Telkom 8 Mbps ADSL trial in full swing
| Rudolph Muller | November 17, 2009 | No comments |
Rudolph Muller
Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...
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Telkom rolling out 8 Mbps ADSL in some areas as part of its investigation into higher speed broadband services
Some Telkom ADSL subscribers have recently reported an upgrade to their ADSL downlink speeds – from 4 Mbps to 8 Mbps. According to one user his line was upgraded last Friday, and since then he syncs at 8 Mbps with actual downlink speeds well exceeding 4 Mbps. In one online speed test the user showed a download speed of 6.5 Mbps: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=202582
The Telkom/SAIX notice board confirms the ADSL speed upgrades. A recent notice relating to the Constantia Park IMAX which took place over the weekend reads: “Implementation of the 8 Meg trial. All current 4 Meg customers on the 4 Meg sync profile will be upgraded to the 8 Meg sync profile.”
Telkom is tight lipped about the 8 Mbps ADSL trials, but did say that they are investigating higher ADSL speeds. “As part of our on-going drive to improve our product and service offerings to customers, Telkom is currently investigating improvements to its ADSL speeds. This includes the possibility of upgrading our 4Mbps offering to an 8 Mbps service,” said Marius Mostert, Telkom SA’s Managing Executive for Network Infrastructure Provisioning.
There are currently no time frames for a potential upgrade of all Telkom 4 Mbps ADSL subscribers, but Telkom’s executive of strategy Steve Lewis previously said that an early 2010 launch date is expected. He said that while the company’s 8 Mbps ADSL trials were successful, the limited footprint which can support the higher speed is holding a commercial launch back.
Lewis further explains that some of the older DSLAMs do not support Metro Ethernet, a network technology now widely used by Telkom to serve its increasing bandwidth requirements. The upgrade of DSLAMs and connecting DSLAM’s to their new Metro Ethernet network is a time consuming exercise, something which Lewis points out is one of the biggest restraining factors in bumping up ADSL speeds.
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