VDSL pricing revealed

Telkom Internet and MWeb have released their pricing for their very-high-bit-rate digital subscriber line (VDSL) offering, which becomes available to consumers on Monday.

This follows an announcement by Telkom this week that its VDSL-based broadband products, offering speeds of up to 20Mbps and 40Mbps, were ready for launch, following a four-month pilot in selected areas.

These high-speed products will, for now, be unveiled in selected areas and the initial rollout will take place at street distribution cabinet (SDC) sites that underwent network upgrades in Benmore Gardens, Fourways and Waterkloof, in Gauteng; Durban North, in KwaZulu-Natal; and Durbanville, in the Western Cape.

The DSL Checker (www.telkom.co.za/reallyfast) can be used as of 4 March to verify if customers are within the footprint for the new products.

Telkom says the new offering comes on the back of the recently launched soft-capping, and differentiation between business and residential customers. The consumer pricing ranges from R727 per month for 30GB on up to 20Mbps, to R3 499 for uncapped Internet with speeds of up to 40Mbps.

SoftCap discount bundles:

SoftCap discount bundles:

Uncapped discount bundles:

The following home products include voice minutes:

SA's second-largest Internet service provider, MWeb, has unveiled six new connectivity products of its own, offering the company's customers Telkom's VDSL technology.

MWeb says the new products, designed to cater for the different connectivity requirements of large and small businesses, as well as consumers, deliver "exceptionally high" speed connections.

"VDSL is like ADSL on steroids - only faster. It's up to four times faster than the fastest ADSL currently available," says MWeb CEO Derek Hershaw.

MWeb's new VDSL offerings include:

* MWeb Business Uncapped VDSL - 20Mbps, and MWeb Business Uncapped VDSL ? 40Mbps. These are unshaped and unthrottled services accompanied by 24/7 support and static IP addresses. These products also come with several value-added services such as a 2GB mailbox, 300MB WiFi and a 5GB Store-It account. A business-class VDSL router is included in the price of R5 799 and R10 699, respectively, per month.

* MWeb Business Uncapped VDSL Lite - 20Mbps, and MWeb Business Uncapped VDSL Lite - 40Mbps. These shaped for business products are suited to businesses that demand the best possible connectivity speeds for typical business applications such as browsing, e-mail and VOIP/voice. While this product does not come with any static IP addresses, it does include 24x7 support, a 2GB mailbox, 300MB WiFi, 5GB Store-It account and a business class router in the monthly charges of R3 799 and R5 799, respectively.

* MWeb VDSL - 20Mbps and MWeb VDSL - 40Mbps are designed to meet the needs of consumers and small office-home office users who require a high-speed broadband connection with no restrictions on data usage. These shaped and uncapped products include a 2GB mailbox, 300MB WiFi, 5GB Store-It and a fax mail account. The MWeb uncapped VDSL - 20Mbps product is available at R2 299 and the MWeb VDSL - 40Mbps product at R3 999.

Hershaw cautions that VDSL is currently available in only a handful of areas in Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

"Whether a potential VDSL subscriber is able to get the service will depend on how far their premises are from a Telkom SDC, and whether that SDC has been upgraded to a multi-service access node."

Hershaw says MWeb is following the roll-out of MSANs closely. "As soon as the Telkom infrastructure upgrade is complete, we will make our VDSL products available to our customers in that area."