Openserve launches “Naked ADSL”
Openserve has launched a new product for its DSL-based broadband services called Openserve Pure Connect. Openserve is the wholesale division of Telkom.
“This new product now allows customers to directly obtain the broadband service from their ISPs and will no longer be required to obtain a copper line from Telkom Retail,” Openserve said in a statement.
It confirmed that a voice line or DSL service from Telkom Retail is not a prerequisite to access the service.
Althon Beukes, Openserve CEO, said the wholesaling of copper broadband access complements Openserve’s overall fixed-broadband strategy.
Openserve believes that the launch of Pure Connect will transform the current channel, process, pricing, and product sets across its portfolio.
The company said that although it continues to modernise its fixed infrastructure and upgrade its network, it believes its current copper broadband infrastructure is well positioned to be wholesaled where it is viable and available.
“This will certainly cater for the increased connectivity and consumption needs by providing an affordable and reliable service to our customers. This should also further support and stimulate online business and the economy at large,” stated Beukes.
Openserve said it will provide further details to its clients and connectivity partners in the coming days.
Naked ADSL
Naked ADSL is the term for an ADSL line for which you only pay the ADSL line fee – and not the standard landline rental, too.
The idea of naked ADSL has been discussed for years, but in June 2016, Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko said that line rental would be removed from broadband services.
This promise did not materialise, however, and ADSL users continued paying for landline rental in the years following this.
New wholesale product
The latest announcement also follows the Competition Commission recently confirming it had reached an agreement with Telkom for the “substantial reduction” of wholesale broadband access costs.
This was done to remove “excessive pricing concerns” in respect of its IP Connect product – concerns which were raised during the Commission’s recent Data Services Market Inquiry Report.
The IP Connect product is what Internet service providers use to connect their clients on the Openserve network.
Openserve said it would address the pricing concerns by introducing a new product to replace IP Connect. The structure and pricing of this new product would reduce wholesale charges to Internet service providers, it stated.
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