Originally Posted by
Paul Hjul
I am not currently an Afrihost client because I had a general disconnect while Telkom got its house in order moving my line accross (different discussion but ja) and haven't quite used half the allocation from Telkom (as an ISP) that I have for priority stuff (router is set up to allow a PC to dial through) and have enough stuff downloaded that needs to be worked through that an uncapped connection isn't needed, but will resign-up soon. My experience with Afrihost has been amazing and quite honestly I find a lot of the Afrihost bashing both unfortunate and maligned, especially when you read their hiring adverts - "ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI" had me rolling.
The uncapped internet model works on the premise that different users have different needs and your usage is pooled. The bottom line is that uncapped internet offerings cannot work if you don't have a spread of users which includes users who use the service minimally. Because Afrihost fundamentally targets the geek they inheritted a userbase that consumes enough internet for the earth. MWeb on the other hand has a massive machine supporting the acquisition of users who consume 3gigs on the account but want uncapped because it prevents unnexpected bills or running out of cap. The decision to actually compete in the uncapped market by afrihost was brave and they entered before many of the other ISPs sucumned to the pressure created by MWeb and Afrihost having products.
Before the uncapped offering from MWeb it was Afrihost who forced prices down and I don't believe it is an exaggeration to posit that Afrihosts disruption of the market in 09 made the case within MWeb for uncapped internet so much stronger. Afrihost could have (and from their own self-interest point of view probably should have) kept for itself a niche of providing the lowest cost capped unshaped internet connectivity but instead it entered the uncapped market and aided in making it competititve. They improved their uncapped offering in leaps and bounds last year and have continued to reduce costs. Because their uncapped offering did not have the perfect user mix its performance was bad and heavy users left making the service rely on a better user mix and we haven't seen whining or bitching from Afrihost nor have they given excuses, instead they have continued to improve their products and build network capacity. There is no perfect ISP but there are good ISPs and having good ISPs in competition with each mmakes for a great internet product. I do not believe that there is a single product in the uncapped market which offers better value than Afrihost but you will almost inevitably find that the extra 100 bucks on the MWeb product will mean that you'll be able to download more each month and have a better user experience even if you've downloaded a great deal - but you are paying an extra hundred bucks.
I am sticking with Afrihost because (a) their price is the best and I use my uncapped product viciously when it is running and (b) their unshaped pricing is amazing and having two bills a month - Telkom and Afrihost works well, so it is simply buying the capped product from them and I am set, (c) while the notion of brand loyalty may create complacency I think that so long as companies conform to decent practices and competitive behaviour they should be given support and really rent seeking is just bad.
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