40Mbps VDSL products: ISPs respond

Telkom is set to launch its new 20Mbps and 40Mbps high speed broadband services on 4 March 2013, and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are working hard to ensure their product offerings will be ready for this launch.

Sean Nourse, executive for connectivity services at Internet Solutions, said that they are in the process of building both 20Mbps and 40Mbps uncapped offerings.

“As Internet Solutions is still in product development, wholesale pricing is still to be determined,” said Nourse.

He added that the 20Mbps and 40Mbps uncapped offerings will be ready in early March 2013 when Telkom launches these product sets.

“These products will be available through Internet Solutions’ valued channel partners and VARs, who will be responsible for determining retail costs, based on end-user requirements,” said Nourse.

Afrihost’s Greg Payne said that the new 20Mbps and 40Mbps VDSL services will work immediately with all their capped products.

However, Payne said that they do not have pricing on the 20Mbps and 40Mbps uncapped products or line rentals yet.

Cybersmart CEO Laurie Fialkov said that they have not had a good experience with Telkom’s 20Mbps and 40Mbps trial to date. “Things seem to randomly work,” said Fialkov.

“Also, we don’t have visibility of the contention ratios at the exchange, which means that it is challenging to troubleshoot problems if there are performance problems,” said Fialkov.

Fialkov said that they are going to wait for a few months for the product to mature before aggressively marketing these services.

Web Africa CEO Tim Wyatt-Gunning said that they don’t have detail on VDSL yet, but added that they “fully intend to offer both 20Mbps and 40Mbps as soon as possible”

MWEB ISP CEO Derek Hershaw said that they are busy wrapping up their 20Mbps and 40Mbps pricing, and these details should become available soon.