A newsletter Telkom sent to its customers, decrying uncapped broadband, was “very unfortunate” and “a mistake”, says the company’s MD, Nombulelo “Pinky” Moholi.
The newsletter, which Telkom customers received with their latest invoices, attacks uncapped broadband providers like MWeb without mentioning them by name.
Under the heading “Broadband: put a cap on it!”, the company tells its customers: “The introduction of uncapped broadband was supposed to bring with it pure Internet joy. But it’s become very clear that all that joy is subject to terms and conditions that are hidden in the small print. It’s unfortunate, but that’s what you get when you buy uncapped broadband in SA.”
Moholi says the aim of Telkom’s consumer unit, which produced the newsletter, was to educate customers about the disadvantages of moving to uncapped services.
“The fact that it was perceived as talking down to customers was unfortunate. It was a mistake. The onus is on the communicator not to be misunderstood.”
She continues: “We shouldn’t have done it. My approach is not to talk down to customers. I think the aim was education but the quality controls failed us.”
Moholi says Telkom has no plans — at least not immediately — to introduce uncapped offerings. But she hints strongly that Telkom’s Internet service provider, Telkom Internet, may soon drop its per-gigabyte bandwidth charges. — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral
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