Telkom has launched an Internet connectivity service in the Western Cape which will soon be extended to Gauteng and from there to the rest of the country. Focused on the consumer market, TelkomInternet will take on the likes of M-Web and Vodacom World Online from a standing start.
Western Cape regional newspapers yesterday carried advertising for the service, which is immediately available in the Cape Town region. A roll-out over the next few months will see urban areas targeted, with Gauteng expected to be online in two months.
Telkom product development executive Dan Winters says there is room for another player in the local market, despite the growing fierce competition. "For the last couple of months our customers have been asking for this service," he says. "We don`t try to guess what our clients want."
The service will present nothing South African consumers haven`t seen before. A flat rate of R79 a month gets you dial-up access and an e-mail address with five aliases. Winters says TelkomInternet will use the SAIX network and will pay its R40 per subscriber like any other customer. "We will have the same priority and price as everyone else," he says.
But by making use of the strong Telkom brand and service infrastructure the fledgling business expects to make a dent in the market. "There are thousands, hundreds of thousands even, of potential new customers out there," Winters says. "And if people want to move to us from someone else we will not stop them."
The differentiating factor will be simplicity and ease of use. The new charge will be added to the normal Telkom bill, which means customers simply need to phone a toll-free number to have a connection activated. Telkom promises that activation will take no more than 24 hours. Continuing the theme, the new customer portal, telkomsa.net, is a bare outline of the content-saturated pages of its competitors.
Winter says the R79 rate will remain fixed for the foreseeable future and package deals including modems are not envisioned unless customers demand it. "We will have no four month deal with a rate at the fifth month [which] we`ll tell you about when you get there," he says in an oblique reference to the marketing strategies of other ISPs. "No crazy gimmicks, just a plain and simple service. Click and go."
Telkom would not reveal its subscription targets or expected profit margin.
Meanwhile Intekom, the three-year-old Telkom-owned ISP, will continue business as usual. When ITWeb spoke to MD Matthew Roesner last week he had still not received official confirmation of the new Telkom business. "There will be no impact to our business," he commented on the possibility of the launch. "People know us and come to us for service."
He adds that differentiated brands in the same stable can compete in the same market.
"Intekom is more focused on business, while TelkomInternet will be looking at residential customers," Winters says. And although he admits that he would like to acquire the Intekom residential clients for TelkomInternet, he says no plans of that kind exist.
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