In the wake of recent Telkom IP Connect (IPC) price reductions, MWEB has cut the price of some of their uncapped ADSL data accounts by up to 33%.

MWEB has cut the price of their 1Mbps uncapped ADSL data account by R100 from R299 to R199 per month, where as the business uncapped 1Mbps service has been reduced from R986 to R799 per month.

MWEB has also reduced the pricing of they 384kpbs uncapped data accounts from R219 to R199 bringing it in line with the new 1Mbps service. The reason for this is because MWEB would like to make 1Mbps the new entry level uncapped product in South Africa. MWEB has further stated that they will offer free upgrades for current 384kbps customers to 1Mbps free of charge.

The new MWEB uncapped ADSL pricing is available with immediate effect to all new customers, and existing customers will be automatically upgraded from 1 June 2012.

MWEB launched their Free The Web initiative last year just before they stunned the market with the introduction of cheap affordable uncapped Internet, now the company is using their initiative to get to the next step in affordable Internet in South Africa.

MWEB’s Free the Web (FTW) initiative has taken up the cause of Naked ADSL, calling on South Africans to take a stand and add their vote to remove mandatory landline billing with ADSL lines. Currently if you request a ADSL line from Telkom you are required to take out a land line as well, this adds an additional fee to your account even if you are not interested in making phone calls.

“Since a landline is not required for ADSL connectivity, Naked ADSL calls for Telkom to unbundle landlines from ADSL lines, ensuring that ADSL customers who don’t want a telephone line don’t end up having to pay for one unnecessarily,” says Derek Hershaw, CEO of MWEB ISP.

Hershaw further added “The FTW initiative has therefore taken up the call for Naked ADSL. South Africans can visit theFreeTheWebSA facebook page, watch a quick video which explains the concept and campaign, and show their support for Naked ADSL via an Appeal Mosaic”

You can pledge your support for Naked ADSL by joining the Facebook Page and signing the petition.

It’s no secret that when it comes to innovation and setting standards in the local broadband market, MWEB is at the forefront. MWEB, the company that revolutionised uncapped Internet in South Africa, has now gone and done another first in South Africa by upgrading all 512k customers to 1Mbps.

This news comes after rumours have been doing the rounds that Telkom will be doing away with their 512k ADSL lines and upgrading all customers to 1Mbps, however no promises have been made by Telkom as to when the switchover will happen.

MWEB has taken the lead, and from today the 512k option will be obsolete from their product line. MWEB will be upgrading all current 512k customers to 1Mbps speeds at no extra cost and the new 1Mbps uncapped products will also be priced the same as the previous 512k products.

Users that are already on a 1Mbps data only option will get a price reduction and from now on only pay R299pm, while the new 1Mbps All Inclusive package will be priced at R599pm.

MWEB the company that stunned the local ADSL market exactly a year ago by offering South Africans cheap uncapped ADSL is at it again and this time they are taking on expensive hosting prices.

Hosting your site locally could set you back quite a few bucks, and thus many people running sites has opted to rather host internationally than locally, but MWEB is again changing the landscape of the local Internet space.

MWEB has just announced their new uncapped local hosting offering, bringing local hosting prices in line with that of international ones. The new MWEB Uncapped Hosting will allow users to host their sites locally without any bandwidth or storage restrictions from as little as R19 per month.

The new local uncapped hosting offering is aimed at small businesses and individuals and includes a free “co.za” domain which will automatically renew every year, plus a free email address with up to 5 aliases and will operate on a shared hosting environment.

It has to be noted that although the service is uncapped there is a acceptable usage policy in place to prevent users from setting up media farms where they can download movies and share it amongst others.

Good news for MWEB ADSL subscribers is that they may make use of the Uncapped Hosting package free of charge for the first 12 months, after which the R19/month fee may apply, this excludes 1GB customers.

I for one am happy to see this change in the local hosting space as it was long overdue, now its just a matter of time before other hosting providers like WebAfrica, Afrihost and RSAWEB respond to this and we will see the whole ADSL price war all over again but this time for hosting.

MWEB the company that revolutionized uncapped Internet for South Africans by making it affordable has kept everybody in suspense over their latest announcement. Word is now out and MWEB in conjunction with DSTV will now offer subscribers free Video On Demand.

What is video on demand you ask? Well to put it simple you can now watch your latest series, movies, sports, etc when you want to.  No need to set your PVR anymore simply get your favourite program from the DSTV video on demand service.

