My, how far we have come. To think about a year ago we were still paying through our noses for even the simplest ADSL data bundles. And then finally Mweb stepped up to the plate and made relatively affordable uncapped internet available. While uncapped packages at present do not really cater for power users due to heavily shaped bandwidth during business hours, there are still people who need to use their internet connection for everyday web browsing and email.

Axxess has just announced a R99 uncapped deal called “just Surf”. This is of course for a 384kbps line version. The user is still responsible for getting an ADSL line from Telkom, which these days is becoming the most expensive part of getting an internet connection at home. Pretty sad considering that an ADSL line is not really even a seperate line going to your house, its merely frequencies being isolated in a traditional phone line.

Here is Axxess’s statement:

In a radical and very exciting move to offer the average South African uncapped Internet, Axxess DSL have launched their new uncapped offerings. The new addition to the current uncapped offerings is called the Axxess “just Surf,” Uncapped Internet Account. The name pretty much sums the account up, as it is targeted to the user that merely wants unlimited internet surfing capabilities without having to be concerned about how many gigs they have used, or when they are going to hit their cap. It is truly affordable to anyone who has an ADSL line, at R99 it is cheaper than a case of beer, and lasts for the whole month!

Pricing is as follows:

R99 per month            384Kbps

R149 per month          512Kbps

R249 per month          1024Kbps

Its finally happening – Telkom is starting its rollout of upgrading certain 4Mbps lines to 10Mbps, but it will at first focus on metropolitan areas. While the cost stays the same, users can expect big speed increases from their existing lines – but only users who have 4Mbps line speed activated. No good news to customers with slower ADSL lines.

While this is great news, I expected a bit more from Telkom. True, our infrastructure might not support much faster lines yet, but I at least expect Telkom to increase the speeds of its lower end offerings. At present, its lower end 348kbps and 512kbps lines can hardly be considered “broadband” (click here to see how SA stacks up against the rest of the world in terms of internet speed). Despite Telkom’s misleading advertising, SA is still firmly in the stoneage of internet connectivity, with users paying ridiculous prices for slow internet. At present ADSL clients have a choice of 348kbps, 512 kpbs or 4Mbps lines, with the 4Mbps lines getting upgraded to 10Mbps lines eventually. My opinion is that this should at least be 1Mbps, 2Mbps and then finally the 4-10Mbps offering.

At least in the past year things improved with uncapped internet becoming more affordable, and many people have moved to this method of how the internet is supposed to be used. The whole idea of thinking about how much money this youtube video will cost you in bandwidth is a very antiquated idea by world standards. The problem is now that people who  might have 10Mbps capable lines will need to pay more to their ISP if they want to stick with uncapped.

At present Mweb has made public that they are working towards a 10Mbps uncapped offering, but pricing is still unavailable.

Now if Telkom can just increase the speeds of their lower end ADSL offerings…

As a commenter on IOL said, it seems its “To hell with peasants with slower lines”.

Internet users in South Africa, and MWEB uncapped adsl clients in particular, now have one more reason to be happy. At last South Africa has a Video-on-Demand (VOD) service, thanks to a partnership between MWEB and MultiChoice.

The service is being offered exclusively to DStv Premium subscribers, and they will be able to access it free of charge via both their PVR decoder and MWEB ADSL broadband.

1. The DStv On Demand HD PVR offering, accessible via PVR decoder, will provide 20 hours of the most popular TV series, sporting shows, magazine shows and movies, for up to 7 days after their broadcast on DStv Channels.

2. The DStv On Demand online offering, available exclusively to MWEB ADSL customers (both capped and uncapped), will provide 800 hours of premium content including blockbuster movies, award-winning series, all the best sporting action, kids’ shows and documentaries.

Programmes are chosen for the On Demand service based on monthly consumer surveys. Content will be continually updated after each show appears on DStv channels; international series will be available for 7 days, and local content and movies for 30 days. The pilot episode will always be included.

MultiChoice says of their partnership with MWEB, “DStv Online is committed to delivering the highest possible quality of service to our subscribers. As a result, we request certain guarantees from our ISP partners – the most important of which is uncapped broadband access. MWEB was the first ISP to offer an uncapped ADSL service in South Africa and to meet our quality of service and technical requirements. We are excited to partner with them to offer you unlimited viewing pleasure at no extra bandwidth costs.”

DStv plans to roll out this service to the rest of Africa shortly. They are also investigating the feasibility of launching a Transactional Video on Demand (TVOD) service, which would allow subscribers to have access to the latest movies on a pay-per-view basis, before they are screened on DStv.

Find out more about the DStv On Demand online offering.

Earlier this morning we announced the winner of the uncapped MWEB adsl competition. Congratulations to Monique Theron and we thank her for supporting our competition! (She retweeted our post quite a few times!)

Bandwidth blog hopes you enjoy your two months of uncapped 4MB adsl!

MWEB shook up the local broadband market last week when they announced their uncapped ADSL offering. Competitors like Afrihost and Axxess DSL quickly reacted announcing similar uncapped packages of their own. Finally, the South African broadband market is seeing good competition and giving some affordable choice to consumers.

With all this choice which uncapped offering is the best? Well, there’s only one way to find out – test ‘em!

Bandwidth blog is giving you the opportunity to get your hands on two months of uncapped MWEB bandwidth. All you need to do to enter the competition and stand a chance of winning the uncapped account is tweet the below message and follow @bandwidthblog on Twitter.

RT @bandwidthblog: Win uncapped MWEB ADSL for 2 months! To enter RETWEET this tweet! Winners announced by Friday http://mzan.si/MWaC

(click here for an easy retweet)

We will contact the winners by Friday via Twitter with the ADSL login details. You will need a Telkom ADSL enabled telephone line to take advantage of the uncapped account. Ask your followers to retweet your tweet as this will better your chances of winning the uncapped account. Good luck!

Disclaimer: Bandwidthblog is not affiliated with Mweb for this competition. We received a test uncapped account and decided to give it away.