no solution insight... South Africa in "the dark ages"

Hi everyone,

I've been having enormous issues with the iBurst network. I run a software business and have been unable to connect to the Internet for months now. Its putting serious constraints on my business. I tried to switch over to Telkom, only to discover after 2 weeks of waiting, that they cannot provide ADSL. According to the Telkom agent, ADSL works on copper only and not fibre optic. The line to the nearest exchange is apparently fibre optic. Now, this seems very strange to me. Can anyone tell me what she is talking about???

Its really strange that my office is located in the heart of the economy... Sandton, and yet I cannot get a decent Internet connection. The South African government is to blame. Their misguided and greedy policies have meant that we are stuck in the dark ages. I seriously thinking of emmigrating abroad... I'm reaching the end.

well ADSLl will only work on copper. some places have fibre lines for various reasons. ADSL is based on sending signals on a higher frequency that is available on the copper medium. if between the exchange and your premises you have a fibre link you will not be able to get it.

Technically speaking she is correct. However VDSL can be provided using fibre to the home and then converted into the office or home. There is evidence of Telkom experimenting with VDSL in South Africa.

Here are two interesting documents on how DSL and VDSL work...

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/dsl.htm

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/vdsl.htm

VDSL was actually invented to use fibre...

This is the big difference between SA and, for example, NL. Over there they looked at the network carefully, and, if there was fibre between the consumer and the exchange, they actually placed a DSLAM/an extra converter (? not sure which one!) in the connection box where the copper was linked to the fibre. This way, they ensured that all consumers could actually use ADSL. But I suppose with the much smaller size of the country, they could afford to spend more money on this kind of equipment: they save huge (in comparison to SA) on the lengths of cable/fibre they have to lay down.