Bring the data cost down

Johannesburg, 02 Sept 2009

A price cut in data costs and better quality bandwidth will bring almost two-thirds of big businesses to the provider's door.

According to research conducted by World Wide Worx, cutting data rates by between 10% and 40% would make 70% of big business buy more bandwidth.

World Wide Worx MD Arthur Goldstuck says there is a gap between the need for implementation of a product and provision for it within the budget of most of the companies he researched.

He says that almost all the companies that participated are hoping to implement more technologies that make better use of cloud and Internet applications; however, the cost of bandwidth locally is too hefty.

But his research found 75% of companies would increase usage in cloud-based applications if prices decreased.

Quality and maintenance of a product were also key factors in buying decisions for company decision-makers, suggesting “corporate SA is as ready for better quality bandwidth as consumer SA,” says Goldstuck.

The research also found the services most used by large companies included Internet-heavy technologies, like virtual private networks and converged communications. He says these technologies are being used more, because they are not reliant on latency and performance.

While other strategic services, such as cloud computing and outsource storage, are being used less, because they rely on more stable Internet access. Goldstuck says the research found a direct link between the size of a company and the use of these services.

World Wide Worx spoke to 200 large company decision-makers from the beginning of last month. The study was commissioned by MTN Business prior to the launch of its new corporate client data package, which offers corporate clients 50% additional bandwidth at no extra cost.