Wednesday, 10th March 2010
Relocation to South Africa - Communication Companies
Introduction
South Africa currently has a monopoly telecommunications infrastructure. This means that your choices are limited. The only land-line provider is Telkom. This however is changing with the adoption of a second operator in the next few years.As a result of this South African's are "cell" phone crazy and SA has become one of the fastest growing cell phone using countries in the world.
Mobile/ Cell phone providers
There are 3 cell phone network providers - Cell-C, MTN and Vodacom. The trick is to shop around! It’s always important to find out what the best deals are. The quickest way to get connected is to buy a pre-paid package as there are no credit checks or deposits to pay. The calls costs presently are in the region of R2.00 to R2.50 depending on the package you select.Land Lines
Telkom is the only provider of telephones in South Africa. The service from Telkom can vary from good to poor. Some friends we know have waited up to 11 months for them to react let alone install a phone line which took a further 6 months!If you find accommodation that already has a phone installed then you will wait a relatively short time for them to transfer it into your name.
But the great thing is once you have your phone, the infrastructure is excellent and besides the odd cable being stolen out the ground you should have no problems!
Postal System
Post is luck of the draw - we do not suggest that you send cheques via the post as they can go astray. If you are sending anything valuable you need to make sure that you use registered post.The postal system works on around three days to deliver post in the main cities but we have found that it can take up to a week to deliver a letter and International post usually takes a week or two to arrive at its destination.
Most people have their own post boxes (PO Box) at the Post Office. If you are resident in the area and they do not deliver post to your door you will have to get a PO Box.
Internet
If you have access to a PC then we would suggest that you sign up with one of the service providers in SA as quick as possible. The main ISP providers are M-web, Tiscali and iAfrica. The cost of these providers is in the region of R900 a year for dial-up access plus telephone calls. Broadband is also avaliable at around R200-R500 a month depending on the provider.Television
You have to have a TV license by law. If you are caught without one (and the chances are good) you can get a fine up to R10 000. You can get the forms from the post office and can either pay for it up front or in installments.The quality of programming on SABC varies but and is influenced by a lot of American style soaps. The other option is to invest in Digital TV via DSTV. DSTV has many channels and you can catch up with SKY News, MSNBC and the likes to get a good international flavour. The cost of DSTV is around R2000- R3000 for installation and around R300-R400 per month for rental.
