What Broadband Users Want
5 Jan 2009
It is not all about lower prices and higher speeds
South African broadband users have in the past been raked over the coals with high priced services which are significantly worse than many of their international counterparts. But in the last few years things have started to change albeit at a slower rate than many were hoping for. Broadband prices have come down significantly, especially in the wireless and mobile broadband markets.
While higher speeds and lower prices still dominate the wish lists of local broadband consumers, there are other things which users want and which should be addressed by broadband providers. The recent MyBroadband Survey provides some insight into what users are happy with and what they would like to see from their service providers.
Higher usage limits (caps) remain the most requested feature apart from pricing. Users are becoming discerning and not only asking for higher caps but better network utilization as well. Many consumers feel that passing on the benefit of quiet periods on the network to consumers, in the form of higher after-hours usage limits or lower after-hours data rates, is long overdue. This is a common feature in the telephony space, and seen in many countries overseas.
Users have also requested a true split in the cost of local and international bandwidth - not only after being capped or with account types, but rather real-time billing differentiation between local and international bandwidth usage.
Bandwidth shaping was a bugbear for many iBurst and ADSL subscribers, who stated that they would like to see better performance on services other than mail and web surfing.
In the wireless and mobile market many consumers said that improvements were required regarding reliability and the introduction of more innovative billing models. Bandwidth rollover - another feature which is standard with mobile airtime billing - is something which users are particularly keen on.
Improved support also featured high on many users' lists, asking for better helpdesk support and faster response times.
Around 35% of broadband subscribers indicated that they are actively looking for a new broadband service, which presents an opportunity for innovative broadband providers to steal market share away from competitors.
