Telkom introduces new flat-rated calling plans

I was like "OMG. IT WONT MATTER IF I DROP ON DIALUP DURING CALLMORE ANYMORE!"

Then I read the horrible truth... NO INTERNET!!!
 
I wonder how they check that ? i mean with a adsl line you -could- allow a friend to dial in ;)
 
jarr said:
so, if the rental is covered in all of these plans, what are you then "renting" extra at R150 a month?
is it just me or does that make no sense at all?!
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agree 100%. afterall it's the ISP who is supposed to charge for access. so why isn't ISP dial-up numbers included in the package if the package is supposed to apply to local and national numbers? or is this just another way of making things seem sweeter than they really are. more specifically, what service is being provided for R150 if calls are routed via the ISP?
 
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supersunbird said:
Dang it! I hate Telkom just as much as anyone but RTFA!! (read the &*$@ article).

If I read it right, these bundles include the line rental, so you pay the R92.28 line rental, and then you pay just under R30 extra on top of that for the Plan 1 or around 50 extra per month for the Plan 2.
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Sorry, my fault dont know how I missed it.
No need to swear at me though.
 
Highflyer_GP said:
lol i would hang up after 59 minutes and dial again.
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What a waste. My dial-up is on throughout the night, so I would have to write some kind of script to hang up after 59 minutes and then redial to make use of these "specials" (read: much less functional than current options and only slightly cheaper).

Seems like a waste of time for a R100 saving (from Infinitcall to CLOSER Option 3).

Note to Telkom: STOP WASTING TIME ON BETTER (Actually worse) DIAL-UP OPTIONS.We need ADSL that is at least as good as dial-up (ie. unshaped, at least 10GB per month for R400). Of course that is if you want to keep on being a sh*tty company, to improve you need to work from the "at least" part and do MORE than just "best effort".
 
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Davidj81 said:
But only in call more time!
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Ya exactly! What benefit is there of using a service when most businesses will be closed by then. There shouldn't be any set time for this. Restricting the savings to callmore time makes it highly impractical for most users.

And the thing about dial-up hours, it's DIAL-UP! That's going backwards. Why the heck promote an archaic service, rather make broadband as ADSL available to all and not have people settle for 5-7Kbps speeds.

Another thing: If it included calls to cellphones then it would be something to consider since only 5 million people have Telkom fixed lines (if I'm correct with this stat) - Most people have cellphones and SMS's are much cheaper. Just drop the costs and make fixed line calls free (since you're promoting dial-up anyways!)
 
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supersunbird said:
im not swearing at you, thats how your supposed to say it... just like FUBAR, and STFU.
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or SNAFU which works great when trying to explain telkom and SA. Situation Normal, All F$scked Up :D
 
Rkootknir said:
What a waste. My dial-up is on throughout the night, so I would have to write some kind of script to hang up after 59 minutes and then redial to make use of these "specials" (read: much less functional than current options and only slightly cheaper).

Seems like a waste of time for a R100 saving (from Infinitcall to CLOSER Option 3).

Note to Telkom: STOP WASTING TIME ON BETTER (Actually worse) DIAL-UP OPTIONS.We need ADSL that is at least as good as dial-up (ie. unshaped, at least 10GB per month for R400). Of course that is if you want to keep on being a sh*tty company, to improve you need to work from the "at least" part and do MORE than just "best effort".
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was referring to normal calls. read their fine print, for internet is an additional R150 per month. the thing i would like to know is that if this is inclusive of rental, and it applies to calls made local and national, exactly what service is being providing for R150 per month extra since a dial-up call counts as a normal call, and the call terminates at the ISP. isn't this some form of extortion?
 
Highflyer_GP said:
was referring to normal calls. read their fine print, for internet is an additional R150 per month. the thing i would like to know is that if this is inclusive of rental, and it applies to calls made local and national, exactly what service is being providing for R150 per month extra since a dial-up call counts as a normal call, and the call terminates at the ISP. isn't this some form of extortion?
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They probably don't want dial-up users exceeding their "caps", lol

It is just plain profiteering. They know all too well that the average Joe will not get near to using 150 hours per month. That is 5 hours per day.

The best thing is as have been mentioned before, they can not "detect" if you dial in to a friend's ADSL line and use his connection. So if you've got ADSL, you can let a friend or parents have free off-peak dial-up.

EDIT: You could then also share an ISDN connection that's on Infinitcall.
 
