNet's LEO satellite service on Eutelsat OneWeb is available in South Africa and across Africa. For multinational traffic, FirstNet maintains multi-peer transit at hubs including London, New York, Frankfurt and Singapore. FirstNet has also unified connectivity for a manufacturer across Africa, Europe and APAC with predictable performance.

Raise cross-border sites early in a project so they can be scoped alongside the rest of the rollout. Within South Africa, sites are covered by one contract, one SLA and one team.

Question 23

Can FirstNet deliver a large multi-site connectivity rollout in South Africa?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet has more than 5,000 business sites under management and delivers over 300 new business links every month.

Large rollouts are run as one programme, with one contract, one SLA and one team managing every link, rather than as separate projects with each carrier. The delivery model:
- Discovery and planning: map sites, dependencies and rollout order.
- Feasibility per site: fibre first, then licensed microwave, fixed wireless, LTE/5G and LEO satellite where needed.
- Provisioning: carriers and logistics coordinated across regions, using standardised processes and templates.
- Handover: each link gets a Service Handover Form and moves to NOC monitoring.
- Evolution: add sites and services with minimal overhead.

Because FirstNet is carrier-agnostic across every major fibre and mobile network operator, each site gets the best available last mile rather than one network's coverage. Centralised change management handles system-wide changes, and LTE/5G can bring sites live within days where fibre will take longer. FirstNet already provides centralised management and billing across hundreds of branches for a retail customer.

Question 24

Can FirstNet direct cloud peering scale as our cloud traffic grows?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Port speeds and capacity can be increased as traffic grows, and FirstNet reviews utilisation and performance KPIs on an ongoing basis so upgrades can be planned rather than made in a hurry.

Scalability is designed in from the start. FirstNet's cloud on-ramp process right-sizes capacity during design and keeps it under review:
- Assessment: baseline current latency and traffic patterns
- Design: right-size ports, redundancy and traffic segregation
- Implementation: configure routing, security policies and monitoring
- Optimisation: ongoing review of utilisation and performance KPIs, with capacity increased as needed

FirstNet runs direct private peering with Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365, AWS, Google Cloud and major content delivery networks, with engineered headroom for stable performance at peak. One eCommerce customer used direct peering to stabilise checkout performance during seasonal peaks.

International growth is covered too: traffic to overseas regions uses multi-peer transit at hubs including London, New York, Frankfurt and Singapore, across seven or more undersea cable systems. If the access links at your sites also need to grow, FirstNet can increase bandwidth or move a site to Dedicated Internet Access for committed, symmetric capacity.

Question 25

Can FirstNet guarantee POPIA compliance for our cybersecurity services?

Accepted Answer

No. No provider can promise POPIA compliance on its own. FirstNet sets up each security service to match your privacy, retention and audit needs. But compliance is shared. It depends on how you set up and run your own systems.

What FirstNet can give you is controls and proof that support compliance:

- Data loss prevention through Cloudflare, to spot and block personal information leaving the business
- FortiAnalyzer as a Service, hosted in South Africa, so log data stays in the country in normal use
- Mimecast, which supports keeping data in South Africa, with archiving for retention and legal hold where agreed
- Reports and audit trails from FortiAnalyzer, Sophos NG-SIEM and the other platforms

Under POPIA, your business is still the responsible party. That means you answer for the personal information you hold. Your duties to the people whose data you keep stay with you, and so does your own governance. FirstNet itself runs ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 management systems.

Do you need a formal questionnaire filled in, or special contract wording, such as where data is kept? FirstNet's product and legal teams check the request before we agree to anything.

Question 26

Can FirstNet guarantee our RTO and RPO for backup and disaster recovery?

Accepted Answer

Not by default. FirstNet designs its backup and disaster recovery services to your recovery targets, but these depend on your workloads, bandwidth, change rate and dependencies, so firm RTO and RPO commitments apply only when they are explicitly contracted after scoping and testing.

