Telkom DSL in less than 2 weeks with free modem, free install for under R350/month, all in.

The following was passed on to me by Sarah Rice.  Lawrence Cawood has graciously  agreed to allow me to publish it here.  If you're looking for a way to get a basic DSL service at a reasonable price with very low (i.e. none whatsoever) setup costs, read on...

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Lawrence’s Guide to Ordering Home DSL

Step 1: Acquiring a Phone Line

If you already have a phone line, skip to step 2.
In order to make use of the DSL service, you need a permanent telephone line (not prepaid).

Loophole #1: The monthly line rental for a standard telephone line is R99 per month. You could go this route, however there exists a better option... it’s called Telkom Closer, which I’m sure you’ve heard of in the ads.   With Telkom Closer option 1, you pay R120 p/m, and get calls charged at a R1.40 flat rate for an hour at a time when calling local or long distance during callmore.

How does this help with my DSL you may ask? Well, on top of offering great savings for telephone calls (about one-sixth of the standard cost of a call during callmore), Telkom gives you FREE LINE INSTALLATION with this option, which would normally cost you three hundred and something rand. That’s loophole number one (also confirmed by the Telkom consultant I dealt with).   Even paying the extra R20 per month for a year doesn’t add up to the amount that you would usually have to pay once-off for your line installation.   And get this, the monthly line rental for a standard line is going up to R111 tomorrow (the Closer option 1 package is staying the same), so this is obviously the best choice as it includes your line rental, plus you get free phone line installation.   PS: There are other packages, such as Closer option 2 that gives you absolutely free local and long distance calls any time during the day for up to an hour at a time, however this is not necessary if you’re only planning to use DSL.

The process for signing up for a telephone line is as follows:
·        Phone 10219 and speak to a consultant
·        Tell them you want to get a residential phone line installed
·        Tell them you want ‘Closer option 1’
·        Give them your details etc.
·        They give you a date that the technician will come to your premises to install the line. They will tell you 1-2 weeks, but mine took 3 days.
·        Telkom phone you the day before they come to install. You can postpone it if you need to (I did 3 times).
·        Technician phones you in the morning, and then arrives sometime between 9am and 2pm. Installation takes about 30min.
·        You have a phone line

Step 2: Ordering DSL

Loophole #2: It is at this point that you can cancel your ‘Closer’ option. Yip, when you phone to order DSL you can ask the consultant to cancel your Closer option if you wish, which means that you saved the installation cost of your phone line (it already went through as zero on the account) AND you don’t have to pay more for the Closer option. Confirmed as loophole number 2. Stupid Telkom.   However, I would not advise cancelling your Closer option as it’s only R9 p/m more than the standard line rental, and the charge per call stops at the R1.40 flat rate.  

Ok, the first thing you need to decide is, do you want to go big or go home. Going big means having a big budget, and being able to splash out on that 4MB line for 413 bucks per month. Going home means going cheap, so if you’re like me and don’t download movies but instead get them from your friends, you don’t need a 4MB line and can part with R152 bucks p/m for a decent 384kbps connection.

Here are the DSL packages:
1.      384kbps = R152.00 p/m
2.      512kbps = R326.00 p/m
3.      4096kbps = R413.00 p/m

The first option is the most cost effective, as it offers decent gaming speeds, acceptable RDC connections to work over the VPN, and is perfect for browsing. I’d go with that one if you just want entry level DSL (this option was rated SA’s best value for money when it comes to broadband offerings).

Loophole #3: Ah yes, loophole number 3. The most important of all. This little beauty lets you get a FREE DSL modem which would normally cost you R1000, plus free DSL installation. Here’s how...   When ordering DSL, tell the consultant you want the self-install option. This means you will get a free 4-port wireless DSL router, AND you don’t have to pay the R437 DSL installation fee!   But wait, there’s more! Choosing the self-install option also reduces your wait from 4-6 weeks, to less than 2 weeks.   I also thought there was a catch, but there’s no catch... J I think it’s just easier and cheaper for them to offer an incentive to the customers to install DSL themselves.  

The process for signing up for Home DSL is as follows:
·        Phone 10219 and press 3 to speak to a consultant for ADSL
·        Tell them you want Home DSL
·        Tell them you already have an ISP (we’ll get to that later)
·        Tell them you DO want the “self install” option
·        Tell them you DON’T want a contract
·        Give them your details etc.
·        DON’T let them sell you any other crap, cause they always try to confuse you and sell you something extra. Refuse any other options they mention (i.e. TelkomInternet).
·        They say it will take around 23 days (their ‘max’ estimation), but it will probably be around 7 or 8 days. Amazing!
·        Your DSL will be enabled in a week or so (they don’t have to send someone to your house – with self install, this stuff happens on their side)
·        Install the DSL modem yourself (very easy, follow a tutorial – takes half an hour)
·        Done.

