Telkom to debut 1Mbps service in June

By Rodney Weidemann for Telkom
Johannesburg, 06 Apr 2005

Following its recent launch of a low-end 192Kbps DSL product, Telkom plans to release a high-end 1Mbps service in June.

Steven White, Telkom`s executive for new product development, says the offering will be aimed at the small to medium business market, although it could also be opened up to the residential market, if there is interest.

"I do believe there is more of a niche market for an offering like this, but obviously if there is enough interest from residential users for this product, we will look at that market too," he says.

"Pricing on the new service will be reasonable and there won`t be a linear price adjustment in comparison to our other offerings.

"We are not at liberty to divulge what the cost of the service will be as of yet, but I do believe that customers will be pleasantly surprised by the price," says White.

The announcement of the new offering comes as Telkom gears up for a section 27 regulatory hearing into how ADSL service should be provided.

The hearings are due to take place at the offices of the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) at Pinmill Farm in Sandton, between 11 and 14 April, and are the result of an official complaint lodged by MyADSL in February last year regarding Telkom`s ADSL service.

According to MyADSL founder, Rudolph Muller, the initial complaints were focused on the high cost of line rental and modem installation, with other issues including those of the bandwidth caps, shaping issues and other limitations on the service.

White says a lot has happened in the industry since the initial complaint was made and there is now a lot of competition in this market, but the hearings are still focused solely on Telkom, so the company`s submission to ICASA will basically be asking "why only us?"

"There is a lot of water under the bridge since the complaint was first made, and I believe we have a much improved service now," he says.

"We are proud of our track record and, even though there have been some hiccups, we have worked hard to keep our service levels up to a very high standard.

"In fact, in a comparative study of our offerings and those of our competitors on the MyADSL Web site, our HomeDSL 384 and HomeDSL 512 services have been placed first and second, so we can`t be doing too much wrong, can we?"