Broadband over Power Lines here soon and much cheaper than ADSL

[jacauc]

well... probably becuase of the fact that if they offer a 2mb/s package intially, (assuming they do get their bw from telkom).. it will cost R1500-R2000 ... and that will scare the potential customers away immediately.

also, if they start offering it at 512k, people will be able to directly compare it with the Telkom 512k offering - and it's easy to see which is better.

 

[biltonguy]

This is brilliant news! If the service is as good as they make it sound then it should really put some pressure on telkom to lower prices!

I wonder how difficult it will be to roll-out to different municipalities and cities (ie the cost and effort involved)

 

[mancombseepgood]

Tshwane

Looks like the government officials are not happy with paying the Telkom fee... why do these ideas never take off nationally.

 

[Sapphiron]

National Goverment is too busy getting involved in rape trails and arms scandels.

 

[Sapphiron]

and sleeping on the job

 

[Sapphiron]

and not doing anything about AIDS and not building enough houses

I really should stop now.

 

[rsachoc]

Its situations like this which make me realise that we well and truly live with a 3rd world government.

What we need is people in government who are thinking about the people of the country rather than the size of their back pockets.

 

[JStrike]

Wow. New entrant brings out product cheaper than the competition and gets slammed by MyADSL community for not being cheap enough. And something about the government

nice

 

[derekc]

Hmmm.. derekc are you by any chance an engineer from wits (or used to be)?
If not then forget i said anything

u are quite correct. Finished my masters last year.

prof marwala must be raking it in from the DoC for this committee. Another waste of time exercise.

 

[derekc]

Wow. New entrant brings out product cheaper than the competition and gets slammed by MyADSL community for not being cheap enough. And something about the government

nice

Yes that's a really good point. There's always a business case. Providing services is not a charity event. There's no incentive for GTS to offer faster speeds as they'll offer cheaper prices than comparative offerings from Telkom.

this is will lead to further reductions from all competitors involved and better service offerings in the future (I hope). So let's not slam GTS for at least trying to make a change.

 

[Maestr0]

Kick ass! Just wish they could make it an uncapped service.
Wonder if this will reach into Centurion? Hmmmm

 

[rsachoc]

Apologies, my post was not aimed at the new product offering, I was simply trying to get accross the fact the one of the better ways to reduce costs is simply to put a leash on Telkom.

I understand that new technologies will achieve a similar point, however are we not wasting time and money that way?

 

[kittychunk]

If the theoretical is 6mb/s (hard to believe) then why not start at something like 1.5 or 2mb/s?

Fair comment; I wonder if they're trying to avoid competing too much with their own ADSL offerings. Prices for 5GB would be similar w/line rental factored in:

http://www.mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=3420

 

[rendan]

u are quite correct. Finished my masters last year.

prof marwala must be raking it in from the DoC for this committee. Another waste of time exercise.

LOL! I was his student in 3rd year vac work... and he didnt seem like the kind of guy that can get things done, or rather want to get things done.
And beleive me hes more than raking it in....

And u ppl can forget about anything happening with the local loop unbundeling..
Its not gonna happen any time soon LOL!!!

 

[derekc]

LOL! I was his student in 3rd year vac work... and he didnt seem like the kind of guy that can get things done, or rather want to get things done.
And beleive me hes more than raking it in....

And u ppl can forget about anything happening with the local loop unbundeling..
Its not gonna happen any time soon LOL!!!

well to my knowledge u were playing warcraft 3 with me all day during vac work...as long as u dont help him it'll get done faster than expected.

 

[DirtyPope]

Hmm, seems they are following the sarfafrican trend, start the speed as low as possible, call it "broadband" and see what the people have to say.
Don't get me wrong, I applaud them for their effort and trying to introduce competition, and with thos prices they are gonna be doing a great job.

But why 512k? This country is lagging so far behind that we are already starting to see our own backsides
If the theoretical is 6mb/s (hard to believe) then why not start at something like 1.5 or 2mb/s? Then you will see an influx of new customers

Go go go and gluck to GTS...something being done should be appluaded loudly..

Deiphos - Maybe they intend to stage their business strategy...an entry level offering bottom of the range 512K at a well reduced price comparing to their competitor is a damn fine entry level to be sitting on when you trying to compete. I would prefer that GTS get the entry level package up to shape, all the required infrastructure installed and let the guys run for a few months to iron out service delivery issues and the techno gremlins that will crop up. Once that happens and TK, if at all possible, decides to join the party and lower pricing, then GTS can play another trump card and stage a better offering with a 2MB line for example. This was they will always be ahead of the game. Coming out straight and offering a 6MB line which is light years away from your competition in a business world wouldn't make sense to me.

I'd be happeir with a "one step ahead" approach of your competitor instead of unleashing the uber golden dragon in the first round...

Hope that makes sense..

If GTS manage to swangle their way into jhb northern area, then I wouldn't give two hoots in hoping that TK will lower prices...TK can go and do whatever it wants...regardless of TK's pricing strategy to effectively compete, it makes no diff in my opinion. Some people are hoping that these guys will get it right and hopefully TK will realise and reduce prices. I say it shouldn't matter what TK realise or do.

 

[rendan]

well to my knowledge u were playing warcraft 3 with me all day during vac work...as long as u dont help him it'll get done faster than expected.

well tis true

BUT still.
The guy may be brilliant and have a million degrees and international acclaim. And hes a pretty good teacher too..(sort off)
However,when it comes to getting things like this done i think he may lack the motivation . Last i heard he was sitting on the board of SAB..

And dont forget telkom gives him an annual research grant (a hefty amount that should not be mentioned here )

 

[Deiphos]

DirtyPope - That is a well thought out post right there
I agree with most parts, if not all, but I am tired of every new operator following the telkom trend. Look at the rest of the world, most other countries would consider 512k some sort of dial-up speed
But they are trying, and maybe the have some strategy that would benefit everyone in the end.

 

[Paul_S]

Hmm, seems they are following the sarfafrican trend, start the speed as low as possible, call it "broadband" and see what the people have to say.
Don't get me wrong, I applaud them for their effort and trying to introduce competition, and with thos prices they are gonna be doing a great job.

But why 512k? This country is lagging so far behind that we are already starting to see our own backsides
If the theoretical is 6mb/s (hard to believe) then why not start at something like 1.5 or 2mb/s? Then you will see an influx of new customers

I think starting low and slow is just good business sense.

If they started at 1 or 2 mbps and have too many people signing up too fast they may not be able to expand their networks fast enough to keep up with the traffic increase and they may not be able to do the installations quickly enough leading to long queues. Remember some of the wireless networks who started off with great speeds and then ran into problems a few months later?

Rather promise what you know you can deliver and once everything is running smoothly start adding or upgrading to faster connection options.
Customers don't like paying for products and services that don't work as advertized and they're also an impatient bunch who hate queues.

Paul

 

[Tns]

Milking the cow for the last few drops before it drops dead...

International pressure, what international pressure?

Yeah i second that! they just don't care.