A recent study by the University of Oxford and the University of Oviedo’s Department of Applied Economics showed that South Africa’s broadband offerings are below the internet ‘applications threshold’. This means that local Internet users are not well equipped to take advantage of the most common web applications available on the Internet.<\/p>\n
While the Oxford Broadband Quality Study focused mainly on speed, one of the biggest problems in the local broadband market is the low usage limits. With typical monthly usage limits of between 500 MB and 5 GB South African businesses and ordinary consumers are not given enough freedom to surf the web, consume multimedia content and use file sharing applications.<\/p>\n
For some ADSL users who are willing to increase their monthly broadband spend there are however many uncapped options available. One of the most popular options, Internet Solutions’ Uncapped Express+ ADSL account, gives users fibre based access with a 10 day rolling threshold. <\/p>\n
This threshold only applies on weekdays from 8am to 8pm which means that subscribers will have full line speed after 8pm on weekdays and the weekend. At R 999.00 for a 384Kbps Uncapped Express+ ADSL account it is a popular choice among high end ADSL users, many of whom download in excess of 700 GB per month using these accounts.<\/p>\n
4 Mbps ADSL users who are willing to pay a premium for a high-end ADSL account may find the latest offering from Openweb appealing. The Durban based ISP has recently launched their ‘4096k All Hours Uncapped ADSL with no limits’ account retailing for R2899. <\/p>\n
According to Openweb MD Keoma Wright average daytime peak speeds are between 1.6 Mbps and 3.2 Mbps while speeds for after hours usage come close to 4 Mbps. Wright points out that P2P and torrents are allowed, but the dynamic IP address may irritate some users keen to host their own web or email services using this connection.<\/p>\n
This new uncapped 4 Mbps offering from Openweb, which runs on the Vodacom Business ADSL backbone, compares favourably on price with other high-end uncapped offerings. At R2899 per month it is only slightly more expensive than a 1 Mbps Uncapped Express+ account (R2699) and more affordable than an uncapped 1 Mbps account from Internet Solutions (R3299). <\/p>\n
“This is the first of many business ADSL packages that OpenWeb will be launching over the next few weeks. Due to our relationship with Vodacom Business we have decided to partner with the company to launch our Business Basket of products, which will see the launch of our true 384k and 512k uncapped packages in the near future,” says Keoma Wright, Founder of OpenWeb.co.za.<\/p>\n