ADSL - This is confusing me.

D

Defirence680

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So, I have these two websites I bookmarked. Now my questions are:

1. Do I need a telephone (the ring-ring one) that makes voice calls to get ADSL connectivity.
2. Do I still have to pay this: http://www.telkom.co.za/sites/athome/productsandservices/landlineandcallingplans/telephonelines/#.U7j_DfmSwX1 after I have moved my account over to AfriHost.
3. If there is already a grey Telkom box thingy mounted on the wall do I still need to apply for a new line or not?
4. AfriHost says they include the Telkom ADSL line but not the voice line, but the voice line can be provisioned by Telkom for ADSL. https://www.afrihost.com/site/product/capped_dsl_bundles?src=website_nav It's under the 100GB Cap 4mb Line option.

If someone could help me out as I really can't figure this out. Thanks in advance.
 
3 components:
a) Telkom POTS service rental (ring ring)
b) ADSL service rental
c) ISP data cost

You pay (a) to Telkom.
You pay (b+c) to Afrihost.

No new line.
 
No physical tele but you need to buy the service


Just get a month to month Telkom Simple plan....easiest way to get started and you can switch to Afrihost later.
 
MickeyD said:
3 components:
a) Telkom POTS service rental (ring ring)
b) ADSL service rental
c) ISP data cost

You pay (a) to Telkom.
You pay (b+c) to Afrihost.

No new line.
Click to expand...

Shot, thanks. Clears it up for me. What about microfilter and such, If there is no grey box, then how much does it cost to install it. To also provision the ring-ring phone line for ADSL how much will that too also cost?
 
ADSL technology was invented to enable broadband through twisted pair copper, ie through an ordinary telephone line connected to the PSTN.

So yes, in order to use ADSL you need to have a twisted pair copper line between you and the local telephone exchange. That costs money.

The fact that you choose to use it exclusively for data and not voice is entirely yours. But you can't avoid having to rent that line of you want ADSL.

In South Africa, most so-called last mile connections - the line between an exchange and the individual property - are owned by Telkom. Installing and maintaining that line costs them a huge amount of money, and so they charge a rental on it whether you use it for voice, voice and data, or data only.
 
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Arthur said:
ADSL technology was invented to enable broadband through twisted pair copper, ie through an ordinary telephone line connected to the PSTN.
So yes, in order to use ADSL you need to have a twisted pair copper line between you and the local telephone exchange. That costs money.
The fact that you choose to use it exclusively for data and not voice is entirely yours. But you can't avoid having to rent that line of you want ADSL.
In South Africa, most so-called last mile connections - the line between an exchange and the individual property - are owned by Telkom. Installing and maintaining that line costs them a huge amount of money, and so they charge a rental on it whether you use it for voice, voice and data, or data only.
Click to expand...
Two things are important here though:
[1] Nobody other than Telkom has invested in this last mile copper, nor has anybody constructed an electronic communications network that provides fixed line communications in competition with POTS that is available to consumers. Rather than building a cable network MC have satellites. Now this means that Telkom are, in my view anyway, the
[2] The right which Telkom, and all other ECN licence holders, have to lay cable on public property (and for that matter to impose a servitude onto private land) is rested in statute which mandates facilities leasing. Facilities sharing and an advanced facilities leasing industry also makes commercial sense but lets leave that to one side. Telkom have failed - and refused - to make the facilities available

So by all means Telkom have estate rights to determine the price of the local loop - just as any landlord chooses the price of renting out property - BUT they have an obligation to lease out the local loop and they aren't. How a leasee coups the costs of the last mile so leased isn't any of Telkom's business (and if the leasee does so by offering a telephone service on the national numbering plan then they need a licence and what not - we can have a seperate discussion on regulating numbering plans). While ADSL was designed initially as a way to upscale POTS (and ISDN) technologies it has fundamentally become a de facto standard means of connecting two points in relatively close proximity to each other.
 
TtAll true, Paul.

A very large portion of the last mile copper was laid when Telkom (and its SAPO predecessor) was both State-owned and a State-protected monopoly. Let's not forget that another word for state-owned is "publicly-owned".

This important fact means that all South Africans have (had) an interest in SAPO/Telkom not just as customers but as owners, at least in a moral sense.

When publicly-owned enterprises and assets are transferred to private interests, then it is essential that the monopoly over the once-public asset also be ended so that there be a level playing field for other private interests. It is not enough for Caesar, as keeper of the public purse, to simply obtain payment for the sale of shares, because the asset that was built up under public ownership differs from ordinary commercial assets precisely because it was acquired as a monopoly - ie potential or future competitors were prevented by law from making a similar investment and acquiring a comparable asset.

