Cape Town – Small businesses, hampered by Telkom’s insistence that they use a more expensive digital subscriber line (DSL) service as opposed to cheaper options used by home subscribers, have won a victory after competition commission scrutiny.
“price discrimination”
This came after the Cape Town Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry reported Telkom for engaging in “prohibited price discrimination” by a dominant firm.
The price of broadband is not the only issue, the time it takes to have a DSL line installed in Cape Town, anywhere outside the ‘major’ business areas is also an issue. We have our office in the suburbs, not in the city. Why? Traffic. We’d rather wait on Telkom to install a DSL line in the suburbs than sit in rush-hour traffic every day to get to the CBD. More sleep for us and less carbon emissions from our cars 
If the Internet waits for no man why should all South Africans wait for Telkom to install a basic business utility: a DSL line?
Residential and business differences
The commission told the chamber that Telkom agreed to supply its cheaper service to businesses at the same cost as it charged home subscribers (R245 a month). The cost of the business service has been cut from R800 a month to R362.
While welcoming Telkom’s change of heart, Myburgh was concerned about Telkom’s practice of charging a normal line rental and adding a second and higher rental for the same piece of copper wire when the service was upgraded to broadband.
We’ve got MNP, next stop Neotel. Read more about Cape Small business wins broadband battle
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