MWEB launches uncapped hosting
2011-03-17 14:23
Cape Town - Internet service provider MWEB has launched an uncapped hosting service for small business.
The service allows small businesses to put their businesses on the web at a low, fixed cost.
"There was a gap in the market for it and it's a good compliment to our uncapped ADSL product," Carolyn Holgate, general manager of MWEB Connect told News24.
Relatively few of South Africa's small businesses are prepared to create a web presence for themselves because of the cost associated with the Telkom infrastructure, but MWEB believes that this product will drive more firms online.
"It's part of our growth strategy for the internet, without restrictions. There are a lot of budget offers out there, but the more you use, you have to pay," said Holgate.
Roadblocks
"MWEB provisions the website, registers it for its customers and renews their domain on an annual basis; ensuring that customers have a domain for life and alleviating all the admin intensive tasks that are required when getting a website online," the company said in a statement.
There are still roadblocks in making the internet in SA universal, though.
"Telkom does need to make improvements and come to the party," said Holgate.
Despite the cost of fixed-line internet access decreasing, many consumers are still unable to access the web because the line infrastructure is either unavailable or unaffordable.
The result is that SA has seen exponential growth in mobile internet access.
"Businesses could save a lot of money with fixed-line internet. Wireless data is a lot more expensive than fixed-line data, but there is space for both in the market," said Holgate.
Fair use
She defended MWEB's fair use policy with the service.
"We do have an acceptable use policy - a lot of companies are on the shared hosting service. But it's not stringent. If one abuses the service the others suffer, but our policy is no different to any such policy in the market," she said.
The service costs R19 a month and includes a .co.za domain name.
"We want more people on the internet," she added.
News24 is part of 24.com, a subsidiary of Media24, which is in the Naspers stable. MWEB is a subsidiary of Naspers.
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