HIFI Corp to offer Iburst Modems at cost....

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morebroadband

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I have it on good authority that HIFI CORP will offer both modems at cost for approx 2 months, in 4 stores only, as a marketing test.

I believe they have stock and I know for a fact that Woodmead will be one of the stores. The price mentioned to me was approx. R1600
 
Brilliant :( I just paid R2100 for my UTC.

It'll be a great move for iburst if Hifi Corp does start offering iburst. They'll definitely bring in alot of sales.
 
Damn, if that's troo it would be wicked..
 
morebroadband said:
I have it on good authority that HIFI CORP will offer both modems at cost for approx 2 months, in 4 stores only, as a marketing test.

I believe they have stock and I know for a fact that Woodmead will be one of the stores. The price mentioned to me was approx. R1600
Click to expand...
why...what's in it for them?


Marketing test by selling things at cost...what will the test prove?

More likely that HiFi corp will sell a differenciated contract for a set period 6 months/1 year and subsidise the modem that way.
 
arf9999,

From what I understand of HIFI CORP business model is that they work on very low margins in any event. What makes this interesting is that HFC have decided to test the market for WBS at this pricing ( no profit at all) and to their customers to see how viable Iburst is.

I don't have all the details as to WHY, but I will be going to Woodmead branch in the morning to buy a UTD, if they have. I currently have the UTC and reception is not great.

I realize that WBS might be pissing some of you guys off, (I have had bad reception from day 1 (6 months ago) ) but the more I hear about their future plans the more excited I get..

The other day a customer walked into WBS offices and stated he wanted to buy 180 Gigs, for his single UTD !!!! The management were very intrigued, but the technical guys were the first to state that they don't need customers like this...? HATS OFF TO THE CEO, as he intervened and sold the guy 180 Gigs. It turns out this guy has a block of flats, with 400 tenants and is providing them with internet access through a wired LAN for a cost, through ONE UTD. I am sure there was a commercial agreement and now Ibusrt can claim 400 extra customers without them (customers) having to fork out for modems....

Now this is thinking out of the box - don't think Telkom would ever have done something like this.

The deal with HFC is just another unique way of approaching the much needed broadband desert in SA. I still have very poor connection on my UTC, but luckily have ADSL until I can ditch it for Iburst, once my area is covered properly. I continue to read all the messages and will try and stick it out until they can sort out their tech problems.
 
yes but it makes internet access very affordable to those 400, where they might not have been able to afford access before!
 
morebroadband said:
yes but it makes internet access very affordable to those 400, where they might not have been able to afford access before!
Click to expand...
yes, especially if he shoves in a linux box with squid and maybe a mailserver.
Not ideal for p2p, but excellent for basic net access, will probably still beat the hell out of a 64 kbps diginet line for much cheaper
 
One thing about both Sentech and iBurst is that the cost of access is very high when weighed against ADSL, eg:

R2800 for iBurst UTD
R3500 for Sentech modem
R400 for USB ADSL modem

This means that currently ADSL is by far cheaper for your everyman in terms of once off hardware costs.

If iBurst and HFC do indeed look to drop their prices and go for volume, I'm sure they will be richly awarded...kudos to them if morebroadband's intel is correct :)
 
I just have this 'gift' to buy things just before it becomes cheaper... :(
 
i don't mean to sound like a smartass here but, surely 400 people on one connection can't be that fast ? Must be slower than dial-up right ?
 
I would assume that not all of them will surf @ once. If he uses a cache server it will also improve things dramatically (if configured correctly)

I run about 150 users on the modem (UTD) through an ISA firewall. Except for the brilliant (NOT) speed of iBurst lately the pilot test seemed to work fine.

(I must admit that for the time being were all surfing back on the 256 diginet line)

Once the iBurst performance problem is sorted I will be able to save a STACK of $'s by reducing the 256 down to 64. Hell, with that saving I can purchase 10 9Gb's, load share it and still save a whack of dosh.
 
The problem with discounters

The problem with discounters selling boxes behind the cash till is that there is no guarantee of any signal whatsoever before you sign up. Sure, you can return it for a refund but I see many more disgusted/fed up iBursters because they were oversold. It is very important that signal strength be tested before a sale is made. I know of sites 2.8km from a base station with 0.0000 signal and the maps are only approximations. Here come more problems for WBS.
 
I agree,

Testing is very important. Well now at least I can buy with confidence as I know for a fact it works in my house.
 
arf, they're probably going to work the same as with cellphones :

Vodacom, for instance, pays on activation of a starter pack, R180 (I believe this changed in recent months though) and they pay a commission PER voucher recharged on that specific ICCID (sim).

The potential recurring income for a company who sold the SIM (with a fancy new phone) would be around 135-250 rand per SIM they sell (working on an average recharge of R450... I work with these figures each month, so I can tell you now its even more than that)

The guy then makes that money FOR LIFE, and is able to discount the cellphone sold (terms and conditions apply : activate sim in store) and is able to sell the cellphone for way less.

One company makes around 230k (and growing) per month RECURRING revenue. So if they stop selling cellphones NOW, they'll be getting that income for a long time to come still.

So if HFC sold 2000 modems, and get paid a measly commission of R50 per connection for the life of that connection, they'll be making a recurring income of R100000 per month for the rest of their life (or until the connection is terminated) So if they work on very small margins, and you factor in HFC is subsidising the modems to get a few thousand out (without strings attached, but really, who the hell will buy a modem specific to iburst and NOT connect to the service...)... they'll still make some nice profit after the 2nd month or so.

Thats a potential 1.2 million rand per year income they can achieve (if I work with the thumbsuck values mentioned)

So this all makes perfectly sense to me....
 
Yeah, They will likely sell it as you would a cellphone. You can't buy a handset these days without having to activate a SIM card, whether you want it or not.

So most likely, they will sell you the iBurst hardware, plus a contract. However I am going to check this out and see what they sell exactly.

Big concern I do have is warranty claims on modems should something go wrong. Hi-Fi corp does NOT have a good reputation in this regard, being dubbed "Hi-Fi Corruption" for good reason. Even worse is you buy a modem and it don't work- you can't return it for a refund. Hi-Fi Corporation's policy is not to give refunds.
 
Correction

Correction

I went HFC Fourways and Woodmead and the prices are not discounted! The price for the UTC was R2099 and for the UTD R2799.

I find this strange as I heard the CEO of WBS speaking to some of the public at the ICASA hearings yesterday and he was the one advertising the price of R1600 for the UTC.

The pricing at Woodmead is as follows:
UTD cost R2799.00, Activation fee R 114, and monthly costs of R469.00

Apologies for the previous post but I thought with the info coming from CEO's mouth it would be accurate!
 
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