Broadband Ratings Report: First Draft

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rpm

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Broadband Ratings Report

Hi folks

I am glad to announce that the first draft of the March Broadband Ratings Report is now available. It can be downloaded from: http://home.telkomsa.net/rudolph/bbr.pdf

Your comments/suggestions will be of great value. The last time your feedback ensured a good final product, so please comment on the report!

Regards,

RPM
 
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it looks good in its 'draft stage' good job guys!!!

I was shocked to see that Brazil has cheaper connectivity as compared to Mzantsi-Afrika; seriously , hawu $izwe haikona man.
 
As a 512 unshaped user and tester, I have to say that your summary perfectly encapsulates the pro's and the con's of the service, and am very comfortable with the relative score it got. Looks good - great work, again!
 
Very very good, but I'm taking my time going through it...

Why are all the services not present?
Click to expand...
Might be good to mention that HomeDSL192 had only just been introduced and there were hardly any people that had it installed to be able to test.
 
Sad to see

Eish man, it hurts to see iBurst down and out in this survey but I suppose they had it comming with all the issues they had. I am really happy with my connection but have not had it for long. It looks as if they are sorting out their issues and hopefully they can give Telshlong a run for their money if future.

Good job and let us know when you need testers again, maybe my tests can help dragging them up there again. :)
 
By the way, do you have demographics of the iBurst testing, so we can see how many users tested and connecting to which masts?
 
Hi Gimli

Unfortunately no demographic information was collected as part of the testing. I will try to include this in the next round...

Regards,

RPM
 
Just an idea...

Have any questions?
If you have any queries regarding
this report, the ratings or general
broadband services, simply head
over to our forums on
www.myadsl.co.za or
www.mybroadband.co.za.
Click to expand...
If possible could we have a url that redirects to either a dedicated Broadband Ratings Reports sub-forum, or otherwise a dedicated sticky Broadband Ratings Reports thread, something like:
www.myBroadband.co.za/BRR which redirects guests to
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=XX
OR
http://www.mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=YYYYY

Another reason for suggesting this is there will over time be several additional releases of the Broadband Ratings Report, it would be nice if guests reading an older version could quickly & effortlessly get to the latest, as well as any discussion threads we all may have subsequently started.
 
Very interesting.

Sentech beating iBurst for one.

I would love to be a fly on the wall at both Sentech and iBurst!

For a niche product, Vodacom 3G scored well in a generalised survey!

Also interesting: I see that the Egypt package is at 36% of average income. I guess that is a reason for Telkom crawl ADSL - it will be better than that. Now they can claim with ICASA they have an option for the poor.
 
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Brilliant job guys. Well done. There's only one thing that makes me cringe. The verdict for ADSL384 says "Good Price". We know this means it's a good price compared to the other total rip-off prices from telkom. But we also know how Telkom thinks and how they like to twist things to suit them. It sounds like we feel that having to pay 46% of our average income is a good thing.

I really enjoyed the International price comparison. It shows just how shocking Telkom's pricing really is.
 
VQuest said:
Brilliant job guys. Well done. There's only one thing that makes me cringe. The verdict for ADSL384 says "Good Price". We know this means it's a good price compared to the other total rip-off prices from telkom. But we also know how Telkom thinks and how they like to twist things to suit them. It sounds like we feel that having to pay 46% of our average income is a good thing.

I really enjoyed the International price comparison. It shows just how shocking Telkom's pricing really is.
Click to expand...
Hi VQuest

Thanks a bunch for the feedback! As you mentioned the price is certainly not ‘good’ in an international context, but in a local context it scores well in that department. Since we would like to stay completely objective in this report regarding our scores, write-ups etc we simply looked at the results produced by our formula and use that as a guideline. If I had to give my subjective views this report would have looked very different :D Unfortunately that will make it less respectable…

Regards,

RPM
 
For a niche product, Vodacom 3G scored well in a generalised survey!
Click to expand...

It's a niche product? I've researched high and low to get good internet without paying R600+ p/month 'flatrates'. The -only- service i could find was 3G. Survey didn't mention it specifically, but the R600 p/month package is just one of many, you can get 'onto' 3G with a prepaid sim, no contract and a datacard paying purely p/MB. Based on that i'd say all other services are niche instead , especially since Vodacom now sells PCMCIA-PCI adaptors to plug into desktops [which i'm doing as well at home], so not a laptop only thing either.

