I was pleasantly surprised to learn over the weekend that Telkom have doubled all of their capped accounts' data allowance, meaning I have a sweet 40gig now instead of 20!
In South Africa, I have found it very important to have backups in terms of internet connectivity. On the one side, we have Telkom, who we can't avoid unfortunately, them having that nice monopoly of theirs and all. Their data flows through the SAT3 undersea cable. If SAT3 is down, then you're pretty much screwed. So it is wise to have a backup, especially if you work from home like I do. I also use Openweb, and Afrihost.
But, it now and then happens that the actual copper line coming to my house is down, then it really feels like we're in the dark ages. And phoning Telkom usually doesn't help at all, you get through to some or other call centre in Bloemfontein or Jhb, and they never really give you much in terms of how long it's gonna take, or even what's wrong!
The last resort when it comes to internet here in South Africa, is by using the cell networks, and boy oh boy are they not cheap! My now 40gig Telkom account works out to under R6 per gig. Cell networks charge up to R100 per gig, or even more! And then Afrihost (ahh bless them) decides to enter into the mobile market, and their account is R145 for 5gigs! Plus, the first 8000 people who ordered, got a free Mifi device worth R1000 (me included). That's a good deal if you ask me! Still waiting on my package, and I'll definitely give it a go once I have it, and report on my experience!
All in all, working from home and relying very much on having internet connectivity costs me well over R1000 per month - ahh the joys!
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