TelkomInternet has lofty goals for itself, but its association with Telkom puts it in a place where it often has to defend itself. iWeek caught up with exec for business markets, Rikus Matthyser, after watching him defend ADSL pricing YOUR ISP for life. That`s what TelkomInternet aims to be for South African Internet users. One would assume that this could be one of the most difficult things to accomplish, considering the ISP`s association with the much-reviled Telkom.

Having started as a private label ISP with Intekom in 2001, TelkomInternet has an obligation to provide competitive Internet services to South African customers, says executive: business markets, Rikus Matthyser. And the ISP is delivering on its mandate, he ventures.

"I see Internet as a service that had promise but didn`t deliver well," he says. Instead, it has mostly brought cyber crime and spam.

In contrast, TelkomInternet intends to deliver the business value Internet was meant to bring to users, he says.

One of the products that are expected to provide this value, he says, is the PC/Internet bundle. Matthyser says despite accusations of uncompetitive behaviour when the company launched it in August, customers have voiced their approval by purchasing more than 5 000 units in four months. And how many were cancelled? "Four," he says smiling. "Do you want their names?"

ALL THE VOICE YOU NEED

Another product that is expected to bring value is free VOIP software, branded TelkomInternet Communicator. TelkomInternet subscribers can download the software from the website, allowing them to make free calls to other TelkomInternet subscribers.

Matthyser says the test of time is the best measure of customer satisfaction. As the fastest growing ISP in the country, TelkomInternet showed 40% growth since September last year, he says.

"That`s not because we receive preferential treatment from Telkom Wholesale either," he adds. "The reality is, there are various forums such as Icasa and the Competition Commission, and none of them have found us guilty of transgressing regulations."

Matthyser says TelkomInternet is not a monopoly.

"Customers purchase their products because the price is right and the financing, in the case of the bundling deal, is provided in-house," he says. He also predictably argues that blaming the price of telecoms for the low Internet penetration levels is unfair.

"The PC market has been fairly competitive for many years, and yet PC penetration levels are even lower, at 8%," he says. Well, that is a complex comparison, and one we probably shouldn`t go into here.

FULFILLING SOCIAL OBLIGATIONS

Matthyser argues that issues of education and low-income levels are the key reasons for poor penetration levels. Referring to the recently released Goldstuck report, Matthyser says "technology itself won`t change lives".

"Taking stock of the structure of our economy, acknowledging that there are two economies operating in tandem and finding ways to address the challenges - that is what will help drive levels," he argues.

A key priority for TelkomInternet is to fulfil its social obligations to bridge the digital divide. That has included maintaining the price of dial-up subscription at R79 per month for five years, ensuring that a connection remains affordable for some, he argues. The price of DSL has also come down by 40% and will continue to drop as economies of scale continue to grow.

RECOGNITION

The value of the company`s offering was recently recognised through research conducted by MyADSL and the Department of Business Information Technology (BIT) at the University of Johannesburg. The research found Telkom`s four ADSL offerings to be significantly better than Sentech`s MyWireless, Vodacom`s 3G, WBS`s iBurst and MTN`s 3G packages.

MYADSL founder Rudolph Muller says he was not surprised by the results. That`s high praise indeed from a strong critic, Matthyser says.