Last week was an exciting week for you if you were South African and you are reasonably internet savvy.

It started with MWEB, one of the largest Internet Service Providers (ISP) in South Africa announcing their uncapped ADSL data package. For only R219 per month.

Of course there are the Telkom ADSL line rental fees, but once you've included everything, you can have uncapped ADSL Internet, at home, for less than the monthly subscribtion of a DStv package.

Let me recap (no pun intended):
An uncapped, 384k, all-inclusive ADSL Internet connection, for R371 per month. Permission to fall off your chair granted.

I was hoping that MWEB's announcement might make some fire under other ISPs and their pricing plans.

My hopes were soon realised.

Following MWEB's announcement, other ISPs have followed suit:

• Vox Telecom: All-inclusive uncapped 384k for R339 per month
• Axxess: Uncapped 384k data package (no line) for R196 per month.
• Afrihost: Uncapped 384k data package (no line) for R197 per month.
• MTN has dropped their out of bundle rates on 3G data costs by up to 84%
• MyISP undercuts everyone by offering uncapped 384k data only packages (no line) for R159 per month!

There are other a lot of other ISPs who are starting to play the same game now. It seems that for a while still, the madness will ensue. I really don't have a problem with that!

It gives me goosebumps to think that we might be witnessing a broadband revolution in this country even as I am typing this post.

Why is this significant you ask?

Well, South Africa as a country is lagging far behind other countries with regards to broadband adoption.

There are many arguments against the need for broadband growth and some of them are right. In a country like ours, basic medical, education and protection services should be high up on the list of priorities.

But there have been extensive studies done that measure the effect of a good broadband infrastructure on the local and national economies of a country.

A recent study in America found that a broadband growth policy created more jobs and better salary growth in counties that had a better broadband adoption policy. Other studies showed that people from all walks of life, whether rich or poor, were interested in the internet and the opportunities it had to offer.

So there is corroborating evidence that countries do benefit from a good broadband adoption policy. Whether this is still true of an African country... I guess we will have to wait and see.

Even Telkom are considering an uncapped ADSL offer for their customers.

No really, I'm serious!