All-in-one ADSL pricing comparison

Cybersmart's package is extremely worse than the ones it is compared to.

Next time include important details like free gigs, extras, max simultaneous connections and so on as these make a big difference.

A quick look:
Cybersmart: zero gigs free. Local gigs charged at international gigs price once capped.
Telkom: 30 Free local gigs pm.

Cybersmart: 80 ping
Telkom: 20 ping

Cybersmart: 1 connection at a time allowed.
Telkom: up to 4 connections at a time allowed.

Cybersmart: Email services go down for days without notifying the customer (and denies they are down if you phone).
Telkom: Emails you a week in advance to let you know about planned maintenance.

Now thats why I pay R50 more per month for telkom.
 
SpoOkie said:
Because you also get 30GB local ;)
Click to expand...

Which you can do nothing (next to nothing - don't flame me) with. See how they get you? :p Local internet won't come from selling local bandwidth cheaply, it will come from cheap hosting. If people used their local caps Telkom would pull it. They only give it to you because there is no local Internet. Well, at least not for me, the consumer. Maybe for business, where you need to move files locally.
 
i don't DO telkom no more thank goodness, got tiered of waiting for them to install a line 7months or a wimax unit 4 moths.
 
I used my local very well thanks... Have a 2 gig account and a 3 gig account with Telkom, use all 50 gigs every month almost :)

Route Sentry...
 
inferno said:
Cybersmart's package is extremely worse than the ones it is compared to.

Next time include important details like free gigs, extras, max simultaneous connections and so on as these make a big difference.

A quick look:
Cybersmart: zero gigs free. Local gigs charged at international gigs price once capped.
Telkom: 30 Free local gigs pm.

Cybersmart: 80 ping
Telkom: 20 ping

Cybersmart: 1 connection at a time allowed.
Telkom: up to 4 connections at a time allowed.

Cybersmart: Email services go down for days without notifying the customer (and denies they are down if you phone).
Telkom: Emails you a week in advance to let you know about planned maintenance.

Now thats why I pay R50 more per month for telkom.
Click to expand...

- R50 buys you 30GB local? R25 buys Cybersmart users NightRider which allows them to get 5x as much international! The other R25 can be used to get roll-over added, or to add Grow-4-Life to your account, which is already bagging me 700MB/month extra for only R20.

- Youtube isn't sensitive to a 60ms ping difference, nor is downloads. Heck if you're not playing reflex based games, 60ms is something you would be hard pressed to notice. If I want to play a local FPS, I usually buy prepaid bandwidth on the saix backbone to play on Saix servers. How many broadband users are gamers?

- So how many connections do you need at once? I'm a single user, I need a single connection. How many users need more than one connection?

- Email? This could be valid. I have never used my ISP email account for my primary email account. I've never noticed any issues with their email, but then again, I use GMail for most of my personal mail. Cybersmart's mail is only used for billing. Thunderbird never complained that it had issues connecting to Cybersmart, so I never noticed any issues. If you ever switch ISPs, losing your email address could be a real pain.

---

More related to the article. I was under the impression that the 384K/3Gig accounts were the most popular. Why not compare those?

Heck - on that topic, what is the spread on bandwidth usage / line speed these days?
 
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I personally think Telkom Do 2 is a great deal.
@ R258 you get 2 Gb + 20Gb Local. And most of the times you only get capped at 3Gb.
And I do use the local + an extra 30Gb local only from Webafrica.
 
Pyro said:
- R50 buys you 30GB local? R25 buys Cybersmart users NightRider which allows them to get 5x as much international! The other R25 can be used to get roll-over added, or to add Grow-4-Life to your account, which is already bagging me 700MB/month extra for only R20.

- Youtube isn't sensitive to a 60ms ping difference, nor is downloads. Heck if you're not playing reflex based games, 60ms is something you would be hard pressed to notice. If I want to play a local FPS, I usually buy prepaid bandwidth on the saix backbone to play on Saix servers. How many broadband users are gamers?

