Telkom to launch ‘free local ADSL bandwidth promotion’
In an email sent to users, TelkomInternet informed subscribers that they are “giving away local only bandwidth for a limited time absolutely FREE!”
Users who purchase any of TelkomInternet’s AllAccess product ranges will get free local bandwidth at no extra charge for the promotional period which starts on 1 February.
During the promotional period TelkomInternet AllAccess 1 GB subscribers will receive 10 Gig free local only bandwidth while 2 GB AllAccess users will receive 20 GB free local bandwidth and 3 GB AllAccess subscribers will get 30 GB of free local usage.
A 1 Gig TelkomInternet AllAccess account costs R 79-00 per month, a 2 GB account costs R 149-00 while a 3 GB account is R 239-00.
TelkomInternet has also announced that their 4 Gig TelkomInternet AllAccess Unshaped service will offer 4 GB unshaped bandwidth and 40 GB of local bandwidth at R 489-00 per month from February.
Telkom said that the promotion will last until customer behaviour patterns are determined, and that this information will then be used to compile cost effective and usable packages.
Soft Capping
Good news for TelkomInternet subscribers is that the company’s ‘collective threshold’ or soft capping policies will still apply.
“The customer basically still has two thresholds. The ‘Service Threshold’ which is the purchased package, 1/2/3/4 GB. When this threshold is exceeded the customer is placed into a ‘Collective Threshold’,” said Telkom’s Group Executive for Corporate Communication, Lulu Letlape.
“The ‘Collective Threshold’ is managed on a monthly basis depending on customer bandwidth usage patterns and can vary from month to month depending on bandwidth demand. When this ‘Collective Threshold’ level is reached the customer is blocked from International access and is moved to ‘Local Bandwidth’.”
Local only bandwidth costs
Telkom has also released the per-GB price for local bandwidth usage after a user exceeds both their international and additional local bandwidth caps.
Telkom was not entirely clear as to whether there will be some leniency regarding local bandwidth limits and charging for usage after these limits were reached.
“Users will never be capped on local bandwidth. However, should they exceed the included promotional allowance of either 10/20/30/40 GB, Telkom reserves the right to charge for any additional usage,” said Letlape.
In the past Telkom often gave users the benefit of slight over usage, but subscribers will have to wait for user feedback in February to ascertain whether it will again be the case.
Local bandwidth will be priced at R 25-55 per GB –higher than the price from some other ISPs. Axxess currently charges R 17-00 per GB for prepaid local ADSL bandwidth while their ‘monthly billing’ price is R 15-00 per GB. Axxess competitor WebAfrica charges R 19-00 per GB.
Competition
This latest promotion from TelkomInternet is good news for many ADSL users who are looking to use their service predominantly for local surfing and email after reaching their cap.
Many ADSL subscribers currently opt for cheaper local-only prepaid accounts to stay connected after being capped, and this latest promotion from TelkomInternet may save these users money.
TelkomInternet is however not the first company to offer users ‘free local bandwidth’.
Internet Solutions (IS) has been offering this service for some time already. They offer all their per-GB ADSL subscribers 30 GB of local usage after reaching their monthly usage allowance.
Openweb, widely seen as one of the cheapest IS reseller ISPs in the market, currently offers an IS 1 GB account with 30 GB free local bandwidth at R 139-00 per month.
A 2 GB ADSL account with 30 GB local usage is priced at R 159-00 while a 3 GB service with 30 GB local bandwidth costs R 209-00.
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