ADSL lines ? Telkom vs ISP

[Dielyn]

Hi guys

I've noticed that there are ISPs that include the ADSL line rental in their cost. This means that you're getting your ADSL line from them directly and not dealing with Telkom, right ? Is there much of a difference in terms of reliability, service, etc ? It seems to be cheaper. How much of a difference will it make ?

 

[Deleted member 78630]

Other people and myself, like to have the line rental with Telkom and choose a different ISP for the actual bandwidth. This makes things easier when switching between ISPs when the need arises.

 

[ichigo]

If you want to swop or change ISP's when one offers a better deal, then it is better to have Telkom as your adsl line rental provider.

Plus telkom customers sometimes get higher priority than non telkom providers with fixing stuff. People may deny it but its true.

 

[InTheCube]

More affordable to keep the line rental with your own ISP, but it's a PITA if you want to switch ISPs at a later stage, as most ISPs won't allow you to just pay them line rental alone (giving you complete freedom to choose your ISP for the data package). You have to purchase the line rental in conjunction with a data package. If you want to leave your ISP, it involves a lengthy process of transferring your line from one ISP to another (using Telkom as an intermediary), or cancelling the entire line altogether, and reapplying from scratch (which is often much faster).

Also, when you want to upgrade your line speed, it is more difficult, as you have to go through your ISP. Upgrading of line speeds can sometimes be done very quickly if your line is with Telkom. All you have to do is pick up the phone, call Telkom, verify your details, and ask to be upgraded. If your exchange supports the higher speed you want, and there are available ports in your exchange, it can take as little as 10 minutes to upgrade your line.

On the other hand, I know of quite a few MWEB subscribers who have been waiting weeks and even months to upgrade from 384kbps/512kbps to 4mbps.

 

[Pada]

ADSL line installations can also take quite a bit longer through other ISP's, rather than going through Telkom.

Like I wanted to go for a Web Africa account and ADSL line rental, and then they said that 'ADSL line installation and activation process takes approximately 3 to 4 weeks to be completed'. So I canceled the ADSL line rental part and went to the Telkom shop instead for the ADSL line rental, and they got it up and running within a week.

I also recently went to the Telkom shop to get my 384kbps line upgraded to 4Mbps and they said it would be done by that evening, and it was.

Perhaps we're just lucky in Stellenbosch with our Telkom support.

 

[jamster]

Other people and myself, like to have the line rental with Telkom and choose a different ISP for the actual bandwidth. This makes things easier when switching between ISPs when the need arises.

+1

It is a mission to change if you have a line with an ISP.

 

[Speedster]

Agree with the majority opinion here - line from Telkom, data from ISP.

 

[MR.C]

BUT. How much data are u gonna use or what package do you wanna take out ? Asking cos cost is a factor.
I've been paying about R150 for Adsl Line, plus data, and had a separate telkom phone for my Adsl which was being billed to between R150 and R200. I've cancelled my telkom phone line, adsl line and my data from my isp and in the process of getting a voda R149 2G+2G. Its a huge saving for me.

 

[Pada]

If you're only using your Internet for surfing & E-mail, and don't exceed 5GB, then the Cell C & Vodacom HSDPA offerings are the way to go.

 

[mmshrinker]

My experience of having my line and isp with MWeb ("all-inclusive") is that this is a bad idea: Previously, if i had a problem with my line i'd have to phone telkom, and (eventually) speak to a call centre agent and (eventually) get assisted. Now that my line is with mweb i have to first go through the long wait in getting hold of an mweb call centre agent, and then after weeks of not being helped, i find myself having to call telkom anyway myself to try sort out the problem. This has happened many times.
The poster who says that telkom gives you lower priority if your line is not with them is 100% correct. And mweb are ineffective in getting telkom to do something as simple as getting a technician out to your place.
The reason i'm still on that all-inclusive package: A telkom technician gave me a heads-up and said that when people do try to change the line and give it back to telkom, mweb "accidentally" cancels your line with telkom, leaving you without a line at all. Apparently has happened to a few people.

 

[DarthMol]

One of the companies that does just rent out lines is isat, I got my line from them and then use another isp for data. It's pretty much like renting the line from telkom except that they charge less for monthly rental than telkom does. They've been pretty reliable so far.