ISPs worried about ADSL

South Africa`s community of Internet service providers (ISPs) has reacted mostly negatively to Telkom`s introduction of asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) products, saying the company is using its de facto monopoly to entrench a position in value-added Internet services.

Although the providers welcome ADSL in itself, they say Telkom is acting in an anti-competitive way in bringing it to market.

"Because of the way Telkom did it, the only ISP ready for it and the only one with the opportunity to provide service is TelkomInternet," says Edwin Thompson, co-chairman of the ISP Association. "The development of the product was bundled together to the point where not every ISP in the market can immediately offer services, and that creates an unfair product-to-market time window for it."

The physical provision of ADSL is a regulated service that can only be provided by Telkom, the upcoming second national telephone operator and possibly by Sentech. Providing Internet services over the infrastructure is a service open to any ISP.

Thompson says Telkom did not provide ISPs with the technical detail needed to prepare for the ADSL launch, despite repeated requests. Instead the company built the high-speed access infrastructure in such a way that only its own ISP, or ISPs using its SAIX backbone, can immediately offer service.

One ISP, DataPro, yesterday announced that it would offer ADSL services via SAIX, leasing ports on the network from Telkom and reselling it to consumers.

Telkom says the complaints are over-reactions. "The big ISPs are over the moon with the product and pricing, it is the smaller ones that are complaining," says Steven White, product development executive. "This is not a full country launch, it is a limited commercial trial that will give the industry the chance to understand and absorb the service."

White estimates that it will take up to two weeks for the first ADSL service to be fully installed, by which time large players such as UUNet and Internet Solutions could be up and running. Both companies have expressed intent to provide ADSL Internet, but neither could immediately provide a timeframe. It is likely that both will offer virtual ISP services to smaller players, making it possible for second- and third-tier providers to use them as an alternative to Telkom`s SAIX.

ISPs also have other concerns about ADSL, the same concerns they have with Telkom offering dial-up Internet connections while also being the sole provider of the infrastructure on which it is dependent.

"There should be a specific obligation on Telkom to inform customers that they don`t have to buy their Internet services from Telkom but can do so on the open market," says Thompson. "It is critical, it has to happen."

He is also not impressed by the fact that TelkomInternet ADSL users will be billed via the normal Telkom billing infrastructure, insisting that separate billing should be forced on the company.

In general, however, ISPs say the ADSL technology is a welcome addition to the available Internet portfolio.

Thompson says he will caution customers against switching to it too quickly. "Customers must realise that there is no guarantee, that the bandwidth cannot be guaranteed as much as even a dial-up connection can be," he says. "I would really caution people to watch what it does and to use it on an exploratory basis first before banking their business on it."