The recovery time objective (RTO) is the maximum downtime you can accept. The recovery point objective (RPO) is the maximum data loss you can accept, measured back from the moment of failure. In FirstNet's design process:

- RPO drives backup or replication frequency and the bandwidth you need
- RTO drives reserved capacity sizing and the order in which systems start
- Application criticality sets the protection tier, for example gold, silver or bronze
- Dependencies such as DNS, Active Directory and third-party links affect when a service is truly usable

FirstNet runs DR readiness workshops to quantify risk, define RTO and RPO per system and plan failover tests. Scheduled testing then shows whether the targets are achievable in practice. If you need contractual commitments, raise them early so they can be validated through dependency mapping and testing before they are written into your agreement.

Question 27

Can FirstNet help us build secure AI applications on Cloudflare Workers?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet helps businesses build AI applications on Cloudflare Workers, with WAF, DDoS, bot and API protection in front of every app.

Workers is Cloudflare's serverless platform: code runs on Cloudflare's network with no servers to manage, and the same platform provides storage and AI services.

Building blocks for AI applications:
- Workers AI to run popular open-source models for text generation, image analysis and content moderation.
- Vectorize, a vector database for search, retrieval and recommendation features.
- The Agents SDK to build AI agents that call models and tools, keep state and run workflows, with human approval steps where needed.
- Storage such as R2 object storage and D1 databases.
- AI Gateway and MCP server portals so models and tools are governed and logged.

When prompts and data must stay in South Africa, FirstNet Sovereign AI runs models on FirstNet's own local infrastructure instead. A FirstNet specialist can help you choose the right platform for each workload.

Question 28

Can FirstNet integrate LEO satellite with our existing network?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet links LEO satellite with fibre, LTE/5G, SD-WAN, firewalls and other connectivity services. The result is a managed, resilient network that fits your business needs, and this is where FirstNet adds value beyond the satellite link itself.

The satellite provides the connection, and FirstNet manages everything around it. So LEO is not one more standalone service for your IT team to watch. Ways to integrate it:
- SD-WAN: LEO as a diverse underlay link, with app-aware routing and smart failover between LEO, fibre and LTE/5G.
- Peplink bonding: satellite bonded with LTE/5G or fibre into one connection, so live sessions survive a link cut.
- Security: integration with firewalls and FirstNet's security services.
- Voice: LEO pairs with FirstNet's cloud PBX for business calls.
- Multi-site estates: the same service profile across ATMs, point-of-sale sites, clinics and branches.

FirstNet provides proactive monitoring and service management, joined-up support across technologies and providers, and one accountable partner for all your connectivity.

Before installation, FirstNet checks site readiness, including sky view, mounting position, power and access. That way, the satellite link joins your network with no surprises on the day.

Question 29

Can FirstNet integrate security at the network edge with its connectivity?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet offers hosted firewalls and SD-WAN options where they fit. That way, security is designed into your network, not added later.

Security and connectivity go together. Firewalls, segmentation, secure access and traffic control must match the network design. Managed services keep those controls the same across sites and providers. The options include:
- FirstNet hosted firewall and network security services.
- FirstNet SD-WAN with built-in security policy enforcement. FirstNet's Security and Connectivity teams check the design together.
- Peplink bonded edge devices, paired with FirstNet firewall as a service for security at the edge.
- Your own firewall, connected behind a router managed by FirstNet on an Ethernet handoff.
- Direct cloud peering, with access to cloud resources based on policy.

Guest networks are part of edge security too. FirstNet Managed Guest Wi-Fi keeps guest traffic on its own SSID or VLAN, apart from business systems.

For estates with many sites, you get the same security posture at each branch, with one partner to hold to account. FirstNet's Security team can scope the right edge design during discovery.

Question 30

Can FirstNet keep our backup data in South Africa?

Accepted Answer

For server and VM backups, yes: the Veeam Data Cloud Vault Non-Core catalogue used by FirstNet Backup as a Service includes South African regions, subject to availability. For Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and endpoint backup, FirstNet confirms hosting regions during qualification, because availability varies by service.

