Bye-bye dial-up?

Johannesburg, 28 Nov 2003

Dial-up Internet access could soon be a thing of the past, according to Sentech, which yesterday announced the launch of its fixed-cost wireless broadband Internet service.

Sentech's COO, Gladwin Marumo, says today marks the start of the product's beta testing with selected customers, which will be followed by the commercial launch at the end of January 2004.

"We will be launching the service in Gauteng at the end of January, extending it to KwaZulu-Natal in February, the Western Cape in March and then in April we will focus on Bloemfontein as well as the more outlying areas," he says.

The portable service will be known as MyWireless and is available in three packages. MyWireless 128 offers a shared 128Kbps connection and is aimed at residential users, while the 256 and 512 options are aimed at the small office, home office and small to medium enterprise environments.

"As far as we are concerned, the cord is history. There is no longer a need for dial-up connections, as we are offering big pipes, big downloads and no bandwidth caps - users will be able to send and receive as much data as they like without paying any additional charges," says Marumo.

"Gone are the days of a telco dictating to the users what their download speeds should be, now the choice is yours."

He says that when the commercial service launches in January, Sentech will have 16 hot sites that will cover all the major business areas in Gauteng.

The broadband transmitters have a 3km to 5km radius in metropolitan areas and up to 20km from the base stations, in certain topologies.

"This service is different from WiFi (wireless fidelity) as it is more secure and more rigorous, as well as covering a wider area than WiFi can. They are, however, complementary technologies and a broadband wireless connection can terminate in a WiFi hotspot."

According to Sentech, the initial package - a 24-month contract - will be a bundled service comprising a Sentech modem or PCMCIA wireless card, a connection and unlimited Internet access for a fixed monthly fee.

The fees are R649 per month for MyWireless 128, R849 for the 256 connection and R1 449 for the 512 option. The company will also charge a once-off activation fee of R500.

"We are quite happy to coexist with Telkom, although we plan on being an extremely fierce competitor at the same time," states Marumo.