R150 a month

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa), 17 December 2006

This is more or less the amount residents within the eThekwini municipality can expect to fork out for broadband access and domestic voice calls in the next 3-4 years.

“Our key objective is to make sure that Durban’s citizens in three to four years can get internet access and make domestic calls for about R150 a month…” (Jacqui Subban, eThekwini Metro’s Head of Geographic Information and Policy). Hatfield residents in Pretoria are lucky enough to already pay only a “R180 a month for 1GB of data, or R350 a month for 3GB” (End predicted for ‘telecoms rip-off’, Lesley Stones, 2006). This is cheap taking into consideration that no line rental fees are applicable since they’re making use of a wireless network.

Municipal networks aimed at reducing the cost of broadband and telephony services to residents are set to pop up like mushrooms in the next couple of years. Tshwane is the clear leader in this regard with an already operational package of services in Hatfield (as mentioned above). Other metros such as that of Cape Town, Durban (eThekwini) and Johannesburg are also not far behind in their strife to bring you better value for money. Cape Town will shortly award the tender to build its network while the others will issue requests for proposals early in 2007.

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa) welcomes developments in this regard since it will help to bring down the cost of broadband and telephony in South Africa.