I personally think that the ISPs themselves need to put their own infrastructure in, in terms of international net access. It is very silly for Telkom to force the hands of the ISPs into only proving SAIX access in their ADSL products. The SAIX backbone in my opinion is extremely inneffient in dealing with the current demand for broadband net access. The November price increase may be a slick way of Telkom to reduse the "abuse" on the SAIX backbone. I have said this once and I will say it again, if Telkom cannot provide a decent service at a decent price that is comparable to other countries in the world then the South African government must get someone who can.
Quick comment on Telkom's service levels. I don't know if you wil remember a few years back, government lashed out and fined Telkom a few million rand for not providing a telephonic service to under-serviced areas. Prehaps from a purely finanical positionm installing the neccessary infrastructure would cost Telkom more than the actual fine. In this day and age how can any company that is "proudly South African" neglect the needs of the people for what ever reason. Broadband Internet is becoming the accepted norm in many countries world-wide and for Telkom to charge such exorbantantly for it, is rediculas.
I was reading through the transcripts of the ICASA hearing, and it was very interesting to note that Telkom constantly refured to their service as "DSL" and everyone else refured to it as "ADSL", there are differences between DSL and ADSL. The term broadband is used to represent a connection speed that is equal to or above 192k/s. Therefor a point to point connection from site A to site B at a speed of 192k is classified as broadband. The destinction needs to be made between broadband and broadband internet.
It is also an international standard that each DSLAM has a unique connection to whaterver ISP is requested. In this country that does not appear to happen. It is the ISP's responsibility to maintain uptimes and a minimum level of service. How can Telkom (Access Provider) also be trading as a serivce provider, Telkom just supplies the line, thats all, but due to lack of competition only one or two ISPs are allowed to connect to the Telkom DSLAMS. That is a restriction that is unacceptable.
The cap and presence of shaping should also be at the discression of the ISP, not the access provider. According to the ICASA ASDL hearing transcripts, the cap and shaping is enforced at access provider level which in my opinion is a violation of human rights as your internet access is extremely restricted and not being allowed access to certain ports could be considered as censorship. Certain sites like dnsstuff.com cannot be accessed over Telkom's SAIX network through whatever connection including dialup.
Telkom is also restricting the growth of ISPs by reselling them international bandwidth which the ISP themselves purchased. It's like buying a car from a dealer, then selling the car to the motoring guild and buying it back from them. It just does not make sense and would be responsible for the high costs of access in this country.
Lets turn to security for a moment, Telkom swears that be turning off certain ports ADSL, clients of their network are less likely to have viruses on their system. Then please Telkom can you explain the virus-like port open on your own www.saix.net. Port number 3127 was found open, and is associated to the "MyDoom" Internet Virus. So please Telkom secure your own systems first before trying to tell your client's to secure theirs. (Scan was not conducted through an ADSL connection and is not subject to Telkom ADSL terms and conditions.)
Thats about all I have to say for now. Will be posting more when time allows
R4tt3xx
Quick comment on Telkom's service levels. I don't know if you wil remember a few years back, government lashed out and fined Telkom a few million rand for not providing a telephonic service to under-serviced areas. Prehaps from a purely finanical positionm installing the neccessary infrastructure would cost Telkom more than the actual fine. In this day and age how can any company that is "proudly South African" neglect the needs of the people for what ever reason. Broadband Internet is becoming the accepted norm in many countries world-wide and for Telkom to charge such exorbantantly for it, is rediculas.
I was reading through the transcripts of the ICASA hearing, and it was very interesting to note that Telkom constantly refured to their service as "DSL" and everyone else refured to it as "ADSL", there are differences between DSL and ADSL. The term broadband is used to represent a connection speed that is equal to or above 192k/s. Therefor a point to point connection from site A to site B at a speed of 192k is classified as broadband. The destinction needs to be made between broadband and broadband internet.
It is also an international standard that each DSLAM has a unique connection to whaterver ISP is requested. In this country that does not appear to happen. It is the ISP's responsibility to maintain uptimes and a minimum level of service. How can Telkom (Access Provider) also be trading as a serivce provider, Telkom just supplies the line, thats all, but due to lack of competition only one or two ISPs are allowed to connect to the Telkom DSLAMS. That is a restriction that is unacceptable.
The cap and presence of shaping should also be at the discression of the ISP, not the access provider. According to the ICASA ASDL hearing transcripts, the cap and shaping is enforced at access provider level which in my opinion is a violation of human rights as your internet access is extremely restricted and not being allowed access to certain ports could be considered as censorship. Certain sites like dnsstuff.com cannot be accessed over Telkom's SAIX network through whatever connection including dialup.
Telkom is also restricting the growth of ISPs by reselling them international bandwidth which the ISP themselves purchased. It's like buying a car from a dealer, then selling the car to the motoring guild and buying it back from them. It just does not make sense and would be responsible for the high costs of access in this country.
Lets turn to security for a moment, Telkom swears that be turning off certain ports ADSL, clients of their network are less likely to have viruses on their system. Then please Telkom can you explain the virus-like port open on your own www.saix.net. Port number 3127 was found open, and is associated to the "MyDoom" Internet Virus. So please Telkom secure your own systems first before trying to tell your client's to secure theirs. (Scan was not conducted through an ADSL connection and is not subject to Telkom ADSL terms and conditions.)
Thats about all I have to say for now. Will be posting more when time allows
R4tt3xx
