Telkom is strongly rumoured to be planning to up line speeds on its asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) broadband network as competition from the mobile operators and other telecommunications providers intensifies.
Technical sources at Telkom say it is planning to bump up its 4Mbit/s ADSL service to 8Mbit/s in March 2010. It seems likely that Telkom’s 384Kbit/s and 512Kbit/s products will also enjoy a speed increase, though this could not be confirmed.
Telkom is cagey about its plans. In response to a written query from TechCentral, the company’s managing executive for network infrastructure provisioning, Marius Mostert, says only that Telkom is “currently investigating improvements to its ADSL speeds” and that “this includes the possibility of upgrading our 4Mbit/s offering to an 8Mbit/s service”.
It’s not clear whether the new service, if it is introduced, will make use of the traditional ADSL infrastructure or the newer ADSL2+. Traditional ADSL offers download speeds of up to 8Mbit/s whereas ADSL2+ is theoretically capable of delivering speeds of up to 24Mbit/s. Telkom has actively been deploying ADSL2+ equipment in its access network.
Mostert says any upgrade will form part of Telkom’s “ongoing drive to improve its product and service offerings”.
Telkom last bumped up its ADSL speeds in 2006, when it increased its top-end offering from 1Mbit/s to 4Mbit/s. — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral
- Image credit: Giacomo