Bottom line: Telkom's ongoing privilege in controlling last mile is morally untenable and unjust. The root of the injustice lies in the transfer of a once public asset to private interests without also opening access to that asset to other private interests.

Caesar's shareholding in Telkom is now akin to any other private shareholding, and so cannot be privileged without doing harm to the common good.

The State is morally bound to LLU. Its ongoing refusal to do so is a scandal. Every concerned citizen should be pressuring Caesar to rectify this injustice. Of course he refuses to do so because he now has a stake in the private business that he privileges and from which Caesar now obtains tribute.

Yet another example of why Caesar should not be a player in the economy. I beat the same drum.
 
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Oops. We have a habit of deflecting these threads into telecoms policy discussions. Sorry, OP.

It's important to realize why things are the way they are. And that they can be different. These are political decisions. And they impact your ADSL service directly.
 
Arthur said:
TtAll true, Paul.

A very large portion of the last mile copper was laid when Telkom (and its SAPO predecessor) was both State-owned and a State-protected monopoly. Let's not forget that another word for state-owned is "publicly-owned".

This important fact means that all South Africans have (had) an interest in SAPO/Telkom not just as customers but as owners, at least in a moral sense.

When publicly-owned enterprises and assets are transferred to private interests, then it is essential that the monopoly over the once-public asset also be ended so that there be a level playing field for other private interests. It is not enough for Caesar, as keeper of the public purse, to simply obtain payment for the sale of shares, because the asset that was built up under public ownership differs from ordinary commercial assets precisely because it was acquired as a monopoly - ie potential or future competitors were prevented by law from making a similar investment and acquiring a comparable asset.

Bottom line: Telkom's ongoing privilege in controlling last mile is morally untenable and unjust. The root of the injustice lies in the transfer of a once public asset to private interests without also opening access to that asset to other private interests.

Caesar's shareholding in Telkom is now akin to any other private shareholding, and so cannot be privileged without doing harm to the common good.

The State is morally bound to LLU. Its ongoing refusal to do so is a scandal. Every concerned citizen should be pressuring Caesar to rectify this injustice. Of course he refuses to do so because he now has a stake in the private business that he privileges and from which Caesar now obtains tribute.

Yet another example of why Caesar should not be a player in the economy. I beat the same drum.
Click to expand...
As long as the "solution" is to give favour to certain other private players - and sadly with few exceptions this tends to be demanded by those engaging on LLU, and a mindset that refuses to acknowledge the cost to these things -- and the fact that Telkom was built on coercive exclusionary force rather than with taxpayer money (telecoms being built on user pay, with very few exceptions) from inception. You had a protection racket rather than allocating public funds.
And sadly it appears the new administration has every intention of undermining any good work done.
 
geez paul & arthur whats with all the heavy caliber ITC posts in random threads lately? OP asked about a ADSL line not the state of LLU legislation. Same for CW thread that went for a random Nasper detour recently (???).
 
HavocXphere said:
geez paul & arthur whats with all the heavy caliber ITC posts in random threads lately? OP asked about a ADSL line not the state of LLU legislation. Same for CW thread that went for a random Nasper detour recently (???).
Click to expand...
Its probably an unfortunate consequence of spending about 12 hours a day on matters ISP ;)
 
MickeyD said:
Both of you... a thousand Hail ICASAs.
Click to expand...
not being a Roman Catholic the practice of repetition in Latin doesn't form part of my routine - except before exams but that didn't have the optimal desired results

I recite quite a bit French in which ICASA enters the mix
 
Latin is appropriate in this case, as the famous Anglican scholar and convert Ronald Knox reminded us.

When asked why he insisted on doing the baptismal exorcism rite in Latin, he replied "Because the Devil understands Latin".

We need an exorcism here, too. :p
 
MickeyD said:
3 components:
a) Telkom POTS service rental (ring ring)
b) ADSL service rental
c) ISP data cost

You pay (a) to Telkom.
You pay (b+c) to Afrihost.

No new line.
Click to expand...

What is the difference between Telkom POTS and ADSL?
Are they not using the same line or is the ADSL Exchange based?
 
LaraC said:
What is the difference between Telkom POTS and ADSL?
Are they not using the same line or is the ADSL Exchange based?
Click to expand...
a) is rental for the wire between your house and the telephone exchange. The ADSL service uses that wire, and it connects to the phone exchange using a DSLAM.

From there you need to connect to the internet. You use an ISP for that. It's a separate payment.
 
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