Telkom talks up 10Mbit/s DSL, triple-play deal

Added by Editor on 21 June 2010.
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Telkom’s fixed-line broadband network is getting faster, but so far only for some consumers.

The JSE-listed telecommunications company announced on Wednesday that some users of its digital subscriber line (DSL) broadband service would enjoy an increase in line speeds to up to 10Mbit/s, from the fastest 4Mbit/s now.

But Telkom hasn’t spelt out where the service will be offered and when. Until now, the company’s DSL products have been available in three varieties: 384kbit, 512kbit/s and 4Mbit/s.

“Speeds of up to 10Mbit/s, up from 4Mbit/s available in September 2009, have been installed in selected exchanges,” Telkom says in notes accompanying its annual financial results, published on Monday.

Selected gated communities will also “receive the full benefit of this enhanced, 10Mbit/s DSL service”.

At the same time, Telkom says it is making “every effort to increase the bandwidth available to our customers and are currently negotiating a triple-play partnership in order to provide our customers with enhanced content”.

But subscribers to Telkom’s Internet service provider, Telkom Internet, will be disappointed that the company still hasn’t reacted to aggressive price moves in the DSL market in recent months. In the past year, per-gigabyte prices have fallen dramatically, and some service providers have introduced uncapped offerings at relatively affordable prices.

Telkom says it is “aggressively promoting its broadband packages through focusing our efforts on particular customer groupings and up-selling higher-end broadband packages which offer substantial value”.

It says it has also put in “maximum effort to promote entry-level DSL packages with competitive pricing”.  — Staff reporter, TechCentral

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  • The_Librarian

    As I have said before, there is a place for capped accounts. But a capped account with 3Gb of bandwidth is so yesterday. Telkom should start looking at offering 30Gb capped accounts at a minimum, and offer up to 200Gb of capped packages. This will benefit the consumer the most.

    As for local bandwidth, I don’t use it and have no need for it, all my work is on international sites. Sorry to say that Telkom, but local-only after cap DOES NOT WORK FOR ME.

  • alan

    Why would I want triple-play from Telkom? They have already failed at being a media company; so why are they even bothering trying to offer something that have proved to be no good at?

  • http://www.zacarshow.co.za C

    How about them upload speeds, folks?
    10Mbit down is all good and well, until “uncapped” ISPs start revising and strongly enforcing their AUPs, but a 1Mbit upload would be useful, too.

  • http://janneman27.wordpress.com Janneman

    @The_Librarian

    If Telkom could start building massive server farms in the country which are available for popular international sites, we could see an UP in data throughput, general available international bandwidth and utilisation of “local” bandwidth caps.

    The problem is capital investment and maintenance expenditure…massive server farms are still too expensive for Telkom…

  • http://www.shoutsa.co.za McT

    Since AfriHost’s price cut in 2009, I have move my data usage away from Telkom. It’s a ridiculous proposition to expect us to pay R 79 / Gb when it is available at less than a third through most other ISP’s.

    Telkom’s market dominance has blinded them to real opportunities. Can they not see the lost business and opportunities of the many data hungry in South Africa?

  • Jacques

    Wat i cant understand is the fact that telkom is busy testing these 10mb lines in pretoria and capetown areas. This conserns me cause i stay in pretoria and i cant even get a 4mb line cause my area only support 512…. SAD :(

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