Much has been expected of the new international undersea data line that came into operation recently in South Africa. People talked about lower prices and higher bandwidth. I have yet to see any improvement.
My one ISP, Telkom, has actually scrapped their unique policy on capping (which gave you an effective further 50% of bandwith before capping it on a 1 Gig ADSL line) putting me in a worse situation as before the new line was put into use (ok, maybe not related, but the timing is interesting)! Although, I must say, they are still the cheapest in terms of the total package, compared to MWeb, which is my other ISP.
The problem is apparently that Telkom's NATIONAL monopoly hampers the benefit from the international increase in bandwidth (http://tiny.cc/T7nTC).
For those who, like me, hit the cap on a regular basis, there are however a few other options to buy cheaper bandwidth, even staying with your normal Telkom ADSL account. You can go to:
- Gconnect (http://tiny.cc/zGaHr) for a pre-paid R47 a Gig offer, with options for 3G and wireless as well, and lower prices on evenings and weekends,
- Imaginet (http://tiny.cc/UULfw) for a bit more at R49 a Gig,
- Vox (www.vox.co.za/ProductADSL.aspx) at R50 a Gig, which can be combined with a Vox phone that is quite useful for reducing overall call costs,
- Axxess for still a bit more at R59 a Gig (http://tiny.cc/HxIju), and
- Vanilla (http://tiny.cc/VdEtb) who actually works out at R74 for 1 Gig but have good options for going over that limit.
In the past, I usually went for Telkom's R64 a Gig (Neotel is R69 a Gig) offer, because if my line was capped, I could still access Telkom's website for buying some more, and did not have to revert to my Vodacom 3G prepaid card for that purpose. But, local sites can now also be accessed on other ISP's local policy, after the international cap has been reached, so that is less of a problem.
However, I am going to try out Gconnect next month. They have an excellent personal and cheaper service. When I registered today, I got an sms, email, and phone call to welcome me and ask if I had any questions! That is service, a personal one at that, and I will still save some money to boot.
Will keep you updated!
