Telkom Delivers - At least for now

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa), 5 June 2006

Telkom might not have many surprises up its sleeve but at least ADSL users have something to smile about. Telkom ADSL users will see a price reduction in ADSL rentals of up to 32% and an overall price cut of 2.1% if Telkom get their way with Icasa. Changes in price will come into effect on the 1st of August this year if ICASA approves. 

One can think that Telkom could offer more when taking into consideration the growth in ADSL over the last year of an astonishing 146.2%. In simple terms that means Telkom has double the ADSL users they had last year this time. The 30.3% increase in operating profit to R14.677 million is another reason why Telkom could come up with something better. However we tend to agree with JStrike on the MyAdsl forum “that the techniquesare the main stumbling block at the moment. If they can roll out adsl faster and meet demand, they would see that reducing prices even further would stimulate demand by an even bigger factor”. It must be said however that we are far from the ideal position when compared to offerings from other Telecommunication giants in the rest of the world. We can only hope they get their act together pretty soon.

It will be interesting to see what the new SNO offers in terms of pricing and service deliverance. We will have to wait and see. The level of service should at least not come down with prices. We’re sure most ADSL users don’t want to see this scenario. We all want to see prices come down with an increase in service delivery. The new national operator should take note. If it can’t deliver on expectations it will be branded as just another farce. Failure will only help to create a new battle cry where ADSL users will take up the flag against another enemy of efficiency for one. ADSL users will not be fooled by silly ‘monopolistic games’.

Telkom has fired the first shot in its battle with the new SNO with lower prices. Winning the hearts of ADSL users in South Africa will be the striking difference between victory and defeat. They both have to deliver or face the ADSL user onslaught.