Where each type of backup can live:

- FirstNet Private Cloud backups: Veeam backups to immutable storage on the FirstNet platform, hosted in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town
- Backup as a Service: Foundation or Advanced vault editions, with a Non-Core region catalogue that extends to South Africa for residency or latency needs
- SaaS and endpoint backup: regions validated against your requirement before quoting, rather than assumed
- Disaster recovery replicas: held in a FirstNet data centre in South Africa

If you have an in-country-only requirement or work in a regulated industry, raise it at the start. FirstNet captures residency constraints early, documents the agreed hosting location and validates the exact options with specialists before committing.

Keeping backups in South Africa supports POPIA-aligned designs, but compliance remains shared: your data classification, retention settings and governance also shape the outcome.

Question 31

Can FirstNet meet strict enterprise SLAs on its ISP and backbone services?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet tailors SLAs and escalation paths to enterprise needs, backed by a 24/7 NOC and ITIL-aligned service management. Commitments are aligned to the service and to the underlying last mile, so what is promised can be delivered.

What sits behind an enterprise SLA from FirstNet:
- High availability: diverse paths, multi-homed upstreams and a resilient core design
- Monitoring: telemetry, alerts and real-time dashboards, with PRTG-based link monitoring
- Service management: ITIL-aligned incident, problem and change management with clear SLAs
- Transparency: published performance metrics and regular reviews
- Scalability: capacity upgrades without disruptive re-architecture

How SLAs vary by service: on broadband and DIA, availability, response and resolution targets follow the underlying carrier's SLA, with service credits passed through once validated. Business fibre carries availability targets up to 99.5% on premium networks. For IP Transit, the SLA covers the FirstNet transit domain, backbone and ports.

Strict uptime targets are met through design as much as contract, for example dual-homed DIA or DIA with broadband failover. In one banking deployment, FirstNet achieved 99.99% uptime with proactive capacity upgrades. FirstNet can review your backbone and propose an SLA aligned to your risk profile.

Question 32

Can FirstNet migrate our contact centre from Genesys, Avaya or Mitel to Zoom?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet captures your current queues, IVR, CRM integration and recording set-up, designs the Zoom Contact Centre equivalent, pilots a representative agent group in parallel and cuts over with a rollback plan.

How a migration runs:
- Discover: current platform, agent count, sites, channel mix, CRM and compliance requirements.
- Design: queue and IVR workshops covering call flows, after-hours handling, overflow, call-back, language routing and priorities, plus CRM integration and porting scope.
- Provision: FirstNet is enabled on your Zoom tenant through the Provider Exchange, numbers are provisioned, queues and IVR are built and CRM connectors configured.
- Pilot and parallel run: a pilot agent group runs alongside your current platform, with end-to-end test calls, CRM screen-pop checks and recording and reporting validated.
- Cutover and hyper-care: numbers port across, remaining agents move, training is delivered and FirstNet monitors the first 30 days.

The same approach applies to in-house IVRs and other legacy platforms. Typical implementations take 6 to 12 weeks, depending on agent count, channels, integrations and porting.

Agents and supervisors are trained before go-live, with a train-the-trainer option. If you already use Zoom for meetings, back-office staff can move to Zoom Phone on the same platform, with warm transfers between the two.

Question 33

Can FirstNet migrate our servers into a South African data centre?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet migrates servers into FirstNet Private Cloud, which runs in FirstNet data centres in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town on VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V. FirstNet aligns the target hypervisor to your existing environment to simplify the migration.