As a MWEB customer, you now have access to so much more than just superfast Internet. All MWEB ADSL Customers with a DStv Premium Subscription have exclusive access to DStv ON DEMAND and will be able to download or stream their favourite shows to the computer. DStv ON DEMAND is available to both Capped and Uncapped ADSL Customers but given the amounts of data consumed MWEB recommends their Uncapped ADSL to enjoy the benefits of DStv ON DEMAND without ever having to worry about your data cap.

To be eligible to enjoy the DSTV On Demand service you will need to be a MWEB ADSL customer and have a DSTV premium subscription. Also a 4Mbps line is recommended for a optimal viewing experience.

For more information regarding the MWEB DSTV Video On Demand service check out the MWEB website.

MWEB the company that brought cheap uncapped Internet to South Africans in an effort to free the web is at it again. The company has told followers on their Free The Web Facebook page that they will be announcing some exciting news today with regards to better Internet in South Africa.

Social Networks and Technology forums are a buzz with speculation as to what MWEB might announce later today.

Some users are speculating that MWEB will do away with capped accounts and lower the price of their uncapped offering even further where others suggest that MWEB will offer unshaped bandwidth after hours.

MWEB will be making the announcement around 10:30AM this morning so keep an eye out.

I for one am really curious as to what this exciting news is that MWEB will be announcing, I am looking forward to see how they will further Free The Web in South Africa.

What is your thoughts? Do you have an idea as to what MWEB’s announcement will be?

UPDATE: MWEB and DSTV launces Video On Demand

The South African ADSL market has seen significant change the last couple of days, but what is all this capped and uncapped ADSL all about and what should you get?

First MWEB stunned the local ADSL market with their introduction of really cheap uncapped Internet, and then just days later Afrihost followed suit by undercutting MWEB and introducing even cheaper uncapped ADSL. But what is the difference between this uncapped and capped ADSL and what should you use?

To put it simple uncapped ADSL allows for unlimited browsing, email, videos etc whereas capped ADSL only allows for a certain amount of data to be used. Typically uncapped ADSL will be used if you are a heavy downloader or like to watch YouTube allot or stream Internet radio whereas capped is ideal for more critical applications like browsing, Skype, gaming, remote desktop, VPN’s or Emails.

Uncapped ADSL makes use of high content ratios that allow ISP’s to give it to the users at cheaper costs, although capped ADSL also makes use of this content ratios the uncapped ratios is significantly higher than that of capped. What is content ratios you ask? Think of it like this, say the ISP has 10mbps bandwidth available to them, a content ratio of 10:1 will then see that 10mbps being shared amongst 10 users. If all 10 users start using high bandwidth applications at the same time theoretically they will only have 1mbps available to them even if they all have 4mbps lines.

As you can see the higher the content ratio the slower your Internet can become, and this is where capped ADSL beats uncapped ADSL for critical applications.

Conclusion is if you only use the Internet for browsing, email and gaming I would suggest sticking to capped ADSL at around R29 per GB it is still a steal, but if you are more into downloading large amounts of data or streaming YouTube constantly then I would urge to you go for one of these new uncapped accounts. I am in no way saying that services like gaming, Skype etc wont work on uncapped, I’m just saying that it works better on a capped account.

While the rest of the world has been enjoying cheap uncapped Internet for long now, South African has been milked for every cent they have just to use a couple of gigs a month. This all has changed drastically the past week.

The past week the South African Internet market has been shaken up again and this time it is huge. It all started out as a campaign I have been following for a few weeks called “Free The Web” on Facebook and that is just what MWeb did, they set the Web free.

MWeb introduced uncapped Internet accounts the past week for as little as R219 per month for 384kbps and R539 per month for 4mbps data only options. MWeb also launched all in one packages starting from R349 per month for 384kbps to R899 for 4mbps.

The service is shaped but good news is that there is also an unshaped option available for businesses ranging from R499 to R1999, this service includes a Cisco router and 5 static IP addresses.

Just a day after MWeb announced the new standard for uncapped internet in South Africa other ISPs started following with OpenWeb partnering up with MWeb to offer their customers the same special, another entrant is @lantic/vox which beat the price of the all in one uncapped packages.

Good news is that Afrihost who previously shook up the Internet market with the introduction of their R29 per GB ADSL announced that they will also be introducing uncapped packages any day now, they have been looking into it for a while now and MWeb just beat them to it said Gian Visser CEO at Afrihost.

I like what I am seeing happening in the local Internet market, and just like Afrihost has set the standard of sub R30 per GB prices, MWeb has now set a new standard for uncapped Internet and other ISPs will just have to follow to stay ahead in the local Internet market.