Slow ADSL speeds? This is what you should know!

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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Over the last few months numerous local Internet Service Providers (ISPs) launched affordable uncapped ADSL services, creating a relatively bandwidth rich ADSL market in South Africa to the delight of consumers.

The fairly sudden advent of affordable uncapped ADSL accounts means far higher ADSL traffic volumes, something which seems to have placed pressure on Telkom’s infrastructure.

ADSL IPC capacity

According to a well placed source some of the large ADSL service providers are struggling to upgrade their IPConnect (IPC) capacity which is needed to provide their own (including uncapped) ADSL offerings.  There has apparently been an upgrade freeze on IPC bandwidth until the end of September.

Without additional IPC capacity self-provisioning ADSL ISPs face an unpleasant predicament:  Sign up more customers and risk poor service levels, stop signing up new subscribers, or purchase bandwidth from another provider (typically SAIX) at an inflated rate.

Some of the country’s prominent ADSL Internet Service Providers confirmed the IPC capacity freeze, adding that the lack of additional capacity may make it difficult for them over the next few months. 

There have been requests from the ISP community for Telkom to start offering regional IPC services which should not only ensure better service levels but also alleviate load on Telkom’s own network.  A regional IPC service can also alleviate congestion on certain IPC links.

This rather drastic restriction is however not applied across the board as not all ISPs are experiencing an IPC capacity freeze.  One of Telkom’s IPC clients said that they received an upgrade last week which forms part of their standard monthly capacity upgrades.

Bottlenecks at exchange level

Another concern from some service providers is that there may be a lack of capacity at a few of Telkom’s ADSL exchanges.   According to one ADSL service provider, who asked not to be named because of her relationship with Telkom, inadequate backhaul capacity is causing quality of service problems at some Telkom exchanges.

It is alleged that the exchange infrastructure is not always sufficiently upgraded to cope with growing subscriber numbers which translates into poor service levels to consumers.

Service providers have expressed further concern that the imminent 10 Mbps ADSL offering will put additional strain on Telkom’s ADSL network and aggravate some of the capacity problems which currently seem to dog the company.

There have even been suggestions that Telkom’s core network will have to be upgraded to cope with the growth in ADSL traffic on its network.

One prominent ADSL provider however argues that some ISPs may use this excuse as a scapegoat for their own network shortcomings:   “There are literally one or two exchanges that have capacity issues. Telkom are really diligent in providing sufficient bandwidth to the exchanges and when there is a bandwidth problem it is usually sorted out within 3 months,” he said.

Telkom was asked for feedback about the lack of IPC capacity and about the alleged ADSL capacity problems at their exchanges and on their core network, but the company did not reply by the time of publication.

Telkom ADSL speeds, IPC and network issues << comments and views