How the move works:

- Discovery and sizing: your VM list, vCPU, RAM, storage tiers, connectivity, backup retention and RTO/RPO are captured
- Solution design: segmentation, firewall rules, backup retention and, where needed, a geographic DR runbook are documented
- Provisioning: your virtual data centre is built in the Hybr management portal and checked against the design
- Migration waves: workloads move in rehearsed, phased cutovers with rollback plans
- Handover: you move to 24x7 Rapid Response support with clear contacts and escalation paths

A discovery and sizing workshop comes before any migration timeline, and complex migrations get a dedicated technical workshop first. If you would rather keep your own hardware, FirstNet colocation in Durban or in Teraco facilities lets you move servers out of an ageing server room without re-architecting. Either way, your workloads stay in South Africa, with disaster recovery options in a second city.

Question 34

Can FirstNet migrate recordings from our old on-premises call recorder?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet offers a once-off compliant migration of historical recordings from existing on-premises recorders, with chain of custody preserved. It can be added to any FirstNet Compliance Recording set-up.

How a migration is approached:
- Discovery captures the legacy recorder vendor, its contract end date, the recordings to move and any deadline.
- Large or complex migrations, such as several recorders, high data volumes or a regulator deadline, start with a technical workshop before timelines are committed.
- Recordings move with chain of custody preserved, so there is a record that they were not altered along the way.
- Migrated recordings join the same tamper-proof archive as new calls, under one retention policy, one search and one audit trail.

The migration is scoped as a once-off professional services engagement, sized per source recorder and data volume, separate from the recording subscription. In the standard onboarding sequence it follows the connection and testing of capture on your live platforms, so new calls are protected first.

Migrating helps businesses retire legacy recorders that face hardware end-of-life, offer no remote or mobile capture and carry expensive storage, while keeping their historical recordings retrievable for audits and disputes.

Question 35

Can FirstNet migrate us from Google Workspace or on-premises Exchange to Microsoft 365?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet moves businesses from Google Workspace, on-premises Exchange or older Microsoft 365 tenants onto a current set of Microsoft 365 licences. The work covers identity, moving mail and data, a security baseline, and user adoption.

The typical steps:
- Tenant readiness review: FirstNet checks your licence mix, identity, MFA, conditional access, Defender, Purview and SharePoint permissions. You sign off the list of fixes.
- Identity design: including hybrid identity if you keep Active Directory on your own servers.
- Pilot group: tests identity, security settings and how it all works for users, typically over 3 to 6 weeks.
- Migration waves: mail and data move in planned groups.
- Final cutover and adoption support: users switch over, with help to use the new tools.

FirstNet is a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP). So it can supply your Microsoft 365 licences on one agreement, billed in rand. It reviews licence sizing every 90 days and assigns licences by persona group.

Once you are on Microsoft 365, plan for a separate backup too. Microsoft keeps the service running, but getting back deleted or encrypted data is your job. FirstNet's Microsoft 365 backup, powered by Druva, covers Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint Online and Teams.

Question 36

Can FirstNet provide Peplink internet in vehicles and fleets?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Peplink MAX series routers are built for in-vehicle and harsh environments, rated for vibration, temperature and dust, and can bond multiple cellular modems so sessions survive hand-offs between towers.

How in-vehicle connectivity works:
- Hardware: rugged MAX series cellular routers for vehicles, broadcast, fleet, mining and pop-up use.
- Multiple modems: bonding several cellular connections keeps sessions alive while moving between towers; broadcast deployments use four to eight bonded modems to stream live feeds.
- Tunnel termination: SpeedFusion Cloud uses Peplink-hosted points of presence, so no fixed central site is needed to terminate the bonded tunnel.
- Management: InControl 2 cloud management, run by FirstNet, with day-2 monitoring and ticketing through the FirstNet NOC.

Typical uses include logistics fleets, broadcast vans, mining vehicles, mobile clinics and emergency services. Peplink uses standard SIM cards and supports any carrier, so FirstNet's survey can select the mobile network mix that works best for your routes, and FirstNet handles RICA registration for every SIM.

Where vehicles operate beyond reliable mobile coverage, satellite can be part of the design: FirstNet's LEO satellite service also supports connectivity on the move.

