Telkom will boost the speed of its broadband digital subscriber line (DSL) service in mid-August, TechCentral can reveal exclusively.

According to Telkom SA MD Nombulelo Moholi, the company has had to delay implementation of the new, higher-speed service because of a network freeze imposed on it as a result of the 2010 soccer World Cup.

“The product is ready,” says Moholi.

She says Telkom will offer a DSL package that provides consumers line speeds of up to 10Mbit/s, but only where the network supports this.

Telkom hasn’t decided yet if it will scrap its existing 4Mbit/s package, or simply migrate these customers to the higher-speed service, Moholi says. It’s possible there will be two high-speed offerings: “up to 4Mbit/s” and “up to 10Mbit/s”.

She says also that no decision has been made on whether line speeds on the existing, slower 384kbit/s and 512kbit/s products will be increased.

Only a “small number of customers” will be able to receive line speeds of up to 10Mbit/s, she adds.

Subscribers that will get the higher speeds will have to be in suburbs and towns where Telkom’s backhaul network has been upgraded using metro Ethernet technology.

As Telkom expands its metro Ethernet network, it will be able to offer 10Mbit/s access to more broadband customers, she says.

Moholi says Telkom has no immediate plans to unveil uncapped bandwidth packages in reaction to recent moves by MWeb and other Internet service providers. The company also has no immediate intention of cutting per-gigabyte bandwidth fees.

She says Telkom has not lost market share as a result of other service providers offering cheaper bandwidth and uncapped products. On uncapped, she says Telkom “can’t promise something we can’t deliver”.

However, Moholi says Telkom is watching developments carefully and will respond if necessary. — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral