Ask Afrihost CEO Gian Visser anything

[Afrihost-Gian]

On your voice mobile month to month contract, if you still have R25 airtime left over from your R29 contract at the end of the month, your billing system will top up to R29 on the first of the next month with R4, even though you are billed and pay R29.
Thus I effectively pay R25 for the same airtime twice.
Dammit Jim, that makes no sense!!

The thinking behind our month to month Mobile with Voice was to offer something like a contract but without any long term commitment.

We were also only able to work with MTN's existing prepaid system and infrastructure. This means we had to work within the prepaid ruleset to design the product. With a contract you get your allocation at the beginning of each month, so that’s our aim with this product. We encourage clients to only topup with us so we can try to ensure they always get the maximum value back each month.

We also offer Prepaid Voice and Prepaid Data (that lasts for a year) for those clients who want to make sure they use all their airtime and data before they purchase more.

 

[Afrihost-Gian]

Is capped really unlimited/unshaped – this pertaining to prioritisation and control. What controls are exerted on traffic?

Yes. Capped DSL data is completely unshaped at all times. Unlike many of our competitors we do not have two different kinds of Capped products. It's straight forward and simple and we only have one type of Capped data product. And that data is unshaped no matter the time of day or night you choose to use it. We apply no shaping to it no matter what type of traffic you are using it for. You can be downloading, streaming or surfing and you will get the maximum speed your line will give you.

 

[Afrihost-Gian]

Who are your “upstream” providers – what % of work is done with the ISP vs the upstream provider/s? (This is an important aspect especially for end to end factors such as latency)

We have a few providers. We work mostly with EchoSP to manage those relationships. They maintain their core networking infrastructure that we’re using and ensure the network integrity. However. we work closely with them to try and identify areas where improvements are possible (esp with regards to latency). We control the setup of our Sandvines and how they perform (Working closely with Three6five). So we take care of pretty much all the day to day stuff in terms of managing our client’s internet experience.

 

[Afrihost-Gian]

Playstation 4 or XBox One?

Playstation 4 ;-)

 

[Afrihost-Gian]

If you were required to become a citizen of another country, which would you choose and why?

The country: The Maldives.

The reason: Incredible place and incredible people.

The real reason: Lying on a beach, with my wife next to me and my kids playing in the sea is my idea of paradise.

 

[Afrihost-Gian]

You are on a Mybroadband Game Show. There are three curtains: A,B and C . Behind one is the ability to install fibre to the home at R10/km. Behind the other two is a new law that turns off all other undersea cables besides SAT3. RPM know what curtain the gift of cheap FTTH is hidden behind. You are asked to pick a curtain. Before revealing what it hides, RPM reveals a curtain other than your own that contains the law. He then asks you if you want to change your choice.

My question is:
Do you change your choice of curtain?

Yip, I change my choice of curtain at that point.

 

[Afrihost-Gian]

What can be done to improve Ping to European gaming servers (cause playing with 200ms sucks)

Ping (or latency) is a direct factor of how far your data has to travel (or saying that another way the length or route of the undersea cables that your data is carried over). So the way to decrease the ping to European gaming servers is to make sure that your network is utilising the most direct, shortest undersea cable route to the EU. Other than that the only way to decrease your ping is to move to Europe ;-)

 

[Afrihost-Gian]

Coke or Pepsi?

Coke Zero

 

[Afrihost-Gian]

What is the best book that you ever read?

What is the hardest question that you have ever been asked?

The question: "What is the best book that you ever read?"

 

[Afrihost-Gian]

+1 : Will you consider an add-on that will give unmetered uncapped unshaped for streaming etc outside normal business hours for capped accounts. Yesterday the FREE and UNLIMITED After‑Hours timeslot was extended from 23:30 to 07:30 every day, so all that is needed is an extension from 17:00 to 23:30 weekdays, and obviously weekends and public holidays.

I honestly think that unshaped capped accounts with unmetered after-business-hours access is the way forward and will protect your network at peak times and provide better utilization after-hours. Win win for everybody!

The main issue is that our peak network time actually starts from about 18h30 and lasts to about 23h00 every night including weekends. This is probably a consequence of both the demographic of our clients and the advent and growth of streaming services such as Youtube, Netflix and Showmax etc. Unfortunately this means that we will not be able to make your idea work.

 

[Afrihost-Gian]

Does Telkom inform you when their exchanges are overloaded?

