’net By Cell Takes Off

ADSL vs 3G/HSDPA

I am no Telkom fan. I have been waiting 3 months for my office ADSL line (which I have been told is still in the 'planning' stage)... but I am patient because ADSL is still far cheaper than any rival technologies. I would gladly sign up tomorrow for 3G - but it is not cheaper no matter what the cell phone companies would have us believe.

R500 for a 1Gb account - whereas I pay in the region of R750 for a full 5Gigs (at the same speed or better than 3G - though not faster than HSDPA I might add).

Though with a high speed 1.8Mbps: how quickly will you use up your Vodacom 3G/HSDPA 500Mb account?

Unless the Cell networks can prove the cost-benefit saving of using 3G(/HSDPA) I am afraid I am stuck with Telkom. After all, better the devil you know than the devil you don't. :/

Tim
 
Cheaper? Does he have a Telkom mentality?
Seems like it.......at R500 a gig???

Can he prove that mobile networks are cheaper?

That's 8 times the cost of Telkom!
 
Exactly! They're not cheaper than ADSL at the moment, no matter what they say. You would've seen a mass exodus of ADSL customers already if that was the case and I would be one of them.

@timgaul: Check out saol.com 5GBs for R299/mo (that's who I'm using at the moment). It's more than half of what you're paying now. :-)

Also I see WiMax (4G is a WiMax derivative) and WiFi taking over, unless these cellphone operators start switching to these technologies. Just imagine every existing cell tower converted to (or bundled with) WiMax. Telkom would be dead forever (ok, just depends if the cell operators start any monopoly carp with price tarrifs like Melkom do.)
Just find the other MyADSL article on this and you'll see Korea and Japan are already starting with 4G rollout which is based on WiMax.
 
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Peter7 said:
Exactly! They're not cheaper than ADSL at the moment, no matter what they say.
Click to expand...

Read the article again :)

Seligmann says 95% of Telkom’s dial-up customers would benefit by getting their Internet access from their cellphone company instead.
Click to expand...

By dial up, he means the old school users :)

If you do the maths on that, he's probably right...

Assuming a 'perfect' dialup speed, 56k = 7bytes * 60 seconds * 60 minutes = 25 megabytes in 1 hour.

Telkom's standard hour call rate is 38c per minute, which means that the 25meg download will cost you R22.80. It gets much, much higher when you consider that 'real world' speeds are usually far lower and most people browse and read (they're not downloading continuously). In reality you're probably looking at well over 2 hours online to get that amount, which is at least R50.00 or higher

MTN's highest rate is (I think) R2 a meg, which means that the same download comes in at R50.00 (regardless of linespeed or time). But if you're on a package, you can get much better rates...

The only thing swinging it Telkom's way seems to be infinite call.
 
Peter7 said:
Exactly! They're not cheaper than ADSL at the moment, no matter what they say. You would've seen a mass exodus of ADSL customers already if that was the case and I would be one of them.

@timgaul: Check out saol.com 5GBs for R299/mo (that's who I'm using at the moment). It's more than half of what you're paying now. :-)

Also I see WiMax (4G is a WiMax derivative) and WiFi taking over, unless these cellphone operators start switching to these technologies. Just imagine every existing cell tower converted to (or bundled with) WiMax. Telkom would be dead forever (ok, just depends if the cell operators start any monopoly carp with price tarrifs like Melkom do.)
Just find the other MyADSL article on this and you'll see Korea and Japan are already starting with 4G rollout which is based on WiMax.
Click to expand...

Hmm. I completely agree. These cellphone companies are talking ****. How the hell are they cheaper than dialup? if u have infini call, ull spend around R200 bucks a month. and can download almost 10 gigs instead of a useless 500mb. What bs... They must get their facts straight before they comment like this.

@ peter. I know wimax is hot at the moment. Im currently doing research on it and i beleive cellc is looking into it. However, there are a few very important disadvantages when compared to 3g/hsdpa. The most important of which is the fact that it is not mobile (there will be problems with handovers), whereas 3g is completely mobile.. If ur looking for a stationary conection then its good, however for ppl that want mobility, its a nono
(currently anyways. Unless they fix these handover problems soon)
Something else thats very very popular overseas is mesh networks.... its another form of affordable wireless broadband..
 
