Telkom Closer Plans 4 & 5. Price reductions?

Telkom has almost 300 000 clients using Closer Plans.

Telkom have all but spelled out that there will be no price reduction on the Closer Plans:

"Over and above the proposed price reductions, customers of the Telkom Closer and Telkom SupremeCall brands (for business) are also enjoying considerable cost savings. The marketplace has welcomed these value-adding products with open arms with close to 289 000 customers signing up for Telkom Closer since the launch," he [September] said

Although line rental is included in the Closer bundles, the subscription charge will stay the same.

Telkom said it has 'enhanced the offering' with 30 free local minutes during standard time on the entry level plan and a lower rate of 49c a minute after free minutes are used up.

Telkom said subscribers for Closer plans three, four and five would also get “preferential rates on international calls, paying only 72c per minute for calls to 30 popular destinations."

"These rates will apply for peak and off-peak times for calls to fixed-line destinations."

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The make it all sound so wonderful for us. By adding some totally useless add-ons, they ignore the reality that customers with ADSL-linked Closer plans will be paying exqactly the same for ADSL access in August as they were before.

That is a significant proportion of all ADSL users.

So much for the great price reductions on ADSL rentals that Telkom are currently getting the credit for. Considering how they have bumped up their analogue line rentals and installation charges, and increased Callmore rates, one wonders if South Africans, on average, will really be getting that 1.9% decrease in their Telkom bill that they are promising. It seems highly unlikely.

Closer 5 customers currently get Closer 3 benefits (R300pm) and up to 4mb/s ADSL access rental (R516pm) for R699pm, a saving of R117pm over the individual components.

Closer 4 customers currently get Closer 3 benefits (R300pm) and 384k access rental (R245pm) for R499pm, a saving of R46pm.

From 1st August, however,

Closer 5 customers will get Closer 3 benefits (R300pm) and up to 4mb/s ADSL access rental (R413pm) for R699pm, a saving of only R14pm over the individual components.

Closer 4 customers will get Closer 3 benefits (R300pm) and 384k access rental (R152pm) for R499pm, and would be R48pm better off by getting the services individually, rather than as a bundle.

Common sense would suggest that someone at Telkom has made an enormous blunder in their calculations.

Go to the Telkom Website, and the Closer Plans take pride of place on their home page. Listen or watch Telkom advertising and it is clear that the Closer Plan's are Telkom's flagship products.

You'll get a piddling R14pm benefit on a R699pm Closer 5 bundle?
And you'll be paying R48pm too much on A R499pm Closer 4 bundle?

Some mistake at work here, surely? But this is Telkom we are talking about...

If they go ahead with this pricing, they are going to have considerable egg on their face come August, trying to explain why their cost-saving bundle (Closer 4) is more expensive then the individual components.

I have written to Telkom for clarity on this. I will hopefully get a reply before 1 August.

Chances are the only reason Telkom went public with new pricing at all is because they have to be submitted to ICASA for approval.

The closer bundles aren't subject to approval, so chances are they'll announce new pricing closer to the date. There is time.

What a bummer. Im on Closer 4, does anyone know how much it cost to migrate to just the standard DSL 384 Telkom line ? Also, will I lose my port at the DSLAM if I change from a Closer package to the plain 384 DSL line ? I've heard that this happens if you change from Telkom DSL line to a DSL line provided by an ISP in an all inclusive package.

I'm not being lazy here, I'll ask Telkom if no-one here knows from experience; but I'd rather try here first and leave holding for 20 minutes as a last resort

My Closer 4 account lists each item separately, including one called Closer 4 Option. I would expect the line rental item to increase and the ADSL 385 item to decrease as per Telkom's announcement.

On the 25th or so of May I signed up for dobroadband level 2 closer. Found it here http://www.do.co.za/broadband/index.html At the time the combined product was listed at R617. or R618. My telkom account runs from the 26th of the month and when I received my account I see that they charged me for the Closer plan 4 which is R499. and billed me for 2GB separately which is R149. This would be R648 combined and I called telkom and pulled up the site above and explained to them that I had been given a product which I had NOT asked for which was R30 more and that I wanted them to give me the product I asked for. They still haven't got back to me and I checked on the website again and they have the price now as R648 for the level 2 closer package I wanted. I thought prices are coming down, but did not expect it to go up so suddenly.

Anyone else using level 2 closer? If so how much were you charged?

Masu said:

On the 25th or so of May I signed up for dobroadband level 2 closer. Found it here http://www.do.co.za/broadband/index.html At the time the combined product was listed at R617. or R618. My telkom account runs from the 26th of the month and when I received my account I see that they charged me for the Closer plan 4 which is R499. and billed me for 2GB separately which is R149. This would be R648 combined and I called telkom and pulled up the site above and explained to them that I had been given a product which I had NOT asked for which was R30 more and that I wanted them to give me the product I asked for. They still haven't got back to me and I checked on the website again and they have the price now as R648 for the level 2 closer package I wanted. I thought prices are coming down, but did not expect it to go up so suddenly.

Anyone else using level 2 closer? If so how much were you charged?

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Masu - As far as I can remember, doBroadband Closer 2 was always R648 (R300 + R149 + R199). When I phoned up to enquire about this package, they quoted me a price without the vat included. I asked the lady on the other end why she was quoting exclusive of vat - she answered that this was the price as it would appear on your telephone bill. I told her she was talking nonsense and if she wanted to quote exclusive of vat then she must be explicit that vat was not included in the price she had given me. As she didn't, I told her, she was hiding a charge which could only be regarded as trying to sell in a misleading or deceitful way.

Ozymandias said:

Masu - As far as I can remember, doBroadband Closer 2 was always R648 (R300 + R149 + R199). .

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When I called telkom to query the price I opened the website advertising dobroadband level 2 closer and told the person at telkom I spoke to that I was looking at their website whilst speaking with them and the price was definitely different to what was on my bill.

I cannot understand this now. Maybe I am hallucinating or possible wishful thinking?

Masu said:

I cannot understand this now. Maybe I am hallucinating or possible wishful thinking?

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You are not hallucinating. I was considering getting the doCloser3. It was initially listed on the doBroadband site at R938, which I didn't think was worth it at the time. But I noticed a week or so later that it was priced at R888, which I thought was pretty good. Since I pay R699 for Closer 5, it implied R189 for 3Gb, and with TelkomInternet's soft capping policies, it made good sense. The thing that put me off going this route was that with Telkom you lose a lot of flexibility if want to move from ISP to ISP, package to package. One is bound to get double billed or wrongly billed at some point. Anyway, now I see that doCLoser3 is back to R938. And so not really worth it anymore.

i have dobroadband as well. they charge you 245 + 69 for the 1gig and then they have a section called discounts or something and there they deduct the odd R35

Moderator note...

Thread moved to the ADSL Discussions forum, was in Consumerism - should get more attention in ADSL Discussions.