I certainly enjoy being connected to the Internet and digital world, but as my bills poured in at the end of the month, I started wondering just how much this is costing me.

Here is a (very approximate) breakdown:

  • 3G modem, 1 Gig , R350
  • 3G modem, 2 Gig, R550
  • Cellphone contract, R500
  • Blackberry subscription, R150
  • Audible contract (for audio books) $25 / R200
  • Basecamp business account $25 / R200
  • Hosting (US) $10 / R80
  • .com domains $30 / R240
  • Hosting (SA) R 500 (this includes registrations of domain names)
  • Media subscriptions giving me access to online archives R 650
  • Not online per say, but still relevant: My PVR subscription (I watch CNN ☺) at R550

    • That adds up to just under R4,000 per month. And notice how little I spend on US hosting: if I were to host my content here, the bill would probably be closer to R1,000. And yet, I get a ton of stuff for free (plus bandwidth cost). My email is free, most of the software I use online is free (such as my blogging platform, WordPress), my LinkedIn profile is free, I host my photos online for free, I Skype (a lot) for free and my daughter plays with Barney online, for free.

    (By the way: I thought my daughter’s school private school fees were somewhat exorbitant, yet now they seem somewhat of a bargain compared to how expensive it is to educate me! )

    Certainly, not all those fees are strictly necessary, but I would find it difficult, if not impossible to give any of them up.

    And of course, it must be said that these are more business expenses than anything else. I spend that money to generate more money, so I am certainly not complaining.
    (I haven’t included the money I spend on outsourcing, which I do online, but consider to be a pure business expense than a “connectivity” expense).

    And before you start lamenting about the high costs of connectivity in South Africa, let me say that this line of thought was inspired by an article I read a while ago in a US weekly (name and date escape me), where the writer commented that his family’s connectivity cost was about $500 per month. I am sure the prices have dropped since then, but there are more opportunities to spend money on online tools, so I suspect his bill hasn’t changed much.

    Work out yours (if you dare).

    Author

    • Eve Dmochowska spends her day playing on and with the Internet, and thinks it is a rather fun way to make money. She is the founder of Crowdfund, a crowd sourced fund to help local online startups get off the ground, and of the Geekspace, Joburgs first hot desking space for geeks. She is also the co-founder of The Broadband Bible which helps SAfricans find the perfect ADSL plan and the Airtime Bible, which compares the costs of cellphone contracts.

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    Eve Dmochowska

    Eve Dmochowska spends her day playing on and with the Internet, and thinks it is a rather fun way to make money. She is the founder of Crowdfund,...

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