Why SA’s broadband price plummet can shoot your business to an online summit

by Michael Salzwedel

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.

2007/03/14 | permalink | comments (7) | trackbacks (0)

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Recent Comments

Kat on Engaging as a Company

I agree with you. There are some things that should ideally not be discussed by an employee in the public sphere.
Would a communications policy have stopped the said journo from speaking out? He/she must have known a huge risk was being taken? I suppose it's also an incredibly difficult thing to predict. The lack of control can be alarming.
I'm definitely interested in seeing a more specific list, so if you find it do share.
Thank you for your comments :). Here's hoping there's a good coffee shop close to you..
vincent on Engaging as a Company

I guess the mark of a well crafted brand starts at HR policy for new recruits - ensuring that they fit the brand's/corporate's persona. So in that sense yes you could argue that left to their own devices employees would, regardless of an online communications policy, communicate in a style the sponsor would approve of. Not sure if that's always the case but I'm inclined to agree with this generalization.
I think what is also important is that the individual writing within the bounds of a sponsor's site does so in a restricted locale. You can police your own domain if you're a corporate, you can't necessarily control the individuals mouth outside of it. For instance on twitter, personal blogs and forums. Owing to the nature of niche stardom you could argue that the employee comes to represent the brand, more so than that personifies the brand in organic conversation with consumers and would carry significant weight both within corporate sites and externally. Making some individuals very wary to write for their companies at all.
For instance in our not too distant past a prominent journo got the boot for publishing his gripes with his employers and their professional ability - he was promptly fired...He would no doubt have been policed on a company blog but owing to the fact that he chose to represent the company elsewhere he took his brand and the papers brand with him - dragging both through the mud as traipsed on towards epic-failuredom...
So to come back to a point, there is definitely a sense that the policies as listed above are quite ambiguous. Even you yourself suggest that requisite legalese is absent, and I have to assume that such legalese would include a fairly long list of do's and dont's. I have a list somewhere laying about which dictates in a very bland corporate fashion how to represent the brand in public - if I find it I will share it with you.
Perhaps its worthwhile to enforce points like "don't tell secrets" and my own favourite, "for the love of god don't gripe about the boss who you've publicly named online"...
That's my mental-riff for the day, I'm afraid I veered rather uncharitably off course but such is the nature of thought.
Now if only the company I worked for had some decent coffee!!
Kat on Engaging as a Company

Transparency is a key issue - as is allowing people to carve their own niche.
My thinking is that people engage with a personality - an individual personality - in conversation more than with a collective. It's just easier. A company personality surely reflects the people who work there as well as a crafted (constructed?) image that the stakeholders choose to present. While you want engagement it's not the same as speaking to an individual.
There are definite risks involved - but I would lean towards allowing people to carve a niche.
vincent on Engaging as a Company

Couldn't have said it better. Nice post, it is most certainly something corporates are going to struggle with. How much transparency is too much? Who should be allowed to represent a brand and to what extent should the individual be given the opportunity to carve their own niche rather than extol the virtues of the mother - brand?
Who knows. We shall soon see as this year pans out and we find out how the big media players tackle the rise of the cost effective digital media channel.
Kat on Engaging as a Company

It is a tough issue, and I can understand why you've never published. I would encourage you to do so though - you probably have a feeling for when your writing reflects your voice and when it doesn't - and the rewards are worth it.
Thanks for reading Wendy. :)

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Why SA’s broadband price plummet can shoot your business to an online summit

by Michael Salzwedel

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