ADSL Capping – Is it a real issue?

Can someone please explain to me how they Cannot Differentiate between Local and International usage yet once you reach your cap then they can magically turn off international and leave local running.

If you can $%^* do that then you can $%^$%well monitor the $#%^$ international usage!!
 
The_Librarian said:
I think they'll have to start with 20Gb or 30Gb caps as entry-level.

This will be more than enough, but they'll have to revise this at regular intervals.

Once you've reached your cap, then you can buy extra bandwidth.

A more realistic way to look at things will be :

Lite email and surf package : 5Gb cap (for grannies and ppl who just check their email seldom and who want to write to their children and grandchildren once in a while)

Email and surf package : 10Gb cap - for ppl who use email and a bit of surfing on a frequent basis

Home package : 20 to 30Gb cap (allow a bit of downloading, as well as gaming)

Advanced home package A : 30 to 60Gb cap (power users who download every pr0n site) :p

Advanced home package B : Same as the 'A' package, but with static IP.

BusinessLite + static IP : 60 to 100Gb - small businesses.

Business + static IP : 100 to 200Gb - medium businesses.

BusinessMax + static IP : 200Gb to uncapped - large businesses.


Just a thought from my side.

You can also top-up should you've reached your threshold.

IMO they can throttle slightly during office hours to provide a good, responsive service for business users during office hours, and a good service after hours for gamers.
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Damn well put. Interesting how you could put together a reasonable package offer - something that Telkom, ICASA and the Government together could not figure out, even if you bribed them double!
 
Article said:
...What seems to feel like way back when, Telkom introduced its first ADSL service with no capping. The company however soon realised that a few users would gobble up mega bandwidth at the expense of other users, so a 3Gbyte cap was introduced which created a major uproar amongst those who used mega bandwidth for applications for which ADSL was not designed. The cap satisfied most of its other customers.

Looking at statistics it is an interesting fact that most of Telkom’s customers never reach their 3 G cap. Soon after Telkom’s ADSL introduction, Sentech came with their wireless service and made some bold announcement that they would, unlike Telkom, not introduce a cap on their service. The same happened to Sentech; a few spoiled the broadband experience for most other users. Sentech had to eat humble pie and had to introduce what amounts to a cap. All Sentech current offerings are capped....
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WTF??!?!?!
Is that the PRIMARY REASON WHY! ADSL was created??
In the EU they use 3 GB's a day!!!

People don't reach thier Cap's CAUSE THEY HAVE TO PAY AFTERWARDS!!!!
 
Get call more plan 3 and then use dail up.Disconnect every hour then reconnect use a download program (To pause the download while you disconnect and reconnect) It may be slow but it's uncapped.
 
Nth0862 said:
Get call more plan 3 and then use dail up.Disconnect every hour then reconnect use a download program (To pause the download while you disconnect and reconnect) It may be slow but it's uncapped.
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I'm sorry but this is the 21st century, we really shouldn't be forced to do that.
 
Is Mr Hans van de Groenendaal still the Corporate Communications Senior Manager at Telkom? Or has he moved higher up the food chain there now? Being a current or previously employed there put his credibility (in my eyes) for objectiveness into question.

See this article from 2003 that makes reference to his position there:
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=11767
 
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Vie said:
Is Mr Hans van de Groenendaal still the Corporate Communications Senior Manager at Telkom? Or has he moved higher up the food chain there now? Being a current or previously employed there put his credibility (in my eyes) for objectiveness into question.

See this article from 2003 that makes reference to his position there:
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=11767
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Interesting. I can't seem to find recent references to the man, but YOU FOUND HIM OUT!!!

LOL!
 
It's sad to say this but this is the second article written by Hans van de Groenendaal which makes me wonder why he even bothered. I don't mean to be critical as he is, afterall, raising awareness - but that's all he is doing. There is nothing new or revolutionary in either this article (or the other waste of time http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Telecoms/2150.html :(

At least do some research and gain an unbiased understanding of the topic you're writing about. Blogs are one thing but the standard should be signficantly higher for publications such as EngineerIT. It's enough to give them a poor reflection if this is considered acceptible.

xDSL was designed for high speed internet access to specifically handle large file transfer and provide low latency for optimal performance. The fact that many telecoms providers started out by having to 'cap' and speed-limit users to protect the network for majority of users doesn't alter the reason for the technology - it only highlights the failure to build adequate infrastructure to provide the service as it is intended.

