ADSL lines, bandwidth, ISPs? So many people want Internet but have no clue on which direction to go or what everything means, so this post is to help the average family out when deciding to move onto ADSL for an always-connected-to-the-Internet computer setup.

Step 1

Before you can do anything, you need a telephone line; This is a second telephone line if you have one already and it will be used for your ADSL. Telephone line installation costs can be found here and monthly rental costs can be found here. You’re looking at a upper bound of R400.00 for the installation and R130.00 as the monthly rental. To order your line, you can call toll free 10219, this is a free call only from another telkom number, not a cellphone. These are all Telkom services.

Update: I have been informed that you can use your existing telephone line as your ADSL line as well, which means you don’t need a second line. In order to handle a normal telephone line as well as an ADSL line on the same line, you need a filter known as a POTS filter, which is available at Game stores.

Step 2

Once you have your new telephone line, it’s time to look at ADSL. ADSL comes in a number of speeds, ranging from 384kbps to 512kbps all the way to 4096kbps. If your requirement is to surf the Internet a little and check email, a 384kbps line would be sufficient; For downloading and gaming, a line closer to 4096kbps would be required. When it comes to ordering your ADSL, you no longer have to use Telkom, you could use WebAfrica or even Edgars, there are a large number of companies offering this now. For sake of simplicity, ordering your ADSL through Telkom is often the easiest.

Going through Telkom, you’re looking at the following costs per month:

• 384kbps line = R152.00/month
• 512kbps line = R326.00/month
• 4096kbps line = R413.00/month

You can read a little more about the various lines here.

Going through WebAfrica, for example, offers some comparitive data:

• 384kbps + services = R199.00/month
• 512kbps + services = R479.00/month
• 4096kbps + services = R579.00/month

Please note that the services refers to a whole collection of others things such as email accounts, online support and so forth. You can have a look at the comparitive table here.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you will need a modem, this is the piece of equipment which makes ADSL work, this might be included in a bundle if you sign a 24 month lease, or you might incur the equipment cost, be sure to check.

STEP 3

Right, at this point we have a new telephone line and ADSL access, now we need to buy Data/Bandwidth/Gigabytes/Gigs. If you’ve decided to stick with Telkom for everything, you will be able to buy your data from them, if you went with Web Africa, you could buy your data from them, but at the end of the day, the important thing to remember is that you can buy your data from any service provider, regardless of who you rent your ADSL from! This is a good thing and it allows you to shop around a little for the cheapest price. That being said, I urge you to go with a recognised provider and NOT just the cheapest!

Here are some of the service providers and their costs per Gigabyte that I have used and would recommend:

Setup: ISP – Cost (contact number | website address)

• Telkom – R49.67 (10219 | website)
• WebAfrica – R66.33 (0861 555 222 | website)
• Axxess – R99.67 (0861 300 900 | website)
• OpenWeb – R63.00 (0861 22 44 66 | website)
• AfriHost – R29.00 [special] (011 612 7200 | website)

EXTRA INFORMATION

• Hellkom.co.za offer a fantastic comparitive tables for all data costs across all the service providers – visit here.
• How many Gigabytes will you use a month? This is hard to predict and something you have to monitor closely – In most cases for a beginner I would recommend buying a 3GB (GB = gigabyte) package and seeing how that works, most service providers will give you a service you can log into on their website which shows you how much of your data has been used (Your data or the amount of Gigs you buy is known as your cap).
• Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) roll over your cap, meaning that if the end of the month comes and you have not used all your data, you carry it over onto the next month, so it’s important to find out about this.
• Shaped vs Unshaped? There are two types of data you can buy every month, shaped and unshaped. Shaped is best for business-related tasks such as emailing and web browsing, whereas unshaped is best suited for realtime Internet applications, gaming or stock trading. Unshaped data will cost you more than shaped data.
• With the large number of ISPs available, huge competition is resulting in a large number of specials with hugely reduced rates, be sure to shop around a little.
• Local-Only bandwidth can be purchased, allowing you to only use Internet services in South Africa, so if you only check local email and only surf the Internet locally, you can buy local-only bandwidth at hugely reduced costs; However, I must state that most people will need International access and therefore International bandwidth will be the best bet. The prices quoted above are all for International bandwidth.

Ps. Please feel free to leave questions on my forum and I will answer them as quickly as possible. You will need to create an account on the forum before you can do anything.

1. Click here to apply for an account on the forum
2. Click here to access the area where you may ask your question

Good luck everyone!

[Big thanks to Marcel and Ian for their involvement]

SOMETHING TO WATCH OUT FOR

You might see adverts like this:

This is for local only Internet, that means you won’t be able to access any websites or services that are not hosted in South Africa – That being said, hosting in South Africa is terribly expensive, so most companies in South Africa choose to host overseas, so even if the website has .co.za, it doesn’t mean it’s hosted here! Don’t fall for this :)