Nope, unfortunately they do not.

 

[Afrihost-Gian]

Hi Gian

Firstly; thank you for Afrihost

Will you consider in the future to have preference for streaming sites (Showmax; Netflix; etc) making them uncapped; and unshaped as an add on package on accounts? Perhaps even included as an afrihost plus benefit?

Regards
Jaco Potgieter

I think that it’ll be difficult for any ISP to zero-rate any video streaming services. There are two main reasons for this: First, the time most people use these services is early evening to latish evening which coincides with (or creates) the peak usage time for the network. This means to service more clients at this time we need greater capacity on our network, which means that our costs go up. Secondly, these are amongst the most bandwidth intensive activities that someone can do (especially as streaming quality and speeds increase) which means these effects of needing more capacity are magnified further.

 

[Afrihost-Gian]

Hey MickeyD/RPM

Bedtime! Please would close the thread again and I will keep going through the questions tomorrow.

15 hours and counting so far - Getting there!

Thank you everybody again for all the questions and thank you for your patience.

Good night (or good morning!)

 

[Afrihost-Gian]

And I'm back before the Mods can even close the Thread. (Morning SinghDude!)

Managed to get in a small nap before my kids clambered over me this morn! And now got a little time to answer some more of your questions before the day's assault begins in earnest.

Just a reminder to please not make any comments or ask new questions just yet. There will be time for that once I've flattened your questions (eventually!)

Thanks for your patience!

 

[Afrihost-Gian]

What was the single most important development in telecommunications over the last decade?

Smartphones and mobile internet are probably the biggest factor changing how we live, how we work, how we buy products and also how we talk to each other. I love the meme where you see two guys watching a football game and in the one panel it’s how we used to watch football, where they’re just watching a TV, and in the second panel they’re both looking at the smartphones while they watch TV. This technology and change in lifestyle is pervasive, and it’s affecting everyone. From young kids to old folks. And it is fundamentally going to change the coming generations as they grow up and hence the world.

 

[Afrihost-Gian]

Does Afrihost have any plans to offer a mobile data solution (multiple SIMs on one data account) for the IoT (M2M) market ?

Have always loved this idea. Plate full at the moment and some challenges with model that we have to overcome but it is definitely something that we want to do!

 

[Afrihost-Gian]

Is the issues I had, with reference to ILS-102-61597, AH20160131-253394 and CPO-446-34736, where my complaint was completely ignored (even when you were copied on email) from the logged date (31 January 2016) until after Telkom resolved the issue around 19 February? Is this the way forward? I had no service at all in that period. Give me a reason to stay with Afrihost?

Hey Typheous. Sincerely sorry to hear about the problems that you experienced. We're working on improving ourselves in every way that we can. Unfortunately we, and other IPSs, are having teething problems with Telkom's new ADSL line management system, Assia. Not trying to lay blame here at all. I actually hold Telkom overall in very high regard. The introduction of the new system, however, has led to a ton of extra calls and issues logged, which has led to poorer and slower service for now. I'm convinced we will all get through this though. If you are still having any problems please feel free to PM me your details and I'll get somebody to contact you ASAP. Thanks.

 

[Afrihost-Gian]

What role, if any, will Afrihost play in the enhancement of digital educational gadgets, especially in rural areas?

Delivering better internet access to all South Africans is really important for us and also for the development of our country. If I could click my fingers and give everyone in rural areas free internet I would do it. *CLICK* Unfortunately we (Afrihost) don't have the cash or means to do that, but we do look at opportunities to get involved through our sponsorship programme.

 

[Afrihost-Gian]

Do you have any ambitions to go into owning higher level telecoms infrastructure and competing with Telkom/MTN at an infrastructure level.

For now our focus is mostly on using other people's infrastructure, and making the client experience of using that infrastructure the best it can be by using our own software and service layered over it. I would not say we have no ambitions to ever do this, but for the short to medium term our focus is definitely to provide products, that are woven into existing infrastructure, and making sure these products dramatically improve our clients' experience of using that existing infrastructure.

 

[Afrihost-Gian]

If you were born in the 19th century, what would you be doing now?

Great question. Although I don't think I would have lived past 3! I had a bad case of meningoencephalitis when I was younger and I think in any other era I would have died! If I had lived my poor eyesight would have hindered me so I probably would have been a peasant farmer or something similar! I am just exceedingly grateful that I was born when I was ;-)