Local company Telspace will provide free Web site hosting to the first 300 signups to the service, says company owner Dino Covotsos.
The offering covers the initial R100 setup fee and the monthly R60 charge, which will be covered indefinitely by Telspace. "We can`t say we will cover it for life, because life is a very long time," says Covotsos.
"For example, if our bandwidth providers were to boost their prices substantially, then we would obviously be forced to stop the service, or charge a minimal fee. We will offer it for as long as we can, whether that is one year or ten years; it all depends on how business is going."
While the offer was set up to increase the company`s customer base and brand awareness, Covotsos says it will also make local hosting a more lucrative offering in the market. High bandwidth costs, coupled with increasingly competitive international offerings have resulted in difficult times for local competitors, he says.
"In SA, an ISP will pay extremely large amounts for dedicated bandwidth, whereas it is much cheaper Internationally. So effectively ISPs are eliminating local competition by hosting internationally. By making the local offering cheap, coupled with this free hosting drive, we want to show that local can still be competitive."
The package will include 10Mb of Web space, PHP support and Webmail access. Users will also have access to statistics and information regarding traffic on their site.
"The package is flexible, so that it can meet whatever needs the customer has - they can use it for whatever they want, be it personal or business. But anything porn-related is obviously not allowed," Covotsos adds.
The offering is open to South African individuals or companies, and officially began last Friday afternoon. So far, Covotsos says the company has received up to 300 query e-mails, and 24 of the accounts have already been taken.
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