With the latest broadband price cuts from pretty much every animal in the broadband zoo, Internet access in South Africa is set to soar to great heights – and the view will be good.

First off the mark was MTN. Give them R399 each month and they’ll give you 2GB of data usage each month at very brisk HSDPA speeds. Vodacom promptly arrived at the now-in-full-swing party and offers the same package for R10 less, a drop of 61% from their previous rate. These rates are excellent in the international context – in fact, South Africa has one of the cheapest mobile broadband rate structures in the world.

Sentech and iBurst are also in on the action, cutting prices and upping bandwidth, and although their wireless services are convenient, they lack the widespread coverage and portability of MTN and Vodacom’s mobile offerings.

I was pleasantly surprised to hear that even Telkom have also now dropped their wholesale broadband prices, but alas not by much at all. The drop, albeit small, was rather unexpected as they recently lovingly resolved to not drop their broadband prices at all.
Bipolar disorder? Amnesia? Insanity? All of the above? Fixed-line ADSL rates in South Africa remain massively expensive in the international context.

Methinks that the cash cow that is Telkom is beginning to realise that a number of knives are being held dangerously close to its throat – knives such as the mobile broadband players and the impending arrival of fixed-line broadband offerings from Neotel. Things have begun to get really interesting.

For a detailed breakdown of the currently available packages from all the broadband zoo’s animals, have a look at this MyADSL article.

With prices dropping at roughly the same speed as the huge hint which has just been dropped upon Telkom, the number of Internet users in this country is set to climb rapidly. South African cyberspace is about to expand explosively – and there’s no looking back.

Businesses with an online presence can start rubbing their hands together with more vigour in anticipation of traffic to their websites surging like never before. Higher demand for Internet access is finally putting effective downward pressure on the associated costs, and that means that having an effective website for your business is becoming more and more of a Really Good Idea. However, websites need to be strategically formulated and marketed for them to perform to their potential. 

If your business’s products and services can be promoted and sold over the Internet, you should be grinning from ear to ear. The Internet is an excellent place for potential customers to find information about your products and services, because they can browse around in their own time and (hopefully) get a good idea of what it is you’re selling. An online marketing strategy can make a phenomenal difference to your website’s traffic and conversion rates.