Uncapped ADSL price war - round two

You can't really say there is much pressure on telkom to unbundle. There is no real pressure if the gov doesn't admit that it was a mistake to give one company carte blanche over the whole damned thing and puts regulation in place. And even less when you consider that Telkom is an SOE. As far as I can see we are stuck with them till FTTH is commonplace. The day will come and then the last bit of copper can be stolen for all I care. I have my doubts about copper every being declared a precious metal too. Somebody with clout is making it possible to smuggle out hundreds of tons of copper from our harbours... I mean you don't just stash that kind of thing behind a hidden panel on some fishing boat... At least Telkom has stirred up the market a bit. And it's about time. If I think about how we've been sucked dry in the name of their profits and how they have wasted billions of that profit then all I can hope for is that this is a sign of better things to come. Maybe even a bit of sanity.
 
Once again Openweb 4Mbit Vanilla Uncapped at R339 competes directly with Telkom do Uncapped Premium R369 and MWEB (premium) R539. I tested their trial and it works. Plus they unshape when the network is quiet and most weekends. I am just saying they should be on the list as well or what?
 
We don't have enough population in South Africa to reduce the price of ADSL further but anything is possible check WORLD FACT BOOK https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2119.html I would get ADSL if they didn't add that luxury telkom tax AKA land line rental..

If they didn't steal Telkom Copper on a regular basis then probably things would be reduced further.
 
The Trutherizer said:
You can't really say there is much pressure on telkom to unbundle. There is no real pressure if the gov doesn't admit that it was a mistake to give one company carte blanche over the whole damned thing and puts regulation in place.
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There is pressure. Fixed line is declining and mobile is growing rapidly. For the incumbent, NDSL is looking more like an opportunity than a threat in 2013.

It's quite possible that ensuing revenue cannibalization (once NDSL is introduced), would be outstripped by renewed revenue growth in DSL subscriber count, over the long term. Furthermore cannibalization models typically tend to overestimate the attrition rates on existing bases.
 
The Trutherizer said:
You can't really say there is much pressure on telkom to unbundle. There is no real pressure if the gov doesn't admit that it was a mistake to give one company carte blanche over the whole damned thing and puts regulation in place. And even less when you consider that Telkom is an SOE. As far as I can see we are stuck with them till FTTH is commonplace. The day will come and then the last bit of copper can be stolen for all I care. I have my doubts about copper every being declared a precious metal too. Somebody with clout is making it possible to smuggle out hundreds of tons of copper from our harbours... I mean you don't just stash that kind of thing behind a hidden panel on some fishing boat... At least Telkom has stirred up the market a bit. And it's about time. If I think about how we've been sucked dry in the name of their profits and how they have wasted billions of that profit then all I can hope for is that this is a sign of better things to come. Maybe even a bit of sanity.
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I supply equipment to the Copperheads (Copper theft cops) and they tell me they recently bust a bunch of dudes trying to get 4 tonnes of copper out the country. Think about it for a sec... 4 TONNES??? That's like being an ATM robber and happily driving a truck down the road with 20 ATM's loaded on your truck. There is NO WAY you can get away with that without having contacts and connections in very high places.
 
A bit more on topic. VOX still hasnt dropped their prices, nor aligned their ADSL speeds with current regiment. Disappointing.
 
Nice article.

But, the fact remains that internet of this stature is simply unaffordable for the vast majority of the SA population.
 
wamatt said:
There is pressure. Fixed line is declining and mobile is growing rapidly. For the incumbent, NDSL is looking more like an opportunity than a threat in 2013.

It's quite possible that ensuing revenue cannibalization (once NDSL is introduced), would be outstripped by renewed revenue growth in DSL subscriber count, over the long term. Furthermore cannibalization models typically tend to overestimate the attrition rates on existing bases.
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When can we expect your prices to be released for VDSL? How much will 40mb uncapped cost?
 
RichardG said:
We don't have enough population in South Africa to reduce the price of ADSL further but anything is possible check WORLD FACT BOOK https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2119.html I would get ADSL if they didn't add that luxury telkom tax AKA land line rental..

If they didn't steal Telkom Copper on a regular basis then probably things would be reduced further.
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Agreed on most part. There is enough population but affordability remains the issue.

Right now, since my 60+60 8ta deal is almost depleted, affordability wise, the only viable option for me is the CellC deal of 5+15 @R189pm. Pity that telkom charges you for the Phone Line Rental. Should this fall away, I would definitely take up their uncapped 1Mbit offer. Their loss, as I am not the only person in this situation.

Good weekend peeps.
 
