South Africans feel like they are paying for fibre speeds they don’t need

[Swa]

Ja , i dont get this about ZA , there are millions of pensioners out there, an untapped market.
But there are no pensioner packages available from any providers.
Its a shame.
As pensioner , i would be happy with a 20/10 line good enough to watch netflix at a decent affordable sub R400 per month fee.
Instead of being forced to pay for speeds i dont need or require.

It's astonishing I qualify for free rates and taxes and water and electricity but the fibre providers would rather not have my business than give me a discount.

 

[Johnatan56]

Used to do the same but I've stopped doing this whenever possible.
Downloading a client's data onto a local network, no matter how secure I think it is, is a big no-no and just not worth the risk anymore.

Ephemeral cloud architecture for ad-hoc tasks can be a huge pain to get going and can take ages, but these days I don't care anymore. Policy is policy and I get paid for my time so it's OK (even if it's super tempting to just clone stuff locally sometimes and get the work done).

Don't let me get into a rant about what I think about shared cloud compute and what a f**ing unstable complex and overengineered mess it has sometimes become.

Not really client data, it's me setting up data generation based on real data and then putting it through a lot of tests to make sure it matches client data close enough while not being real data, it's just that much due to system being based on data extraction, so lots of variants etc. (data takes a long while to generate, so you don't want to do it unless needed, rather just get copy per stage as needed).

But point is more that extra speed, 10 EUR / R180 for e.g. 200->400Mbps here, if it saves me 15 minutes in a month, then it's already saved me enough time that it's worth paying for (for me). For others, that value might not be there, being able to download overnight as you can do other things now instead, and e.g. a kid playing video games, they can just go play something else as they have a lot more free time. It's more I don't have to adjust to it being slower, I can just do stuff then and there.

Wrote a bit about the work stuff, feel like it's OT in the end, summarizes as local latency is better, and putting it all remote, including app comes with headaches that most companies won't want to deal with since you already need to give employee a laptop, just give it a bit more RAM and sorted.

 

[Johnatan56]

I get their reasoning. But then just bump people to a higher speed without changing the price and introduce a slower cheaper speed for those that can't afford it.

But that but directly contradicts taking advantage of the inertia of people not going through the effort of changing it so you can charge more?

 

[Johnatan56]

Ja , i dont get this about ZA , there are millions of pensioners out there, an untapped market.
But there are no pensioner packages available from any providers.
Its a shame.
As pensioner , i would be happy with a 20/10 line good enough to watch netflix at a decent affordable sub R400 per month fee.
Instead of being forced to pay for speeds i dont need or require.

Because there is a minimum cost to provide, I would guess that the cheapest package on most providers is probably already break-even.

For restaurants and stuff, pensioner's usually visit during off-peak as they aren't working, so it brings in business during times that are slow, and for parks etc. it's because you generally take others with. Having a cheaper internet package, when the cheapest is already targeted at low profit, doesn't really make sense, that cheapest package that already exists is for pensioners as well.

 

[Tech Guy SA]

wel had a 786 (or was it 784k) mmm 2006/2007 ish then 1mb line cause my then GF was browsing FB and my cod gaming was dropping on that line the 1mb was fine then moved and got 10mb for about R800 a month on 30gb cap line mind you but 1000mins calls lol (felt like an adult) that was errr 2010. the 10mb line was great the ping was weird i connected to asia mostly for good ping.. try star craft against koreans.. not fun cod was fun against asians then (man i miss knife only fights)
anyway
then had that 10mb copper line for a while was fine more than enough fibre came around changed of course and well stayed on 10mb briefly but then i think was 25mb line for cheaper so went yeah why not and i could netflix no issues on the 25mb mmm 2016/2017 ish

Then decided hey wait a min (2019/2020) i can get 50mb oh wait its forced cause thats what they did cool i was fine with 50mb

2023/2024 decided hey you know what i can afford to go 100mb do i need it NOPE not really but after going to enter lan the first time on a GIGABIT lan ... you cant help but wonder wtf why not if you can afford it (i can but im not spending that money for ungodly speed)

and ive been on 100mb just fine streaming 4k and 1080p on two TVs and able to download my stuff on steam no issues i cant see a normal household needing more than 50mb to be honest a 100mb is if the price is right but a 1gb...if you not a business with multiple people using the line yeah its a waste


but for the love of anything let the customer decide what is a waste
Some people think they need a Force Raptor (ranger) all kitted out to drive to work and back for 1-2hours a day Monday to friday ...some might tink thats crazy and by work as in a office not logging timber or a fridge if thats what the person wants to buy and use let them.

