Big ADSL plans in 2009
Over the past six years ADSL has shown consistent growth, remaining a very popular broadband choice among consumers. There are currently over 500 000 ADSL subscribers in South Africa, and this figure looks set to rise significantly in 2009.
MWEB CEO Rudi Jansen said that the company anticipated strong growth in the ADSL market, but that this could also be negatively impacted by the slow-down in the world economy. Telkom shared Jansen’s view, saying that ADSL has shown good growth in the past and that they expect that the trend will continue.
Telkom and MWEB are two of the dominant ADSL ISPs, accounting for a large portion of the total ADSL ISP population. Smaller ISPs are however starting to eat into these two giant’s market share.
Matthew Tagg, CEO of WebAfrica which current has 32 000 ADSL subscribers, is confident that demand for ADSL will continue to be strong. “Broadband has moved over from being a luxury item to that of a necessity. However the growth figures may be slowing slightly for new signups (those not yet exposed to the benefits of broadband) and price sensitive consumers will hunt for bargains in a recessive period.”
SEACOM and ADSL
The big telecoms event of 2009 will be the landing of SEACOM, promising to release South Africa from the stranglehold of expensive international bandwidth on the monopolistic SDAT3/SAFE system.
Telkom, which operates SAT3 and is also a SAT3 consortium shareholder, said that the addition of SEACOM would most certainly contribute to healthy competition.
Jansen said that he believed that SEACOM would have an impact, but exactly how this will pan out is still not clear. “What is guaranteed is that the industry will change,” Jansen added.
Tagg adds that there will be positive impact from SEACOM’s landing, that there will be a lag from the time the carriers (tier 1) networks get reduced pricing until this is passed on to the consumer. “How long this period will be, is up to the market,” said Tagg.
Innovative offerings in 2009
With lower international bandwidth prices and many other developments in the local telecoms markets consumers should benefit with innovative ADSL services and lower prices.
“We are planning to replace our entire range of ADSL products this year with improved versions,” said WebAfrica CEO Tagg. He would however not divulge any details, saying that he could not comment on further strategy.
Openweb MD Keoma Wright said that the company would be launching a full range of new products shortly, “including some high-cap packages, and low cost unshaped packages.”
MWEB CEO Jansen said that the company had some exciting new products in the pipeline, but that it was a bit premature to disclose information at this time. “We will be sure to communicate them when we are closer to launching,” said Jansen.
Telkom was more reserved, simply saying that disclosure of potential new offerings “would be commercially sensitive".
ADSL in 2009 – give your views
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