Convenience in a box

On 1 August 2005, Telkom launched 12 PC bundles in a bid to increase the penetration of personal computers and Internet access into South African homes.

This is the culmination of a strong partnership between Telkom, Mecer, Intel and Microsoft to provide all South Africans with a PC and Internet access at an affordable price, thus giving them the opportunity to communicate and bridge the digital divide.

Dean Barkhuizen, Managing Director of Mecer, a division of Mustek Limited, said he was very pleased that Mecer could be a part of this collaboration.

"We are delighted to team up with Telkom to offer South Africans the opportunity to have access to an alternative Internet service provider, and to be involved in supplying homes with Mecer PCs is rewarding for our company, as part of our vision is to keep Mecer the number one selling PC brand in Africa."

Mecer is providing a multimedia PC with a 15-inch screen and 180W speakers. The PC will come preloaded with Windows XP Home and Telkom Internet. Once ordered, Telkom, partnered with Mecer, will provide home delivery, will fully install and set up the computer and will load all the relevant software onto it.

Barkhuizen said: "The average end-user customer is apprehensive of buying a computer because they are faced with installing it themselves, a very daunting exercise. This way, we provide the technician and also offer training and help to those who are not very familiar with computers. We are offering convenience in a box."

There are three TelkomInterent PC bundles: Bronze, Silver and Gold. Within these PC bundles are four options, designed to accommodate all consumers. The low-level Telkom Internet PC bundle product, Bronze SurfMore 10 Plus, is priced at R376.16 per month and comes with an Intel Celeron 2.53GHz processor. The top-level Gold SurfMore 10 Plus is priced at R790.96 per month and offers an Intel Pentium 4 processor.

There are a least 555 000 potential Internet users, according to an independent survey recently conducted, and what this means to Mecer is a possible 555 000 Mecer computers that could be provided to households. Mecer has the capacity of releasing 20 000 computers into the market every month. "An achievement that we are very proud of," Barkhuizen said. "Mecer has all available resources to fulfil this activity."

Mecer was the only IT hardware manufacturer and supplier that could come to the party with a full package of a powerful computer, with service, training and full installation; proving once again that it is the market leader in the IT industry.

Mecer is a Proudly South African company, and is firmly committed to the development of our growing economy, the creation of much needed jobs, improving education standards, reducing poverty and eliminating crime.