Telkom offers per-second dial-up

By Rodney Weidemann for Telkom

Johannesburg, 05 Oct 2004

Following last week`s announcement of its entry-level ADSL package, Telkom has launched Surf AnyTime, aimed at the small business and residential user.

Telkom says Surf AnyTime offers customers savings of up to 20% on Internet dial-up costs. Aimed at customers surfing the Internet during Standard time, the packages are available in 600, 1 200, 1 800 and 2 400 inclusive minute offerings.

It is available to both ISDN and analogue Internet dial-up users, with no additional installation or set-up charges, and costs range from R204 for 600 minutes to R727 for 2 400 minutes.

Telkom spokesman, Ravin Maharaj, says the release of these various Internet packages is a promotional issue, and is part of the company`s build up towards the festive season.

"Our approach is to encourage and foster the constant re-invention of product and service offerings in order to continue offering innovative go-to-market products and services for the customer, as trends indicate," he says.

"The packages we have launched are a direct response to our customers` needs, particularly within the residential and SME market, and are as a result of listening to our customers and responding to trends in the market.

"During the course of the rest of the year there will be other promotional packages of this nature released by Telkom as we head towards Christmas; it is standard practice for us and is not a reaction to any forthcoming competition in the market."

For the small and medium enterprise market, clients with multiple users connecting to the Internet from different lines will still only need to subscribe to one plan, as all dial-up Internet calls made from any of the lines on one Telkom account will be subtracted from the available inclusive minutes.

Maharaj says there is also no minimum charge per call, as only the actual number of seconds connected to the Internet is subtracted from the available inclusive minutes, making it a pure per second billing calling plan.

However, he says that only local or Sharecall 0860 Internet calls to recognised Internet service providers (ISPs) will be eligible as inclusive minutes, so it will be essential to confirm the ISP POP number, as only calls to these numbers will utilise the inclusive minutes.