Time for confession

ADSL South Africa (Broadband South Africa), 26 February 2007

It’s time for confession and the ADSL South Africa team stands first in line. While our confession will not go down history as earth-shattering, it might remind our loyal supporters of our noble intentions…

They say the road to hell is paved with good intentions but rest assure that it’s not the case in this instance…

About six months after we started out we sent invitations to various ISPs (Internet Service Providers) offering them advertising space on ADSL South Africa. Advertising space was up for grabs at R30 per month at the time (June 2006). While it’s no crime to offer advertising space we’ve made a BIG MISTAKE by sending these unwanted invitations via our Gmail account. Unwanted because none of the ISPs subscribed nor asked to be on our mailing list.

Google terminated our Gmail account with immediate effect and made it impossible to respond to any queries relating to the invitations sent. Now you know why we wanted to but couldn’t reply to your emails. We had however only ourselves to blame for the state of affairs…

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience caused by the unsolicited emails sent.

Could  anyone ever be that stupid?

Well, we won’t blame anyone for asking this question or that comes to that conclusion.

While it might come as a surprise to some the truth is that we were not glued up at all in regard to the Internet and its inner workings at the time. A total lack of experience driven by good intentions led to the whole fiasco. Point of fact is that we’ve made a mistake and want to come clean.

Although this is the first time we publicly admit our guilt we’ve already tried to rectify the situation by offering free advertising…

Free advertising?

Yes, and the best of all is that it’s still available to any ISP that qualifies. Feel free to visit our advertising page for more details.

We’ve left the best part for last…

"Gmail sign-ups are now open worldwide." "No more waiting for someone to invite you" (Google email opens to all, AFP, 16 February 2007). In other words, anyone can now sign up for a free Gmail email account without having to buy or receive an invitation first. Buy because a lot of people that initially received invitations to open a Gmail account have chosen to sell it on eBay or elsewhere.

We’ve wasted a pretty good chance and trust that you will not make the same mistake.

Why should I get a free Gmail account? Where do I sign up?

Well, we’re sure that if you seek you will find a lot of reasons why you should sign up for a Gmail account.

One reason you should sign up is the fact that a Gmail account can only be used to send SPAM (intentionally/unintentionally) for a very short time. Also, if SPAM does get through and you prefer not to receive further emails from the source, you will be able to effectively block all future efforts from that address.

We can only think of one reason why you shouldn’t sign up… if you’re in the business of SPAMMING of course.

ADSL South Africa(Broadband South Africa) welcomes Google’s decision to open up Gmail to more people, as well as their constant drive to provide us with a better, safer online experience.