Strobemeister
Expert Member
Here's an interesting letter from Today's paper. Not sure i can legally reproduce it here. If i can't, one of the admins can just delete it.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">'Ferrari of internet connections' has an old Beetle engine under the bonnet
December 17, 2003
The sale of asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) in this country is clearly based on misrepresentation.
Telkom sells the service as a broadband offering with speeds of 512k (downstream) and 256k (upstream).
It doesn't guarantee the speed issue. however, inherent in the use of the word "broadband" is a speed-delivery
implication.
What it doesn't tell you at the time of selling you the "Ferrari of internet connections" is that you are not allowed to open the bonnet. the reason is there's an old beetle engine in there.
We all know that ADSL is supposed to be South Africa's answer to broadband connectivity. Sure, you may get reasonable connect speeds browsing some local cached sites.
but the reality is if you try during peak South African working hours to transfer any large file from overseas, you'll be lucky to get even a quarter of the speed advertised by Telkom.
So where's the broadband? I have sent visual traces of connects to friends who work in ADSL support overseas, showing speeds and routing data from SA to popular US and UK sites.
the figures are "so bad they are laughable" came the responses from the overseas ADSL staff. "you pay R1 100 per month for this service in SA - you must be kidding!" came another.
Basically Telkom is ripping us off - a second-rate service with a good dose of pseudo-government inefficiency and red tape thrown in.
Telkom ADSL blocks the use of traces. the reason stated is because it is using up too much bandwidth - a totally ridiculous comment.
The real reason is because any savvy user would immediately be able to see the horrendous situation with regards to ADSL traffic routing in this country.
When asked about network load balancing for ADSL traffic, Telkom ADSL support staff basically struggle to respond with more than a few grunts.
All ADSL traffic is lumped into the same pool as the entire Saix dial-up population. That means the pipe down, which all dial-up traffic passes on the Telkom network, has now had to swallow up to three times as much demand.
It's ludicrous, and only Telkom without any competition could get away with it. it's not going to get better but far worse, with more unsuspecting ADSL users buying into this highly flawed state of affairs.
So what happened to truth in advertising? Surely Telkom and other down-the-line resellers of this service should be forced to state the facts before tying unsuspecting subscribers up in contracts.
One of the most annoying and unpublished facts is that all international ADSL traffic passes through one gateway in London: london-dir-telecity-pos-8-0-0.telkom-ipnet.co.za
The fact that this creates a massive bottleneck on all international traffic seems not to concern Telkom. So if you are connecting to the US or Japan, it's all via one point in London.
You just have to love that kind of logic (of course Telkom doesn't want you to know this, hence it blocks the use of traces on the ADSL network).
I think it's time that the advertising standards authority (ASA) gets involved. Surely Telkom shouldn't be allowed to use the term "broadband" when the service it is actively selling is about as close to broadband as my 56K modem is.
In my opinion, it's clearly misrepresentation.
Cape Town<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Telkom - South Africa's Handbrake to progress.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">'Ferrari of internet connections' has an old Beetle engine under the bonnet
December 17, 2003
The sale of asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) in this country is clearly based on misrepresentation.
Telkom sells the service as a broadband offering with speeds of 512k (downstream) and 256k (upstream).
It doesn't guarantee the speed issue. however, inherent in the use of the word "broadband" is a speed-delivery
implication.
What it doesn't tell you at the time of selling you the "Ferrari of internet connections" is that you are not allowed to open the bonnet. the reason is there's an old beetle engine in there.
We all know that ADSL is supposed to be South Africa's answer to broadband connectivity. Sure, you may get reasonable connect speeds browsing some local cached sites.
but the reality is if you try during peak South African working hours to transfer any large file from overseas, you'll be lucky to get even a quarter of the speed advertised by Telkom.
So where's the broadband? I have sent visual traces of connects to friends who work in ADSL support overseas, showing speeds and routing data from SA to popular US and UK sites.
the figures are "so bad they are laughable" came the responses from the overseas ADSL staff. "you pay R1 100 per month for this service in SA - you must be kidding!" came another.
Basically Telkom is ripping us off - a second-rate service with a good dose of pseudo-government inefficiency and red tape thrown in.
Telkom ADSL blocks the use of traces. the reason stated is because it is using up too much bandwidth - a totally ridiculous comment.
The real reason is because any savvy user would immediately be able to see the horrendous situation with regards to ADSL traffic routing in this country.
When asked about network load balancing for ADSL traffic, Telkom ADSL support staff basically struggle to respond with more than a few grunts.
All ADSL traffic is lumped into the same pool as the entire Saix dial-up population. That means the pipe down, which all dial-up traffic passes on the Telkom network, has now had to swallow up to three times as much demand.
It's ludicrous, and only Telkom without any competition could get away with it. it's not going to get better but far worse, with more unsuspecting ADSL users buying into this highly flawed state of affairs.
So what happened to truth in advertising? Surely Telkom and other down-the-line resellers of this service should be forced to state the facts before tying unsuspecting subscribers up in contracts.
One of the most annoying and unpublished facts is that all international ADSL traffic passes through one gateway in London: london-dir-telecity-pos-8-0-0.telkom-ipnet.co.za
The fact that this creates a massive bottleneck on all international traffic seems not to concern Telkom. So if you are connecting to the US or Japan, it's all via one point in London.
You just have to love that kind of logic (of course Telkom doesn't want you to know this, hence it blocks the use of traces on the ADSL network).
I think it's time that the advertising standards authority (ASA) gets involved. Surely Telkom shouldn't be allowed to use the term "broadband" when the service it is actively selling is about as close to broadband as my 56K modem is.
In my opinion, it's clearly misrepresentation.
Cape Town<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Telkom - South Africa's Handbrake to progress.
..lol