Paul Jacobson

I have started seeing signs up for MTN’s new fibre connectivity service called MTN Fibre around Joburg. The service is also called the MTN Business Metro Ethernet and is operated by MTN Business. There isn’t much detail on the site about pricing (actually, nothing that I have seen) so this probably means it is not within reach of small businesses or consumers. The technical info available is pretty interesting. Users can expect bandwidth ranging from 2Mbps to 1Gbps which leaves Telkom’s ADSL standing still.

MTN is running a pilot between the Rosebank and Sandton CBDs (including Fricker Road in Illovo) for the time being. I was driving along Rivonia Road yesterday towards Rosebank and saw these bikers cruise past. Clever advertising!

I was chatting to a journalist from ITWeb the other day and she was saying that MTN looks set to become pretty prominent in the local internet access scene. I don’t see Neotel amounting to anything special in the near future given its refusal to enter the market guns blazing. In a sense, I think Neotel was pretty much doomed right out the gate and, like Telkom, is missing a huge opportunity.

I am curious about the USB devices MTN, Vodacom and one or two other service providers have which give mobile users access to their HSDPA services. I took a look at the costs involved and mobile data is still far more expensive than ADSL so it isn’t feasible for me to switch at all. I would like to see mobile data costs drop significantly to make it worthwhile to switch away from Telkom but, for the time being, Telkom still offers the cheapest data service.

Technorati Tags:
mtn business, mtn fibre, metro ethernet, internet access, data service, mtn, vodacom, neotel

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