Webafrica 16GB/4MB special

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boswald

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Hey All,

I was one of the lucky ones and got chosen for this special but due to recent activities in the uncapped market have decided to not go with web africa but rather one of the other ISPs.

Anyone else sticking with WebAfrica's special or rather going for uncapped options?
 
I am, Simply because im basically paying R90 for 16gig of bandwidth and I get my 4meg line whoop! To be honest I dont need Uncapped for the extra R400, If I look at what I use the bandwidth for I doubt Im gonna hit 16gig purely because Im very picky about what I download... For guys who download anything and everything then the extra money would be worth it but not for me right now. Lets be honest, most people who want uncapped is because they want to be able to download as much as possible.. especially the larger files like games... Fortunately for me, any game that I want to play Ill buy and since WebAfrica have the free bandwidth for steam downloads, it will make life so much easier :)
 
St3baS said:
I am, Simply because im basically paying R90 for 16gig of bandwidth and I get my 4meg line whoop! To be honest I dont need Uncapped for the extra R400, If I look at what I use the bandwidth for I doubt Im gonna hit 16gig purely because Im very picky about what I download... For guys who download anything and everything then the extra money would be worth it but not for me right now. Lets be honest, most people who want uncapped is because they want to be able to download as much as possible.. especially the larger files like games... Fortunately for me, any game that I want to play Ill buy and since WebAfrica have the free bandwidth for steam downloads, it will make life so much easier :)
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Excellent post. Sums up my view as well
 
I also applied for this 16GB/4mbps all in one/R499 mybb special and was faced with the same questions and uncertainty as you - should I rather get cheaped uncapped or stick with cheap capped? I dedcided to stick with cheap capped - the myBB special in particular. Well I will do so for at least the next 3-4 months, as it really is an excellent deal. Capped bandwidth will soon become a premium service, while uncapped will be the normal. A capped account will and should offer better speeds, reliability, latency and lower contention ratios. This obviously depends on the ISP and how their network is implemented - if they seperate capped users from uncapped users, i.e. traffic from the 2 sets of users don't affect each other.

In any case - WebAfrica have been caught very off-guard, on the backfoot. With their high prices, lots of people are either jumping ship, or will be soon, either to Afrihost capped, or cheap Mweb/Afrihost/Vox/OpenWeb uncapped. This means that WebAfrica's brand new network will have lower contention ratios, and I bet it will be considerably under-utilised. This bodes well for all those myBB members who successfully applied for the special offers.

These cheap WA myBB special accounts are great for business. I would not use any of the new cheap uncapped products for business just as yet. I'd give it another 4-6 months for things to stabilise and the novelty to wear off.
 
ToxicWazte said:
A capped account will and should offer better speeds, reliability, latency and lower contention ratios. This obviously depends on the ISP and how their network is implemented - if they seperate capped users from uncapped users, i.e. traffic from the 2 sets of users don't affect each other.
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Indeed. I'd rather go with capped than uncapped if that's the case. Even if you need to top up the prices are dropping so low it's not a problem. Like St3baS said Webafrica offer free downloads from steam so that removes a major source of usage.
 
Having the same dilema trying to decide wich one to go for... the topup is just rather stiff ? but the first 16GB is so cheap that it makes up for it 10 times.
 
my line is being installed today do you think having webafrica install adsl will speed things up ?
 
I also applied and got the 16GB/4Mbps which more than amply meets my needs. It will feel like uncapped in our household.

The biggest bandwidth hogger for us has been internet radio from the UK via our Sonos system, now I can tell the other half to listen all she wants.

VOIP to the UK doesn't use so much but Video videoconferencing does, maybe we'll use that some more.

Last month our account went up from a 5GB account to the new 6GB account (and down in price, one month on and it falls by a further R100 and increases by a further 10GB, more than double). We haven't even hit that 6GB mark this month yet!

Our average over the past year has been between 3-9GB with one exceptional month where we bought 15GB.

So now with 16GB there is no chance of R70 top ups creeping in, things definitely are going in the right direction. The biggest cost is now the line rentals so even as bandwidth prices fall this will simply raise caps rather than lower prices IMO and when we get to a 30GB cap I'll feel like I'm back in 2005!

For us it's simply a question of time. To consume bandwidth you need "time" to consume it , just like DSTV, we may have it, but rarely find time to consume it. So even with 200GB available which I'm sure will be the norm one day here , I doubt we'll have time to consume it all.

I think this special is good value for money even with theoretically cheaper options elsewhere , those other options have Terms and Conditions and we'll see how reliable they are in the long run.

All in all it's been a long wait for change to happen in the BB market here but AT LAST it is happening. With more cables coming onstream in 2011 we should see more downward pressure, but priority now must be LLU.
 
St3baS said:
To be honest I dont need Uncapped for the extra R400, If I look at what I use the bandwidth for I doubt Im gonna hit 16gig purely because Im very picky about what I download... For guys who download anything and everything then the extra money would be worth it but not for me right now.
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+1 - I had a 5Gb package, and now I have 16Gb for R59 less a month. If I find that I start running out of the 16Gb, I'll reconsider, but for the moment, I'm saving money and getting more than 3 times the cap.
 
I am sticking with the WA special. I dont do games and my monthly usage vary quite a lot, between 3 and 10 gig so this is just perfect for me. I just hope I get my adsl line soon.
 
I am going with it for the line. I have the wug to download all the other crap. And I barley used up my current 10gig from afrihost on my 384 line. I am just doing the special for the line as i have a budget cap of R500 for internet this is perfect.
 
Just a question... Since the line is going to be billed to WebAfrica now... I just want to be sure that I will still be able to use my telkomsa account on it?? If I cant then this deal is useless to me... I cant lose my telkomsa email address, its for business.
 
St3baS said:
Just a question... Since the line is going to be billed to WebAfrica now... I just want to be sure that I will still be able to use my telkomsa account on it?? If I cant then this deal is useless to me... I cant lose my telkomsa email address, its for business.
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You can probably just redirect your email to another address or still collect it via the webafrica service. Why not rather get a domain and your own email though. Domain costs you around R50 and you can host it with google for free?
 
Can't you use another ISP with this? I've got a few gigs with Afrihost I need to use up
 
boswald said:
You can probably just redirect your email to another address or still collect it via the webafrica service. Why not rather get a domain and your own email though. Domain costs you around R50 and you can host it with google for free?
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I get what you saying but neither of those are really an option... Its for the parents you see and they are technologically impaired... changing anything is like another month of training and explanation haha. Are you saying that a webafrica line can only have webafrica accounts run on it?
 
I just called them and they said its fine, You can still use other ISP's on the webafrica line.
 
Megabyte said:
I think this special is good value for money even with theoretically cheaper options elsewhere , those other options have Terms and Conditions and we'll see how reliable they are in the long run.
Click to expand...

I have worked out that my phone and internet bill will be R 225 more pm, BUT
1. I am moving from 384K to a 4meg line AND
2. Will have at least twice the bandwidth I have normally used.

So for me this really is good value.

With the changes taking place at present, like most of us, I will reevaluate my needs on regular basis and do the maths again, but I am very happy with this deal :)
 
@ waIan or anyone from WA reading this thread

Is this capped account subject to the same shaping as uncapped 4mb lines?
 
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