Telkom ADSL speed upgrades planned: source

Telkom is planning to increase the speed of their 384kbps ADSL subscribers to 1Mbps, and boost their 1Mbps ADSL speeds to 2Mbps. This is according to a source close to the Telkom’s DSL operations.
MyBroadband has received information that the tentative plan is to upgrade all current DSL384 users to 1Mbps in early June 2012. Three weeks later all current 1Mbps ADSL users will be upgraded to 2Mbps.
It is understood that these upgrade dates are however only loose guidelines at this stage, and that firm dates will only become available at a later stage.
One of the sticky points, the source revealed, is that these upgrades may be limited to ‘upgraded’ exchanges which are served by Metro Ethernet backhaul links. The potential backlash from ADSL subscribers served by other exchanges may however change this plan.
The possible ADSL network congestion which can be created by speed upgrades at exchanges without adequate capacity is a potential stumbling block which may delay the speed upgrades as planned.
These upgrades are however not unexpected. In November 2011 Telkom said that they will offer their broadband customers “consistently more value (speeds and caps) for same price”.
The company also said that they will increase the entry level speed of its broadband services to 2Mbps by 2015, and also boost top level speeds to 40Mbps.
Telkom would not confirm or deny the information, merely saying that it “continuously evaluates its broadband portfolio and the associated access speeds and will continue to do so”.
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