Storm at Home, the consumer Internet access division of voice and data supplier Storm, has embarked on a strategy that bundles three months' free Internet access with every Microcom 56Kb analogue or ISDN modem sold.
This is seen as a direct challenge to M-Web, which dominates the consumer Internet access market with over 250 000 subscribers. Storm at Home was launched in June last year and has about 4 500 subscribers.
Storm at Home's offering is in direct competition with M-Web's Big Black Box that also bundles in a modem. The Big Black Box was recently revamped, with a new design scheduled to hit the shelves this month.
According to Storm at Home, purchasers of Microcom modems get free Internet access with a choice of any one of its products, including Connect15, which provides customers with Internet access between 6pm and 9am Monday to Friday and all through the weekend, and the all day access product, Connect24.
Each product comes in three variants: standard analogue, ISDN and ISDN 128Kb. Prices range from R55 per month for Connect15 for traditional dialup users, up to R190 per month for Connect24 and an ISDN 128Kb connection. Users do not have to cancel their current Internet service subscription but can run the two services simultaneously to decide which they prefer.
M-Web's revamped Big Black Box offers three connectivity options: 56Kb, ISDN and ADSL with WiFi.
Storm at Home claims to offer the fastest local dialup connection to the Internet, and is willing to give it away to prove it. Storm Compressor software uses compression technology to increase the surfing speeds of dialup connections into the 100Kbps range but with none of the picture quality degradation that is common with other download acceleration products, says the company.
"We are giving away three months' access because it will give people the opportunity to test our service while still running their current dialup account and experience just how much better we are first hand," says Toby Jermyn, Storm at Home marketing manager.
"I am confident that no other consumer ISP will stand up to a comparison with our speed and service."
Jermyn says once the three months' free Internet access has come to an end, customers will be able to choose whether to sign up with Storm at Home and remain on the Connect15 service, or change to Connect24, which offers all day access for R95 per month for traditional dialup and R125 for ISDN users.
Although many PCs come bundled with modems, they are often not of the quality and reliability that users expect, says Storm.
Ronny Russell, Microcom business development manager at Comztek, says modem sales are strong, with approximately 16 000 internal and external modems for dialup access being sold each month.
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