Uncapped local ADSL trial to end

Rudolph Muller

Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...

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Since 1 February 2008, MWEB has given all MWEB ADSL customers access to unlimited free local-only ADSL data at no additional cost. This was part of MWEB’s trial programme, which will come to an end in 30 days time.

As of 1 May 2009, MWEB will allocate subscribers a free 10 GB quota of local-only bandwidth.  This is in line with Telkom Internet’s 1 GB service where consumers get an additional 10 GB of local only bandwidth after being capped.

“The decision to provide a quota of free local-only ADSL bandwidth will bring MWEB in line with the rest of the market. During the MWEB Trial programme, it emerged that some 95% of MWEB customers were only using about 2GB of free local-only ADSL bandwidth per month,” said MWEB.

“MWEB will therefore introduce a 10 GB ADSL data restriction on local-only data for all ADSL customers regardless of the size of their contract.”

MWEB further said that should their subscribers exceed the 10GB local-only quota, they will be charged 3c per MB of local-only data.  This equates to around R 30 per GB for local-only bandwidth. “Should they wish to have international browsing then they can select the standard MWEB booster at R99 per gig or pay R0.20 per meg,” MWEB said.

Potential unhappiness

This announcement may not go down well with MWEB ADSL subscribers who were benefiting from the free uncapped local bandwidth trial.  A further complaint from subscribers may be that MWEB’s top-up pricing of R 99.00 per GB is out of sync with current standards which sit at around R 70 per GB.

Telkom Internet currently offers its subscribers 10 times their standard usage limit in local bandwidth, and has the added advantage of a monthly threshold capping value which is typically around 150% of the monthly usage limit.  Telkom Internet’s price for top-up bandwidth is around R 65.00 per GB, significantly lower than MWEB’s R 99.00. 

This latest announcement may remove the value proposition which MWEB’s ADSL service provided to a portion of high-end users, resulting in churn to an ISP which provides better value for money.

Some broadband providers have however indicated that an uncapped broadband environment always results in a small minority utilizing the majority of available bandwidth, a situation which MWEB is most likely trying to address with the recent changes.

Despite this announcement, which will negatively affect some subscribers, it should be noted that MWEB is one of the only ISPs in the country besides Telkom Internet which provides its subscribers with free local only bandwidth.

MWEB ADSL uncapped bandwidth trial – give your view