Local bandwidth suppliers are steaming up industry with interesting deals and crushing competition, while network providers fall behind in the price war.
Companies like Axxess, WirelessG, DigiChilli and Afrihost are taking the broadband market by storm, many of them showing increasing service innovation.
Firing the latest salvo is Axxess, which has revealed an aggressive reseller programme that could see ordinary South Africans grab a stake of the lucrative broadband market. The company is selling wholesale bandwidth to resellers for R28.50 per GB.
According to the company's Web site, resellers only need to put up enough cash for just under 20GB of bandwidth, or R500's worth, and can from there resell the service. To simplify the process for new industry start-ups, the company says it will also provide resellers with a team to “hold their hand right through the very simple process”.
The resellers will then have access to a control panel, where they can manage their own customers, custom invoicing and 24x7 support. The programme is a bold move on the part of Axxess, which many believe will push the commoditisation of bandwidth locally.
The company will also introduce services with its low-cost account broadband product, including family Internet protection, secure connections, and several other offerings that most companies have yet to offer. The current product costs R59 per GB.
Axxess also plans to release a new product with none of the services attached, but at a lower cost, as yet undisclosed.
Earlier this year, local competitor WirelessG also hacked prices to unprecedented levels. The company released its new prepaid service at 1.4c per MB or R14 per GB.
However, the product does come with conditions, including a minimum purchase of R389, which will give the customer around 28GB of capacity. Customers will also have to use the data within a month, or lose it.
Despite the conditions, WirelessG's proposition is still considerably enticing, since most customers of the network providers, like Telkom, MTN and Vodacom, are still paying large costs for bandwidth.
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