DStv Internet prices vs MTN vs Rain vs Cell C

Jan

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DStv Internet pricing has a big problem

MultiChoice's newly launched DStv Internet has a problem - it is more expensive than many existing fixed-LTE and 5G products from mobile networks in South Africa.

The pay-TV broadcaster launched its new product on Tuesday, saying it was diversifying its offering in an ongoing evolution from a traditional video entertainment business.
 
6spdmanual said:
The sponsored article money must have dried up - and I'm loving it :ROFL:
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Couldn't be bothered, really, they must F' forth and enjoy.

Just a thought : If DSTV priced their Premium service on their streaming app at R350.00 for a single connection, R200.00 for additional connections. They could easily triple their online subscribers. And put a lot of pressure on the IPTV streaming crowd at the same time.

But yeah, such is life ...
 
Why are they calling it "Fixed Line LTE" ? Surely that's not a common term, and an oxymoron.
 
DStv, I don't understand. You need to look at this:

1632384727030.png
110GB cap, are we still doing that?

So for the price of a SIM with 110GB data and Premium I can get, what, 100Mbps (Uncapped, Unshaped, Unthrottled) fibre Internet connection + Netflix through my fibre ISP?
1632384802291.png

If I was with OpenServe it would look even worse....

And fibre keeps getting faster and cheaper. Multichoice is losing this war.
 
elf_lord_ZC5 said:
Couldn't be bothered, really, they must F' forth and enjoy.

Just a thought : If DSTV priced their Premium service on their streaming app at R350.00 for a single connection, R200.00 for additional connections. They could easily triple their online subscribers. And put a lot of pressure on the IPTV streaming crowd at the same time.

But yeah, such is life ...
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If they did that they'd be styling.

Even more so if they had a "custom package" where you could pick and choose channels.

I like how they haven't figured out yet that their primary competition, Netflix, charges 1/10th of DStv Premium and somehow they still stick to their pricing structure.
 
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Lets look at data usage.
Normal HD Ready on Netflix, well about 1GB per hour of viewing
HD Content on Netflix, about 3GB for every hour of viewing
4K UHD is about 7GB for every hour of viewing.

Its really a no brainer to go uncapped and not one of these stupid packages. You can even get on with a 10mb uncapped line.

Imagine the out of bundle rate when you go over, many a customer will be told 25gb or 100gb would be enough, till they get that R10k plus bill and go WTF. You can imagine the answers DSTV will give you, with a well it's not our problem.

So do yourself a favour (for your own health and safety). If you are going to stream...uncapped fibre or at least DSL. I wouldnt use LTE data for that. Never....ever.
 
There aren't many businesses with its head in the sand like DStv. Even if you accept that their satellite service pricing is reasonable, it makes zero sense why the streaming service is barely a hundred bucks cheaper despite needing to use your bandwidth instead of an uncapped satellite data connection.

And if you can't resell mobile data products at roughly the same prices that the actual networks sell them for, or at least find a novel way to repackage the value proposition (like Afrihost's awesome mobile stuff), then why bother moving into that space at all.
 
Brian_G said:
Why are they calling it "Fixed Line LTE" ? Surely that's not a common term, and an oxymoron.
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It seems to be a great marketing term that has built itself up over time in SA...

Has lots to do with the coverage area used which may be different to the mobile LTE stuff, as well as no roaming etc. I would also hazard a guess that the routers themselves may not necessarily handle tower handovers as seamlessly as a cellphone with LTE might.
 
ToxicBunny said:
It seems to be a great marketing term that has built itself up over time in SA...

Has lots to do with the coverage area used which may be different to the mobile LTE stuff, as well as no roaming etc. I would also hazard a guess that the routers themselves may not necessarily handle tower handovers as seamlessly as a cellphone with LTE might.
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Sounds a bit like Telkom LTE phone services, the LTE phone I saw in use couldn't be used in another suburb.

They should rather call it fixed area.
 
Brian_G said:
Sounds a bit like Telkom LTE phone services, the LTE phone I saw in use couldn't be used in another suburb.

They should rather call it fixed area.
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From a marketing point of view, I actually do get the way its used in terms of how the product would be understood by the customers.

Fixed Area would largely confuse many customers and possibly introduce unreasonable expectations on the service.
Fixed Line LTE would be understood to replace an existing physical connection like a phone, and not be something that you could move around outside of your house.
 
ToxicBunny said:
From a marketing point of view, I actually do get the way its used in terms of how the product would be understood by the customers.

Fixed Area would largely confuse many customers and possibly introduce unreasonable expectations on the service.
Fixed Line LTE would be understood to replace an existing physical connection like a phone, and not be something that you could move around outside of your house.
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Okay, I get that. Maybe fixed location then.

As for MultiChoice, they're infamous for their confusing / shared in-house terms. We even had a long thread about it on their old forum.
Like Access package and access fee, their use of the word "revert", etc., etc.
 
ToxicBunny said:
It seems to be a great marketing term that has built itself up over time in SA...

Has lots to do with the coverage area used which may be different to the mobile LTE stuff, as well as no roaming etc. I would also hazard a guess that the routers themselves may not necessarily handle tower handovers as seamlessly as a cellphone with LTE might.
Click to expand...

Fixed LTE-A from Supersonic is tower locked, making it "fixed" might be a similar mechanic
 
Bryn said:
There aren't many businesses with its head in the sand like DStv. Even if you accept that their satellite service pricing is reasonable, it makes zero sense why the streaming service is barely a hundred bucks cheaper despite needing to use your bandwidth instead of an uncapped satellite data connection.
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Satellite bandwidth would be too expensive on these satellites, and being geostationary it would be heavy latency.

They tried something decades ago, one decoder even had a separate smartcard slot for the proposed service - failed to get going.
 
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