New products, lower prices from Telkom

I didn’t think I’d see this happen so soon! Telkom has announced new broadband products at lower prices. Telkom will be dropping its prices for its ADSL offerings and will introduce a 192kbps ADSL offering at a more reasonable price of R329 per month. The price of its 512kbps HomeDSL offering will drop from R680 per month to R599 per month and users will also receive 5 free sessions at Telkom’s new T-Zone Wi-Fi hotspots.

Although the cost of a broadband connection is still relatively expensive, this is very encouraging indeed!

Update:

The Communications Users Association of South Africa has commented on these developments. As I initially thought, they caution people not to enter in Telkom’s 24 month contracts too quickly. The prices are still high and we can probably expect further price cuts as competition intensifies. Keep your options open.

“We also urge consumers to be cautious of signing any 24-month contracts which include ‘free’ modems, as it is likely that competitors will offer counter products, and at increasingly competitive prices,?? says Webber.

On the face of it, the average businessperson and consumer should not really care which company wins in a competitive environment, just as long as they are able to obtain broadband offerings at internationally competitive rates.

“However, we seriously doubt if the monopoly would be in the least bit interested in reducing its fees for broadband offerings without the presence of new and significant competitors.??

He points out as an example the fact that Telkom’s latest HomeDSL 512 price point is now exactly the same as that of one of its wireless competitors.”

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