Vodacom cuts internet bandwidth rates

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Monday, 01 February 2010

From January 2010 Vodacom Business customers will pay up to 50% less for their international Internet connectivity (local internet access portion included).

Steven Hayward, Executive Director of Vodacom Business South Africa says this drastic price reduction in international bandwidth is made possible by the increasing competition between undersea cable providers which in turn creates a sustainable competitive international bandwidth market in South Africa.

"Vodacom Business has taken advantage of this changing landscape to engage with multiple undersea cable providers to put together a blend of robust, redundant international fibre internet access at vastly reduced pricing - in some cases with a saving of up to 50% from previous pricing."

As a converged solutions provider to enterprises of all sizes, Vodacom Business is able to bring down internet access prices over fixed line and wireless, both reducing the barrier to entry for many small businesses and creating an affordable communications environment for larger corporations.

Vodacom Business' new premium and direct packages for Dedicated Internet Access (DIA) are both offered as a fully restored service, with a blend of international fibre connectivity provisioned over Seacom, Sat 3 and SAFE, and soon also via the WACS and EASSy fibre cable systems - providing a fully redundant offering and peace of mind should an outage occur.

Dedicated Internet access speeds start from 64kbps and can be increased to the business' specified requirement in 64kbps increments. The solutions are scalable, so customers can increase their business Internet connection speed on demand, depending on the access medium of their choice, including Microwave, WiMAX Assured Rate, Satellite, Leased Line and Fibre.

"We are excited to offer our business customers true competitive pricing and value, without compelling them to increase their bandwidth use, and with guaranteed uptime on Vodacom Business's fully redundant network - including self-provisioning of last-mile access, guarantees and services level agreements."

Vodacom Business customers have a choice between the following DIA services:

1. Dedicated Internet Premium - guaranteed, 1:1 bandwidth (local and international) - bandwidth is fully allocated to the customer and the customer's traffic is given the highest priority on the network and a committed information rate is guaranteed
2. Dedicated Internet Direct - this service is designed to offer superior performance and faster Internet speeds, cost-effectively. During normal operating periods full throughput is available, in case of severe network congestion bandwidth can be shared, up to a maximum of 3 customers.
3. Dedicated Internet Access Local - local-only bandwidth (available as a standalone solution, or as an extra capacity option with one of the other solutions).

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