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iBurst fine tunes Flagship Wireless offering
Telecommunications provider iBurst has introduced a range of sweeping changes across its original iBurst Wireless range of packages aimed at providing the South African Internet consumer with better value at lower prices.
The most significant adjustments come in the form of increased bandwidth for the same or lower monthly subscriptions, the monthly cost of packages will be split between subscription and data fees to make price comparisons with ADSL easier and cheaper top-up packages available per gigabyte will replace the out-of-bundle per megabyte model.
“iBurst Wireless subscribers will immediately experience the benefit of more bang for their buck as they will receive increased bandwidth for the same price. In addition, iBurst is making the out-of-bundle per gigabyte rate the same as the in-bundle rate across all the new packages.” said Jannie van Zyl, Group CEO of iBurst.
Mr Van Zyl added that many South African broadband consumers were so used to being hit with massive bills at the end of every month after their out-of-bundle rates kicked in that paying the same rate for both should come as a pleasant surprise.
The new pricing offers a per gigabyte price starting from R39 and will be available to new subscribers as from 1 December 2009. Current iBurst Wireless subscribers will be migrated during the month of December to one of the new packages which will see them paying the same or less for increased bandwidth.
“This is the most significant overhaul of iBurst Wireless possibly since our commercial launch. We have gained a significant amount of knowledge regarding what Internet consumers’ desire and I believe we have delivered on these demands with this revamp,” said Mr Van Zyl.
Some additional value added options have been included on higher end packages such as the Uncapped Anytime service which will allow users to continue surfing once their cap is reached at speeds of either 64kbps or 128kbps. The 64kbps service will cost R199 per month and will be available on packages of 5 gigabyte or higher , while the 128kbps service is R249 per month and is applicable to packages of 8 gigabytes and above.
iBurst Wireless hardware such as modems and routers will be offered separately and can be paid upfront or over a 24-month period.
Further product enhancements are set to be introduced early in 2010. Chief amongst these improvements will be an uncapped off-peak service for iBurst Wireless packages of 5GB or higher.
Other new value-added services that will be on offer include SMS data usage notification billed at 50 cents per SMS and free Dial-a-Nerd technical assistance for 24-month subscribers.
“Next year will prove to be a watershed year for South African telecoms in general and Internet in particular following the many regulatory and market changes that have occurred recently and are still set to take place. The restructuring of our Wireless packages and indeed of our company has put iBurst in an enviable position that is no doubt of considerable concern to our less nimble competitors,” concluded Mr Van Zyl.
