Telkom South Africa announced its new Business Broadband offerings during a media function held on 18 October 2011 in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa.
In November 2009, Telkom launched Cybernest, a data centre organisation designed to meet the IT needs of its customers. In September 2011, the company launched Telkom Business Mobile, which incorporates fixed line and mobile services.
According to Steve Lewis, Telkom South Africa Managing Executive for Product Management,Telkom has embarked on a journey to build capacity and capability for business customers.
“Telkom Business Broadband offers high capped (limited data allowed) and uncapped (unlimited data) products targeting SMEs and large enterprises,” said Lewis.
“Telkom Business Broadband completes the trio, which consists of the IT services, mobile services and broadband,” said Lewis.
“We believe that with this trio, we can take the journey towards convergence, where we provide all the capabilities that customers need in one stop shop,” said Lewis.
Broadband Business
“In South Africa and globally, SMEs are important to the economy. There’s tremendous growth in business broadband,” confirms Lewis.
According to Gartner, from 2011 to 2015, there will be about 30% to 50% average bandwidth requirement growth for business enterprises.
“Customers need to see cost saving, they need productivity enhancements and to do their marketing. This means there is a huge drive towards broadband amongst SMEs,” said Lewis.
Key drivers
Lewis believes the move towards unified communications, the drive towards online storage and web hosting, the number of connected devices and offices, and cloud computing are driving the need for faster line speeds and the sudden high Internet usage.
Convergence
“We are seeing a convergence in ICT with the pillars of fixed, mobile, voice and IT,” said Lewis.
“This requires operators and ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to re-think their product roadmap,” said Lewis.
Network Services
Lewis said Telkom has improved its backhaul network, between the ADSL(Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer) and the IP (Internet Protocol) Network.
“We have also introduced ADSL2+ technology over the last few years and we will continue to enhance the network with that, said Lewis.
“Telkom has improved their coverage in terms of ISPs, we’re providing better bandwidth at a lower price,” he said.
“Telkom believes that fixed and mobile needs need to be complimentary and we are consolidating our systems and processes.”
According to research by Analysis Manson 2011, about 84% of mobile broadband customers also have a fixed broadband connection.
“This is confirmed by Frost and Sullivan who also believe that fixed and mobile are required to co-exist.”
3 Phases
Telkom’s broadband roll-out is divided into 3 phases:
The first phase is broadband offer on fixed lines, the second phase is the 3G SIM card in the modem (ADSL complimentary) and the third phase is commercial bundles, where in one bundle you get mobile and fixed services.
“In future we will launch bundles where a customer can use bandwidth out of the same wallet, whether on mobile or fixed,” said Lewis
New Product Offering
“Our focus is on higher caps, uncapped offerings and additional value added features to customers.”
“The bundles will include a new ADLS modem with a 3G backup,” confirms Lewis.
TBiz capped offers
“We’re introducing two ranges of products, the first is the capped bundles, up to 384 kbps (kilobits per second) ADSL service combined with a 8GB cap, R299/month (about US $37.5) all the way to a premium TBiz service which will have a 4/10 Mbps(megabits per second) ADSL connection with a 40 GB (gigabyte) Internet service R1 000/month (about US $125.6).
“This is combined with Value Added Services (VAS) such as e-mail, accounts, web hosting and so on.”
TBiz uncapped offers
“We have a range of bundles going from the basic which includes the 384 kbps ADSL uncapped service, R595/month (about US $74.7), all the way up to the premium which is a 10Mbps uncapped service, R4224/month (about US $530.5).
Acceptable User Policy
Lewis warns that customers who over use the network will be restricted if they continue to do so over a period of time.
“This ensures that the average customer will receive the best service.”
Telkom has also introduced a Business Broadband package builder, where customers can build their own packages, choose their line speed, select capped/uncapped offers and select a VAS package.
Bontle Moeng – ITNewsAfrica Online Editor
If you connect more than one computer on a normal broadband connection – they share the bandwidth. However, on some (not all) business broadbands each connection has its own bandwidth.
"customers who over use the network will be restricted if they continue to do so"
So is it actually uncapped or not?
Who determines "over use" of the network?
For R4224 per month, I would expect to be able to do 10Mbit/s 24/7 if this was my requirement.