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Combined ADSL offerings
ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa), 19 April
2007
Combined ADSL offerings are now starting to
emerge in the ISP arena with Cybersmart being one of the first Internet service providers (ISPs) to launch such an
offering. This comes after ‘…Telkom recently launched their ADSL Resell wholesale product which makes it possible
for ISP’s to sell both the access and ISP portion of the service to consumers’ (Combined ADSL offerings start to
see the light, savings in store for consumers, MyADSL, 17 April
2007).
It’s clear that we’re going to see a lot of
savings heading our way if other ISPs follow Cybersmart’s example because ‘…their current pricing suggest
savings of over 30% when compared to similar Telkom offerings’ (Combined ADSL offerings start to see the light,
savings in store for consumers, MyADSL, 17 April 2007).
For instance:
‘Cybersmart offers a combined DSL 384 service, consisting of a 384Kbs/128Kbs DSL Circuit plus 3 GB Cap, at R 339-00
per month. The Telkom price for the same service is R 494-00. Cybersmart also betters Telkom’s price on a
512Kbs/256Kbs DSL Circuit plus 3 GB ISP account by over R 100-00, and competes favourably with the incumbent on
both the 1024Kbs/256Kbs and 4096Kbs/256Kbs DSL Circuit prices’ (Combined ADSL offerings start to see the light,
savings in store for consumers, MyADSL, 17 April 2007).
In other words, it’s clear that Telkom’s ADSL resell wholesale product (mentioned
above) enables ISPs to pass savings onto consumers.
Is Telkom accepting all of this without employing any dirty
tactics?
Not by any stretch of the imagination. Telkom is already deploying tactics that at
best can only serve to water down potential benefits of such a service.
‘This new model gives ISPs the ability to provide customers with a single bill for
their ADSL service, something service providers have been hankering after for a long time. Telkom was however not
about to relinquish their firm grip on the ADSL market, and while many customers may want to move their ADSL access
portion billing to their ISP this does not currently seem to be possible’ (Combined ADSL offerings start to see the
light, savings in store for consumers, MyADSL, 17 April 2007).
In other words, Telkom prefers to play silly little power games.
Founder of Cybersmart, Laurie Fialkov said: “Most of our customers have asked to convert to this single price model in
order to enjoy the further discounts that we are offering. However, in true anti-competitive spirit, Telkom have a
‘business process’ in place which states that in order for an ADSL circuit to be transferred to an ISP, it needs to
be first cancelled by the customer and then a new application must be ordered.” Also, “Of course it is ‘impossible’
to cancel the circuit and then re-activate immediately in the name of the ISP. In fact once a customer cancels the
circuit with Telkom, there is no guarantee that he will be able to get the circuit again as the ‘business process’
states that the next person waiting must be allocated any disabled ports” (Combined ADSL offerings start to see the
light, savings in store for consumers, MyADSL, 17 April 2007).
In other words, Telkom is making it extremely difficult for customers to switch to a
single price model.
Telkom’s dirty tactics do not stop there…
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