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Johannesburg - Internet services provider MWeb has once again set the cat among the pigeons in South Africa's broadband battle with the announcement that is has launched uncapped wireless broadband services.
The company said on Thursday it has rolled out a next-generation wireless network and is ready to provide customers 4Mbps uncapped connections without the need for ADSL lines.
In a press release, MWeb said it has already built base stations covering Sandton, Boksburg, Isando (Kempton Park) and Midrand in Johannesburg, along with N1 City and the Cape Town CBD in Cape Town.
"This footprint will be expanded on an ongoing basis throughout the year. The network will utilise open unlicensed spectrum bands and using Alvarion wireless equipment, will broadcast signal in a 5km radius of the base stations," it said.
General manager of new business projects at MWeb, Eugene van der Westhuizen, said the group was effectively launching its own private network with this announcement - free from Telkom.
"With our ECNS licence awarded last year, it is exciting to finally be able to offer internet access products where we own, manage, service and maintain every aspect of the network and the client interaction," he said.
"We learnt a lot about managing a network during our successful wireless trial in 2007, and we are pleased to be offering our own commercial product for the first time."
He added that the connections are ideally suited to small- and medium-sized businesses as an alternative to uncapped ADSL.
"The product, to be called Uncapped Wireless, will suit customers that are hampered by a lack of ADSL capacity in their area, or who have been inconvenienced by the theft of copper cables - a particular problem in the east of Johannesburg," said Van der Westhuizen.
"Uncapped Wireless is also a true failover option for customers wanting redundancy, without the traditional high costs associated with wireless failover."
Bernard Kur, head of product management and development at MWeb Business, said three options will be offered - 512kbps, 1Mbps and 4Mbps.
"All offerings are uncapped and unshaped for a fixed monthly fee, which includes the cost of the router and wireless hardware needed. The fixed fee will allow businesses to budget accurately, with no need to buy boosters during the month," he said.
The 512Kbps package will go for R1 299 per month, 1Mbps for R1 999 and 4Mbps for R2 795. All packages share a standard setup fee of R1 710.
MWeb said it will conduct site inspections at clients' premises to determine the quality of signal that can be received - at no additional cost to the customer. Once it has been determined that a client can get good quality signal, a small antenna will be installed to receive the wireless signal.
- Fin24.com