I like all the flaming darts thrown at Telkom but sadly I think its like farting against thunder...I think Telkom does not care..
One point I'd like to mention though, he is correct in saying 3G is cheaper than ADSL BUT only if your monthly download is less than 1 GB.

Consider the following from Telkom
(Primary line rental + ADSL Line rental +ISP)
1GB ADSL (384 Kb/s) 245.00 + 92.28 + 159.00 (unshaped) = 496.28

From Vodacom (including a Data Card)
1GB 3G (384 Kb/s) 479.00

3G is cheaper, mobile and you get a Data Card, for someone that wants mail and a bit of browsing its certianly the best deal around.

Just my 2 cents :)
 
Such progressive thinking - cheaper than dial-up.

How about you go away and come up with something cheaper than ADSL - then you can come back.
 
Comparing apples with Genetically Modified Grapes?

In phase two, the networks will offer 14Mbit/s downloads and 1,8Mbit/s uploads at lower latency, making this ideal for online gaming.
Click to expand...

This really sounds great. BUT I would imagine that like everything else in the telecoms industry it is heavily dependent on Economies of Scales. Not the same, twisted version Telkom would have us believe, but rather the fact that mobile has overtaken fixed-line in terms of lower rollout costs / wider coverage / greater numbers of consumers.

I would presume that the normal South African, short-sighted, short-term profiteering will not be applied in making this vision of the future become a reality. Otherwise, it's doomed to fail.

Dial-up with Telkom's Infiniti is still the cheapest option available IF SPEED is not critical to you. No Cap, No Shaping / Port-prioritising, low monthly ISP fees. The problem is that in evry real sense, narrowband is dead. It's only us poor cashcows, er consumers that still have to pay high fees for sub-service products the most of the world has already abandoned.

Anyway, back on topic. By upgrading existing infrastrure to newer techonologies and leveraging an already larger customer base (last mobile base estimated 30-40 million?) the costs should come down as usuage increases. I still believe this takes a lot of assumptions in hand. For example, by the time 14mbps download speeds are available, EASSy should be operational and bandwidth costs reduced in this country.

This is obviously one Senior Manager that has long-term goals and a vision of the future. :)

p.s. I'm currently with Vodacom, so this isn't a biased opinion. All operators could learn from this - at the end of the day, consumers should be the winners :D
 
LifelongGamer said:
This really sounds great. BUT I would imagine that like everything else in the telecoms industry it is heavily dependent on Economies of Scales. Not the same, twisted version Telkom would have us believe, but rather the fact that mobile has overtaken fixed-line in terms of lower rollout costs / wider coverage / greater numbers of consumers.

I would presume that the normal South African, short-sighted, short-term profiteering will not be applied in making this vision of the future become a reality. Otherwise, it's doomed to fail.

Dial-up with Telkom's Infiniti is still the cheapest option available IF SPEED is not critical to you. No Cap, No Shaping / Port-prioritising, low monthly ISP fees. The problem is that in evry real sense, narrowband is dead. It's only us poor cashcows, er consumers that still have to pay high fees for sub-service products the most of the world has already abandoned.

Anyway, back on topic. By upgrading existing infrastrure to newer techonologies and leveraging an already larger customer base (last mobile base estimated 30-40 million?) the costs should come down as usuage increases. I still believe this takes a lot of assumptions in hand. For example, by the time 14mbps download speeds are available, EASSy should be operational and bandwidth costs reduced in this country.

This is obviously one Senior Manager that has long-term goals and a vision of the future. :)

p.s. I'm currently with Vodacom, so this isn't a biased opinion. All operators could learn from this - at the end of the day, consumers should be the winners :D
Click to expand...

I'll give Allan-Knott a call and tell him to give you a well deserved pat on the back for a great "unbiased" public relations job :D
But what u say is most prob true.. If however by some chance Telkom gets sole access to Eassy, were all a little screwed...:o
 
Fast data rates without cheap bandwidth are mostly pointless.

Mobile has a way to go to catch up with international fixed line speeds.
 
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