Telkom today began the commercial trial of its Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) service in Gauteng, ahead of a staggered national rollout that will see an ADSL presence established in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Free State by March next year.

The monthly ADSL line rental is R680 for residential customers and R800 for business customers, in addition to the normal monthly telephone line rental (R67,72 for residential customers and R89,97 for business customers) and call charges. There is a once-off installation charge of R404.

"The first phase is a commercial trial in Gauteng that will be used to fine-tune various processes before we extend the ADSL footprint to other major centres," said Telkom's Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Pinky Moholi.

ADSL is a super-fast technology that turns an ordinary telephone line into a multitasking access tool. While maintaining the existing telephone service, ADSL also provides data transmission at significantly higher speeds than an ordinary or Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) dial-up service.

ADSL is a dedicated access line to the Internet with a 256 kbps upstream and 512 kbps downstream speed. It is an always-on connection with uninterrupted access to the worldwide web and instant e-mail messaging.

The service is charged at a flat rate with a differential for residential and business customers.

ADSL users also require a special modem and surge protection unit. Modems and surge protection units are available from Telkom, or may be purchased from external suppliers. Telkom charges R2469 for an Ethernet modem or R2067 for a USB modem.

Prospective users can check ADSL connection availability in their area and order the service online at www.adslspeedfreak.net . This site also has a list of modems approved by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). A toll free number, 0800ADSL00, also gives access to the Telkom Business Call Centre that handles all orders.

The USB modem simply plugs into the USB port on the computer while the Ethernet modem requires a network card and offers concurrency, where more than one computer can be used on the same ADSL line simultaneously.

To obtain maximum benefit from a Telkom ADSL line, the user's PC must meet the minimum specification. Typically for users of Windows 2000, this is a Pentium 2 with a processor speed of at least 166 MHz and 128 MB of Ram, 100 MB storage and a CD drive. Telkom's web site www.Telkom.co.za lists a variety of other PC and software configurations suitable for ADSL.

ADSL customers can use any ISP that is connected to the Telkom ADSL network.