I'm on holiday staying with my parents in Nelspruit, and live in London for the most part. I've been trying to catch up with DSL developments in SA as I am a reseller and support provider in the UK. I have been looking (via the delightfull 56k lines....) at Telkoms price structure. As far as I can make out, to get DSL. I would need:
1x Telkom line (rental) = R70 p/m
1x Telkom DSL Line (rental) = R680 p/m
1x DSL account = R250+
For a total of R900+ per month.
Thats disgusting.
When I package DSL to home users, it works out to
1x line = £11.50 p/m
1x 256k (unlimited) connection = £17 p/m
Total = £28.50 p/m (R300 odd for those without calculators)
Now I understand Telkom has issues to deal with (exchanges from the 50's etc) but I don't see how they can justify the price of DSL. What does anyone need to rent a 'special' dsl line for?! Your line doesn't change at all - all Telkom does is stick the plug at the exchange into a newer DSLAM, which isn;t THAT expensive. And the fact that they charge R2067 for an Alcatel modem that costs $7 to manufacture is sick.
The whole point of DSL is not for p2p, or for downloading large amounts of crap (there is a minority who hog bandwidth by doing so, but its very easy to track them down and fine them - I know, I do it all the time). The point is to communicate. This is where Telkom gets it very wrong. With new tech coming out (WIMAX in particular - has very +++'ve points for Africa) they need to be very careful where they take their pricing. I've read quite a bit on Telkom's 'expensive' international bandwidth. Rubbish. They have links with a number of global players and have spare capacity available in heaps. All they seem to be doing is milking the SA market before consumers wake up, and the SNO comes in.
If anyone can shed some light on the line rental issues above, feel free to do so. I'm sure there are many people out here who'd love to know.
Andre
1x Telkom line (rental) = R70 p/m
1x Telkom DSL Line (rental) = R680 p/m
1x DSL account = R250+
For a total of R900+ per month.
Thats disgusting.
When I package DSL to home users, it works out to
1x line = £11.50 p/m
1x 256k (unlimited) connection = £17 p/m
Total = £28.50 p/m (R300 odd for those without calculators)
Now I understand Telkom has issues to deal with (exchanges from the 50's etc) but I don't see how they can justify the price of DSL. What does anyone need to rent a 'special' dsl line for?! Your line doesn't change at all - all Telkom does is stick the plug at the exchange into a newer DSLAM, which isn;t THAT expensive. And the fact that they charge R2067 for an Alcatel modem that costs $7 to manufacture is sick.
The whole point of DSL is not for p2p, or for downloading large amounts of crap (there is a minority who hog bandwidth by doing so, but its very easy to track them down and fine them - I know, I do it all the time). The point is to communicate. This is where Telkom gets it very wrong. With new tech coming out (WIMAX in particular - has very +++'ve points for Africa) they need to be very careful where they take their pricing. I've read quite a bit on Telkom's 'expensive' international bandwidth. Rubbish. They have links with a number of global players and have spare capacity available in heaps. All they seem to be doing is milking the SA market before consumers wake up, and the SNO comes in.
If anyone can shed some light on the line rental issues above, feel free to do so. I'm sure there are many people out here who'd love to know.
Andre
