ISPs line up to Rumba

Johannesburg, 22 Jun 2004

News of troubled Internet service provider (ISP) Rumba`s predicament yesterday resulted in a number of ISPs offering lifelines to Rumba. XSInet won the race for Rumba users.

Charles Odendaal, Rumba marketing manager, says after the news of Rumba`s failed negotiations with another ISP, four or five other ISPs phoned him, offering to provide Rumba with Internet connectivity.

With Rumba taking over the users of its previous connectivity partner yournet, the deal will see XSInet receiving revenue from around 8 000 Rumba/yournet users.

Odendaal says users will still be able to pay R49 a month for an ISDN line and will not pay for the week in which they were disconnected. Users will also receive free use for three weeks to make up for the loss of connectivity, he says. "While our deal with XSInet will see our margins lowered slightly, we are happy with the deal."

David Le Roux, CEO of XSInet, says he heard about Rumba for the first time yesterday and offered Rumba XSINet`s standard deal.

"We already provide connectivity to four other small ISPs, so we were very happy to take Rumba on. The deal is certainly profitable for XSInet and includes support for Rumba users from 8.30am to 10pm, billing, e-mailing and the usual anti-virus and spam protection," he says.

End of yournet?

According to Odendaal, yournet`s failure to renegotiate a deal with Telkom has signalled its end. "Yournet does not exist anymore and we will be moving its users over to Rumba. It is still to be determined whether any of its staff will join Rumba," he says.

However, Odendaal says Pieter Coetzee, MD of yournet, will not join Rumba.

Telkom said last week that yournet`s connectivity was suspended because it had not paid its account and until this was done, connectivity would not be restored.

Coetzee has confirmed that yournet users are being moved over to Rumba although he says he is "not aware" of how many users yournet currently has.

"However, I cannot comment further. We are still looking to find an agreement with Telkom and will be continuing. I am confident we will reach a solution," he says.

When asked how yournet would continue to do business when Telkom has said it could not pay its bill and its users are being transferred to Rumba, Coetzee had no comment.