ISPA mum on developments in ADSL space
ADSL Resell
Telkom recently launched their ADSL Resell product allowing ISPs to resell the ADSL access portion of the service. This was widely welcomed by ISPs as it allows for ‘one-price’ ADSL offerings and opened up another revenue stream.
Utilizing this new offering from Telkom however is littered with obstacles and transferring an existing customer’s ADSL access portion to an ISP has proven to be near impossible.
Another concern raised by service providers is the free modem offer provided by Telkom which does not seem to apply to them. The feedback from a variety of ISPs is that this practice is unfair. According to one of the ISPs, attempts to gain clarity from Telkom on the matter have been fruitless.
Do Broadband
Telkom’s Do Broadband offerings bring true one-price packages to the local telecoms market, something welcomed by many consumers.
These packages, some of which combine telephony offers from Telkom, are seen by many ISPs as possibly uncompetitive. Their ability to bundle a variety of services at a relatively low price puts pressure on ISPs and places margin squeeze on them.
Looking for guidance and assistance
With all these developments, which will have a significant impact on Internet Service Providers, all eyes were on ISPA for guidance and feedback on this issue.
Unfortunately ISPA has been mute. Despite numerous attempts to get feedback from them, the body with a mandate to protect ISPs has not offered comment.
From correspondence received from some smaller ISPs they are concerned that ISPA may not have their best interests at heart and would rather service the needs of their bigger members like Internet Solutions and MWeb.
A second attempt to establish whether ISPA is aware of the concerns of smaller ISPs was again met with a deafening silence from the association.
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