Naked ADSL pricing

[VioAdmin]

The billing and administrative system implementation, yes... but the connection from the exchange card to SDC to DP to CPE remains the same, ADSL works by being injected at the exchange or SDC onto the line, the software and hardware platform has nothing to do with Telkom preventing an immediate R1456 saving per year (annual rental - prepaid waya-waya)

The fact is that, irrespective of the differences in management systems, placing ADSL onto a prepaid line is dead simple, it's just very convienient (from a revenue perspective) not to allow this.

edit - by Richard Majoor's arguement, the line costs R140 per year, since my prepaid line rental clearly covers the cost.

D

+1000000 Should sticky this post!

 

[Stevie G]

If Telkom their analogue line rental it will only be a benefit for our country in so many ways.
1- The poor will be able to afford access to broadband
2- School, internet cafe's and all other NGO's will be able to teach our youth with real world study material and be in touch watch happening around the world.
3- More and more people will get adsl and hopefully to every household. telkom will still be able to rake in the moola if more and more people sign up.
4- Internet should be used by everyone and not a luxury where only the fortunate ones can access it.

Its all about the money. if they can stop fakin thinking about enriching themselves and think of the country.

 

[Johand]

What I do not understand is that if the local line is so expensive, why can they let all their copper sit in the ground unused when people disconnect their lines? Maybe if they started a strategy whereby they grow their fixed-line subscriber base the cost per line will actually reduce?

I do not doubt that Telkom is running a line deficit - but this is not because one line is so expensive. It is because they are unable to execute a growth strategy and actually bring cost in-line with revenue. They need to grow their market. It is crazy - they can't keep cost under control and they can't grow revenue. At this stage they have trouble cutting cost at the same tempo their revenue is falling.

The real point is: Telkom cannot effectively use their assets.
Solution: Give it to somebody who can.

If it was at all possible (and politically it isn't), the best solution would be for Telkom to be bought by a consortium of all telecommunication companies in SA and ran as a non-for-profit company. Failing that, aggressive LLU is required.

As a commercial company I don't care if Telkom goes bankrupt. The government doesn't care if Telkom goes bankrupt as long as they get to play their games. Telkom management doesn't care if it goes bankrupt as long as they get to pay bonuses and play at being important. And funny - that is the way Telkom is heading. Trying to derail the LLU process just to delay the inevitable is not a good idea.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Would you rather have a million customers paying R140 a month or a hundred paying R1500? I think the product is targetted at the budget limits of the consumer.

But if they have an access deficit on the clients paying R130pm.... then what kind of access deficit exists on the ones paying R140py?... I know from a business perspective I'd rather have more clients paying closer to the real cost of the service than the clients costing more money.

 

[ingeon]

Would you rather have a million customers paying R140 a month or a hundred paying R1500? I think the product is targeted at the budget limits of the consumer.

I bet if MTN owned the Telkom infrastructure it would be a whole different story.
Their success in Africa is based on 'numbers' and good prices (and prepaid). Telkom clearly fails to see the money in 'potential' customers.
The cap increase and free 3 months ADSL trial is almost the best move I`ve seen in how many years :wtf:

 

[grok]

From the blurb on the news page...

Government has firmly laid the blame for high fixed line prices at the door of Telkom’s monopoly of the local loop.

And the blame for Telkom’s continued monopoly of the local loop lies with government, which means gov't is to blame for our high fixed line prices.

They (gov't) have repeatedly failed to properly address Telkom's monopoly status. Where is the supposed SNO that would have brought competition to Telkom? Neotel went wireless, zero competition in terms of local loop. During the last round of [-]ICASA napping[/-]LLU investigations around 2007 it was said that LLU would be completed by 2011, and that the extra four years shouldn't be seen as extending Telkom's monopoly .. yet that is exactly what has happened. Telkom enjoyed four more years of monopoly while government snoozed, only waking up late & realising they now have less than one year to do four years worth of work in.

Some of you still seem optimistic, but my prediction is LLU will still be discussed a couple of years after fat Roy's November 2011 deadline.

 

[JerryMungo]

So... short term Telkom drop the analogue rental... it's a start

Longer term, the rest

 

[LazyLion]

So how come other countries are able to provide ADSL access alone in the region of US$30 (about R210) a month?
http://www.ezisp.info/high-speed/dsl.html
I'm not buying what Telkom is telling us.

Earthlink.... offers both bundled and Freestanding ADSL....
First 3 months of DSL 1.5 service are billed at $14.95 per month. Regular price of $39.95 per month applies thereafter. = R275 per month
(Requires a 12 month subscription)

Qwest DSL .... Offers both bundled and Freestanding ADSL....
Your Internet cost without Home Phone Service = $29.99 per month for 6 months subscription = R210 per month

AT&T DSL ... also offers both.
U-verse Internet only offer:
Internet only 12 month intro pricing: Offer ends 11/5/2011. Residential customers purchasing new AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet online at att.com receive a discounted monthly rate on U-verse Internet service for 12 months after application of bill credit. First 2 credits will appear on same bill within the first three bill cycles. After 12 months existing standard rates apply unless cancelled by customer. U-verse Internet intro pricing for 12 months applies as follows: Pro Internet: $19.95, Elite Internet: $24.95, Max Internet: $29.95, Max Plus Internet: $39.95, Max Turbo Internet: $49.95. U-verse price includes 250 GB of data/mo. = Their Most Expensive option = R350.00 per month.

