ADSL Recommendations

[pok]

Greetings,

I have spend the last 5 years in UK, and have recently became aware of the absolute diabolical broadband situation in sa. it is hard to phantom that you have to pay such extortionate prices for a 3gb capped service. coming from a 1MB line where i roughly download twice that amount in one day for about R 400 p/m is just sickening.

is there any other feasible solutions at this point in time other than adsl? wireless, satellite, etc.

i will be returning shortly and was wondering if anybody could perhaps point me into the direction of a reliable isp that offers asdl access (hopefully, with some increased cap option which seems to be what m-web is offering but not sure about their quality of service)
also, if anybody could confirm if telkom supports any adsl modems that conform to ICASA?, would be of great help.

regards,

pok

 

[Perdition]

Short answer, you're out of luck.

Telkom controls ADSL in South Africa. All ISP's basically just resell Telkom ADSL accounts. The only ISP that offers uncapped ADSL is DataPro and this is a result of an agreement they signed with Telkom at the early stages of ADSL implementation in SA. Of course DataPro charges a premium for this (about R2000 p/m). With other ISP's your only option is to purchase additional accounts which equates to R200-R300 per 3GB. As there is no cap on local usage some ISP's are offering an "uncapped" solution by allowing you to use a proxy for an extra fee per month. You don't get anywhere near 512k throughput but at least you can surf international sites while capped.

The alternative is Sentech which is wireless. They have 128k, 256k and 512k packages none of which have a cap and works out a LOT cheaper if you're a heavy downloader (and you have indicated you are). The only problem is that it's only available in Gauteng, Durban and Cape Town (from the 27th of May). Also as it is wireless you have no guarantee you will have a solid connection from one day to the next. Browse through the Sentech thread to see the current status of the service.

The satellite options are aimed towards business and price accordingly, so not really an option for home users.

 

[pok]

hey perdition,

thanks for the response, thou just one question

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">As there is no cap on local usage some ISP's are offering an "uncapped" solution by allowing you to use a proxy for an extra fee per month. You don't get anywhere near 512k throughput but at least you can surf international sites while capped.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

so if i do purchase say an additional 3gb per month from the isp, would that only apply to local usage or international as well?

regards,

pok

 

[Perdition]

It applies to international as well, however if you are going to be downloading more than 6 GB per month I would certainly look into the proxy services.

ODS provides a proxy service however because their service is new I would wait a while to see what forum members say about it before committing. You can find it here :

http://www.ods.co.za/Services/UncappedADSL.asp

On the Platinum package you would get very good throughput however keep in mind that you would be paying around R1400 in total (Telkom line rental + R799).

Hope this helps.

 

[antowan]

Yes, wireless and satellite options exist. But not at the cost vs service ratios in the UK...

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by pok</i>
<br />Greetings,

I have spend the last 5 years in UK, and have recently became aware of the absolute diabolical broadband situation in sa. it is hard to phantom that you have to pay such extortionate prices for a 3gb capped service. coming from a 1MB line where i roughly download twice that amount in one day for about R 400 p/m is just sickening.

is there any other feasible solutions at this point in time other than adsl? wireless, satellite, etc.

i will be returning shortly and was wondering if anybody could perhaps point me into the direction of a reliable isp that offers asdl access (hopefully, with some increased cap option which seems to be what m-web is offering but not sure about their quality of service)
also, if anybody could confirm if telkom supports any adsl modems that conform to ICASA?, would be of great help.

regards,

pok




<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

He who does not understand the value of war at the right time, cannot comprehend the value of life at any time - Anonymous

 

[pok]

Cool,

any idea what the service is like from m-web?

thanks

 

[Karnaugh]

Bad?

there is no such thing as a decent internet connection here, it all comes from Telkom and costs lots and lots of money.

- Colin Alston
colin at alston dot za dot org

"Getting traffic shaping right is easy and can be summed up in one word: Dont." -- George Barnett

 

[pok]

Heh, good old telkom.