Question 37

Can FirstNet provide temporary wireless internet while our fibre is being installed?

Accepted Answer

Yes. LTE/5G can usually be deployed within days so a new site opens on time, while the fibre primary is built over the following weeks or months. Temporary wireless has a minimum six-month term, carries no SLA and is subject to coverage and landlord approval.

How the temporary wireless first pattern works:
- FirstNet checks coverage and picks the strongest mobile network at your address.
- You supply RICA documentation, and FirstNet activates the SIM in a pre-configured, managed router.
- The site goes live on LTE/5G, often within a few working days.
- In parallel, FirstNet places the fibre order and coordinates landlord, wayleave and municipal approvals.
- When the fibre is live, it becomes the primary link.

After cutover you can retain the wireless service as a backup, giving the site a diverse failover path that is not affected by fibre cuts. Fibre lead times are typically several weeks to months, and the clock starts once approvals are in place, so running both in parallel avoids delaying an opening.

For remote or temporary sites where mobile coverage is weak, LEO satellite is another option that can generally be deployed faster than a new fibre build.

Question 38

Can FirstNet put my primary and backup internet links on different carrier networks?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet is carrier-agnostic, so it can pair links from different carriers and different media, such as fibre with licensed microwave or LTE/5G, so that a single network outage does not become your outage.

FirstNet's reach spans every major fibre network operator and mobile network operator in South Africa, so the backup does not have to ride the same network as the primary. Common resilience patterns are:
- Primary plus diverse backup: FirstNet's default for revenue-impacting sites, pairing fibre with microwave, fixed wireless or LTE for fast failover.
- Dual fibre, different carriers: a secondary fibre on a different carrier network, ideally on diverse physical routes, for high bandwidth and carrier redundancy.
- SD-WAN underlay: two diverse FirstNet links per site, typically one fibre and one wireless, with an SD-WAN overlay on top.
- Temporary wireless first: LTE deployed in days so a site opens on time while the fibre primary is built.

Media diversity matters as much as carrier diversity. Licensed microwave gives air-versus-trench diversity, and LTE/5G is not affected by fibre cuts or cable theft, although it can be affected by tower power outages. FirstNet sets the design by asking what happens if your internet is down for two hours, or a full day.

Question 39

Can FirstNet run Microsoft Teams calling for some users and a PBX or Zoom for others?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Hybrid voice designs are common with FirstNet. Operator Connect and Direct Routing can run in the same Microsoft Teams tenant, and FirstNet SIP Trunks can stay under an existing PBX while other users move to Teams or Zoom Phone.

Typical hybrid patterns:
- Most Teams users on Operator Connect, with Direct Routing alongside in the same tenant for devices Operator Connect does not support, such as common area phones, meeting room devices and analogue lift lines, paging or fax.
- An existing SIP-compliant PBX kept on FirstNet SIP Trunks while selected users move to Zoom Phone, with dial plans and emergency routing aligned.
- Microsoft Teams as the user interface, with FirstNet Managed Cloud PBX running queues, IVR and recording underneath.
- SIP trunks running under a legacy PBX while Teams calling rolls out, followed by a full transition later.

Because every option runs on FirstNet's own ICASA-licensed network, numbers, porting and support stay with one provider. Reporting can follow the same mix: Apex BI Clarity combines PBX call records and Teams calling data into one view and one chargeback model, which helps during a phased PBX-to-Teams move. A FirstNet voice specialist can design the coexistence plan for your sites.

Question 40

Can FirstNet run our call recording platform for us as a managed service?

Accepted Answer

Yes, through the optional FirstNet Managed Compliance Service. FirstNet operates the recording platform on your behalf, covering policy configuration, retention administration, legal hold, user provisioning and audit-evidence support, plus regular compliance reviews with your compliance or risk lead.

Who it suits:
- Organisations without the internal capacity to administer a recording platform.
- Businesses with high audit exposure, where evidence must be ready on request.
- Organisations that need strict separation of duties in how recordings are administered.

