ubuntu-za-maties team mailing list archive

[Hilton Gibson <hilton.gibson@xxxxxxxxx>]

For your info.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gian - Afrihost.com <gian@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: 24 March 2010 08:27
Subject: Is Uncapped ADSL right for you?
To: Hilton <hilton.gibson@xxxxxxxxx>


Hi Hilton

Today we're launching an exciting, 'top-secret'
product that we have been testing over the past
few months that we believe will change the face
of the internet in South Africa.

Last week a similar product was launched to much
fanfare by another ISP and to be honest it did surprise
us that someone beat us to the punch - So massive
kudos to them!

However, we take pride in being an ADSL market
innovator so the good news is we are also ready to
offer this to you now - And at the best price available
in the market today!

There's a classic truth in business that in order to be
successful, simply find out what clients crave, then
create it and give it to them.

When we launched our R29 per GB offer almost 6
months ago to the day we knew that South African
users craved more affordable ADSL.

At that time most ISP's charged around R70 per GB
(and many still do!) so our revolutionary move really
stunned and shook the ISP industry.

When we announced the offering we stated that one
of the things we hoped would happen was that through
that offer we would put pressure on the bigger
incumbents and that they'd be forced to come to the
party and reduce their prices.

We sincerely believed that we could be the catalyst
that caused broadband prices to plummet in South
Africa and that the internet would become more and
more affordable for everyone.

Well the absolutely fantastic news is that 6 months
later this has now become a reality in South Africa!

So it's my pleasure today to announce that we will be
launching the first phase of Afrihost Uncapped ADSL!

And the great news is that our Uncapped packages
will start from only R197 per month.

You pay a flat monthly fee and you can use the internet
freely without having a cap or a set amount of GBs to
use each month!

Please note though that Uncapped will not be the
perfect solution for everyone - I'll go over some of
the considerations you need to take when deciding
between Uncapped and Capped later in this mail.

We will offer different uncapped packages based
on the speed you wish to download at viz. 384 kbps,
512 kbps and 4096 kbps.

Here are the details of our new uncapped packages
that we will be offering:

(The prices do not include the applicable line rental
costs through Telkom - The costs are for the ADSL
data only)

For Uncapped 386 kbps you'll pay R197 per month

For Uncapped 512 kbps you'll pay R297 per month

For Uncapped 4096 kbps you'll pay R497 per month


*Please Note*

The Uncapped 4096 is available for purchase right
now through our website or via your Client Zone.

Initially we are only making the Uncapped 4096 kbps
package available so that we can comprehensively
test our Uncapped performance.

We pride ourselves in the service we deliver and
we always want to give the absolute best to our
clients - So we want to fully test these uncapped
solutions before they become part of our standard
product offering.

We want to ensure that any snags are ironed out
before we make them globally available.

We value our reputation of providing great products
and service too highly to risk rushing this offering.

As we originally planned to do with our R29/GB
offering we are limiting the number of signups for now.

However, if you do signup for one of the available
packages in the initial beta testing stage you will lock
this package and price in for as long as you are with
us (although we are not planning on increasing prices)

The Uncapped 512 and Uncapped 386 will be available
for purchase as soon as we've finished monitoring the
Uncapped 4096 performance.

You can leave your email with us on our site for any
of the other options and we will keep you fully updated
and let you know as soon as they are available.

Here are answers to some questions you may have:
=========

Are there any contracts for our Uncapped service?

No.

You can cancel before the 25th of any month in your
Client Zone and your service will stop on the first of the
next month. If you cancel after the 25th then you will
be charged for the following month and your service
will be cancelled on the 1st of the following month


Where do I sign up and if I get it today will I pay
the full monthly amount?

You can upgrade to Uncapped (but only to Uncapped
4096 at the moment) in the 'My Connectivity' section
in your Client Zone.

If you signup today you will be billed pro-rata for the
remainder of the month. For example if it is a 30 day
month and you signup with 10 days to go you will be
billed for 1/3rd of the package price.

(Please note that if you want to upgrade to this
before month end you need to do this today as from
tomorrow until the 1st of next month you will be unable
to as we will have already sent the payment details
through to the bank

But don't worry - you will be able to upgrade from the
1st of next month if you miss today)


How can I pay for the Uncapped service?

You can pay monthly via either debit order or
credit card.

Unfortunately at this time we do not accept
EFT transfers or Bank deposit payments.


How do I know if Uncapped ADSL is for me? What's
the difference between Capped and Uncapped?

The 3 things you need to take into account when
deciding whether to go for an Uncapped solution are:

1. Overall Usage vs Overall Cost
2. Number of places you connect from
3. Capped vs Uncapped speed

1. Overall Usage vs Overall Cost:

If you are currently on a Capped package you need
to look at how many GBs you use on average every
month (or plan to use) and the speed of your Telkom
line. You can then decide whether the Uncapped solution
makes sense for you.

For a 384 kbps line if you move less than about 7 GBs
a month it makes sense to stay on Capped.

For a 512 kbps line if you move less than about 11 GBs
a month it makes sense to stay on Capped.

For a 4096 kbps line if you move less than about 17 GBs
a month it makes sense to stay on Capped.

Please bear in mind that the above calculations use R29
per GB as a base average and do not take into account
the R14,50 topup special we run - so if you take
advantage of this then you need to take this into account
for your costing.


