Paul Jacobson

MTN Fibre: an alternative to Telkom?

I have started seeing signs up for MTN’s new fibre connectivity service called MTN Fibre around Joburg. The service is also called the MTN Business Metro Ethernet and is operated by MTN Business. There isn’t much detail on the site about pricing (actually, nothing that I have seen) so this probably means it is not within reach of small businesses or consumers. The technical info available is pretty interesting. Users can expect bandwidth ranging from 2Mbps to 1Gbps which leaves Telkom’s ADSL standing still.

Bikers promoting fibre

MTN is running a pilot between the Rosebank and Sandton CBDs (including Fricker Road in Illovo) for the time being. I was driving along Rivonia Road yesterday towards Rosebank and saw these bikers cruise past. Clever advertising!

I was chatting to a journalist from ITWeb the other day and she was saying that MTN looks set to become pretty prominent in the local internet access scene. I don’t see Neotel amounting to anything special in the near future given its refusal to enter the market guns blazing. In a sense, I think Neotel was pretty much doomed right out the gate and, like Telkom, is missing a huge opportunity.

I am curious about the USB devices MTN, Vodacom and one or two other service providers have which give mobile users access to their HSDPA services. I took a look at the costs involved and mobile data is still far more expensive than ADSL so it isn’t feasible for me to switch at all. I would like to see mobile data costs drop significantly to make it worthwhile to switch away from Telkom but, for the time being, Telkom still offers the cheapest data service.


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  1. Rich...! avatar
    Rich…!

    (Comments working again, yaay)

    Dude,

    I have a 4mb telkom dsl line – it kicks serious ass! I stream live Canadian TV everynight so I can watch hockey games. Thus I def wouldn't say that this leaves Telkom standing still.

    Later…!

    Reply
  2. Paul avatar
    Paul

    Dude

    I also have a 4MB line but the problem is that it isn't always running at 4MB and there are bandwidth caps to contend with. As I understand the MTN Fibre option the bandwidth starts at 2MB and seems to run as high as 1GB and I don't think there are bandwidth caps in place.

    I could be wrong about that but if I am not and price permitting (the big unknown), this will make Telkom's DSL offering seem like dial up.

    Reply
  3. avatar
    Anonymous

    (Comments working again, yaay)

    Dude,

    I have a 4mb telkom dsl line – it kicks serious ass! I stream live Canadian TV everynight so I can watch hockey games. Thus I def wouldn’t say that this leaves Telkom standing still.

    Later…!

    Reply
  4. Rich...! avatar
    Rich…!

    (Comments working again, yaay)

    Dude,

    I have a 4mb telkom dsl line – it kicks serious ass! I stream live Canadian TV everynight so I can watch hockey games. Thus I def wouldn’t say that this leaves Telkom standing still.

    Later…!

    Reply
  5. Rich...! avatar
    Rich…!

    (Comments working again, yaay)

    Dude,

    I have a 4mb telkom dsl line – it kicks serious ass! I stream live Canadian TV everynight so I can watch hockey games. Thus I def wouldn’t say that this leaves Telkom standing still.

    Later…!

    Reply
  6. Paul avatar
    Paul

    Dude

    I also have a 4MB line but the problem is that it isn’t always running at 4MB and there are bandwidth caps to contend with. As I understand the MTN Fibre option the bandwidth starts at 2MB and seems to run as high as 1GB and I don’t think there are bandwidth caps in place.

    I could be wrong about that but if I am not and price permitting (the big unknown), this will make Telkom’s DSL offering seem like dial up.

    Reply
  7. Paul avatar
    Paul

    Dude

    I also have a 4MB line but the problem is that it isn’t always running at 4MB and there are bandwidth caps to contend with. As I understand the MTN Fibre option the bandwidth starts at 2MB and seems to run as high as 1GB and I don’t think there are bandwidth caps in place.

    I could be wrong about that but if I am not and price permitting (the big unknown), this will make Telkom’s DSL offering seem like dial up.

    Reply
  8. Paul avatar
    Paul

    Dude

    I also have a 4MB line but the problem is that it isn’t always running at 4MB and there are bandwidth caps to contend with. As I understand the MTN Fibre option the bandwidth starts at 2MB and seems to run as high as 1GB and I don’t think there are bandwidth caps in place.

    I could be wrong about that but if I am not and price permitting (the big unknown), this will make Telkom’s DSL offering seem like dial up.

    Reply
  9. Rich...! avatar
    Rich…!

    Oh, okay if it's capless then I'm with you for sure…!

    Reply
  10. avatar
    Anonymous

    Oh, okay if it’s capless then I’m with you for sure…!

    Reply
  11. Rich...! avatar
    Rich…!

    Oh, okay if it’s capless then I’m with you for sure…!

    Reply
  12. Rich...! avatar
    Rich…!

    Oh, okay if it’s capless then I’m with you for sure…!

    Reply
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