Without the service, standard support is still included. FirstNet handles onboarding, configuration and ongoing platform support, while your own admins operate the platform day to day. The Managed Compliance Service can be added to any tier, from Core Recording to Conversation Analytics, as a recurring subscription.

The service covers the recording archive itself. Administering your own PBX or identity provider is out of scope unless it is separately contracted.

You log tickets through FirstNet's support channels by email, phone or portal, and FirstNet owns escalation of underlying CallCabinet and Smarsh platform incidents through to closure, so you deal with one provider.

Question 41

Can FirstNet run phishing awareness training and simulations for our staff?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet can provide or integrate security awareness training and phishing simulations as part of its managed Mimecast email security service, so users learn to spot the attacks that get past technical filters.

What is included depends on the Mimecast tier and what you contract:

- Essentials includes basic awareness nudges alongside spam, malware and phishing filtering
- Resilience, the recommended tier, includes a full awareness training programme
- Complete adds executive human-risk reporting
- Where awareness is contracted, FirstNet runs the campaigns and simulations and provides reporting on a regular stakeholder cadence

Awareness is one layer of FirstNet's email protection. Mimecast also inspects links and attachments in real time and blocks impersonation attempts, and SendMarc stops attackers sending email that uses your exact domain.

Training and simulations are optional, so confirm they are in scope during discovery. A FirstNet email security review can benchmark your current risk and recommend the right tier.

Question 42

Can FirstNet set up a SIP trunk for my business in South Africa?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet sets up SIP trunks for South African businesses: PBX checks, channel sizing, number porting and test calls before cutover.

FirstNet SIP Trunks connect any SIP-compliant PBX, on-premises or cloud-hosted, to the public telephone network over FirstNet's own ICASA-licensed (ECNS/ECS) network. Calls reach Telkom, Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and other operators through direct interconnects.

How the set-up works:
- PBX check: make, model, firmware, codecs (G.711 as the baseline), TLS and SRTP support, and firewall and NAT settings. Older PRI, BRI or analogue systems connect through a media gateway.
- Sizing: channels follow your peak concurrent calls, not headcount, with bandwidth planned at about 100 Kbps per call plus 20% headroom.
- Numbers: ported in from your current carrier with a signed Letter of Authority, or newly issued by FirstNet. A typical port takes 5 to 15 business days, depending on the losing carrier.
- Go-live: FirstNet follows five phases (prepare, plan, provision, pilot and production), with test calls and backup failover tests before the final cutover.

If you also take FirstNet connectivity, a backup SIP trunk with automatic failover is included at no extra charge. Calls are billed per second on Voice Bundles or Voice Rate Options, and support for trunks, plans and porting is South African-based and available 24x7.

To get started, share your PBX make and model, how many calls you make at the same time at peak, and the numbers you want to keep.

Question 43

Can FirstNet supply the underlying internet links for SD-WAN as well?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet supplies broadband, Dedicated Internet Access (DIA), LTE/5G, licensed microwave and LEO satellite underlays, so the circuits and the SD-WAN overlay sit under one accountable SLA.

SD-WAN is an overlay, so it performs best on well-designed links. FirstNet provides carrier-agnostic underlays, typically two diverse links per site:
- Broadband and DIA: business fibre or dedicated internet as the primary underlay
- LTE/5G and microwave: wireless underlays that add path diversity alongside fibre
- LEO satellite: an independent path for remote or highly critical sites
- Hybrid MPLS: MPLS and internet links side by side for a phased migration

Supplying both layers closes a common gap: when the overlay and the circuits come from different providers, a performance problem can bounce between them. With FirstNet, one team owns the outcome, from underlay feasibility and link quality at each site through to in-life management.

Because FirstNet's reach spans every major fibre and mobile network operator in South Africa, the two links at a site can sit on different carriers and media. Each underlay is validated during feasibility before the design is approved.

