Bread, Milk and Bandwidth
Many local ADSL subscribers visit their corner Engen convenience store or Pick 'n Pay to purchase bandwidth in the same way they would their weekly groceries.
The low monthly usage limits, typically between 1 GB and 3 GB, which are associated with South Africa’s ADSL service, has resulted in a situation where many South Africans are bandwidth starved.
Despite the increase in ADSL speeds from 512 Kbps to 4 Mbps, monthly usage allowances have seen the inverse happening.
The default monthly usage allowance when ADSL was launched back in 2002 was 3 GB with unlimited local bandwidth after users had reached their cap. This was replaced with hard capping in November 2005, something which was severely criticized by the local ADSL fraternity.
Telkom’s hard capping policy has created a gap for ISPs, like Axxess, OpenWeb and WebAfrica, to provide easy ways to top up bandwidth when capped. Many of these innovative ISPs have created user-friendly, online systems to serve the needs of users.
Online purchases however require either a credit card payment or an electronic deposit, and there are a group of users out there who would prefer to purchase their bandwidth as they do prepaid airtime from the cellular providers.
In came Axxess and Dotco. Both ISPs developed ADSL bandwidth vouchers which can be purchased from locations across the country.
Franco Barbalich from Axxess says that they noticed a big demand from their customers for an easy way of paying with cash for bandwidth at a nationwide level. “That was where the idea came from to supply a prepaid voucher at easy, accessible locations around the country.”
According to Barbalich the demand has surpassed their expectations. “The product has been around for 6 months with Engen and 1 month with Pick n Pay. We continue to see over 100% growth each month on sales as more and more people are becoming aware of the product,” says Barbalich.
Axxess is also planning to add 5 new nationwide distributors to the current Engen and Pick ‘n Pay distribution channels.
While monthly usage limits remain low and ISPs are restrained to reselling ADSL bandwidth per-GB these products are likely to gain in popularity. ISPs like Axxess have not only made the most of a lucrative business opportunity, but they are also making it as easy as possible for people to stay connected.
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