New products, lower prices from Telkom

By Rodney Weidemann for Telkom
Johannesburg, 24 Feb 2005

Telkom has chosen to face up to the liberalisation of the telecoms industry by reducing the cost of its high-speed broadband products, launching an entry-level service and rolling out its T-Zone hotspots.

The monopoly will begin its commercial T-Zone roll-out today, following the signing of an agreement with Wireless G, which will give it global roaming across 14 000 hotspots.

"Our target is the enterprise and business traveller, which is why we will target business parks, convention centres, hotel chains and certain franchises with our T-Zone roll-out," says Pinky Moholi, Telkom`s chief sales and marketing officer.

"Telkom has already signed a deal in this regard with Southern Sun and our first commercial hotspot is up and running at the Holiday Inn Garden Court in Hatfield."

She says the T-Zones will charge R1.50 per minute and the company will also offer a number of free sessions of 30 minutes each to its DSL512 users.

Reduced prices

Telkom also says it will reduce the cost of its HomeDSL512 and BusinessDSL512 offerings.

According to Moholi, HomeDSL512 will be reduced from R680 per month to R599, and users will be offered eight free WiFi sessions at T-Zones, valued at R360 per month.

"BusinessDSL512 will be reduced from R800 per month to R699 per month, and business users will be offered 10 free sessions at T-Zones," she says.

According to the organisation`s CEO, Sizwe Nxasana, Telkom has always tried to focus on what it calls the five Cs: coverage, capacity, convenience, cost-effectiveness and content.

"We cannot have a one size fits all solution, as our customers have different demands. Some clients have extreme capacity requirements, while others are more driven by affordability," he says.

"With this in mind, we have decided to launch a new entry-level broadband product for the lower end of the market, as we are listening to our customers` needs."

He says that up until now, the entry-level product was the company`s HomeDSL384 option, but its latest offering - HomeDSL192 - is aimed at those users who require an always-available connection, but at an affordable price.

HomeDSL192 will be charged at R329 per month, and offers download speeds of 192Kbps and upload speeds of 64Kbps.

"These latest offerings and price reductions have been done within the context of the industry`s liberalisation, and while we have always said that we welcome competition, this shows that Telkom is not going to be a dinosaur and will work hard to retain our customers," says Nxasana.

"When it comes to broadband, price is always a key factor, and as there is more uptake of the offerings I think it is fair to say this will probably not be the last time our prices will drop."