Your getting there... ADSL cost

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bb_matt

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The recent ADSL price decreases caused such confusion in the various threads, it was hard to track exactly who thought what and where things were at...

rpm posted a link which revealed a substantial decrease in cost, yet I didn't see that much celebration?

A decrease in cost between 10 and 30 percent is not to be sniffed at - it's a substantial gain in your battle!

http://www.mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=3054

You need to realise that low prices in other countries didn't magically materialise - it took some time for these radically competitive prices for services you see in other countries to come about.

I think the UK took a good 3 or 4 years to really bring broadband to the masses in an affordable manner and to rest control from the old incumbant, British Telecomm.

The same happened in many other countries.

I'd say it's cause for celebration, although slightly muted - it's a start, but there's some way to go.

There will probably never be prices as low as the US/UK/Europe, due to economies of scale (not enough users), but the ball is rolling ...

Cool beans, makes me feel happy - now all you need to do is to get the speed increased...:D

... oh yeah, and the data allowance ... (3gig is pathetic)
 
I wish I could be so positive as you bb_matt :D

unfortunatelly R17 less from R600-R900 per month, doesn't do it for me and many other users. It will take something like 30 years to get the prices to where they are now in the rest of the world, if we continue at this rate!
 
Hmmm, I don't know about that - it will happen, but you will not see the prices the western world see until more users come onboard.

It's simple economics.

Of course, Telkoms profits are insanely high - so the leeway is there.

Put it this way, it's progress - at least something is starting to happen, the ball is rolling, now you just need to give it momentum.

I believe that SA cannot afford to progress quickly on affordable broadband costs and although this is just a small blip on the radar, it may just be the start of rolling mass action ... :D
 
my adsl in the uk, when it came out, cost £150 for installation and £54 a month, for a 512 line.
comparatively speaking, s.a. is slowly on the same line...just 5 years later. luckily, you guys have the luxury of hindsight, seeing what went wrong in the uk and making sure it doesnt happen in s.a.

just keep putting pressure on telkom and co.
 
bb_matt, I am from a country with 1/6th of the population of SA, yet since around 2001-2002 there is proper broadband internet for well around or under 20 euros per month and in most cases with no traffic limits ... so the economy of scale is valid when you are talking about 10,000 people, not when you are having monopoly in a 50M country!
 
In monopolistic environments consumers rarely benefit from economies of scale (or from returns to scale) - the monopoly does.
 
Sorry, the economies of scale argument doesn't really work for me anymore.

Telkom only seeks rapid return on investment, which is the reason for the high prices.

Mauritius, Egypt, Mongolia, Spain, Sweden, Rwanda - a few countries that have cheaper ADSL than us here in SA.

Telkom just keeps they price high because they CAN. Careful charts, graphs and analysis of how to keep profit margins in the ADSL segment high while making it look as if prices have come down.

Prices went up last year remember? No more unlimited local, and R65+ per GB. We are in no better position than we were last year, and they may as well not even have released the 192k service, it came and went and instead of keeping it and lowering the price they just bumped up the speed - if they kept it and lowered the price then tens of thousands of people would be able to get connected. But the speeds have all been trimmed anyway and 384k users are now getting 320k speeds, while 512 and 1024k are also slower.

When the SNO starts offering cheap bandwidth then we will see Telkom reduce bandwidth prices as well.. just the line rental is not nearly enough.

If you lower an 800% overpriced product by 30% it's still 560% overpriced.
 
they are lowering the price of something we shouldn't even be paying for guys! telkom should sort out this 3GB cap nonsense next.
 
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