After last weeks column I received a large number of emails and also some phone calls. I must say that I can see that the cost of bandwidth in South Africa is a serious issue for many users.
From the emails I received it was clear that most people are very excited about the new competitive prices becoming available to the public, I also realize how unhappy people are with the required ADSL line rental fee we all have to pay towards Telkom.
At the moment you are required to not only pay a high price for the ADSL line rental but you are also required to pay extra for a telephone line. If you are like me you never use that line. You have no choice in the matter. This bundling of services should not be allowed and I do hope that this will change soon.
As ADSL prices continue to fall I also hope that the ADSL line rental fee will come down. I heard today that Telkom will possibly upgrade the speed of all their ADSL lines soon, but I am sure that is just a way of keeping prices high. If they improve the service there is no need to lower the price, you now pay more because the service is better.
I think the speeds will go up each time it is time for a decrease in price. That way profits will stay the same.
It probably sounds as if I am just ranting today, but I do believe that access to the Internet should be a basic right, and this should be an affordable service for every South African.
Now that PayPal is available in South Africa and we are able to receive money online from a global market we can change the lives of many communities. (The next step would be to make it possible to receive money with any bank not just FNB. )