What are the options ?

[riaan_pta]

I have been looking at the various broadband (non dail-up) options available in SA for my folks.

The are retired and would like a connection to the internet for checking e-mail, do the odd bit of online banking etc, etc.

They can however not afford to spend R400 odd rand on an ADSL connection. 3G and Edge either locks you into a contract or you have to buy the card at the inflated price. Even then you do not get away for under R350 per month for the odd 200Mb.

This also goes for iBurst and MyWireless. The new cheapest GTS offering come in at over R470 per month as well.

So, what options are left. How fo you get a fast(ish) internet connection with no more than 200-300Mb bandwith for under R300 per month ?

I know of a lot of people personally that would jump at such an option.

 

[Gatecrasher]

They only need a GPRS, EDGE, or 3G enabled cellphone linked to a PC or laptop, and they can buy pre-paid data bundles (or not if they go with Virgin). Definitely the cheapest form of low-usage internet access, with very wide coverage.

 

[|tera|]

R400 for ADSL sounds funny, that's actually just the line rental, I agree with Gatecrasher though, using a cellphone would be the easiest. Unfortunately there aren't any other options available yet, if I were you I'd highly reconsider the dialup thing, it may cost you R60 a month for the ISP and then you can budget when you go online, I'm not sure if R7 a call is still there, but that used to help me alot in dialup days.

 

[BrianB]

With the new telkom prices from next month.
DSL384 R245pm
Webafrice 1gig R75
Total R320
Thats about the cheapest broadband you gonna get.(I think)

 

[MrG]

DSL 384 with Cybersmart 3GB would be like R30 more, but you get 2 extra Gigabytes.

 

[|tera|]

What about line rental? What's the price for 384 line rental?

 

[krycor]

yup, they said the total cost will remain R370(Telkom ADSL rental + cybersmart), ie they dropped their price for dsl 384k 3GB.

Hopefully ECA can drop that rental portion down.

 

[riaan_pta]

I have looked at all the options mentioned, but they all end up close to or over R300 per month when you add up all the costs involved. Especially if you do not already have a Edge/3G enabled handset and looking at the cellular options.

Yea the old dail-up is an option, but with R99 line rental + R75 ISP + R150 Telkom Closer (basic with R7 callmore time) we are back at that seemingly unbreakable threshold. And then again you have to wait 2hrs for that one large attachment to download.

Talking to friends, colleagues and family, it seems that there is a real big gap in the market for a cheap, fast, low usage option.

 

[Paul_S]

There is no Internet connectivity in SA that I know of that will cost less than R300/month unless you can share the connection and costs with someone else (which is a legal minefield).
Dialup with the Infinite call thingy is still the most affordable solution but the line rental and calls still add up.

My advice is to tell your parents to just do it the old way (letters, sms and phone calls) and forget about the Internet.

 

[krycor]

maybe local wisps?

 

[riaan_pta]

There is no Internet connectivity in SA that I know of that will cost less than R300/month unless you can share the connection and costs with someone else (which is a legal minefield).
Dialup with the Infinite call thingy is still the most affordable solution but the line rental and calls still add up.

My advice is to tell your parents to just do it the old way (letters, sms and phone calls) and forget about the Internet.

lol @ Paul - It took me some long and painfull hours (days) to pull them into the 21st century - there is no going back (unless - it seems - Telkom has a say in it).