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ajax said:
The best thing is as have been mentioned before, they can not "detect" if you dial in to a friend's ADSL line and use his connection. So if you've got ADSL, you can let a friend or parents have free off-peak dial-up.
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In 1 hour chunks. Come to think of it this is probably why they imposed that arbitrary restriction, to stop people taking advantage of it with data calls.
 
Closer plan

Telkom Closer Plan 2 - unlimited callmore or... wait for it... R40 per hour in normal time!!!!! (about double the current rates) and no internet.... and call catcher enabled means that you will always pay the R1.40 per call - even when you don't get thru... brilliant! not.
Telkom Closer Plan 1 - R120 per month gives you calls on a landline at cellphone rates... duh
Plan 3... well.. what can we say... aaahhh it costs R300 per month? without internet?

Internet add on... R1 per minute... what do they think were dofffff
*edit* - my bad - misread - it's R1 per hour - better, but still more dosh...

So... what we have here is average joe subsidising the long distance calls made by business (mainly) Unfortunately for the poor of this country it means more coughing up so that those who make long distance calls can be subsidised... oh what am i saying... we all use skype...

Anyone have parents who still use dial-up? Set up that old pots modem on your xp box and share your adsl - let them dial up to you on your now defunct analog portion of your adsl line and use internet thru your adsl...

BTW... what does this mean for those who don't want it? Will it be forced on us all along with the ADSL rental?
 
Agree to disagree

Highflyer_GP said:
so let's commend them for finally waking up after a decade and realising that fixed-rate is the way the rest of the world has gone.
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not
;-) nothing personal... just don't think we should be patting them on the back... let them realise how far off they were to start with. Although if it remains OPTIONAL, then I guess we can't really complain other than what is already being said about the existing setup. For some it will be `no change'.
 
I have ADSL at home with teenagers. My phone bill is scary. I wonder if this new service can be added onto an existing ADSL line. I am sure that the new rates even at paying R300 per month one will still save money every month.
I did some calculations using the Telkom tariff calculator and the 1000 free standard minutes translate to about R180 per month. If you call for an hour every day in call more time 30 times a month, that translates to about R284 per month. I see that the line rental is included in the price. So that totals to about R544. Not a bad saving if you already paying over R700 a month on local calls. A step in the right direction? Any viewpoints? Anybody else done some calculations?
Looks like Telkom is moving to a "set rate make as many calls as you like" business model as they have in some countries overseas. Just spoke to Telkom and enquired about CLOSER the new service they are offering and they said it is NOT available to ADSL customers...Not good enough Telkom !!
 
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i had a call from Telkom this yesturday promoting this - i told the gentlemen on the line "You guys must be desprate for business, you can actually stick that up your @$$"
 
technobyte said:
I have ADSL at home with teenagers. My phone bill is scary. I wonder if this new service can be added onto an existing ADSL line. I am sure that the new rates even at paying R300 per month one will still save money every month.
I did some calculations usuing the Telkom tarrif calculator and the 1000 free standard minutes translate to about R180 per month. If you call for an hour every day in callmore time 30 times a month, that translates to about R284 per month. I see that the line rental is included in the price. So that totals to about R544. Not a bad saving if you already paying over R700 a month on local calls. A step in the right direction? Any viewpoints ? Anybody else done some calculations?
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Not that accurately but yeah that was my point, it is a good deal for a avg user. esp if you don't use the phone ALOT during the day which is the only restriction. This is obviously made NOT for businesses, ie they wanna milk that somemore. e.g. a spin off is that we will no call our family in JHB, DBN etc more often and for longer at night, speak longer at night etc which adds up to being great(did not have R7 call)
 
I'd love to know where they did their market research. I got sent a video clip the other day of an overseas company's new ad. Not only was the Ad Brillent, but the reason behind it was.. "When you sign up with us, you will never pay for any land line call again."

I have not checked out the costs yet, but when I get home tonight i'll upload the clip for you all to see
 
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They just never learn, or is it listen? Does anybody know if there is a contract of some sort? 12-24 months etc? Are they just trying to get as many customers as possible bound into a contract before SNOT goes into action...
 
If you really want to hear something sad then listen to this. I was talking to my brother last night over skype. He lives in Norway. Part of his telephone package is that he gets unlimited free calls any time of day to anywhere in Norway, Europe and North America!!! And all this for about 50 bucks a month! *cries*
 
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