More value coming to ADSL users
ADSL pricing has stayed the same since August 2007 and many consumers feel that it is time for Telkom to add value to their current ADSL service offerings. The good news is that ADSL subscribers may not have to wait for too long to get more bang for their buck.
Erna Korff, Telkom’s executive for retail marketing, says that the company has placed a very strong focus on improving the overall value proposition to its broadband subscribers. While price cuts are not ruled out, Korff said that the focus will be on higher speeds, higher usage limits and other value added products.
In future consumers can also expect more converged services from Telkom, combining the benefits of fixed line and mobile offerings to provide a better value proposition to customers. Initial offerings may involve being billed separately for services, but Korff said that the ultimate goal is to provide subscribers with a basket of bandwidth and voice minutes which can then be used over any connection, including ADSL and HSDPA.
According to Korff, Telkom’s 7.2Mbps HSDPA service has shown "fair growth" since its launch last year. While this growth in itself may not be too encouraging, it is understood that Telkom’s plans with this rollout is not only to provide an alternative to ADSL and compete with MTN and Vodacom, but also to provide additional value to ADSL subscribers by providing a mobility component to their broadband service.
Telkom is also looking at launching a fully-fledged Voice over Broadband service, promising to provide very competitive pricing when compared with other providers. Telkom currently has its own messenger service called TelkomInternet Communicator, but this is not a particularly powerful application when compared to competing services like Skype.
Korff said that apart from adding value to ADSL subscribers in future in the form of higher speeds, higher usage limits and mobility, the company is set on continually improving the service levels associated with its broadband offerings.
Over the last year Telkom says it has significantly improved its helpdesk performance – reducing the average time to answer a call from as high as 30 minutes to 60 seconds – launched new services like GetMo music and provided an online top-up service to ADSL users.
Telkom also recently announced that its average time to install an ADSL service was now 17 days, significantly lower than the ADSL regulation requirements of 30 days. While this is a great improvement, Telkom seems well aware that it is still much higher than the time taken to get a service from its competitors such as Neotel, iBurst, Vodacom or MTN. Telkom said that it was looking to further reduce the average install times to less than 14 days.
All of these enhancements will be needed if Telkom is to meet its target of around 900 000 broadband subscribers in 2011. Telkom has indicated that it is looking to revise this target upwards, something which will force the company to increase its broadband value proposition and ensure that it remains competitive in the market.
Vodacom, MTN, iBurst and Neotel are all battling it out for market share, and while Telkom has the advantage of being the only fixed line broadband provider in South Africa, the advances in wireless technologies means that the wireless providers can compete more aggressively with ADSL.
The changes are expected to be implemeted towards the end of this year.
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