MyADSL Broadband Report

rpm

rpm

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Hi folks

Please find the first draft of the MyADSL Broadband Report. We have included all research, including the fixed broadband report and the mobile broadband report. Your feedback will be great.

Do you find this kind of report valuable?
Are the performance indicators in line with what you experience using the service?
Any suggestions?

Regards,

RPM
 

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Nicely done RPM and team!

Yes I find it usefull, especially the comparrison in products available. It is just a great pitty that ICASA/Gov probably wont find these figures and fact usefull, seeing that they are not interested in the truth.
 
Its finally here... good job RPM and others.

A couple of things...
Consistency in naming, its DSL Up to 4Mbs trial according to Telkom. Make the graphs, text and tables read the same.

pg10. Note to the graph needs to be fixed: suggest->
**Please note that the international ADSL costs were calculated by using ADSL prices mainly from the incumbent operators in the selected countries. These prices are generally far higher than similar ISP offerings, but for the sake of accuracy and fairness these higher prices were used in this comparison.

Graphs on page 9 and similar... move the legend to either above or below the graph. Graphs with a percent scale should have a scale max of 100%. Consider breaking the scale of the speed graphs to allow better distinction between the lower speed dsl offerings, allowing easier comparison with mobile OR make a combined fixed/mobile spped graph (& bang for buck graph). I bet a lot of consumers are not restricted to either fixed or mobile. A combined ranking on price and speed would not be out of order to show this.

Any chance of including more African countries in the internatonal cost comparison? It will kill the "you can't compare us to the first world" debate.
Also how about adding the vanilla 4Mbs/3GB to that comparison.

I'd have liked to see some more explaination of the fixed line rankings. The Pros and cons are pretty opaque. Maybe a short blurb like last year?
Some editorial is also missing... the graphs are fine but I think you should explicitly state that:
fixed line costs are much more expensive than most place in the world.
mobile costs are more competitive internationally, but still high.
4Mbs dsl is the best of a bad lot.
Marketing does not live up to performance. (There is a case for the ASA here.. ATM Telkom may us well advertise up to 1Gbs, thats how far the average user is from reaching their speed claims.)

At the moment the only thing that will be lifted from the report by the media (and Telkom marketing) is that for the second year running Telkom has been rated "The best fixed broadband choice in South Africa." by its biggest critics.

/just my R20 worth.
 
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Nice report.
Have had bad exp with the Vodacom HSDPA, so am looking at the MTN equivalent... so I am interested to know how far behind MTN HSDPA is or in what areas it lacked? (81% overall and Vodacom 85%)
Are there some numbers available, like average speed or something? I understand that maybe coverage is a bit worse, how would one know if you would be affected by the lesser mobility of MTN HSDPA.
 
Typo on page 10. Currently reads:

"These prices are generally far higher than comparative ISP offerings, but for the sake of accuracy and equally comparisons these higher prices were used in this comparative analysis."

The word "equally" should be "equal" or possibly "equality".
 
The price comparisons should be a wake up call to our favourite telecoms service provider, but they will almost certainly dismiss them as propaganda. On a personal note, I've noticed that the down speed on my DSL384 connection has steadily declined. As I write, it's setting at 283.1. I'm not sure whether this is something that I can get TElkom to attend to.
 
Interesting to see how often 'poor support' is credited to each and (almost?) every package! I must state, however, that the ISP's I deal with (Imaginet and WebAfrica) have been excellent. To the point of logging faults on my behalf, checking in with SAIX over a possible general network fault in my area, setting me up with a test IS account etc. I presume, therefore, that this support issue is credited to Telkom or MTN etc, the other part of the equation which one can, unfortunately, not at present live without.
 
Hi Rudolf,

This is a great report :) I was wondering whether there is any way to see or get hold of some of the raw information? Mainly a full pricing breakdown

Thanks
 
The value and quality assessment of the report obviously depends on what

you want to point and and what you want to achieve and what is your personal

interest and commitment.


The report covers the least relevant and least important part of the overall

discussion about telecommunication.

I don't know if you have been asked to bring forward some facts and figures

and leave it there, costprice and price/quality [performance is just a small

issue in the overall discussion what sort of enviroment the state seeks to

create, how important is the competitifness, will the state remain a major

player , do they want to divest and what do the want to achieve the next

10 years, i would open the door and invite them to discuss the real issues

and where can you contribute and help the government to achieve their

objectives.



