[dropcap]T[/dropcap]elkom’s Openserve has announced sweeping price cuts to its wholesale broadband IP Connect pricing and to its fibre access portfolio as competition in South Africa’s fixed broadband market intensifies.
The price cuts come on top of price reductions that Openserve, Telkom’s wholesale services arm, announced in May and which took effect in June.
“When pricing is adjusted down next month, the organisation’s wholesale clients, which purchase IP Connect capacity, will pay 25% less than they do today,” Openserve said in a statement.
“This latest cut in the cost of IP Connect follows the reductions announced in May this year that aimed to provide affordable fixed broadband to more South Africans.”
Changes on the fibre broadband access front entail both speed increases and price reductions that will be implemented across the portfolio of wholesale offerings.
“Our 2Mbit/s and 8Mbit/s offerings will be upgraded to 4Mbit/s and 10Mbit/s respectively,” said Openserve CEO Alphonzo Samuels. “These migrations will occur free of charge.”
In addition to the upgrades, the wholesale pricing across fibre portfolio will fall by an average of 9%. “We will work closely with the resellers of our broadband products to ensure the benefits of these price reductions filter through to the end user with either price reductions or enhanced services,” said Samuels.
‘Accessible’
“We are cognisant of the positive effect that accessible broadband services can have on the economy of our country. Therefore, as a key infrastructure player, we have made strategic investments in the network to allow us to drive efficiencies and pass those cost benefits on to our clients and their end customers,” he added.
“This will stimulate greater competition in the ICT sector while contributing to an overall lower cost to communicate.”
Openserve has been criticised this year over the price differential between fibre access on its network and some other fibre providers operating in the South African market. — (c) 2017 NewsCentral Media