Verizon DSL ... also offers bundled and unbundled.
High Speed Internet Without Phone = $24.99 /month - For one year. Plus taxes & fees. No contract required. Speeds .5 to 1 Mbps. = R175 per month.

So how are all these guys able to offer such cheap rates on Naked DSL?

 

[rapidetiger]

Its a stupid argument.......I do not want a Telkom voice line if I do not need it, period!!we should have the choice whether to include a voice line with ADSL. If I do not want to use Telkom as an ISP, telkom still get to "smuggle" their product in there with my subscribtion making sure they always win. And every month I have to pay "rental"..... In Asia I payed a flat rate of just under $20 for uncapped data ADSL at true 10mbs as I did not need voice I did not pay for voice that is called fairness, that is called giving the customer exactly what they want. Funny how the consumer has no power here and still has no power after all these years seems we like getting greased up.

 

[grok]

So how are all these guys able to offer such cheap rates on Naked DSL?

Because they are not monopolies.

 

[Aztech]

Going back to the R140 p/year line rental for waya waya, really doesn't matter if it runs on different software, truth is, they can offer line rental at such a low price, same copper, same exchanges, but they just have to suck ADSL users dry with a R139 pm line rental, price is over 10x more.

Please explain telkom!!!!!!

Looking through the page linked to earlier, Telkom charge suckers/customers on the R140 per year phone lines a surcharge of 60c per call. It's a rip-off but worth considering when arguing the point.

 

[McCrazieGoalz]

They can tell us that naked ADSL is not possible and this and that.

But, at the end of the day ADSL users are becoming less and less.

The question is; WHY?

The answer? Price.

Simple.

If Telkom cannot see that and if they cannot formulate a strategy that addresses this fact, then they all need to go back to business school and start with Economics 101. The lower the demand, the lower the price etcetera.

Mobile broadband has taken over because the guys there are switched on.

PRICE!

Need I say it again...?

PRICE.

How can I pay the equivalent of 2GB of data per month before I even start using the service?

 

[LazyLion]

Because they are not monopolies.

Therein lies the rub.

Except to add that they also do not enjoy preferential treatment by their government and industry regulator.

 

[Stigmata101]

I have a simple question, copper is copper right and i am sure that everything goes through the same hardware.

So, WHY is there such a big difference between the various DSL speeds. i have a 4mb line ATM, it used to be a 384k line, spoke to someone on the phone, did the upgrade and the same day it was a 4mb line, pro-rated cost applied.

the true cost of DSL is the bandwidth, if you have a 10GB cap you pay about R150 - R200 a month. I would think ISP would give their users the highest possible speeds they can, that way the guys would use their cap faster and buy more bandwidth.

So, can someone explain the reason/s for the difference in DSL line cost please?

 

[Captain Planet]

Yeah, though comparing my Telkom bill to my mobile bill always makes me think Telkom are giving the calls away

What percentage of line owners are ADSL subscribers? I know a lot of people who have a phone-line but use mobile broadband. (It really baffles me)

i have a phone line and uses mobile broadband

 

[Muasulai]

The easiest solution is ICASA to force telkom to seperate their OSP (OutSide Plant) into an independent business, with telkom remaining only as a service company. The OSP business would then provide service to anyone at a market competitive price...

That way, the OSP can even build an IPTV CDN which I can jump on to provide VoD service.

 

[ginggs]

Prepaid services work off a totally different software and hardware platform that cannot be integrated with ADSL-type services.

Cannot be integrated, or will not be integrated?

 

[Python009]

Can someone explain how a serialised or hierarchical service can be a bundled service? Bundling can only refer to parallel setups with no, or only a few minor dependencies. As explained in the article, which was my opinion since forever, the 'DSL part' depends on the 'voice' part. It cannot be unbundled because they do not constitute a bundle.

If it is as you say, then Telkom is charging us double for the same thing...

 

[Gatecrasher]

If it is as you say, then Telkom is charging us double for the same thing...

Then they charge the ISP's to use same copper we've already paid for twice. Telkom couldn't get triple-play right, but they sure managed to get triple-pay right.

Customer: Hey, you charged me twice for this lousy piece of string.
Shyster: Here, let me help you with that. (cuts string in two) Happy now?

 

[ColinR]

Looking through the page linked to earlier, Telkom charge suckers/customers on the R140 per year phone lines a surcharge of 60c per call. It's a rip-off but worth considering when arguing the point.

R140 per year (R11.67) per month for incoming calls. All my calls go out for free* over SIP using rynga.com.
Cheap cheap.