ASASA ruling against Iburst

Good - it is useless when a maximum speed is given with no guaranteed minimum. But the only problem is that with wireless there are so many aspects that determine the line throughput, eg. weather conditions.
 
:wootage:

Go ASASA they seem to have more effect than ICASA on wireless
 
This says more about Icasa than about iburst.

In essence Icasa are saying that telkom can call a 256kbps adsl line "Broadband", but none of the wireless providers can call their services "broadband" as they dont meet international standards

Either we have international standards or local standards, but lets judge everyone by the same yardstick.
 
Normally I agree with ASASA rulings, but this is taking things too far.

It now also disqualifies HSDPA or 3G or any other wireless service from being described as braodband, because the minimum speed is zero if you are not in range of the basestation or cell tower or if there is atmospheric interference, etc, etc.

Vodacom's advert on MyADSL, for example, claiming "The best Mobile broadband" is in violation of this ruling.

I don't think that is right.

I don't think a claim is violated because there may be some exceptions.
 
And who the hell is this Nick Soper guy? And what got a bee in his bonet. Maybe he works for Telkom. Technically then Sentech and anything except HSDPA is not broadband either.
Icasa should have stood up and said that anything with a maximum throughput of 25K and above is broadband.
It isn't really but that is the standard they set up for Telkom to meet and if anything the wireless operators should have an easier time.
 
pope24 said:
And who the hell is this Nick Soper guy? And what got a bee in his bonet. Maybe he works for Telkom. Technically then Sentech and anything except HSDPA is not broadband either.
Icasa should have stood up and said that anything with a maximum throughput of 25K and above is broadband.
It isn't really but that is the standard they set up for Telkom to meet and if anything the wireless operators should have an easier time.
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Bear in mind the Telkom aren't meeting the ADSL regulations at the moment.

They say "Telkom's DSL service is a best effort service and no guarantees are provided on throughput."

Telscum generally knows how to cover their ass with disclaimers.
 
The ICASA ADSL regulations state:

Section 4: Throughput Speeds

4.1 – Telkom, SNO and ISPs shall guarantee minimum broadband speeds for the ADSL service in order to ensure that the service does not lose its broadband character

4.2 – Any services provided with speeds lower than those defined as broadband [minimum download speeds of 256Kbps] shall not be advertised as broadband services.
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I'm not even sure ICASA can take the blame here. ADSL speeds probably can be guaranteed. Wireless speeds cannot, because there are too many extraneous factors that could result in minimum speeds not being met. In my opinion, however, that is insuffiicient reason to disqulify wirelees services from being advertised as "braodband".
 
I'm going to agree with the ASASA. The networks here seem to play fast and loose with speed claims. Vodacom advertised that their broadband would be "up to 1.8 MB/s". Some characters did some tests under ideal conditions and found they were getting 1.7 or so. Then Vodacom printed in their own broachures that you could achieve speeds of up to only 1.6. Nobody I know has ever managed that - not even close.

A similar appraoch for GPRS, which in theory should give reasonable speed. In practise the speeds are dismal. Downloads can be as low as 2 or 3kbps but tend to be around 6. I don't recall the theoretical speed, but it's a lot higher.

I propose they introduce average speeds for the individual networks. We need to get an idea exactly what speeds to expect, not a theoretical figure that even they cannot nail down.

If the international bodies have a definition for broadband and iBurst doesn't achieve that, then tough - IT AINT BROADBAND! They must stop whinging and provide what they promise.
Well done to the thinkers at ASASA.
 
I agree that minimum speeds should be guaranteed, but this is like them saying "you can't advertise your service as broadband unless you guarantee 0 downtime." What makes Telkom any more able to promise this in ADSL than any WISP ?
 
Skeptik said:
If the international bodies have a definition for broadband and iBurst doesn't achieve that, then tough - IT AINT BROADBAND! They must stop whinging and provide what they promise.Well done to the thinkers at ASASA.
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But that is not what ASASA have ruled:

From the material before the Directorate it appears that a broadband connection should, at the very least, deliver a minimum speed of 256 kbps. The respondent advised that its maximum speed is 1Mbps, but remained silent on its minimum speed. From the material before the Directorate there is therefore currently nothing before the Directorate to show that the respondent is capable of delivering a minimum speed significantly faster than a traditional dial up connection, or a speed of 256 kbps.
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Iburst can only promise speeds up to 1mbps. They cannot guarantee a minimum of 256kbps, for the simple fact that users at the perifory of the coverage area may not achieve that speed, even though most do. And many users achieve speeds close to 1mbps.

This ruling basically disqualifies any wireless internet service from describing itself as broadband, because any minimum throughput is dependent on the varied location and circumstances of their users.

Even ADSL cannot currently be defined as broadband under this ruling because Telkom do not guarnatee minimum thoughput.

I don't think either maximum nor minimum speeds are appropriate or useful for the defintion of broadband, it should rather be based on benchmarks of what the average user actually experiences.
 
I seem to remember when I was trying to decide if I should go the iBurst route that pop access other than ibursts own is blocked - is this (still) correct?

Because if it is then surely it's not internet which is capable of "support various interactive services" ;) ... same goes for port shaping ... but that's another story
 
The ruling does not suggest that Telkom is providing broadband or has a right to call it as such. If anything it states quite clearly that unless 256kps is the guarantee minimum broadband speed Telkoms advert can fall under the same chopping block:
The solution in my books therefore is for ASASA to get complaints about Telkoms ADSL service:
http://www.asasa.org.za/Default.aspx?mnu_id=81
 
The real question is: Are the networks hobbling the speeds to save money? Presumably they made some calculations and did tests before advertising such speeds.
 
wireless broadband is an interesting technology and service and i think customers must do well to understand how wireless internet actually works. It is vastly different from a service provisioned through a wireline and when it comes to data, your speed is dependant on a number of factors, some of which are not controlled by iBurst, such as your proximity to the base station, weather conditions, number of users and obstacles. This ruling would have some far reaching implications to the broadband market in SA. I would have liked to see the authority force operators to publish their average speed information to customers when requested, but not to force them to not use the "broadband" name in their ads. This does not follow on other mobile broadband services in the rest of the world including Australia, US, Canada and Europe where their services are also defined as "up to 1 Mbps and as best effort services" precisely because of the inability to guarantee performance in a wireless environment. Even ADSL does not guarantee a minimum speed so i think it would be unfair of the authority to single out iBurst who as Allan Knott-Craig Jnr pointed were voted "best mobile broadband service provider 2006" by this very same forum.
 
darkone said:
Even ADSL does not guarantee a minimum speed so i think it would be unfair of the authority to single out iBurst who as Allan Knott-Craig Jnr pointed were voted "best mobile broadband service provider 2006" by this very same forum.
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AFAIK in the adsl regulations ICASA requires isp's to guarantee a minimum speed of 256kB to be called broadband. Not that I believe any of them are complying if you define guarantee as providing that speed 100% of the time.
 
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