Question 44

Can FirstNet support a hybrid cloud approach that mixes private and public cloud?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet designs hybrid architectures that keep sensitive or regulated systems in private cloud while using public cloud for burst capacity and innovation, with the environments connected privately.

How FirstNet builds hybrid environments:

- FirstNet Private Cloud, hosted in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town, for dedicated, locally hosted workloads with predictable building-block costs
- Private peering from Private Cloud to AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, so traffic does not rely on the public internet
- Azure landing zones for hyperscale and platform-as-a-service workloads, designed before migration waves start
- Colocation for hardware you keep, with cross-connects to cloud on-ramps such as Azure ExpressRoute and AWS Direct Connect at Teraco sites
- Hybrid identity, connecting on-premises Active Directory to Microsoft Entra ID for single sign-on, MFA and conditional access

Hybrid is the most common architecture today, and many organisations use both Private Cloud and Azure. The right split depends on each workload's performance, compliance and cost profile, which FirstNet assesses during discovery. Hybrid designs also suit gradual migrations, where some systems move first and others stay on-premises until they are ready. As a Microsoft CSP, FirstNet can supply the Azure licensing on the same rand-billed agreement.

Question 45

Can FirstNet support multi-site disaster recovery across cities with colocation?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Multi-site designs are common with FirstNet colocation, for example the Durban data centre paired with a Teraco site in another metro. FirstNet designs around your RPO, RTO and connectivity, and can add Backup as a Service or DRaaS.

Typical multi-site patterns:

- Production in your own server room or at FirstNet Durban, with DR in a Teraco site in Johannesburg or Cape Town
- Production at a Teraco site, with DR at FirstNet Durban or in another Teraco metro
- Colocated hardware for production, with FirstNet DRaaS replicating virtual machines to reserved capacity in a FirstNet data centre
- Veeam-powered backup sending offsite copies to another location for data recovery

A second colocation site gives you a geographically separate recovery facility without owning a second data centre. FirstNet provides connectivity between sites, such as MPLS or SD-WAN links, and coordinates cross-connects at Teraco.

To design it, FirstNet needs your RPO and RTO targets, where primary workloads run today and how much data changes each day, because replication bandwidth must match your recovery point objective. Complex DR designs get early specialist input, and recovery targets remain design targets unless explicitly contracted.

Question 46

Can FirstNet's EngineAI build AI agents that automate multi-step business workflows?

Accepted Answer

Yes. EngineAI, the build team of FirstCoreAI, FirstNet's AI business unit, builds autonomous agents: multi-step workflows that approve, route, tag and report without a person at every step. EngineAI takes each use case from proof of concept to production.

Unlike a chatbot that only answers questions, an AI agent carries out a sequence of actions, such as classifying an item, deciding where it should go and updating the right system.

What shapes an EngineAI agent build:

- Integration: connections into Microsoft 365, your CRM and other line-of-business systems, where the work actually happens
- Structured data: EngineAI's document and call pipelines turn large volumes of files and recordings into structured output, such as JSON, for downstream systems
- Deployment: on the AI Factory in FirstNet's South African data centre, or inside your own environment
- Models: open-weight by default, with frontier APIs only where justified, and notice from FirstCoreAI whenever a request would leave the country

When an agent's inference runs on the AI Factory, the prompts and data it processes stay in South Africa. That matters for workflows involving customer records, claims or call recordings, where an offshore AI API would mean a cross-border transfer with POPIA questions attached.

FirstCoreAI scopes the business problem first and will say plainly if AI is not the right tool.

Question 47

Can FirstNet's EngineAI build a RAG system that answers questions from our own documents?

Accepted Answer

Yes. RAG and retrieval is a core capability of EngineAI, the build team of FirstCoreAI, FirstNet's AI business unit. EngineAI makes documents, contracts and internal knowledge searchable and answerable in plain language, and takes the system from proof of concept to production.

Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) finds the passages in your own content that are relevant to a question and passes them to a language model, so answers draw on your material rather than only on what the model learned in training.

