ADSL Broadband: Telkom Confirms ADSL Line Speed Upgrades

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa), 11 June 2011

Earlier this year, Telkom announced their plans in terms of broadband for 2011. However, the plans did not include any drastic improvements in terms of price or speed for consumers. Consumers have been disheartened about the high tariffs charged by Telkom for years and the meeting held to discuss plans for 2011 did not give much hope that this would change.

Media reports also revealed that executives were reluctant to reduce tariffs. They are at an advantage as there is no competition for them in the fixed line telecoms industry.

ADSL tariffs in South Africa are higher than those in other country, with lower ADSL line speed than in most other countries. In Kenya and Morocco they offer 20 Mbps speeds with no usage limits. Most developed countries have services with 50 Mbps and higher and some push the 1 Gbps mark. This while Telkom is not expected to increase their fastest ADSL line speed offering of up to 10 Mbps drastically over the next couple of years to come.

They further moved the goal posts by saying that they are looking to penetrate the fixed-line market by 15-20%.

It is suspected that wireless Internet services will overtake ADSL popularity with consumers in terms of subscriber numbers, while Telkom's stranglehold continues.

Yet, the company promised better value for their customers and it seems that they have stuck to their word on that.

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