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MWeb to sell iBurst services
- Thread starter rpm
- Start date
What is up with South African ISPs and their long contracts. Who in their right mind would sign up for a three year contract. Please do not tell me it is for the "free" modem.
Come on Neotel and Virgin, we need you to lead us with month-to-month contracts.
Well you can buy a modem outright and have a rolling month to month contract with IBurst. That was one of the reasons I went with them.
Ekhaatvensters
Executive Member
They simply quote this because the longer the contract the cheaper the price, unless you go month to month and dont bundle the modem.
It makes sense to give an incentive to lock your customers into a contract, its just business, and M-Web just want to show off the cheapest price.
Like sabagamma said, iBurst have month2month contracts.
noswal
Executive Member
The 300 free Wi-Fi minutes per month is the only benefit I see of using mweb for this, if you travelling around and need to use hotspots
36 months at r279 is r10044.00 less 1820.00 for the modem is r8224.00
210mb for 3 years is roughly 7.4gb.
So you're paying over r1100.00 per gb.
EDIT - my maths might be off but I'm surprised a similar breakdown wasnt in the story.
210mb for 3 years is roughly 7.4gb.
So you're paying over r1100.00 per gb.
EDIT - my maths might be off but I'm surprised a similar breakdown wasnt in the story.
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Ahhhh Mweb, they have to have each of their dirty little fingers in everyone elses pies.
Bwana, I don't feel like thinking, so I'm not going to check your calculations. But I have to send a LOL @ R1100 per GB. Yikes!
210mb? Is that even enough to check mail twice a day for a month? <sarcasm>
Oh well, whatever floats your boat.
Bwana, I don't feel like thinking, so I'm not going to check your calculations. But I have to send a LOL @ R1100 per GB. Yikes!
210mb? Is that even enough to check mail twice a day for a month? <sarcasm>
Oh well, whatever floats your boat.
Yes it is, I think that is the market Mweb is targeting... converting their half a mil dialup users to wireless... if you take the average data useage of dialup users you'll be suprised that it is far less than 210Mb... but I agree 210Mb is not enough for power users, but we are the minority.
But look on the bright side... a partnership of this magnitude will/can have good spinoffs... more users on the iBurst network brings operating cost down, which brings the prices of services down, plus it expands the network, making the product available to more users which again means more users on the network, which means again lower operating cost. The point... its exponential. Maybe iBurst will be in my area soon
The glass is half full
What are the Telkom cost for dialing up 3 times a day for 10 minutes per session, 20 business days a month, business rates, plus internet subscription? +- the same? more? less?
Again, I dont think the package is aimed at the power users.
With all the other options available you'd have to be a fool to take the bait and sign for 3 years.
In a way I agree with you, but I've seen from an ISP perspective that end users will often walk away from an unknown/not well known provider and get the service from a known/proven company at x1.5 x2 the price.
I would definitely not sign up for the service. I wouldnt sign up for a dialup at R145 per month either, but I can tel an ISP where the problem is when it stops working... again we are the minority. The average joe wants to sign up with a company that he knows he wont have to phone often for support but if he needs to phone that he is going to get professional help.
I agree with 3 years, but I think this is aimed at selling the product with bundles e.g. laptops (I saw one or two adverts).
This is an interesting move from Mweb side, I would like to see how it unfolds, it has the potential to push iBurst into another league which would be awesome. iBurst doesnt have the backing that Sentech for example has or even vodacom, so i think from iBurst's perspective it is a partnership in which they have more to gain than to loose. In return it will be broadband users that will benefit in the long run.
IMHO
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lilDeath
Executive Member
In this day and age of choices (almost everywhere
telskom) one must be a sucker to still sign a long term contract.Competition FTW!!
lilDeath
Executive Member
The numbers are still high, but the numbers are dwindling in the light of better alternatives, ADSL (especially), 3G, HSDPA, iBurst, Sentech
I'd actually say "broadband" users are outnumbering dial-ups these days.
Havent heard numbers for dial-ups as of late.
I'd actually say "broadband" users are outnumbering dial-ups these days.
Havent heard numbers for dial-ups as of late.
Gatecrasher
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Not for heavier use, beyond 1GB. But for email, and occasional browsing, definitely the way to go, especially if it costs just 50c or less per MB.
I really don't see the value-for-money proposition of the Iburst I-go packages. The G1 to G9 packages, though, are a different story, since you still get 64k access after capping. But with no price improvements since their launch, even these are now getting relatively expensive compared to their ADSL equivalents.
Prometheus
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MWeb trying to compete in the IBurst arena. Better rebrand it as IBust. And the 210mb and 512mb table scraps at R195 and R299 are just plain ridiculous just like Sentech's offering. Come on IBurst! Give us what we really want, drop the redundant access charges and give us "affordable" bandwidth at R300 for 2-3GB even if it is capped and routed through satellite. Not all of us need the low latency.
Anybody noticed the irony in Mweb's latest adverts? They advertise bulk broadband when they will never be able to beat or even match the 30GB local you get from other providers with their SAIX network.
Actually latest figures show 300,000 broadband users. I would suspect dial-up users to be well in excess of that and things are unlikely to change very fast until someone steps in and offer something which is actually broadband.
Anybody noticed the irony in Mweb's latest adverts? They advertise bulk broadband when they will never be able to beat or even match the 30GB local you get from other providers with their SAIX network.
Ekhaatvensters
Executive Member
Why are all of you going on as if iBurst only have thier I-go packages, these were made after their original packages due to a demand for them. Alot of peopel sign up for those packages becasue its all they need, not having them loses iBurst alot of business. They just happen to be the only packages whch the article talked about.
Drop redudant access charges? Are you thinking of ADSL... what access charges? They have to charge for being an ISP and for access to thier network, otherwise they wouldnt make any money, they cant just charge at per gig prices except for buying additional bandwidth, which isnt a good idea on normal G1/3/6/9 accounts.
At R599 for 3 gigs as a total price, its retty mcuh what you are asking for, except that you pay a bit more because it isnt capped, you've got that 64kb.
Prometheus
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We asked for a 512mb or 1024mb capped service at something like R100 or R200 respectively which is still more than what the service is worth. We got the 210mb and 512mb over priced table scraps instead and some people just have to be content with it because the initial adsl charges are too expensive and they can't afford the higher capped packages. It's more a matter of not being able to afford anything else than there being any demand for it and most people struggle with the idea that their cellphone can also double as an internet connection. Tell most people that and their mounth falls open.
With adsl you have to keep the lines in working order, but with wireless there is only the air between your modem and the tower. The running costs for their network is far less than a teleline network which makes the hidden access charges redundant and is precisely the reason wireless is so attractive elsewhere in the world. As for not making any money if they don't charge for their network and isp, well, I guess Virgin is losing money then.
No, I am asking for a fair price not exceeding R150/GB which a lot of people will find a good alternative. I don't care about that extra 64kbps, it's redundant when I pay per Gig and a hard cap on a pay per Gig service could actually save IBurst some money as a lot of people on a 1G package probably go over their 1GB cap. They are too interested in pushing their softcap on people who never asked for it. I will not keep quiet when companies don't deliver what the market wants.