Telkom announced on Thursday that it is to reduce its ADSL prices from March 1 as part of its new broadband initiative unveiled by CEO Sizwe Nxasana.
This includes the launch of HomeDSL 192 for residential customers and the commercial roll-out of the Telkom T-Zone in partnership with Wireless G.
BusinessDSL 512 and HomeDSL 512 will now R699 and R599 respectively. HomeDSL 384 is unchanged at R449 a month.
Nxasana said ADSL had reached a customer base of over 50 000 since August 2002. However, ADSL prices had not increased since then.
“The milestone of 50 000 customers has enabled us to announce these price reductions,” Nxasana said.
Another broadband development is the entry level product — HomeDSL 192 — which has the capability to upload 64 kilobytes per second as well as downloading 192 kilobytes per second. The product, costing R329 per month, is for users who want to have an “always-on” internet connection at a flat rate.
“Over time you’ll probably start to see pricing going down. Once again, it’s important to note economies of scale — the higher the number of people using ADSL will result in lower prices,” Telkom chief sales and marketing officer Nombulelo Moholi said.
“One downside is that certain parts of the country do not have DSL coverage.”
She also noted that the main drivers behind broadband are flat rates, coverage which when supplied to meet consumers’ needs will stimulate the market and growth, pricing and convenience to access the technology. – I-Net Bridge