Ja , i dont get this about ZA , there are millions of pensioners out there, an untapped market.
But there are no pensioner packages available from any providers.
Its a shame.
As pensioner , i would be happy with a 20/10 line good enough to watch netflix at a decent affordable sub R400 per month fee.
Instead of being forced to pay for speeds i dont need or require.

for something like fibre i also dont see why not since fibres pricing is based on the area and service provider which i think if i remember right pays muncipalities to use the grounds etc. but even a customised package for pensioners slower at a better price doesnt have to be 50% off or anything.

the other issue like you facing is .. the better the tech they using the faster the lines get the more they force people but at the end of the day in a way same price so you only gaining speeds but value out your pocket.

 

[NR7]

What is the use case for these speeds for home/residential use. We have 50/10 for a family of 5. We've never had any issues streaming on multiple devices, online meetings etc. I realise I might not know what I don't know, so kindly enlighten me.

The one pain I do have is the slow upload, 10mbps is slow for anything that matters

I did a simple test in my house. 4K stream on Youtube, scrolling Facebook on one device and scrolling TikTok on another.

Peaks hovers between 65Mbps and 130Mbps.

Thankfully streaming services adjust to your network(Apple TV+ peaks over 40Mbps), so you can get by with much less.

 

[WanderingMind]

Change company, that's what I'd do.

In their area there is only one fibre supplier.

 

[supersunbird]

It's astonishing I qualify for free rates and taxes and water and electricity but the fibre providers would rather not have my business than give me a discount.

You will just have to wait for Broadband Infraco to roll out and maybe you can get that.

 

[whatwhat]

Complete strawman. My question had nothing to do with cap, only the residential use case for multi-gigabit connections. I totally get some people might have a legit use case for it. I don't. At least I don't think I do.

Not a strawman. You asked why anyone at home needs multi-gig. I said that's the wrong question to be asking in the first place. That's a direct reply, not a dodge. You personally not needing it doesn't really factor in.

 

[Swa]

But that but directly contradicts taking advantage of the inertia of people not going through the effort of changing it so you can charge more?

I don't have an issue with them taking advantage of the inertia. It's that whenever that happens low tier speeds fall away, and in some cases if you want to downgrade you (or ISP) get charged a fee. That should be illegal to begin with.

Then there is already a cost even if a line only runs past you. That's why they install to the curb when rolling out as it costs almost nothing then. They might as well take advantage of that and try to get the entire neighbourhood connected on a cheap package as practically the only extra cost is the labour and support.

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

I totally need 2.5Gbps. I would die without it

 

[LasseGJ]

I totally need 2.5Gbps. I would die without it

Would be me if it was available on metro fibre Back in Denmark my old provider just started offering 10 Gbps

 

[Bad Ballie]

So why don't they drop the speed?

Normal not financially worthwhile, when you look at the saving involved

 

[sgs]

It's astonishing I qualify for free rates and taxes and water and electricity but the fibre providers would rather not have my business than give me a discount.

One retirement village I'm familiar with qualifies for OpenServe Web Connect, which is cheap as chips and bundles a wifi enabled ONT as part of the deal.

My own parents live in a village with fibre provided by Vodacom fibre, and price is significantly lower than generally advertised because of it being classed as a retirement village. So they do give discounts in some limited cases. (Though if you're outside of these villages you're probably out of luck.)

Now that Vuma has taken over Vodacom fibre though, I doubt it will last long. But was nice for them while it lasted. If Vuma pumps the price up they'll probably look for other options.

 

[Swa]

One retirement village I'm familiar with qualifies for OpenServe Web Connect, which is cheap as chips and bundles a wifi enabled ONT as part of the deal.

My own parents live in a village with fibre provided by Vodacom fibre, and price is significantly lower than generally advertised because of it being classed as a retirement village. So they do give discounts in some limited cases. (Though if you're outside of these villages you're probably out of luck.)

Now that Vuma has taken over Vodacom fibre though, I doubt it will last long. But was nice for them while it lasted. If Vuma pumps the price up they'll probably look for other options.

I'm not sure how much of a saving the Web Connect is, but my main problem with it is it's only for select areas. There should be cut-down packages on all providers no matter where you live.

It's one thing about the SABC, if you're a pensioner you can get a license for a token amount. The private sector still has a lot to learn from public services about what pensioners can afford and will pay for.