- So how many connections do you need at once? I'm a single user, I need a single connection. How many users need more than one connection?

- Email? This could be valid. I have never used my ISP email account for my primary email account. I've never noticed any issues with their email, but then again, I use GMail for most of my personal mail. Cybersmart's mail is only needed used for billing. Thunderbird never complained that it had issues connecting to Cybersmart, so I never noticed any issues.

---

More related to the article. I was under the impression that the 384K/3Gig accounts were the most popular. Why not compare those?

Heck - on that topic, what is the spread on bandwidth usage / line speed these days?
Click to expand...

Just because you use less of the features broadband offers, does not mean that it is still a good service compared to the ones its compared to in that list. A low ping is very important seeing as its only reason gamers go with ADSL. There are a lot of gamers who play fps and rts.

Cybersmart should either fix their ping issues, or put up a warning on their site to advise the new customers that it is a high ping service, before the user signs a two year contract and is screwed.
 
What can you do with local bandwidth?

Guys I was just wondering, what do you use your local bandwidth for? I feel that mine is just wasted as I don't know what to use it for.
 
Rob said:
Guys I was just wondering, what do you use your local bandwidth for? I feel that mine is just wasted as I don't know what to use it for.
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There is lots of stuff you can use it for.
Visit locallist.co.za and view all locally hosted sites, from videos to news to games. I browse National Geographic a lot. Love to watch the videos on there.
and local torrents
 
It is sad, but true: If you are looking for a 3gig ADSL all-in-one, you have to be crazy not to go with Telkom.
 
All this talk about local ... I love my local access .. which I pay extra for from a separate ISP .. because ISP's REFUSE to take local from a separate cap .. which is absolute bs .. find me an ISP that has 2 separate caps . so I can save my international when Im browsing locally and playing games ... and Im SOLD.

HOPE YOU ARE LISTENING ISP's
 
inferno said:
Just because you use less of the features broadband offers, does not mean that it is still a good service compared to the ones its compared to in that list. A low ping is very important seeing as its only reason gamers go with ADSL. There are a lot of gamers who play fps and rts.

Cybersmart should either fix their ping issues, or put up a warning on their site to advise the new customers that it is a high ping service, before the user signs a two year contract and is screwed.
Click to expand...

Pyro still pointed out a lot of good features Cybersmart has that other ISPs don't have. The Nightrider feature trumps other ISP offerings.
 
inferno said:
Just because you use less of the features broadband offers, does not mean that it is still a good service compared to the ones its compared to in that list. A low ping is very important seeing as its only reason gamers go with ADSL. There are a lot of gamers who play fps and rts.

Cybersmart should either fix their ping issues, or put up a warning on their site to advise the new customers that it is a high ping service, before the user signs a two year contract and is screwed.
Click to expand...

60-80ms compared to 20-30ms on Saix, and 40-50ms on Axxess's 626 unshaped? Not too long ago I've played many rounds of DOTA on Cybersmart, and unless you die a little inside everytime you lose a game, you can live with those extra few milliseconds.

Even FPS's are very playable on 60-80ms. People on lower latencies might have a slight edge, but for casual play that's hardly an issue.

If you're willing to pay more for those few milliseconds, then you can do so. For the games I do play, having a second prepaid account can give me the milliseconds I want and since most of my bandwidth doesn't get used for gaming, I still get the savings and advantages that Cybersmart offers me.
 
Well this month...

I got a bargain so far from my 3GB Telkom account...and thanks to LOTS of reading, I can now also use my 30GB local every month :D

And now I use my prepaid Webafrica account if I need to browse international...

Blended Usage
Uploaded - 371MB or [0.36GB]
Downloaded - 8.79GB
Combined Total - 9.15GB
Percentage used - 203.49%
Status - Capped

Local Usage
Uploaded - 48MB or [0.04GB]
Downloaded - 1.40GB
Combined Total - 1.45GB
Local Bandwidth Allocated - 30.00GB
 
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