All in all good survey, the 3G results is amazingly accurate to what i get
 
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A good report and professionally put together. I do have some suggestions. In order to add that last bit of spit and polish, i would clean up the language a little - it's a bit informal. Secondly, if it's there it not obviouos enough - say prices Incl VAT. And lastly, in general the wording seems to "praise" Telkom and Sentech for their good offerings, rather than being "objective" as you aimed to be. Always draw comparisons relative to the competitors. Let me give an example:

> dont say DSL384 if affordable. It is NOT affordable by 99% of South Africans. Say it is the "least expensive offering in relation to overall performance". This clearly states that although it is a good offering, it is still overpriced.
> dont say DSL384 is a "great alternative" to ISDN or dialup. Rather, it is a "potentially cost saving alternative". The general idea is not to give ANYONE the impression that adsl is in any way cheap or affordable.
> For the international section. Mention EXPLICITELY that the percentage scores should not in ANY WAY be compared to the local percentage ratings. I can see it now

""Telkom quoted the MyADSL broadband report, saying: Our HomeDSL384 scored 74% while international offerings such as BT Yahoo 2Mbit DSL only scored 56%, making Telkom's offering significantly better overall."" <--- THIS CANNOT HAPPEN!!!!

I think you get the idea of what im trying to say here. Make sure your wording is in no was complimentary in terms of price, only RELATIVE price. We cannot afford to be misqouted after we've spent so many countless grueling hours building up so much credibility.

And finally, i hope this helps, i really do not in any way want to sound critical, i want to help. If you don't like what i've said, i'll gladly accept your rantings...

Later..

ps: You left off the "GB" for 3"GB" under DSL512
 
At the moment the products are rated for the following categories - price, speed, reliability and support.

An idea for the next test - Bring in a category for usability. How usable is this product for the market that it was developed for ?
 
Hi Gaz

Thanks a bunch for the feedback…exactly what I am looking for. We might make a few changes, but some things can unfortunately not be changed without changing the nature of the report. The percentages, for example, are set and can not be changed without having to develop a new system. Your wording suggestions are definitely of value and I will try to change a few things…

Please keep the feedback coming!

Regards,

RPM
 
How would you measure usability for a market?

This opens a can of worms - it can easily develop into a cat fight where marketing managers claim RPM misinterpreted the target market and intended use.

For starters, I doubt if Telkom loves the idea that businesses use a single ADSL line to provide 20+ employees internet access. if you have a look at the history of ADSL in SA, it obviously was never intended to be used as such.
 
kaspaas said:
How would you measure usability for a market?

This opens a can of worms - it can easily develop into a cat fight where marketing managers claim RPM misinterpreted the target market and intended use.

For starters, I doubt if Telkom loves the idea that businesses use a single ADSL line to provide 20+ employees internet access. if you have a look at the history of ADSL in SA, it obviously was never intended to be used as such.
Click to expand...
Hi Kaspaas and WantedZ

Any new addition must be a variable that is easily tested, produce accurate results and is defendable when challenged. It is acceptable to base certain results on user feedback (surveys), but it must preferably be objective measurements backed by survey results. We must make certain this report remains accurate and as objective as possible. As Kaspaas suggested, usability might open a can of worms...

Regards,

RPM
 
IMO trying to measure usability against any advertised target market is asking for trouble.

When it comes to broadband services in SA [and possibly internationally as well] the target market is everyone who needs access to the internet, the end user decides which broadband service best suites their own personal requirements [or those of their company/employees]. IMO the report aims to give people enough info to decide which broadband service is best suited to their needs.
 
RPM its a pleasure. I'll have another few read-throughs and see if there's anything else..

w.r.g the percentages, i didn't imply chaning them in any way, since the rating system is already very good. What i meant was that you should clearly state on the coverpage for the international section that "The following percentages for international offerings do not correspond in ANY way to the previous percentages given for the local broadband offerings." If Telkom pulls a jippo and qoutes an example like i gave in my earlier post, it is easy to respond with this disclaimer and nail them for effectively misqouting us fraudulently (i can see the court cases now..)

Has anyone used that dial-a-lawyer service from FNB? We might need to get friendly with those guys..Hehe..
 
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