An online poll conducted on the South African MyADSL website, a site dedicated to educating the public about broadband services in South Africa, has concluded that 82% of consumers find the uptake of adsl broadband internet services ”pathetic”.

Since 2003 only 67000 users have been added to the ADSL network, merely a drop in the ocean. In a previous poll where users were asked if the current Telkom line pricing was fair, 98% of users responded ”no”.

A disproportionatly low 0,2% of South Africans have broadband connectivity according to the MyADSL website. “It is unfortunate that Telkom has been allowed to abuse the South African public for so long, what is even more unfortunate is that government owns a large stake in Telkom as they are quite content in collecting revenue from it each year” says Mark Slingsby.

Mark continues to say, ”Telkom are quite happy to make it look like they are reducing prices on the one hand where there is competition, but in the local call market the calls costs just keep escalating because there is no chance of competition without an SNO.”

The current price of ADSL is well beyond that of the average earner in South Africa, compared to other countries where telecommunication costs are also considered high, Telkom ADSL is often 4-5times more expensive.

Telkom has cut its ADSL prices twice this year which has helped to stimulate demand for the adsl broadband internet but the costs are still far higher than in other countries and connections much slower.

Article by: Mark Slingsby - RSAWeb Technical Director