Peter
 
An issue I have with the inclusion of the Telkom 4mbps is that Telkom is still touting it as a TRIAL. As such, I do not feel it should be allowed until Telkom come to the party and categorically state it's moved beyond this stage, into a definite offering.

You state it's adviseable to move up to 4mbps from a 512k due to minor cost discrepancies, however, if Telkom pulls the plug on this trial, then one is back to 1mbps, which is, in my opinion, not worth the extra. If one wanted back to the 512k, then it's the usual penalty fee of around R400 to downgrade.

I'm not signing up for this until it's confirmed - this trial status is not reassuring as of yet and, knowing Telkom, is quite possibly open to sudden removal, with them therefore utilising it as a temporary marketing ploy.

I feel it should not be included until Telkom makes this a permanent offering due to my rationale above.
 
what about Verizon

My company is about to sign up with Verizon and I was wandering why they didnt feature in the report....??

I know their offering is fairly new but would anybody be able to give me some feedback / comments on their offering ?
 
Mangoman20 said:
My company is about to sign up with Verizon and I was wandering why they didnt feature in the report....??

I know their offering is fairly new but would anybody be able to give me some feedback / comments on their offering ?
Click to expand...
Hi MangoMan20

We did basic testing on Verizon, but there were not enough user feedback to conclusively rate Verizon's offering. Next time there will be more users and hence more data.

Regards,

RPM
 
rpm said:
Hi folks

Please find the first draft of the MyADSL Broadband Report. We have included all research, including the fixed broadband report and the mobile broadband report. Your feedback will be great.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

Thanks for this, Rudolf. Valuable work, as always. In addition to what others have said, I think the most important issue is the comparison between the first and second sections. In the 1st section (fixed broadband), you rate iBurst at 59%, whereas in the 2nd section (mobile broadband) you rate it at 84%, for example. While I realise that these sections are aimed at different sectors of the market, may I suggest that you normalise the results so that a common standard applies, and it's therefore easier to compare apples with oranges? Otherwise, it might appear that Vodacom HSDPA at 84% is a better bet than Telkom/IS DSL 4 Mbps at 80%, as a random example.

The introductory words for the two sections are almost verbatim copies. This is redundant. However, it would be useful to have a more general discussion of some of the pertinent issues. I'm sure that many of the potential readers of this report are unaware of Telkom's stranglehold on ADSL - including the IPC offerings from IS, Verizon and others. Similarly, their control of SAT3 forces high bandwidth costs on all the broadband providers rated. Also, the promulgation of the ECA on 19th July will eventually give rise to many other alternatives, once ICASA have finished their tedious process of formulating regulations and issuing revised licenses - and most especially spectrum licenses.

Regards,

William
 
Nice Report, I think its extremely useful for people who are just starting out.
I wanted to know if you have ANY info about Niotell, prices etc. I know its probably too early to ask, but i was just wondering.

Thanks
 
Brilliant

Excellent report!!

Well done on all the effort put into the compilation and writing of the report. Yes, there are maybe a few anal things that could change (which people have pointed out in this thread), but i think it would be sad if we miss the point that we actually have a report like this, which NO ONE ELSE produces!

great stuff. And thats why we keep coming back :)
 
Very good report!

A few suggestions:

I agree that the 'DSL Up to 4 Mbps', or just 'DSL 4 Mbps' should be kept throughout the report for accurate consistency. For instance after the first broadband comparison is made with 4 Mbps, it changes back to 1 Mbps for the duration of the report. This could be confusing for un-enlightened individuals..

There is a typo in the very last graph in the report, it says 'Mobile Broadand', instead of 'Mobile Broadband'..

That's it, good job!
 
I only noticed this all-in report now.

Iburst price for 3gb is R599 not R699. The only con for Iburst is "Hard Capped". But Iburst is not hard-capped. It is throttled to a 64kb service after the cap is reached. Which means users can continue to use the service after the cap is reached.

For the 1MB ADSL packages I can understand their superior ratings to Iburst. For the other ADSL packages it is very surprising, since in your relative performance and support graphs Iburst beats them easily.

You must use a very strange formula.
 
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