by Hans van de Groenendaal, feature editor, EngineerIT
There has been too much talk and too little action. It is now four months since the Seacom cable was switched on but little in the way of faster or cheaper broadband has hit the market.
Today Screamer Telecommunications, a WiMAX telecoms operator, got the ball rolling with the launch of its ADSL broadband product range, the flagship being the Unlimited ADSL line up, aggressively priced starting with Unlimited 384 kbps for R399 per month. It will be interesting who will follow next.
CEO Gavin Hart commented that it was becoming obvious that the incumbent ADSL broadband providers were not going to decrease prices as they had too much to lose on their existing client base. “If anyone was going to break the deadlock, it had to be a company that had the infrastructure to provide the full range of services, but would not slash its bottom line” said Hart. “Screamer is ideally positioned because we have a substantial technical, administration and support infrastructure.”
The range comprises of Unlimited ADSL and ADSL Data packages, which supply fibre-based international bandwidth and are all available on flexible month-to-month contracts.
There are no caps or thresholds and no time-based throttling. The service is available in a selection of line speeds from unlimited 384 kbps at R399 per month, to unlimited 4 Mbps at R2499 per month.
Screamer is subsidising the broadband offering. “This is achieved by economies of scale with our existing WiMAX business. but more importantly, by the breakthrough that the engineers have made by blending Seacom bandwidth with our two other upstream-broadband suppliers’ fibre based bandwidth. The end result is stable, high performance bandwidth which is redundant and cost effective.”
Screamer’s existing WiMAX clients can also benefit as this blend of bandwidth is also available over its WiMAX network. Potential clients, who are located outside an ADSL service area or those frustrated with an unstable ADSL connection, are able to get a WiMAX connection, provisioned with the same affordably priced broadband. Screamers’ WiMAX network is under their control whereas their ADSL clients will be dependant on a Telkom provisioned connection.
Screamer says it will not over contend its bandwidth, and the service is offered on a “first come, first served” basis.
Contact Screamer Telecoms, Tel 087 940 6800, www.screamer.co.za