ADSL Prepaid and Telkom line

[jab2]

When I went from dial-up to ADSL I went for Webafrica as the ISP due to the feedback on My Broadband website. I went for the Prepaid package at R70/GB and a Telkom line as WA did not have line rental at that time. I decided on Prepaid as I had no clue what my usages will be. It now currently run at 5GB/Month.

Now a number of years later a still pay R69/GB whereas one can get 1GB on a Home Data package for R59 and R249/5GB which equals to R49.50/GB. Also Download Plus is not available to Prepaid customers it seems.

Could someone please explain to my why it is now so much more expensive to run my account as Prepaid compared to a Home Data account, where some years ago when I joined Webafrica it was actually cheaper for me to go the Prepaid route?

[WAIan]

Hi jab2

You have raised some valid points, I hope that my explanation will clear the air somewhat.

The reason behind the Prepaid price being R69/GB is because that rolls over every month. You can purchase a GB today and it last 2/3 months and then purchase another GB after that. Basically, you are in control of when you want to top up your account. Similar to a cellphone that's on prepaid, if you don't want to purchase airtime this month, you don't have too.

The Data package is a per month fee of R59/GB that doesn't roll over. Once again, similar to a cellphone contract, you will pay less on a package but there is a fee that you have to pay monthly.

You have a Prepaid package at R69/GB = R345/5GB, as that is your usage per month. Why not go for the Home Data at R249/5GB, saving you R96. If you are interested, you can activate Download Plus as well, schedule downloads to run between 12am - 6am, and save even more.

[jab2]

Thanks for the prompt response, Ian.

OK, so when a prepaid customer buy 5GB, he uses all 5GB and WA finance 5GB, but with a 5GB contract WA predict a 5GB client will only use on average 3.6GB which WA has to finance? Now looking at the tariff differences between the Home Data and Home Complete, I can see the line rental in the 1GB price, but I'm at a loss why the 10GB Home Complete (with line include) at R349 can be R100 cheaper than a 10GB Home Data (where I supply the Telkom line) at R449.

I see both Home Data and Home Complete have auto top-up. Would that be at R69/GB or a different price? I think it might be better for me to rather go to a 10GB Home complete package. Would it be possible from my current Prepaid package?

As I said I still deal with Telkom for the line, which include a phone line. If I move to a Home Complete account, I assume the normal phone line rental and usage will stay with Telkom and only the ADSL rental part of the account will move to WA? Are there a certain amount of off-line time involved in moving over and what type of response time can one expect for Telkom, knowing their speed of doing business?

[WAIan]

jab2,

The 10GB Home Complete for R349 is for a 384kbps line, that is why it is cheaper than it seems. If you compare that to the 10GB Home Complete for R599 where the line speed is up to 10Mbps, you will see that there is a significant difference in price from the 10GB Home Data.

There are 2 different types of top-up's, that are:

1. R39/GB - doesn't roll over, expires month end

2. R49/GB - rolls over

If you want to move your ADSL line portion to us, all that takes place is paper work, not physical work, and that happens between us and Telkom. Telkom will charge you for the normal phone line rental and phone costs, where we will be charge you for the ADSL portion. There is no downtime at all during the transfer period and the turnaround time to transfer is between 7 - 14 business days.

Having your line transferred to Web Africa holds benefits, specifically when it comes to line faults. All you need to do it contact us and we can log the fault on your behalf. Urgency levels are higher and turn around times from a fault logged with us than going directly to Telkom are significantly different

[jab2]

Thanks Ian.

I realized the line speed difference after I posted. I on a 384kbps line at the moment and normally does not have a problem with speed. For downloading large files (pdfs, patches) the higher speed might be nice though, but I download normally at night with an download scheduler, whether it is worth the extra money, I have to chew that one a bit.

Thanks again for the prompt replies.

[sly870]

Hey

If I may help, I have a 4mb line, it awesome to download at 430kb/s and upload at 50kb/s, I went to a mate house who has a 384k and I lost my mind on how slow it is Even the 512 is better but that 4mb is diffently worth it, don't go for the 10mb, you will have endless problems, go for the 4mb line

Hope this helps

Cheers!

[WAJeff]

Thanks Ian.

I realized the line speed difference after I posted. I on a 384kbps line at the moment and normally does not have a problem with speed. For downloading large files (pdfs, patches) the higher speed might be nice though, but I download normally at night with an download scheduler, whether it is worth the extra money, I have to chew that one a bit.

Thanks again for the prompt replies.

Thanks for the feedback jab2
If you are already downloading at night, you can also have a look at our Download Plus add-on. We are currently offering this at a 50% discount for the first three months.
With this, you can open up a whole new download world

I also have to agree with sly here, having a faster line does open some new possibilities, not only on a download front but protocols such as streaming becomes a lot faster and effortless.

[sly870]

Trust me Jab, 4mb is much better, don't go straight to 4mb, go to 512 first Then go to 4mb and I promise you will sell your leg to pay the R413

Off topic, Jeff, please reply to my PM

[jab2]

Thanks Jeff.

I have seen the Download Plus add-on. That's actually why I started looking at the price differences of the fix bandwidth packages since it is not available for Prepaid.

I'll just have to watch how much I download. Not to get it down but to read it. I have already enough photographic, aviation and military reading material to last a life time.

Thanks for the info, Sly. I tend to lean towards the 4mb line.

[WAJeff]

You don't really even have to pay R413 for line rental, this purely works out more expensive.
Going for a Complete package is cheaper as it includes line rental + data

@sly: Sure, still following up on a few things on your PM. You'll have a response by tomorrow.

[sly870]

Damn, I wish I could go with WA but my brother pays and he knows of the lag so he sticking with Axxess

Thanks, would like to know how

Hope your questions get answered Jab

[jab2]

OK, been checking for prices on the Home complete with 4mb line but the Home Complete page only list 384kbps and 10Mbps. In fact I do not see any mention of 4mbps lines on the WA product pages.

Also will my current modem/router, a Billion Bipac 3700M 802.11g work with the 4mbps line?

[sly870]

The 10mb one says and I quote:

"Up to 10mbs"

What you can do is phone WA or Telkom and ask them to downgrade the line to 4mb

[WAJeff]

OK, been checking for prices on the Home complete with 4mb line but the Home Complete page only list 384kbps and 10Mbps. In fact I do not see any mention of 4mbps lines on the WA product pages.

Also will my current modem/router, a Billion Bipac 3700M 802.11g work with the 4mbps line?

The 10Mbps is more Telkom Exchange related. 10Mbps lines and 4Mbps lines cost the same as 4Mbps users have recently been upgraded to 10Mbps DSL lines. Line rental for a 4Mbps/10Mbps line is R413/month - included in the price of the DSL portion of your line rental.

The router you list above is more than capable of handling the 4Mbps lines. Let me know if you would like to have a Sales agent contact you tomorrow morning to explain this further