On the plane to Germany yesterday, my wife was paging through a photo-magazine (think "heat" but slightly less trashy) and out fell a flyer for freenet DSL. A big bang on the front page - "DSL-FLATRATE EUR 8.90*" with the * leading to the fine print at the bottom.
Said fineprint makes interesting reading. To get the 8.90 / month "offer" you need to order a freenet DSL 1000 (i.e. 1024 kbps) line for....EUR 16.90 / month. Or order DSL 2000 for EUR 19.90 / month. Or DSL 6000 for EUR 24.90 / month.
This is nothing more and nothing less than line rental, with a separate (but low) charge for bandwidth. You can get an even lower rate for bandwidth as well - EUR 3.90 for 2 GB with each extra MB for 1 cent (but with unlimited b/w for 5 euro more, who would bother). If you want telephone sevice as well, it's an extra EUR 9.90 / month, excluding call charges.
Doing the conversion to rands is quite nauseating...6016 kbps ADSL with unlimited bandwidth plus telephone (excluding calls) for EUR 43.70 which is about ZAR 350.
So, following the German model, charging line rental for DSL is certainly a reasonable propostion - how else does one differentiate between the different line speeds? How many of you would object to paying R90 for telephone service plus R140 for a 1024 kbps DSL line plus R100 for unlimited (or even capped with say a 30 GB cap) bandwidth for a grand total of R330? Not many, I would guess. There would be (probably) no wailing and gnashing of teeth because of separate ADSL and telephony charges. Why? Because these charges are *reasonable*.
Is Telkom ADSL expensive? Absolutely? Should we be paying less for our services? Damn straight. Is the separate telephone service/ADSL service/bandwidth charging model flawed and unfair? I believe the answer, fundamentally, is NO, it is not unfair - *if* the costs are reasonable.
Said fineprint makes interesting reading. To get the 8.90 / month "offer" you need to order a freenet DSL 1000 (i.e. 1024 kbps) line for....EUR 16.90 / month. Or order DSL 2000 for EUR 19.90 / month. Or DSL 6000 for EUR 24.90 / month.
This is nothing more and nothing less than line rental, with a separate (but low) charge for bandwidth. You can get an even lower rate for bandwidth as well - EUR 3.90 for 2 GB with each extra MB for 1 cent (but with unlimited b/w for 5 euro more, who would bother). If you want telephone sevice as well, it's an extra EUR 9.90 / month, excluding call charges.
Doing the conversion to rands is quite nauseating...6016 kbps ADSL with unlimited bandwidth plus telephone (excluding calls) for EUR 43.70 which is about ZAR 350.
So, following the German model, charging line rental for DSL is certainly a reasonable propostion - how else does one differentiate between the different line speeds? How many of you would object to paying R90 for telephone service plus R140 for a 1024 kbps DSL line plus R100 for unlimited (or even capped with say a 30 GB cap) bandwidth for a grand total of R330? Not many, I would guess. There would be (probably) no wailing and gnashing of teeth because of separate ADSL and telephony charges. Why? Because these charges are *reasonable*.
Is Telkom ADSL expensive? Absolutely? Should we be paying less for our services? Damn straight. Is the separate telephone service/ADSL service/bandwidth charging model flawed and unfair? I believe the answer, fundamentally, is NO, it is not unfair - *if* the costs are reasonable.