Good on Telkom ISP for this long overdue adjustment, just a pity their hardware department is so monumentally useless!

My line's been dead since mid Nov so I've been without any kind of service from Telkom since then. So in fact Telkom can give away uncapped for free and it would make no difference to me.

Cable theft? Oh cry me a river, its their business so their problem to deal with. Telkom doesn't care if something happend causing my source of income to be disrupted, I still have to make a plan and pay my account regardless. Doesn't excuse such bad service as I'm getting from them.
 
Pity Telkom dropped the entry level 1Mbps only by a measly 10%. :(

A 40-50% decrease would really have opened up ADSL to the masses, but then their network wouldn't be able to handle it.
 
Tomasz-London said:
Agreed on most part. There is enough population but affordability remains the issue.

Right now, since my 60+60 8ta deal is almost depleted, affordability wise, the only viable option for me is the CellC deal of 5+15 @R189pm. Pity that telkom charges you for the Phone Line Rental. Should this fall away, I would definitely take up their uncapped 1Mbit offer. Their loss, as I am not the only person in this situation.

Good weekend peeps.
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My 60+60 8ta deal is depleted. Not sure what to do now. I was hoping that the 60+60 deal would improve (cheaper or more data). Will top up with the 2+1 deal for the time being.
 
rph72 said:
My 60+60 8ta deal is depleted. Not sure what to do now. I was hoping that the 60+60 deal would improve (cheaper or more data). Will top up with the 2+1 deal for the time being.
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As prepaid on 8ta goes, it's a good offer (2+1) at R149 (I think) but then at CellC GIGA 20 (5+15) at R189 pm is much better (be it on a 12 months contract - with a top up option - and OOB at only 15c/Meg) OR on prepaid GIGA 200 (50+150) at R1799.

http://www.cellc.co.za/giganite
 
But can uncapped ADSL get much cheaper from here? The truth is there’s not that much more room to cut prices.
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Really! This is not true. And statements like these are not helpful.

It’s no use to just roll out faster broadband in South Africa, prices have to come down to 1–2% of what they are today. Allan Knott Craig, October 2012
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Even after these cuts we still have one of the highest broadband charges in the world. The highest amongst BRIC (Brazil, Russia, China & India) nations; and a lot of developing countries too. The price cuts have affected technology that is out dated in many parts of the world; you cannot get a 4mb/s line in the UK now. A quick search yielded this table comparison guide. We are still far from being internationally competitive with regards to broadband pricing.


“In the early 1970s, SA was rated number five in the world [in telecoms] or certainly in the top 10. We were certainly number one in Africa [but] we are now 73rd in the world and going backward. And we are no longer number one in Africa.”
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http://www.techcentral.co.za/broadband-prices-need-to-be-halved-knott-craig/31151/

According to a recent Ovum report: “Broadband Pricing in Emerging Markets: a 2012 Perspective”, South Africa has the highest cost of all the emerging markets sampled.
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Telkom: Kill competition by not making much on bandwidth and having their main revenue come from line rental and ADSL access charges. They'll never drop line rental and ADSL access charges.

Other ISP's: Being killed by Telkom. ISP's being pressured - smaller ISP's being wiped out.

The Public: Less competition, Less choice, Short term gain but at a cost in the long term.

Once again Telkom is using their monopoly to strangle the market.
 
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Petec said:
I supply equipment to the Copperheads (Copper theft cops) and they tell me they recently bust a bunch of dudes trying to get 4 tonnes of copper out the country. Think about it for a sec... 4 TONNES??? That's like being an ATM robber and happily driving a truck down the road with 20 ATM's loaded on your truck. There is NO WAY you can get away with that without having contacts and connections in very high places.
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I was told (by someone in the scrap metal business) that the only people in South Africa that use copper in serious quantities is Eskom and Telkom. So, unless the person selling to the dealer has a scrapping certificate from Eskom or Telkom, the dealer knows that the copper is stolen.

Not that the dealers currently care ...

His suggestion to overcome the theft: use the same system that they use for gold, i.e. make the dealer account for all the copper in his possession. And if they can't, throw them in jail for five years or more.

He feels that the situation will be largely sorted within six months ...
 
Peon said:
A bit more on topic. VOX still hasnt dropped their prices, nor aligned their ADSL speeds with current regiment. Disappointing.
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WebAfrica is also very quiet at the moment
 
a techie of Telkom told me that they are no longer replacing the copper in the areas where it is stolen, so no more adsl for me. They now have a fix line replacement package at the same price and you can add a broadband package at the same price as adsl. I still prefer adsl though.
 
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