Nov 2005 Broadband Report

rpm

rpm

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Hi folks

I am glad to announce that the November 2005 Broadband Report is now available in draft form. You will notice that there is a significant difference between the various services. This is mainly due to the introduction of DSL1024 and the reduction in DSL cost since the last report.

The latest report can be downloaded from:

http://www.mydrive.co.za/reports/bbrnov2005-2.pdf

It is still in draft form and any feedback & corrections/suggestions will be appreciated. The results are however correct and can not be changed :D

Regards,

RPM
 
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Thanks again for a great report. Just a couple thoughts:

1) Should you not rate all the services with a standard monthly bandwidth allowance. Is it really fair to compare the 20Gig Sentech offering to a 1 Gig Vodacom/MTN offering or a 3Gig Telkom one.

2) Can the 192K Telkom ADSL offering not be omitted, as it is not really true broadband. If you take it out the "basic monthly cost" graph the picture tells a different story.

3) The graph "basic monthly cost" has another error. The legend states "Cost for 3GB traffic allowance". The MyWireless price is listed at R699, but for 20GB traffic allowance. The effective price for MyWireless 3GB is thus R105.

4) Like I said previously - the graphs are difficult to read without stating something like "lower is better / higher is better". How would somebody new to computers and broadband know that they want low latency. Usually faster / higher / more is considered best.

5) Excellent cover page for the report. Very sleek and professional.
 
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Hi there,

I am a WBS and ADSL512/3Gig subscriber and i find the ADSL data close, but I dont agree with the WBS data. I dont know what kind of lab conditions it was tested in with regards to Tower selection, signal strength etc etc...but your tesing is correct so I cant dispute your figures. Also under what timeframes were the tests conducted over... One test per week, all people tested at the same time? one test at 18h00 every day and such likes.

Another idea is to define "An advanced algorithym" as that could also mean a dartboard.

Another idea will be to also define "International Sites" as a test conducted to Azbekistan wont yeild anything usefill. Maybe state USA and EUROPE for example.

Its also not noted that 'IF ADSL goes down, expect to be offline for a minumum of 3 days"
The first thing of reports and experiments - are the results consistent and reproducable.

Thanks, a very good read..
Richard

P.S.Am I the only wbs subscriber that gets 110KBytes/sec consistently on downloads?
 
Great post... the info is really helpfull for someone that are stepping into the market.

Gun
 
Hi RPM. The latency graphs is a bit confusing. What do the bars mean? How can local and international be in the same graph?
 
I would highlight the fact that all broadband costs are faaaaat tooooo high due to high infrastructural costs dictated by Telkom - which is also one of the service providers in the broadband market.
 
speed

I think telkom is a big confused. The difference in speed between 512 and 384 is kind of pointless if you take shaping and so forth into account.

I still think that 384 is on par with 512 90% of the time.
 
I get 100kb on Iburst almost all times after 7pm or so, and even during the day my speeds on a single thread are definately higher than the 180kb figure given in the report. I cant really see how you can come up with such a bad figure, I dont even have a very good connection on Iburst. But I said all this about the last Broadband report so what the hell I'll leave it to you guys.
And there is a whole load more people on Iburst that get those kinds of speeds, I know a few on the Iburst forums have said so and two of my friends recently got Iburst and achieve those kind of speeds, at least better than mine.
 
How can Telkoms products retain essentially the same rating despite increasing the price of their 30GB offering by 5x. That cant be right.

If the rating formulas used dont reflect the Nov 1 price increases in a lower rating for the Telkom products then the formulas are fundamentally flawed...

Another thing the advertisements have to go. I'd rather have more ads on this site than cram the broadband report full of ads. It really doesnt create a professional image for what MYADSL is trying to achieve with this report.
 
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Hi folks

Thanks a bunch for all the feedback.

Franna: The total cost, cost-per-gig, traffic allowances, installation etc. has all been taken into account. The graphs and other info in the report is only a simplification of facts to assist users. MyWireless’ 3G is also as expensive (even more I think) than their 20G offering.

RichardP & Ekhaatvensters: The testing involved various sites and tests, feedback from 150 volunteers etc. iBurst users that have a great connection usually doubt the info, but I think many others will say the results are too high. To give you an idea about download speed…we have used more than 10 different tests running over a month. Users tested over a one week period and the average results were the same as the lab tests.

TheRoDent: I was lazy :D Will fix the graphs.

Kaspaas: IS was not included (not enough volunteer testers for accurate results). Next time they will be.

Daysleeper: Correct…the tests showed that.

Siembambaa: The percentages are only a reflection of its relative performance in comparison with the other services. It is therefore not accurate to compare percentages from different reports. Ads: We have to cover our costs somehow. All these things cost money, and we want to ensure that users get everything on MyADSL free of charge. Unfortunately advertising is the only way, but maybe cross-subsidization is a better option as you have suggested.

I hope this answers your questions. Please keep the comments coming.

Regards,

RPM
 
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rpm said:
Siembambaa: The percentages are only a reflection of its relative performance in comparison with the other services. It is therefore not accurate to compare percentages from different reports.

Regards,

RPM
Click to expand...

I suggest you note this fact somewhere in the report perhaps in the appendix etc. You know how good Telkoms marketing dept is with misrepresenting facts :)
 
dmostert said:
Shouldn't you add an international comparison as well? Just to stop Telk*k from taking the findings out of context?
Click to expand...
It will come next year... Just had too much work this year :(
 
Just what telkom wanted - limit broadband to the SA context.

Lulu's going to use it and won't lose it.
 
Franna said:
Can the 192K Telkom ADSL offering not be omitted, as it is not really true broadband. If you take it out the "basic monthly cost" graph the picture tells a different story.
Click to expand...
Hi Franna

I have been asked this question numerous times, but if we omit the DSL192 service we also have to exclude all the wireless offerings since they were even slower in our testing. This will make for a rather boring read :D
 
nOhIwAy said:
Just what telkom wanted - limit broadband to the SA context.

Lulu's going to use it and won't lose it.
Click to expand...
Hi nOhIwAy

You are most likely correct, but with this research we can only give the facts. ADSL is undoubtedly the superior broadband services in South Africa, and it shows in the results. We will continue to do international comparisons, but this report should only serve to inform users about the relative cost and performance of each service.

Regards,

RPM
 
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