Vodacom cuts bandwidth rates by up to 50%

The company’s new Premium and Direct packages for Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) will be offered as a fully restored service, with a blend of international fibre connectivity provisioned over SEACOM, SAT-3 and SAFE. According to the company the WACS and EASSy fibre cable systems will also be integrated into these offerings upon completion. 

Dedicated Internet access speeds will be available from 64kbps and can be increased to the business’ specified requirement in 64kbps increments revealed the company. The solutions offer a number of connection options including Microwave, WiMAX Assured Rate, Satellite, Leased Line and Fibre.

Steven Hayward, Executive Director of Vodacom Business South Africa, says this drastic price reduction in international bandwidth is made possible by the increasing competition between undersea cable providers which in turn creates a sustainable competitive international bandwidth market in South Africa.

“Vodacom Business has taken advantage of this changing landscape to engage with multiple undersea cable providers to put together a blend of robust, redundant international fibre internet access at vastly reduced pricing – in some cases with a saving of up to 50% from previous pricing,” said Hayward.

“We are excited to offer our business customers true competitive pricing and value, without compelling them to increase their bandwidth use, and with guaranteed uptime on Vodacom Business’s fully redundant network – including self-provisioning of last-mile access, guarantees and services level agreements,” Hayward concluded.

Pricing

Vodacom Business would not reveal exact pricing “due to the competitive nature of the industry”, but the company was willing provide two scenarios of how business customers benefit from the price reduction:

Scenario 1 (aimed at smaller enterprises)

64kbps DIA Premium

1. Old price = R1,440 per month
2. New price = R720 per month

64kbps DIA Direct

1. Old price = R810 per month
2. New price = R405 per month

Scenario 2 (aimed at larger enterprise)

DIA Premium – Depending on scale, the per Mbps pricing has changed from:

1. Old price between R22,000 per month and R18,500 per month
2. New price between R11,059 per month and R9,216

DIA Direct – Depending on scale, the per Mbps pricing has changed from:

1. Old price between R13,000 per month and R10,368 per month
2. New price between R6,480 per month and R5,184

Service offerings

Vodacom Business customers will have access to the following Dedicated Internet Access packages:

1. Dedicated Internet Premium:  Guaranteed, 1:1 bandwidth (local and international) – bandwidth is fully allocated to the customer and the customer’s traffic is given the highest priority on the network and a committed information rate is guaranteed
2. Dedicated Internet Direct:  According to Vodacom this service is designed to offer stronger performance and faster Internet speeds more cost-effectively.  During normal operating periods full throughput is available, in case of severe network congestion bandwidth can be shared, by up to a maximum of 3 customers.
3. Dedicated Internet Access Local:  Local-only bandwidth (available as a standalone solution, or as an extra capacity option with one of the other solutions).

Vodacom Business bandwidth price cuts – comments and views