Liansky
03-01-2005, 12:01 AM
This is response to the new Telkom tarrifs regarding internet usage. The SurfMore package is specifically designed for surfing the net with the tag line, ‘surf more for less’. This is a bunch of garbage. Having done some calculations, I have determined that the package costing R163 a month for 600 surfing minutes adds up to R16,30 per hour.
Alternatively, Telkom has a package called, Infinicall. It costs R48.34 per month with an additional R7.87 per connection. Having done my calculations, if you decide to connect once during callmore times every day of the month(using a 31 day month), it will cost you in the vicinity of R9.42 per connection. One connection lasts twelve hours per day during the week and 60 hours on weekends..
Both of these packages only operate between 7pm and 7am during the week and 7pm on Friday to 7am Monday morning, thereafter normal call rates will apply. This thus means that, upon deciding to surf for 10 hours straight, between 7pm to 5am on a callmore package, you’d pay a whopping R163 for the privilege. But using the infinicall package, you can use the net from 7am till 7pm(and from Friday till Monday) at a far lower cost of R7.87 on a daily basis, adding up to a daily 12 hour total of R9.42. This means that on an infinicall package, you pay 79 cents per hour. Even if you do add the constant disconnections, bad service, faulty bandwidth and inaccurate billing that primarily happens in poorer areas such as my own, you still get a cheaper option with infinicall.
What confuses me is that a connection constitutes a local call. During callmore times, in which the surfmore applies, a local phone call adds up to 16 cents per minute. 600 times 16 cents adds up to R96.
Alternatively, Telkom has a package called, Infinicall. It costs R48.34 per month with an additional R7.87 per connection. Having done my calculations, if you decide to connect once during callmore times every day of the month(using a 31 day month), it will cost you in the vicinity of R9.42 per connection. One connection lasts twelve hours per day during the week and 60 hours on weekends..
Both of these packages only operate between 7pm and 7am during the week and 7pm on Friday to 7am Monday morning, thereafter normal call rates will apply. This thus means that, upon deciding to surf for 10 hours straight, between 7pm to 5am on a callmore package, you’d pay a whopping R163 for the privilege. But using the infinicall package, you can use the net from 7am till 7pm(and from Friday till Monday) at a far lower cost of R7.87 on a daily basis, adding up to a daily 12 hour total of R9.42. This means that on an infinicall package, you pay 79 cents per hour. Even if you do add the constant disconnections, bad service, faulty bandwidth and inaccurate billing that primarily happens in poorer areas such as my own, you still get a cheaper option with infinicall.
What confuses me is that a connection constitutes a local call. During callmore times, in which the surfmore applies, a local phone call adds up to 16 cents per minute. 600 times 16 cents adds up to R96.