Storm Telecom launches consumer ISP to challenge ''big four''

Through 'storm at home', Storm Telecom, which has over the past five years built a client base of over 5000 corporate and SMME clients, will offer corporate-grade internet access to home users across the country, at competitive prices and with access speeds faster than other providers, it claims.

Tim Wyatt-Gunning, managing director of Storm and responsible for building the 'storm at home' brand, says that the ISP market has been consolidated over the past few years, with four large players emerging as the clear leaders in consumer market.

"Independent market research of the internet service provider market, undertaken by Webcheck, in association with its parent company Research Surveys, has shown that the four largest providers – MWEB, ABSA, Tiscali (previously World Online) and Telkom – together have approximately 500 000 of the estimated one million internet subscribers. While a handful of smaller entrants are continuously trying to win market share, with very little to differentiate their offerings, it is doubtful that any of them will have the financial or marketing muscle to seriously impact the leaders in the short or long term.

"Our market research has found that there is a gap in the market where the changing needs of dial-up subscribers are not being met by the current players. The key is not to show people how to use the internet via heavy content-driven portals anymore, but to get them to their banking, searching, news and shopping sites as swiftly and reliably as possible," says Wyatt-Gunning.

"With genuine broadband access out of reach for all but a few at over R800 per month, 'storm at home' bridges the gap with its faster surfing speeds, quicker downloads, and simple, no-nonsense website, all at very affordable rates. We believe there is a significant demand for cheaper and particularly faster internet access than is provided by the big four, and that there is a growing desire among consumers to pay for services they use, and no more."

Because Storm Telecom's business customers utilise its network during office hours only, 'storm at home' is able to offer customers more bandwidth out of office hours, which is when most dial-up subscribers want to access the internet.

'Storm at home' offers two different services to suit the needs of residential users: connect15 and connect24. At R55 per month for dial-up (or R85 per month for ISDN), connect15 offers internet access for 15 hours a day, from 6pm to 9am on weekdays and full access on weekends and public holidays. Connect24, at R95 per month for dial-up (or R125 per month for ISDN) users, offers 24-hour a day internet access.

The connect15 offering is specifically designed for users who work during the day and only use their home internet access in the evenings, on weekends and public holidays. Since the majority of the connectivity time coincides with Telkom's callmore time, dial-up costs are thereby controlled. Connect15 is currently the most affordable internet access for home users available.

Two key differentiating services from 'storm at home' are the built-in accelerator, with software developed in-house, which allows users on average three to four times faster internet access and email downloads, and an innovative contact manager which stores users' address lists on the 'storm at home' server for access from any computer. The contact manager can also send automatic notification of the user's new storm email address to the contact list. This service was developed and designed in-house to address the common problem of users not wanting to change service providers because of the hassle involved in alerting contacts to a new email address.

'Storm at home' will also provide an email address with five aliases, internet access, virus and spam filtering, a support centre open every day from 7am to 10pm, home fax (fax to desktop) and a customisable homepage.

'Storm at home' expects a steady growth period, aiming to attract 15 000 active customers within a year and growing to 50 000 within three years, equating to 5% of the current home ISP market.

"Internet savvy customers expect top quality service from their service providers, and we aim to provide the kind of back-up and support which is currently lacking in the market. With our corporate roots, and by owning and managing our own network, we believe we can deliver just that. In addition, we'll be introducing low cost international calls to our home customers in November 2004 and once deregulation has taken place we'll be able to offer our customers low cost national phone calls. We are here for the long term", concludes Wyatt-Gunning.