Advice Please re Service providers

[hans100]

I noted on the Hellkom site that there are approx 20 service providers with rates of under R250 pm for 3g adsl. Assuming I purchase a modem cash not committing my self to any term contract can anybody advise me to of favourable SP where the monthly subscription fees differ by R10-R20 pm. I believe Telkom charge R249 pm with the cheapest been Budget @ R229.I have a dial up with Telkom presently and would like to entertain valid argument why I should not just stick with them ....Ive got no alligiance to them whatsoever but besides the overall Monoploy argument when we talk specifically adsl what is the advantage or disadvantage of choosing telkom?
One way or the other Im still bound by aoolying to Telkom to supply the adsl line ...Is this so ? What is the installation cost and are there any other costs ...In fact I thank in advance any advise that can be passed on. I stay in the Plumstead location of Cape Town where the speed of my dialup line is a miserable 24 to 28.8kps! Apparantly fline conditions are adaquate in this area so other than that whts next?? Thanks again

 

[PoiZoNouZ]

Better the devil you know...

In all honesty, you are better off sticking with Telkom as your ISP. No matter who you sign up with, they have to purchase the accounts from them, so why bother going for something via a middleman. I'm using them as an ISP with a 384K connection, and wait for it.........I have never had a complaint. Never had downtime in a year's usage, speeds are always good, the cap always sux, but what can u do. Hopefully the cap issue will be sorted out thanx to the ICASA hearings, but I have my doubts.

 

[Tinuva]

Why?

Telkom asks resellers R200 instead of R249, thus they make less money of you and you give some of that money to the middleman...this is one possible reason. Or like in my case, the unshaped account is way cheaper from SAOL than from telkom

 

[killadoob]

remember an isp is not just about price. i mean you want support at some time or another.

for me telkom adsl or dial is a good price but like tinuva says spread the wealth . give to the middle man so he to make money.

just do not i repeat do not sign with mweb or tiscali which are the same, their other names are rip-offs worse than telkom u pay more for the same thing. i wouldnt touch those 2 companies with 50 ft pole

 

[bwana]

Mweb does have some useful features - especially if you have kids (research tools etc) and if you travel internationally (iPass). Even though I moved my adsl away from mnet to go to a uncapped service I downgraded the mweb account to their cheapest option as we make extensive use of the iPass.

However, should you not need the extras then all of the telkom-guised-offerings are the same - go for the cheapest IMO.

 

[stoke]

hans100 - I may be off here - but I don't think that you're aware of the fact that it's not just the 250 a month that you have to pay. Theres still the ADSL line rental fee's that you have to pay - and these go up to R 600 per month. Have you read the fineprint ?

 

[killadoob]

thats if he can get adsl because not all area's offer adsl and some that do take forever to find a free port

 

[bwana]

thats if he can get adsl because not all area's offer adsl and some that do take forever to find a free port

lol - last time I spoke to the telkom guy hanging around the exchange there were still only a handful of us on the entire dslam.

 

[hans100]

Thanx 4 replies - put them to the test 2day

Yeah , thanx to all who added their bit ! Comming from 9 years of dial up bandwidth less than 30Kbps, Im sure the 192 package -2g will serve its purpose just fine. Tempted to go the 384 route but I the R120 saving on the line rental as well as the R50 for Service warrants the Home DSL. Incidently, although the download bandwidth should be 192kbps what can I actually expect ? less than 100? so all told with my own modem the package would cost R526 pm. ..excluding installation...So what does Telkom actually need to install? Does the procedure require rewiring of line and connection points?

So lets see how the progress shapes over the next couple of weeks...or will that be months!....