Step 3: Finding an ISP
There are many ISP’s offering similar services, so any of them should do. My ISP is WebAfrica (www.webafrica.co.za) who have a great service. If you take a 1GB account, you pay R70 per month. My 3GB cap is R198 p/m. You can buy extra prepaid cap as you need it, for R70 per GB.

With WebAfrica you get a nice admin system to check how much cap you’ve used etc.

Pricing
So, if you’ve taken the optimal route above, your monthly payments will be something like this:
  ADSL subscription (Telkom, DSL 384)   R 152 p/m   
  Line rental (Telkom)   R 120 p/m   
  ISP subscription (WebAfrica, 1GB cap)   R 70 p/m   
Total: R 342 p/m

Summary
So, what have we learned? Well for one, I learned that while Telkom still sucks, they are getting way better at customer service. The last 3 consultants I spoke to were brilliant. Shocking stuff I know.

Second, we learned that you can get DSL at home in under 2 weeks, with a free modem, free installation, for R 342 p/m.
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As always, your milage may vary as the yanks say - you need to keep your wits about you and assume that at some stage Telkom may wise up and plug some of the loopholes.  In the meantime, feel free to make the most of Lawrence's condensed wisdon here!

Comments

[DaveG]

Whoa Jared - not good!
Unless you know a Telkom techie, I'd avoid the whiskey route.

What you really need to do is demand to speak to a supervisor or manager or better still the manager of the "zone centre" that serves you area (the guy who is charge of the techies who are supposed to come out and do the work). Insist that you be given his or her number or that they call you TODAY.

Bad comms with customers plagues Telkom like bad breath, but it is not so much dropping the ball that is bad - it is the way they fumble it when they do.

Get a commitment from someone you can hold accountable to have someone at your door at a particular time.

[Jared Wessels]

Hi I had the same thing as below. Recieved phone call and all. They promised to arrive on the 14th (yesterday) and i toke off work as they required someone at the house the wholeday. During the day i kept calling 10219 to confirm technicians are coming out in my area and they confirmed and said they will come just are unable to confirm what time. at 16:45 i called them again and stated that noone has come today and i require my internet ASAP. The lady then told me oh it seems the technicians are on strike in your area. QUOTE She suggested i try and bribe a technician in the local area as everything is done on our side. Otherwise it will only be done in August.

Now my only problem is finding a telkom technician that i can bribe

[DaveG]

Howzit HJ Mulder,

Telkom have come a long way, and as I predicted way back in (oh right... it was only 3 years ago) 2007, once the others find how hard it is to be a GOOD telco, we'll all appreciate Telkom more than we did!

Enjoy the DSL & remember it is not that hard to switch your data account to another Service Provider and still have the line with Telkom. Afrihost and Axxess have some darn good capped deals and MWeb's uncapped is supposed to be good - will be able to say so from experience in about a month or so.

[H.j mulder]

Guys telkom service has improved greatly
I has applied on wednesday on thursday
Morning telkom phoned me and asked if
It would be ok to install the line on
Friday morning , biggest hurdle was
Passed, I didn't even have to pay an
Deposit at all, the clerk told me it
Is not normally required. She also told
Me the application will be held until
She receives notification that the line
Has been installed and will then activate
The dsl port on the line for me.

The only problem I have with telkom seems
To be the double rental for the same
Line voice (145.00 p/m)and 152.00 for dsl
This is due to the enabling of the speed
On the line. All in all it was a real
Pleasure for me. The staff are helpfull
And informative. The price of their modems
Are R960.00 each which incintally
Are not ISP locked as some posts has
Repported. 3 brands too choose from
Netgear,billion the 3d I can't remember
No marconi routers anymore.

Telkom really don't suck that much anymore

[Lawrence]

New phone line and DSL installed in 12 days :)

[DaveG]

Hi Ashley,
If you take a gander at:
http://www.telkom.co.za/athome/products/dsl/home_reduced.html
you'll see that the offer of the free modem is valid to the end of August 2007, and yes you would have to go through to Telkom to pick it up. A bargain, even if it is 50km away! ;)

[Ashley Ross]

Just a question regarding step 2, loophole 3 - at which point do you get the free DSL modem? If Telkom never visit the premises, do you go collect it from a Telkom branch, or how does that work?