http://www.finance24.com/Finance/Economy/0,,1518-25_1645897,00.html
Broadband fees stifle e-growth
11/01/2005 19:28 - (SA)
Johannesburg - "Without affordable internet access, an IT-economy in South Africa will never take off.
"Consumers have to be in a position to spend hours on the internet - they must have time to search for specific websites and download games and music.
"Failing that, e-commere can't develop, and we are falling even more behind the rest of the world."
This is the opinion of Rudolph Muller, founder of MyADSL, an organisation set on improving broadband internet access in South Africa.
ASDL is a technology using existing telephone infrastructure to send and receive data at a speed faster than that achieved by normal modems.
According to Muller, South Africans pay up to 15 times more for broadband access when compared to users in America, Europe and Asia.
"A monthly fee for ASDL-rental is not charged in any other country that we know about, as the existing telephone line is used. However, South Africans have to fork out R680 for the ASDL-line, in addition to the R250 fee for the service provider (ISP)."
According to Steven White, involved with Telkom product development, price comparisons with other countries must be viewed in context.
"In countries where ADSL is considerably cheaper, it is a direct result of demographic and geographic factors, the size of the market and government subcidies.
"It should also be noted that 60% of South Africa?s broadband traffic is international, which is a major driver of costs."
Muller argues that Telkom is not expected to match the rates of their foreign counterparts, but believes that "we should also be paying for the ISP only." For SME operations, internet access is a "huge" expense, making it difficult to compete internationally. South African users have no option but to use Telkom as their service provider. According to Muller, costs of broadband access have dropped world wide as a result of cheaper equipment and bandwidth. "In addition to that, the stronger rand could play a positive role." "It is particularly sad that Telkom also increased their local calls on January 1, which makes internet access even less affordable. The price of local calls (within a radius of 50km) was raised by 5.5%. At the end of September 2004, Telkom had 36 716 ADSL-subscribers. - JANA MARAIS
Broadband fees stifle e-growth
11/01/2005 19:28 - (SA)
Johannesburg - "Without affordable internet access, an IT-economy in South Africa will never take off.
"Consumers have to be in a position to spend hours on the internet - they must have time to search for specific websites and download games and music.
"Failing that, e-commere can't develop, and we are falling even more behind the rest of the world."
This is the opinion of Rudolph Muller, founder of MyADSL, an organisation set on improving broadband internet access in South Africa.
ASDL is a technology using existing telephone infrastructure to send and receive data at a speed faster than that achieved by normal modems.
According to Muller, South Africans pay up to 15 times more for broadband access when compared to users in America, Europe and Asia.
"A monthly fee for ASDL-rental is not charged in any other country that we know about, as the existing telephone line is used. However, South Africans have to fork out R680 for the ASDL-line, in addition to the R250 fee for the service provider (ISP)."
According to Steven White, involved with Telkom product development, price comparisons with other countries must be viewed in context.
"In countries where ADSL is considerably cheaper, it is a direct result of demographic and geographic factors, the size of the market and government subcidies.
"It should also be noted that 60% of South Africa?s broadband traffic is international, which is a major driver of costs."
Muller argues that Telkom is not expected to match the rates of their foreign counterparts, but believes that "we should also be paying for the ISP only." For SME operations, internet access is a "huge" expense, making it difficult to compete internationally. South African users have no option but to use Telkom as their service provider. According to Muller, costs of broadband access have dropped world wide as a result of cheaper equipment and bandwidth. "In addition to that, the stronger rand could play a positive role." "It is particularly sad that Telkom also increased their local calls on January 1, which makes internet access even less affordable. The price of local calls (within a radius of 50km) was raised by 5.5%. At the end of September 2004, Telkom had 36 716 ADSL-subscribers. - JANA MARAIS