How EngineAI approaches it:

- InfraAI, the AI Factory service, suits RAG and retrieval back-ends, with multilingual embeddings and a retrieval reranker available through OpenAI-compatible endpoints
- Most EngineAI projects run on InfraAI compute in FirstNet's South African data centre, so documents, models and pipelines stay in the country, or the system can be deployed in your own environment
- Open-weight models are the default, with frontier APIs only where justified
- Integration connects the solution to Microsoft 365, your CRM and other line-of-business systems

FirstCoreAI benchmarks every model on the AI Factory against frontier APIs for accuracy, latency, concurrency and cost per unit of work, so you see the evidence before committing. FirstCoreAI is already in production in financial services and insurance, where claims and document extraction are typical workloads.

A FirstCoreAI scoping call is the place to begin.

Question 48

Can FirstNet's EngineAI team fine-tune an AI model to our industry terminology?

Accepted Answer

Yes. EngineAI, the build team of FirstNet's AI business unit FirstCoreAI, offers fine-tuning and model optimisation that adapt models to your domain, your terminology and your own data.

Fine-tuning helps when general-purpose models handle sector jargon, product names or internal abbreviations poorly. EngineAI can combine it with its other capabilities:
- RAG and retrieval, so answers draw on your documents, contracts and internal knowledge.
- Document and call pipelines for intake, extraction, transcription and structured output.
- Integration into Microsoft 365, your CRM and other line-of-business systems.

Most EngineAI projects run on InfraAI compute in FirstNet's South African data centre, so models, data and pipelines stay in the country. Open-weight models are the default, and because their weights are available they can be adapted and hosted locally rather than through a foreign platform.

FirstCoreAI scopes each problem first and will say plainly if AI is not the right tool. A scoping call or demo with FirstCoreAI is the place to start.

Question 49

Can FirstNet's FirstCoreAI AI adoption service be combined with EngineAI custom AI work?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Many FirstCoreAI clients combine AI Adoption & Enablement with EngineAI builds, such as integrations into Microsoft 365 and line-of-business systems. Both are services of FirstCoreAI, FirstNet's AI business unit, so the people side and the build side can be planned together.

Adoption covers private AI assistants, role-based training, AI governance and change leadership. EngineAI is FirstCoreAI's build team, taking a use case from proof of concept to production. Its work includes:
- RAG and retrieval that make documents, contracts and internal knowledge searchable in plain language.
- Document and call pipelines for intake, extraction, transcription and structured output.
- Autonomous agents for multi-step workflows that approve, route, tag and report.
- Fine-tuning that adapts models to your domain, terminology and data.
- Integration into Microsoft 365, your CRM and other line-of-business systems.

EngineAI solutions are deployed on the AI Factory in FirstNet's South African data centre or inside your own environment. FirstCoreAI's four solution lines each work on their own, but most organisations combine two or three.

A scoping call with FirstCoreAI can cover both the adoption programme and the custom build.

Question 50

Can FirstNet's FirstCoreAI process call recordings with AI without sending them offshore?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstCoreAI processes call recordings on the AI Factory in FirstNet's South African data centre, so they stay in the country.

The pipeline covered every stage from audio to usable data:
- Transcription and correction of every recording.
- Name resolution across calls.
- Structured JSON output for downstream systems.
- Processing entirely on local infrastructure.

Keeping call recordings local matters because sending them to an offshore AI API is a cross-border transfer, with POPIA consent and breach questions attached. The FirstCoreAI AI Factory in FirstNet's South African data centre includes a speech-to-text model exposed through an OpenAI-compatible audio transcriptions endpoint.

Document and call pipelines are a core EngineAI capability, covering intake, extraction, transcription and structured output for large volumes of files and recordings. FirstCoreAI names call archives as a typical use case in financial services and insurance, and as a good single workload to start with.

FirstCoreAI can scope your own archive on a 30-minute scoping call.

Answers, straight from FirstNet.

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