Web Africa has revamped its Business Uncapped offering, that has been designed specifically around the user looking for a business solution structured to prioritise business-critical traffic simply and efficiently, leveraging the added capacity it has built into its network, which increased by 8% in the last week.

The Business Uncapped product offers Uncapped ADSL from R299 per month, and now includes, at no extra cost, a .co.za domain, a web hosting package with unlimited traffic and a R400 Google AdWords voucher. In addition, each Business Uncapped subscriber has access to Expert Support in which service queries are handled by only the most experienced call centre agents.

“South African business owners are becoming a lot more demanding of their service providers, and rightly so. Business is all happening real-time, whether it’s delivering voice over the network or taking part in real-time trading. Making sure your business can guarantee quality connectivity should be the first priority for the serious business owner,” explains Tim Wyatt-Gunning, CEO of Web Africa.

Web Africa business customers’ ADSL usage is prioritised on its network, that aims to provide fast and stable connectivity for business-critical applications.  The transparent Acceptable Usage Policy means business owners get to see exactly how they are consuming bandwidth and manage their usage to ensure optimal speeds at all times.

(more…)

MWEB has dropped its 1Mbps uncapped data-only pricing to R199 per month, and will offer a free upgrade to all data only uncapped 384Kbps customers.

The move makes MWEB’s 1Mbps Uncapped data package the most cost effective uncapped, unthrottled ADSL offering in South Africa. This is in-line with MWEB’s aim to make 1Mbps Uncapped ADSL the new entry level uncapped product in South Africa.

MWEB’s existing 1Mbps Uncapped customers will be given a R100 reduction on their monthly bills – a saving of over 33%. 384Kbps customers, who upgrade their ADSL lines to cater for 1Mbps speeds, will see their connection speed more than double on their new 1Mbps uncapped packages, while paying R20 less per month for their data.

Derek Hershaw, CEO of MWEB ISP, says MWEB has made the call to use the 30 percent cut in Telkom’s IP Connect (IPC) pricing in two ways. The ISP will use part of the savings to continue enhancing its Tier 1 network, thereby benefitting all MWEB ADSL customers. MWEB claims that the balance is being used to make 1Mbps Uncapped ADSL the “best internet deal in South Africa” by dropping the price on that product to just R199 per month.

(more…)

Web Africa has recently made some changes to their home ADSL range which will offer the lowest price per gig in South Africa and remove the Peak and Off-peak differentiator for Home ADSL users.

From the 2nd April all Peak and Off-Peak Gigs will now be referred to as Any-Time gigs which essentially means that they can now be used 24/7. The price per Any-Time gig will now be available for as little as R7.99 for certain packages.

By removing the Peak and Off-Peak distinction, Web Africa customers can score up to 5 times more data to use at any time on their existing Home Connect packages with all existing Home Connect customers having already been switched over to the updated Home ADSL range.

For example, a Web Africa customer who previously had 2 Gigs during Peak time and 8 Gigs Off-Peak for R149pm will now enjoy 10 Any-Time Gigs for the same price.

Web Africa CEO, Tim Wyatt-Gunning explains that “We took the decision to simplify the home offering and bring our customers what they are looking for – fast, reliable connectivity without complicated terms of usage and at the best price possible.”

In addition, Web Africa has dropped the price of their Top-Up Gigs to R39 for automatic rollover Gigs. This means all unused Top-Up data will rollover to the following month and never expire.

To view all the Home ADSL Packages visit Web Africa’s website. 

Disclaimer: Web Africa is a Bandwidth Blog partner.

My Broadband has reported that First National Bank (FNB) has recently announced that its Internet Service Provider, FNB Connect, will from today be increasing its free monthly ADSL data.

Qualifying FNB cheque account customers will now receive up to 5GB of ADSL data on a monthly basis.

The announcement by FNB comes after the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) decided to decrease in the wholesale of IP Connect costs to Internet Service Providers by 30% since the 1st April 2012.

In addition to the free monthly data, FNB Connect registered customers will also receive unmetered data access to any of FNB’s websites including FNB Online, FNB Connect and eBucks. Browsing on social networks like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter will also be unmetered on ADSL between the hours of  7pm – 11pm.

Farren Roper, Head of Products and Markets at FNB Connect has said that “It made sense for us to pass on the benefit of the reduction in the IPC costs directly to our customers. With this offer, as well as our free website browsing offers, we are essentially providing free internet data to thousands of qualifying FNB Customers.”

To redeem the free data, customers are required to register on the FNB Connect website. Qualifying customers will have the data automatically allocated to their accounts.

FNB is also responsible for bringing the new iPad to South Africa.

