MWEB recently made an unexpected – but very welcome – move towards cheaper internet access for South Africans, when they pulled the wrappers off their new uncapped ADSL offering.
Although broadband prices have dropped in the past, two things make it a little different this time: firstly, this is the first time an ISP has offered significantly reduced prices on uncapped ADSL, and secondly, MWEB is arguably the best-known ISP to the average South African – which could mean that we‘re about to witness a shift in the way ordinary, non-technical people use the web. Or put differently: it‘s only a matter of time before your gran starts downloading torrents.
MWEB‘s new data-only packages are as follows:
384Kbps shaped – R219
512Kbps shaped – R299
4Mbps shaped – R539
384Kbps unshaped – R499
512Kbps unshaped – R699
4Mbps unshaped – R1,999
The company is also offering six all-inclusive packages, where the ADSL line rental cost is included in the price:
384Kbps shaped – R349
512Kbps shaped – R599
4Mbps shaped – R899
384Kbps unshaped – R629
512Kbps unshaped – R999
4Mbps unshaped – R2,359
Over the past week, a few other ISPs have scrambled to follow suit, having apparently been caught somewhat off-guard by MWEB‘s announcement. None of the new packages produced so far differ significantly from MWEB‘s pricing, though.
