SA’s incumbent fixed-line network operator Telkom may be planning to announce uncapped consumer broadband digital subscriber line (DSL) products on Friday, with the offerings being introduced commercially as early as next month, TechCentral has learnt from a source with knowledge of the plan.

Details are sketchy for now, but Telkom has called a media briefing for Friday at the Rage computer game exhibition in Randburg. It will make what it’s calling an “important announcement”. The briefing will be hosted by Steven White, an executive in Telkom’s consumer and retail business.

Telkom has resisted introducing uncapped packages until now, even though many rivals of its Internet service provider, TelkomInternet, now offer unlimited data plans.

MWeb started the market move to uncapped solutions about 18 months ago, when it released the first relatively affordable uncapped DSL packages. The Cape Town-based service provider offers uncapped data-only DSL on 1Mbit/s broadband lines for R299/month and a 4Mbit/s data-only product goes for R539/month.

MWeb’s move has prompted a range of other service providers to follow suit with uncapped offerings of their own. Even the mobile operators have started getting in on the game, with MTN saying earlier this week that it will offer uncapped data on two of its data plans for a period of four months starting on 1 October for customers in 24-month contracts.

A Telkom spokesman declines to comment ahead of tomorrow’s media briefing. — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral