Telkom raises prices - again

The cost of fixed-line rental in South Africa will rise by 6% in August - the 12th consecutive year of rental increase, despite 12 consecutive years of subscriber decline.

Telkom has announced that it is keeping its 2012 annual tariff adjustment below the Consumer Price Index, with an increase of 1.2% on overall basic voice and data services.

However, the core cost of fixed line use in South Africa, the monthly rental charge, will rise by 6%. This is the 12th consecutive year of line rental increase, which coincides with 12 consecutive years of decline in the number of fixed line subscribers.

ADSL costs will also rise marginally, despite growth in ADSL subscribers beginning to flatten.

The adjustments, which will come into effect on 1 August 2012, apply to Telkom's tariffs for line rentals, outgoing calls, DSL and data connectivity services. 

“Telkom is committed to delivering value as we endeavour to contain the adjustments to a minimum. To this end, the adjustments are significantly less than inflation which is currently at 5.7%,” said Mr Manelisa Mavuso, Telkom's Managing Director: Consumer Services and Retail.

Mr Mavuso pointed to a decrease in fixed to mobile call tariffs. “The new per minute tariffs for will be reduced by 3.6% to R1.35 for peak time and R1.08 for off peak calls.

Although international calls will not increase overall, tariffs to certain destinations will increase, while others will decrease.  Some destinations, for example the United Kingdom and the United States of America, will remain unchanged.

This indicates that Telkom has not risen to the challenge posed by Cell C, which is rolling out a flat 99c a minute fee for calls to around three dozen intetnational destinations.

PrepaidFone local calls increase by 5% but long distance calls remain unchanged. Line rental for PrepaidFone will increase by 6%. Postpaid residential and business line rental increase by 6%.  Installation charges increase by 6% including Postpaid, PrepaidFone ISDN and DSL services.

On Telkom’s Closer product range the monthly subscription for Closer 1 will increase to R167, Closer 2 will increase to R185 and Closer 3 will increase to R341.

Mr Mavuso said that adjustments to data connectivity products were also kept to a minimum with an overall increase of only 1%.

The monthly rental fees on Telkom’s Do Broadband bundles remain unchanged. Monthly rental fees on the DSL offers will increase as follows: Fast DSL will increase to R165.00; Faster DSL will increase to R299.00 and Fastest DSL will increase to R425.00.

World Wide Worx research due to be released next week shows that the rate of ADSL growth is slowing down, even as mobile broadband accelerates.

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