Dear Parkview and Greenside East residents and business owners ConnectParkview and how to choose the right Internet Service Provider for your home We are happy to announce that six leading Internet service providers have now agreed to join our initiative and will be providing services on the Parkview Fibre-to-the Home (FTTH) network to be built by Dark Fibre Africa. So far they are: Afrihost Cybersmart SA Digital Villages Vodacom Vox Telecom XDSL Others are likely to come on board soon. In addition, you may have seen that Telkom has announced that it is launching a new wireless service in our area and in Parkhurst (the two areas where FTTH is coming on stream). Their service will also offer very fast broadband. The Chief Operating officer for Telkom, Brian Armstrong, was at Scusi on Friday for the launch of their new service. Telkom joining the fray has given residents even more choice which is excellent. But it may also be confusing for some. Armstrong said that Parkview will be a hothouse for high-speed broadband in South Africa. So how do you choose between all these options? The main advice we can suggest is to take your time examining all the offers and think about: What you want to spend ConnectParkview FTTH packages are likely to start at R500 pm - the same or less as you may be paying for ADSL for a much better service. There will be a wide variety of pricing depending on your needs. Telkom’s offer is R1,399pm. What speed you need The Parkview FTTH network will run up to 100Mbps or even faster wherever you live in the suburb. If you dont need to pay for this speed there will be packages from 10Mbps upwards. Even at 10Mbps, your internet should work much better for watching video for example than on ADSL. How much data you need Parkview FTTH will offer data packages from 10GB up to 300 GB per month and uncapped services will also be available. If you watch a lot of movies online you will need large amounts of data but if you only browse web pages and do email you will be able to save money and take a smaller data package. What service support you want Getting support by phone or email when you need it is important. Some ISPs focus on service and are recognised for being better than their competitors in surveys conducted by mybroadband.co.za and others. We will publish what information is available to help you choose. What period you want to commit to We expect some packages on Parkview FTTH will be ‘pay-as-you-go’ so you dont need to make any long term commitments. Others may be up to two years. Since the trend in prices is downwards, you should consider this when making long term commitments. Telkom is active selling their service in the suburb now. Their offer is as Brian Armstrong put it, a ‘super-premium’ product. It is very fast - we saw it demonstrated on Friday - and with a lot of data (100GB) but is priced accordingly at R1,399 and requires a 3 year contract. Data bundles are priced at around R30 per GB. There will be a lot more choice for you on the FTTH network starting at much lower prices (from R500 per month we expect) and up, to packages which will compete head to head with Telkom with up to 300GB of data. There will also be pre-paid and month to month packages which means you will be able to get online without a long term contract. The ISPs on the FTTH network will be publishing their offers very soon (in the next couple of weeks). The PRA’s advice is to compare all the service choices before you sign any long term contracts. We will publish as much information as we receive from all the service providers including Telkom on the parkview.org.za website and on our facebook page (https://facebook/pages/Parkview-Johannesburg/226259930740426?). We are confident that once you have compared all the deals on offer there will be something that suits you and your pocket. Telkom’s head of retail told us last week that the Telkom offer and pricing will be maintained for at least six months. DFA hope to connect the first households to the Fibre network as soon as January, with the whole suburb connected by April so you have time to make up your mind. Many of the ISPs who have committed to making their services available on the FTTH network will be at a meeting on Tuesday 18th November at 6pm at St Columba’s Church on Lurgan Avenue. So please join us then. Or you can check out our guide to choosing a fast broadband service which you can get from the website or our Facebook page from Wednesday.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 14:23:07 +0000
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