A few weeks ago Telkom’s mobile network, 8ta, surprised us with some pretty great prepaid deals. These included the lowest all day cost rate to mobiles in SA, but some pretty great deals like for every 5 SMS’s you send, you get 50 for free. But many of us were waiting to see what they would bring when they announce their contract pricing. Well wait no more.

Contracts range from R90 all the way up to R500. But unlike the prepaid deals, these deals seperate the costs between on-net and calls to other networks. What bothers me are that these contracts are not really clear upfront about what you get, you have to go dig a bit on their site:  

Contract 1 gets 90 minutes to 8ta and landlines, and only 15 minutes to other networks. This also gets 25MB of data. R90 pm

Contract 2 gets 130 minutes to 8ta and landlines, and only 30 minutes to other networks. This also gets 25MB of data. R130 pm

Contract 3 gets 230 minutes to 8ta and landlines, and only 60 minutes to other networks. This also gets 25MB of data. R230 pm

Contract 3s gets 230 minutes (13800 sec) to 8ta and landlines, and 60  minutes (3600 sec) to other networks. This also gets 25MB of data. R230 pm

Contract 4 gets 500 minutes to 8ta and landlines, and 200 minutes to other networks. This also gets 50MB of data. R500 pm

What you should note is that all except one of these contracts have only per minute billing, which I find odd. The phone selection is not bad at all as well – you might want to go take a look at what is available. 8ta is also making the deal a little sweeter for contracts – you can phone one landline number for free for the length of the contract. So if you phone one number a lot, it might make sense to look at a 8ta contract.

But presently the bigger concern is the mobile broadband deals – competition is heating up with Cell C taking the market by storm with their deal.

So how about 8ta’s data deals?

Internet 1 – 650MB for R195 p/m
Internet 2 – 1.5G for R280 p/m
Internet 3 – 3.2G for R500 p/m

At present these deals look quite competitive with Vodacom and MTN, but do not come close to Cell C’s current deal. If you are someone who wants to get a notebook with your data contract however, 8ta’s deals look very good,  but 8ta might want to consider giving more info about the netbooks and notebooks they are supplying with the contracts…

Up to now I have avoided signing up for 3G contracts in South Africa – despite being someone who is constantly online. True, I do add data bundles to my cellphone, but the idea of signing away 2 or 3 years to a 3G contract seems silly. It is after all such a competitive industry, why would I want to subscribe to a fixed cost for the next few years?

However, things have started to change in the last few months. It is as if someone lit a cracker underneath the cellular operators in SA – and for once it is not the Vodacom and MTN who is getting all the attention. Up until now Cell C did not really have any presence when it came to mobile broadband in SA, in fact they did not roll out 3G until recently. Clearly their late entry to into the data market has a few advantages.

Cell C uses a different payment approach – instead of signing a 24 or 36 month contract, you pay a once off fee that gives you a certain amount of data every month, for a year. This suits me perfectly – because it means in a year from now I have the freedom of choosing a different 3G service, and not be locked in. This helps Cell C as well, seeing as they can get early payment and thus pay off their investments in new supporting data infrastructure.

Cell C is currently in some trouble because they called their service “4G” up to now – which is technically speaking not true, despite being significantly faster than any other 3G offering locally. The CEO of Cell C made a public apology recently regarding this, but not without driving home the fact that Cell C is faster than even 4G networks in the US…. My opinion is that if the product works, I dont mind the name…

Currently Cell C has 2 offers using this payment model:

2GB a month for 12 months, using the included 7.2 mbps modem, for R1499.

5GB a month for 12 months, using the included 21.6 mbps modem, for R2999.

You can also buy it without the modem for somewhat less. My advice – get the modem, because there are not a lot of modems available locally which can access the applicable frequencies that Cell C uses.

Compare this to Vodacom’s current deal which charges R945 pm for 5GB, and you immediately see why this is such a good deal. Vodacom also released their Internet Starter Pack using a similar payment model, but it clearly doesn’t cater to the same higher end market as Cell C.

Included in the bundle is a modem – I used the faster 21.6 mbps one, and it’s a pretty simple looking device. Understated in black and dark brown, it looks good. The setup was easy – insert the SIM card included in the box, push out the USB plug using the slider, and plug it into your machine, be it PC or Mac. Both versions of Cell C’s software is included on the stick. Just a tip Cell C – you might want to make it available on your site, I only see the updated Windows drivers there. It tried it on both platforms.

Now Cell C has a much better deal money wise – but what are the trade offs? Up until now the high speed 3G was only available in certain urban centres, but they have clearly made a big effort to improve their data coverage. For example, I live in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape, and in a low lying area that has always had pretty horrific cellular coverage. In fact my Vodacom phone still only gets Edge signal. The Cell C modem gets a full signal and very respectable performance. I also used it in Cape Town and in Bellville, and in all cases I got a full HSPA signal. So lets see how the Cell C network does.

My Speedtest results are as follows:

Local Connections: Cape Town and Johannesburg

International: UK and US

I did these tests with my unshaped 4Mbps ADSL connection as well afterwards, and the speeds were never the same, only reaching 3.5 Mbps maximum of course, but with ever so slightly faster ping times.

