The man who launched affordable uncapped broadband in South Africa

Former Mweb chief executive Rudi Jansen was an Internet innovator who transformed South Africa’s broadband landscape by launching the country’s first affordable uncapped broadband service and championing free and open peering.

On 22 March 2010, Mweb stunned the South African broadband market by introducing uncapped ADSL from R219 per month.

At that time, Telkom’s ADSL service dominated the market, and Internet service providers (ISPs) sold data by the gigabyte (GB), with prices around R70 to R80 per GB.

The high cost of data stifled innovation and hindered the growth of streaming, e-commerce, and other online industries in the country.

For example, downloading an iPhone update could consume half of a user’s monthly data cap, and performing Microsoft Windows or Office updates incurred significant costs.

While Netflix was experiencing incredible growth in the United States, capped Internet services in South Africa hampered the adoption of similar platforms.

“Metered Internet has kept growth back, and the writing was on the wall,” Jansen said at the time.

Yet the high cost of international bandwidth made it seem inconceivable that an ISP could offer uncapped broadband.

However, Jansen and his team at Mweb realized there was a better solution than simply reselling Telkom’s products.

They built their own national and international network and partnered with Seacom to secure affordable international bandwidth.

Domestically, there was another challenge. Major telecommunications operators were protective of their networks and reluctant to peer with Mweb.

“Nobody wanted to open up as they thought their own growth would stop, and they charged a fortune for transit between networks,” explained Jansen.

To circumvent this, Mweb routed its traffic via Europe, utilizing free peering links there. Locally, Janser peered for free with whoever he could.

“The plan was that the other networks would realise that it cost them more to accept our international traffic than simply peering locally and then start peering locally,” Jansen said.

Mweb’s strategy initially upset the larger operators, who began losing revenue as smaller players started peering with each other.

“The more smaller players peered with each other, the better the entire South African Internet experience got,” he noted.

Over time, even the bigger players came around, leading to a more open peering regime in the country.

This shift in peering practices was a significant win for the industry, with Mweb being used as a case study internationally on how to change the peering landscape.

The combination of these factors enabled Mweb to launch South Africa’s first affordable uncapped ADSL broadband service.

The move was so revolutionary that many industry players and competing ISPs thought Mweb had gone off the rails.

They believed uncapped ADSL was unsustainable and would implode in the long run, with some dismissing it as a mere marketing stunt.

However, the product enjoyed tremendous success, and Mweb experienced exceptional growth thanks to the risks it took to launch the product.

Other ISPs were compelled to follow suit, launching their own uncapped broadband products.

Jansen’s efforts fundamentally changed how people used the Internet in South Africa, making gaming more enjoyable and online streaming a real possibility.

Facebook usage increased, content consumption grew, and people began shopping online more frequently.

“Anyone who thinks you can go back to a capped world is completely misguided. You can never go back. You can never offer an inferior service,” Jansen said.

Rudi Jansen passed away in September 2021. He left behind a legacy as an Internet pioneer who helped democratise Internet access and unleash South Africa’s online potential.