Web Africa has taken the wraps off their all new Business Uncapped ADSL packages today, dropping prices dramatically and offering customers extra services at no additional cost.

Web African has reduced pricing of their Business Uncapped ADSL packages by leveraging the extra capacity they have built into their network, which increased by 8% in the last week alone.

The new Business Uncapped ADSL packages give businesses access to prioritised business-critical traffic at lower prices and also offer business a .co.za domain, a web hosting package with unlimited traffic and a R400 Google AdWords voucher at no additional price.

“South African business owners are becoming a lot more demanding of their service providers, and rightly so. Business is all happening real-time, whether it’s delivering voice over the network or taking part in real-time trading. Making sure your business can guarantee quality connectivity should be the first priority for the serious business owner,” explains Tim Wyatt-Gunning, CEO of Web Africa.

Business Uncapped subscriber also get access to expert support of the highest quality through only experienced call center agents in addition to the free added services.

Web Africa’s Business Uncapped ADSL packages start from R299 for the 384k package, R399 for the 512k package and R699 for the 1M package, all packages runs on Web Africa’s gold bandwidth.

For more information regarding the new Web Africa Business Uncapped packages see here.

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.

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.

Uncapped ADSL is no new phenomena amongst South African ADSL users, we have been having it for longer than a year already, but one ISP I have been following closely since MWEB and many other local ISP’s released their Uncapped ADSL is WebAfrica.

WebAfrica has always been a pioneer in the local Internet market, but with the introduction of Uncapped Internet they somehow failed to deliver and instead focussed more on building their very own Tier 1 network.

After almost a year, WebAfrica has finally introduced their very own Uncapped ADSL product, Business Uncapped provisioned through the SAT-3 cable system and not Seacom.

“Web Africa Business Uncapped ADSL is intended for those who want the best possible performance from their ADSL line for their business. Furthermore, redundancy is par for the course with SAT3 bandwidth being primary and SEACOM bandwidth for failover.” said Web Africa CEO Matthew Tagg.

Tagg also added that “What also sets our product apart is our transparency, in terms of excessive usage and AUP rules clearly laid out in the online console with a graphical meter.”

WebAfrica’s Business Uncapped product offers clients lower content ratio’s, prioritised bandwidth, 24 hour business support, 10 email addresses and a usage management interface all without the need to sign a contract.

WebAfrica Business Uncapped ADSL is priced starting from R499 for 384kbps data only or R599 for the complete 386Kbps package that includes ADSL line rental. For more details about pricing view the WebAfrica Business Uncapped ADSL page.

I am glad to see WebAfrica is starting to move into the Uncapped ADSL market, but it looks like we will have to wait a bit longer for a consumer Uncapped ADSL offering from them.

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.

Earlier this year MWEB started the broadband price wars by bringing affordable uncapped Internet to the South African market, a few months in and just about every other ISP out there are offering these uncapped accounts undercutting MWEB with a few rands here and there but nothing big.

Axxess has now introduced a brand new Uncapped Internet offer to the market aimed at the average household user that would just like to surf the Web, watch Youtube videos, Skype with their friends and family and download the odd file now and then.

The new package from Axxess is called Just Surf and offers the average household user Uncapped Internet at a mere price of only R99 per month for 384Kbps. There are also 512Kbps and 1024Kbps Uncapped Internet packages available at R149 per month and R249 per month.

Managing Director of Axxess, Andrew Simpson, has however warned that the Just Surf packages are not meant for heavy downloaders and even though there are no Fair Usage Policy on these new Uncapped Internet accounts, users making use of bulk downloading protocols like BitTorrent or any other Peer 2 Peer service will be slowed down.

Other ISPs are however not sitting back and within hours of Axxess announcing their new Just Surf Uncapped Internet packages, OpenWeb has already hit back by introducing the exact same Uncapped Internet packages undercutting Axxess by a mere R1.

OpenWeb’s Uncapped Internet are priced as follows:

1. R98 – 384Kbps
2. R148 – 512Kbps
3. R248 – 1024Kbps

Telkom must surely be feeling the pressure since MWEB stunned the local ADSL market by introducing cheap uncapped Accounts, and with Afrihost offering 1GB ADSL bundles for a mere R29 per GB doesn’t make it easier for them also.

Telkom unveiled their new Do Broadband packages and prices, but its not that a big improvement. Prices stay the same with just increased bundle sizes, and their attempt at lowering top-up prices is disgusting.

Telkom Internet subscribers will from 1 August 2010 see their packages increase with a few GB and top-up prices will drop to R49 per GB, still way above the R29 per GB offering we are used to nowadays from ISPs like Afrihost.

Telkom is yet to announce pricing of their new 10Mbps service, and there are allot of questions regarding whether Telkom will automatically upgrade current 4Mbps users like they did in the past with 1Mbps users, or if the new 10Mbps service will cost extra.

Still I feel Telkom’s attempt at reducing ADSL prices is pathetic, what’s your thoughts on the price reduction?

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

South Africans was stunned with the announcement of MWeb’s uncapped internet late last month, and soon after the announcement many other ISP also released their uncapped offerings. With so many uncapped internet offerings available at the moment its hard to keep track of who offers what at what price.

This is why I thought I would give you a nice breakdown of all the available uncapped internet options currently available in South Africa. Please note that this summary of uncapped internet accounts is data only options and not all-in-one uncapped packages.

Please note all uncapped packages above was quoted as is from the respective ISPs’ websites, all quoted uncapped packages is shaped unless otherwise stated in the notes section.

This is all the uncapped packages I could find on the Internet currently available in South Africa. If you know of any other ISP or changes in prices or usage policies please let me know and I’ll gladly update the table.

ADSL ISP Axxess has joined the uncapped price war by introducing the cheapest offering for uncapped ADSL.

Axxess has joined the hordes of ADSL ISP’s in response to MWEB’s uncapped announcement last week by offering uncapped ADSL at the most affordable rate at the moment just undercutting Afrihost with a few rands.

Axxess’ uncapped offering is a Internet Solutions based uncapped account first introduced this week by Afrihost, Axxess is selling 2 types of uncapped ADSL accounts.

1. 384Kbps [192Kbps upload] @ R196.00
2. 4096kbps [512Kbps upload] @ R496.00

This is currently the cheapest uncapped offering on the market undercutting Afrihost by just R1 on both packages.

I will still be holding on to my 10GB Afrihost capped account for a while as I believe there is still a few ISP’s that needs to respond to these new uncapped ADSL offerings like WebAfrica for example that made a pathetic attempt at price reductions earlier this year.

If you have jumped ship tell us how your experience has been so far with these new uncapped ADSL accounts.

[UPDATE]
Current Axxess clients will need to cancel their account via email before 31st of March and sign up for uncapped account on the 1st of April to avoid being double billed.