2. Number of places you need to connect from:

The Uncapped packages allows only one connection
for each account while the Capped packages allow
many simultaneous connections from different locations
for each account.

A Capped package is limited by the amount of GBs
allowed but not by the number of locations or telephone
numbers that can make use of it.

An Uncapped package is locked to one telephone
number and is limited by the number of locations you can
connect from but not by the number of GBs you can use.
Only one user is allowed to use an Uncapped package.

This means that if you are accessing your ADSL account
from several different locations (e.g. from home AND work)
then this will work for a Capped account but not for an
Uncapped one.

If you'd like Uncapped at both locations you'd need to
buy a separate Uncapped package for each.


3. Capped vs Uncapped Speed:

The performance of Capped accounts and Uncapped
accounts differ in subtle ways no matter the company
you choose to use.

Generally Uncapped ADSL runs off a higher 'contention
ratio' than Capped ADSL.

This means that generally more users are allowed for
a certain chunk of bandwidth in Uncapped than in
Capped.

This means that the number of users downloading at
any one time affects Uncapped more than Capped.
At any given moment if a ton of users are busy
simultaneously then Uncapped will be slightly slower
than Capped.

A very simplistic metaphor for this would be:

Uncapped is like eating at a Pizza place on 'All You
Can Eat' night. The speed you get your separate
single slices of pizza delivered to you is dependent
on how busy the restaurant is at that moment. This
means it may take slightly longer to eat a whole
pizza but you can eat more over time.

Capped is like eating at that same Pizza place but
ordering the pizza size you want off the menu - you'll
get your full pizza quicker and can eat it faster but
you have a set amount to enjoy.

In essence Capped is a slightly premium service
if speed is a massive issue to you while Uncapped
is the way to go if solid speed is good enough and
you don't want to worry about getting capped at
any time of the month.

You will find that the speed of Capped vs Uncapped
most differs during office hours - Thus if speed is of
primary importance to you during office hours then
Capped may be the best solution for you.


Why are you only offering the 4096 kbps option
now and why are you limiting the number of signups?

Quite simply we want to fully test these uncapped
solutions before they become part of our standard
product offering.

We pride ourselves in the service we deliver and
we always want to give the absolute best to our
clients - So we want to fully test these uncapped
solutions before they become part of our standard
product offering.

We want to ensure that any snags are ironed out
before we make them globally available.

We value our reputation of providing great products
and service too highly to risk rushing this offering.

The truth is we could probably launch all the
packages now and open them up to all but we
first want to test the performance and integrity
of the offering and we believe the best way to
do this is by testing the fastest possible uncapped
solution first.

We are very confident that this product will stand
up superbly and that we will be able to launch the
other uncapped offerings very soon!


How many 4096kbps accounts are you going
to sell during the 'testing' phase?

At the moment we are going to sell at least 1,000
of these accounts but it may be more depending
on performance and uptake.


When will you launch the Uncapped 384 kbps and
Uncapped 512kbps offerings?

We aim to offer them within the next few weeks
(or sooner) depending on how the testing of the
4096 kbps accounts go.

Our first priority is to ensure that we deliver a rock
solid uncapped service that will be a pleasure for
our clients to use. We promise not to compromise
quality and as such we are going to test our system
comprehensively before opening up all products.


Is this a truly uncapped service? Are there
any catches? Can I really use as much as I want?

Unless you literally move hundreds of GBs per month
this service will be uncapped for you with no catches
for you

The vast majority of our Uncapped clients will be able
to use as much as they want.

However, we will take action on the very small minority
who through their usage start affecting all of our other
clients' internet experience.

It is our duty to make sure that a very few will not ruin
our Uncapped solutions for everyone.

Our primary concern is for the majority of our clients.
If there are individuals that are putting strain on the
network and affecting our other clients negatively
we reserve the right to stop offering them the service.

Our uncapped service is designed for a real person
sitting behind their computer who wants to be able to
visit websites, download email, watch YouTube, use
Skype and update Facebook as much as they want
without worrying about the traffic they're using.

It is not designed for computer programs that are
setup to continuously download 24/7, 30 days a month.

The honest truth is that if it is your intention to setup
programs to download movies, music & whatever else
every single hour of the day, every day of the month
then these uncapped packages are not for you.

We want to make this clear upfront so that nobody
is disappointed or surprised later.

But rest assured:

We will not even consider stopping your account unless
you are moving literally hundreds of GBs per month.


What should I do if I'm torn between
Capped and Uncapped?

My suggestion would be to try our Uncapped and
see if it is for you.

You can simply go into your Client Zone and
change to Uncapped from there. There are no
contracts so if you find you prefer Capped for
whatever reason then you can always return to
Client Zone and go back to Capped from the
following month.


You can see more details of our Uncapped
packages here:

http://www.afrihost.com/adsl-uncapped.php

We have included all Frequently Asked Questions
here (and we'll continually be updating this page
as new questions come in)

http://www.afrihost.com/adsl-uncapped-faqs.php

As always if you are unsure about anything or
have any other questions please let us know!

Warm regards

Gian

CEO, Afrihost.com

========================
E: gian@xxxxxxxxxxxx
W: www.afrihost.com
P: 011 612 7200
F: 086 561 0000
========================












-- 
Systems Administrator
Library and Information Services
Stellenbosch University

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