Afrihost has lost the initiative in the war for new customers. They gave it away when they downgraded their mobile customers.
They're proving that they're just a bunch of followers, responding to market conditions dictated by Telkom. Telkom is still totally in control of the entire DSL market because our useless government has done nothing to 100% de-regulate DSL and open it to all and level the playing field. So here we have Telkom, still firmly in control, dictating prices, playing the leader with everyone else following after, hoping like heck to retain their customers.
And the SMART PEOPLE (like myself) with the SMART MONEY have raised a middle finger to DSL and adopted mobile internet. But instead of trying to win this much larger market, Afrihost after a promising start is now showing they have no balls for it. They just shaved 3GB off their mobile three product which is what the Americans call a "blink". Afrihost has "blinked", meaning they simply don't have the foresight to discern that it is the MOBILE INTERNET market that has a future in South Africa and DSL and fiber does not.
MOBILE is always going to be cheaper to provide, less labour intensive to install and maintain, easier to upgrade, and will always be able to deliver 10x the speed of any fixed line connection. It is abundantly clear to anyone with discernment that MOBILE is the future, globally. If WIRED CONNECTIONS were superior, then both radio and TV services would have migrated to it, but they have not and never will. The only use for wired connections is to connect continents currently, because we haven't yet deployed low earth orbit satellite arrays to take over this function, but their day will come.
So given that MOBILE connections are the future for everyone, everywhere, chasing fixed line customers is wasted effort. A true leader and innovator will rent mobile capacity by the capacity at fixed monthly prices and roll out large data bundle packages for home office (50GB - 500GB) and business users (500+GB) with LTE devices / routers. A true leader in this space, won't sign an agreement with just one of the mobile operators, but with all 4, allowing connection through all of them, choosing the strongest signal in any given area, thus amalgamating the services of all operators to deliver a best of breed MOBILE internet offering.
A true leader will do this plus roll out wi-fi hot spots in high density areas, such as main roads, entire malls and not limit themselves to tiny little shops here and there. Devices will choose wi-fi / 3G / LTE automatically to get the best connectivity at any given location, while stationary or on the move.
This is the future of MOBILE internet connectivity.
