Broadband on steroids

Mtshali confirms that it has had numerous offers from interested buyers, including a serious offer from Naspers-owned internet service provider M-Web. But, the offer is not a rescue plan, says Mtshali. To the contrary, the company is clocking up subscribers at a faster rate than had been hoped and things are going just swimmingly, he says.

Speaking to Moneyweb ahead of the launch, WBS chief technical officer Sasan Parvin said WBS hoped to sign up 20 000 subscribers in the first year, which he admitted was an aggressive target. Not so, at the current rate, it seems.

Mtshali says any offers for the company would only be considered if they made strategic sense, for example if partnering with an existing operator means signing up 5 000 or 20 000 new subscribers a month, this would make sense. But, it did not need to do a deal for the cash, he said. Nor was it in a hurry to be taken over, but would simply continue to evaluate serious, strategic offers as they came along.

I-Burst subscribers can either buy the modem upfront and take a month-to-month contract, or bundle the modem together with a 24-month contract.

Bought outright, the modem currently costs R2100 for a laptop modem, or R2800 for a desktop modem. But Mtshali says by the end of next year, the modem cost should have come down to less than $100, or around R600. For the most basic month-to-month package, i.e. for 1GB of bandwidth, it costs R469, 3GB costs R599, 6GB costs R899 and R1099 for 9GB.

A 24-month, bundled contract for 1GB of bandwidth costs R579 a month, moving up to the most expensive, 9GB, package at R1209 a month. The least expensive desktop modem option is R599 a month, moving up to R1229 for 9GB of bandwidth.

There’s also a R114 activation fee for the short-term contract, and a R456 fee for the 24-month contract.

Mtshali says WBS will offer a voice over IP (VoIP) phone that works on I-Burst technology, before the end of the year.