The tests were done over the weekend, so your speeds during business hours might differ. I will add them to this post soon. Of course the major concern is whether these speeds will be sustained once more people start using the network – and it is a valid concern. After all, Neotel also had very respectable wireless speeds when they first launched, but quickly that speed disappeared.

So here is what we will do – for the next 12 months I will occasionally post my speed results using the Cell C network, and in a variety of uses. (Update: You can find my first batch Cell C Speedtest results here) Only time will tell whether Cell C can deliver on their promise.

One has to applaud Cell C for the way they are heating up the mobile broadband market – finally some clear competition has arrived after years of very slow price decreases. With all the additional fibre running into SA recently, we have all been promised more affordable internet, and it seems we are inching closer and closer towards that. Cell C is also involved with this fibre rollout with Fibreco. Maybe this means that Cell C will become a dominant player in SA Broadband…

Keep it up Cell C.

Competition is a wonderful thing. Just last week I commented on the lack of competition in the market since 8ta announced their new call and data rates, and finally Vodacom has come out with their guns blazing. But their latest broadband “starter pack” is perhaps rather aimed at Cell C’s offering of either 2GB per 12 months for R1499 once off or the 5GB per 12 month for R2999 (which also gets a faster connection). Both of these include the modems needed.

Vodacom is aiming at the lower end of the market – users will pay only R400 once off, which includes a 3G modem and 100 meg per month for 12 months. While 100 meg might sound like much, this is ideal for very light users of the internet. Users can of course add bundles if the 100 meg runs out. This aimed at either people for whom computing is not a major concern, or people who already have wifi access at home and work, and need something for those times when you are on the road. What I am wondering about as well – does the 100MB included carry over if not used?

What puzzles me as well is that Vodacom can offer this great pricing, yet still asks R88 for 110 MB data bundles? Also – how about more options? 100MB is a bit light in my opinion, and I want to see how Vodacom can compete with Cell C, which is still the best offering for users who want to actually use their computers a bit more on the road.

Source: Mybroadband

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”.

Very interesting infographic from the folks at GigaOM. You might want to glance at the figures for South Africa – as you can see, we are very much behind the rest of the world once it comes to broadband connectivity. Our mobile-only phone access looks impressive – but this is of course because of Telkom’s ridiculous pricing and poor service levels. Or that is my interpretation anyway.

Here’s hoping that EASSY and WACS will set things right.

Local wireless broadband provider, iBurst, has hit back at the broadband war currently being waged by MWEB and other ISPs by introducing a free three-month trial for current iBurst Wireless subscribers.

Starting in April iBurst is to launch free internet access between midnight and 8am to all active iBurst Wireless customers.

The trial is open to both contract and month-to-month subscribers on all iBurst Wireless packages. Subscribers will be able to use the Internet freely between midnight and 8am, with all traffic being zero-rated and therefore not counting towards their monthly bandwidth cap.

Having free Internet access late at night is extremely useful to people synchronizing their online backups, doing large file transfers, for late-night surfing or online gaming.

This service is initially being introduced as a free trial to ensure that iBurst can deliver good customer experience and to test market viability before officially launching it as a value added service, set for July this year.

MWEB recently made an unexpected – but very welcome – move towards cheaper internet access for South Africans, when they pulled the wrappers off their new uncapped ADSL offering.

Although broadband prices have dropped in the past, two things make it a little different this time: firstly, this is the first time an ISP has offered significantly reduced prices on uncapped ADSL, and secondly, MWEB is arguably the best-known ISP to the average South African – which could mean that we’re about to witness a shift in the way ordinary, non-technical people use the web. Or put differently: it’s only a matter of time before your gran starts downloading torrents.

MWEB’s new data-only packages are as follows:

384Kbps shaped – R219
512Kbps shaped – R299
4Mbps shaped – R539
384Kbps unshaped – R499
512Kbps unshaped – R699
4Mbps unshaped – R1,999

The company is also offering six all-inclusive packages, where the ADSL line rental cost is included in the price:

384Kbps shaped – R349
512Kbps shaped – R599
4Mbps shaped – R899
384Kbps unshaped – R629
512Kbps unshaped – R999
4Mbps unshaped – R2,359

Over the past week, a few other ISPs have scrambled to follow suit, having apparently been caught somewhat off-guard by MWEB’s announcement. None of the new packages produced so far differ significantly from MWEB’s pricing, though.

Local Internet service provider, RSAWEB, has announced that, effective immediately, consumers of its broadband offerings will be privy to price cuts of up to 60 percent on select packages! These include the company’s Super, Premium and Ultra DSL packages. This is great news for broadband consumers.

Amidst similar announcements by competitive providers, Rob Gilmour, MD of RSAWEB says “Our message differs in that going forward, we will only offer price cuts that are sustainable. This means that we continue to provide consistent, reliable access and support to our customer.”

Gilmour says, “In addition, RSAWEB’s Hosting and Data Centre products, which all rely heavily on bandwidth usage, will also become more accessible to customers. The move also means that we will be well placed to offer faster access to online spaces to new customers for less, in a consistent and sustainable manner”.

Here are some of the highlights from the newly release pricing structure:

Premium DSL at R49/GB (10GB package)
Super DSL at R56/GB (3GB package)
Ultra DSL, unshaped at R109/GB (10GB package)
Top up per GB at R59/GB (Premium DSL packages)