Following the recent announcement made by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA), Telkom agreed to decrease IP interconnect rates by 30%. Large scale Internet Service Providers MTN and MWEB were quick to react.

Says Edwin Thompson, general manager of Technology and Infrastructure at MTN Business; “As IP Connect is one of the most expensive parts to providing an ADSL service currently, a price reduction here is long overdue. Although we are not sure what all the providers will do with the price cut, a clear benefit for the end user will likely be felt, as this will allow for various Internet providers to either improve the current broadband services offered or, should they choose, pass on the reduction in prices.”

Considering the high cost associated with the fixed-line broadband network in South Africa, many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are currently offering broadband services that are unfortunately restricted. MTN Business believes that through this cut, the market will likely see many providers use this cut as a mechanism to improve broadband solutions offered and therefore the consumer will most likely receive an improved experience from their broadband solutions, perhaps even cheaper rates.

“We welcome this positive percentage cut as it is certainly one that is needed in the market, and will go a long way in achieving more capacity, more accessibility and more cost effectiveness – essentially improving overall broadband solution offerings for the local consumer,” concludes Thompson.

(more…)

As of this morning, Webafrica have launched their ‘Home Uncapped’ ADSL product. With this new service Webafrica are committed to providing timely and consistent access to the delivery of promised internet services so viewers can watch their favourite clips whenever they want.

Webafrica aims to speak to all home consumers in a language that they can understand, are comfortable with and help them get the very best internet experience.

Webafrica have chosen  ZANews Tata and Tutu characters to endorse this new campaign and will therefore be representing themselves in a satirical “political party” (The WA Party) view whereby they will stand by 5 main manifesto points in order to provide a better online experience for all South Africans. These manifesto points are: service delivery, freedom, transparency, value and reliability.

With this campaign, Webafrica’s product differs from any other on the market in that it is one of the fastest on the market, will provide great value at competitive prices and will ensure excellent quality is maintained at all times. In addition, the service provider intends to be very transparent about its usage policy, allowing users to monitor and graphically see how close they are to what’s considered unacceptable.

Here are some of the benenfits offerd by the new service:

• The WA undertakes to effectively deliver and maintain a high quality service and excellent customer support.
• The WA provides a stable network and the fastest internet in South Africa
• Switchover and sign-up processes are super simple and all handled in house by our friendly WA councillors.
• The online and telephonic support is famous throughout the nation.

For more information on Webafrica’s new uncapped home internet service click here.

Disclaimer: Webafrica is a BandwidthBlog partner.

MWEB has decided to introduce more ADSL capped packages primarily for small businesses and home markets, offering subscribers more data but for the same price. The pricing ranges from R99 to R190 per month. The new package offering provides consumers, who are currently in the market for capped internet, with a greater degree of choice when selecting an appropriate ADSL data package.

Chief Executive of MWEB, Rudi Jansen has said that uncapped ADSL is and will remain the Internet service provider’s flagship product. Jansen also sates that MWEB “is very excited to see the Internet landscape moving towards an uncapped environment. However, we understand the market’s made up of users who are adopting the Internet at different rates. MWEB will ensure we have offerings to meet a range of varying Internet needs.”

MWEB will automatically upgrade customers on selected capped products to a higher data allocation

New data capped ADSL packages are as follows:

• 4GB of data will cost R99 per month with a 384kbps line rental for R152 per month
• 8GB of data will cost R145 per month with a 1mpbs line rental for R289 per month
• 10GB of data will cost R190 per month with a 4mpbs line rental for R413 per month

New all inclusive capped ADSL packages are as follows:

• 4GB of data and a 384kbps line rental at cost of R219 per month
• 8GB of data and a 1mpbs line rental at a cost of R389 per month
• 15GB of data and a 4mpbs line rental at a cost of R549 per month

Looks like Web Africa did very well in the latest MyBroadband survey. Based on Value for Money, Ease of Use, Billing, Customer Service, Tech Support and Overall satisfaction, the scores are averaged to find the winner amongst South Africa’s top ADSL ISP’s. The survery base was 3072 users, of which 1811 were ADSL users. Not surprisingly, Telkom came stone last. It scored lowest in every single category.

Web Africa scored consistently in the top three for all the categories, which is an admirable performance. Second and third place overall goes to Openweb and Afrihost. As part of the survey, Mybroadband also found that Web Africa customers are least likely to want to move to another ISP.

Good on Mybroadband to help us find the ISP to go for, and also who to avoid!

Here is the full findings of the survey: (Click the image to enlarge)

Source: Mybroadband

Disclosure: Web Africa is a Bandwidth Blog partner.