Vodacom ADSL here within weeks
Vodacom officially launched its new first tier ISP division – Vodacom Business – last week, and ADSL is one of the new services on the menu from the provider.
The new Vodacom division has a strong focus on broadband access, and by providing its own ADSL service it plans to offer a full compliment of broadband services to its clients.
Vodacom will initially launch a standard SAIX based ADSL service, but it will in future look at leveraging its own backhaul network to provide bandwidth for its ADSL offerings.
Vodacom Business said that their ADSL offering will be launched in April.
Full range of access solutions
ADSL is however only one of the access technologies which will become available from Vodacom Business in the next two months.
The new division will employ a wide range of access technologies to bring services to clients, including the wireless solutions HSDPA, WiMax, Microwave and Satellite and then also fixed line options like ADSL, Leased Line and Fiber.
Vodacom has already started building 11 fiber rings in major South African cities which will be used to offer companies multi-Mbps services – ranging from 10 Mbps to 10 Gbps – over this network.
Vodacom Business said that they identified an initial 22 companies to which they will provide fiber connections in Sandton over which converged services will be delivered.
Vodacom Business plans to launch its leased line and MPLS VPN services in March and ADSL, WiMax, Microwave, and Fiber in Gauteng in April.
International bandwidth
Vodacom Business has already invested in 4 STM-1 (155 Mbps each) international fiber links to London and Washington, with 6 more 155 Mbps links in the pipeline.
The company mentioned that the current price for an STM-1 link from Telkom is around R 12-Million per annum, a cost which is generally passed on to customers. Vodacom is however confident that this cost will come down significantly in the next year or two.
SEACOM has already indicated that its cost for a single STM-1 link on its cable will convert to R 673 per Mbps/month – or R 1 251 780 per annum. This price will however go down to R 267 per Mbps/month when buying an STM-64 service.
Better prices
The competition in the corporate telecoms market is getting fierce – not only between older first tier ISPs like Telkom, Internet Solutions, Verizon Business, MTN Network Solutions and MWEB, but also with the entrance of Neotel and Vodacom Business.
When asked what Vodacom Business’ value proposition will be with its new first tier ISP offerings – apart from quality of service and innovative product offerings – the answer was simple: ‘Unless we compete on price, who will buy it [our services]?’
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