Certainly, it's costly and even more so when starting out. However, Telkom have grown their user-base over the years yet not passed on added benefits through effective upgrades and planning. One doesn't fail to plan initially and then continue to make the same mistake year-in and year-out. This is mess Telkom find themselves in now. ADSL was not invented by Telkom - they've implemented it poorly and instead of learning of other established ADSL markets and leapfrogging ahead - they've been struggling to keep a faulty implementation running while doing upgrades here and there to maintain share-value.

Catering only for current users plus a small growth percentage over the next 3 years will only perpetuate our problems. Plan big and build the network to support the big plans and these issues will resolve themselves. Like DSTV with 50-odd channels - nobody can watch them all as there's only so much time and life has it's priorities. Cater for affordable, large 'caps' with roll-over and most users will not feel obligated to use every bit before the end of the month as there's plenty to use as and when needed for whatever purpose they choose!

High cost is what keeps most accounts within the 3GB limit. Slow speeds and high latency causes frustration so that users just do the bare minimum until better solutions are provided. When South Africa is comparable to other countries in terms of 'cap' (at least 20GB - 30GB per month) as well as performance and cost, then we can ask this question again. Until then the answer is most decidedly "YES - capping is still an issue but only one of many". As long as petrol, interest rates and basic cost of living continue to rise the fact we are forced to pay more for bandwidth than we should this will continue to be an issue as it's just another nail in the coffin.
 
MR. Hans'sie van de Groenendaal klink vir my k@k stupid. Laaste in die ry gestaan toe verstand uitgedeel is nè ? ...

You get 3GB. So you try to stay in the 3GB limit, cause we South Africans do not have money to throw around. Telkom know this! It is the top-up where they make there money. Look at cybersmart for instance:

3 GIG CAP on 4096/384kbs circuit R225 :sick:

TOP UP! ---> 3 Gigs on a 4096/256 Kbs ADSL Circuit R 259 !!! :eek:

Why must I pay more !!??? Should I not get a discount rate if I want to buy extra bandwith or pay the same price ???

With 384 I could manage to stay in the 3GB cap, but with 4MB I am trying to stay below(hardly) 6gb!

This country is getting f-cking ridiculous by the moment.
 
Capping per se not the problem

The existence of caps per se is not the problem. The size of the caps, combined with the fact that Telkom is not charging cost-related prices for bandwidth are the problem. Telkom is still charging ISPs a multiple of their costs for providing national and international capacity (i.e. leased lines). This results in a cost per GByte which is unrealistically high. This is combined with the fact that Telkom charges subscribers about 7 times its cost for the ADSL line itself!

With a realistic cost per GByte, it would be possible to put in place services which would allow 20 or 30Gbyte caps at quite a modest price, probably satisfying even a lot of the really heavy downloaders.
 
Bulllllsh...

Ag, listen!
HOW do the 1st world countries handle uncapped internet then????!!!
How come other countries like Morocco, Australia, America, UK offer uncapped solutions at BLISTERING speeds, and stay afloat?
Is the problem really the cost of the bandwidth or is it GREEEDY companies like Telkom laying off thousands of workers, offering the worst customer service, while making a HUGE HUMUNGOUS profit.

I say its the fat guys taking all the money. Thats why theres no sustainable uncapped offerings in South Africa.
 
Crap!!

The company however soon realised that a few users would gobble up mega bandwidth at the expense of other users, so a 3Gbyte cap was introduced which created a major uproar amongst those who used mega bandwidth for applications for which ADSL was not designed. The cap satisfied most of its other customers.
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Sorry Hans I needed to fix the above bit for you (it is really not nice to lie):

The company however soon realised that selling ADSL access in 3Gbyte chunks would yield much more revenue for Telkom, so a 3Gbyte cap was introduced which created a major uproar amongst those who realised what was going on. Thanks to Telkom's market monopoly, ANC support and the ineffectiveness of the so-called ICASA Telkom's [-]prisoners[/-] customers had to live with the Cap.
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To find out what it was designed for, why don't we read the manual, or ask the creator...
That's kinda like asking AG Bell what telephones were designed for then telling telkom a Fax is an abuse of that service...
 
Scooby_Doo said:
to be honest uncapped is unrealistic untill we get more sea cables
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Um, yeah, but that's exactly the problem - I recall working out a while back that, roughly speaking, with the massive profits Telkom are raking in, they could afford to build several entire new SAT3's EVERY YEAR (and still make a profit). So YES it IS highly realistic.

Someone should send Hans on a trip to any overseas country with real Internet to see how things can and should be.
 
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