You'll get some super performance on this account, but only up to a point.
It's truly unshaped, so games are optimum. It uses the IS backbone, which is great for IS Servers.
Torrents will run at full line speed, even during the day.
IP address is dynamic.
Signing up is a breeze and you don't need an ID or anything.
The account is from month to month, so you can pay for one month if you want to try it. {Ask for the account number and pay by EFT instead of direct debit for the first month.}
Pick your own account name as well! Activation details are sent to you via SMS.
Their support is decent and you often get to speak to a person with a brain (they sound like students)
They can check things like line noise and seem to be able to reset ports etc. Anything further gets passed over to Telkom or (sometimes) ignored.
The Negatives
Payment is not pro-rata, so if you join on the 20th of the month, you pay the full amount.
How much can you download? - The problem comes about when you reach around 9Gb of download (for 384 kb/s). {It will be slightly more for 512kb/s}
At that point you are magically in the 20% bracket and life becomes difficult. Your 5-star rating becomes 4, and the shaping starts getting evident.
4 Stars isn't too bad, but 2 stars happens from around 12 Gigs and the shaping is quite severe. Torrents start getting quite slow, but faster than many ISP's have as standard. In-game ping can be a problem at this point.
No idea what happens beyond 2 stars.
Incidentally, there is no record of this new system anywhere on AXXESS or IS' site!
There is also no way of finding out whether you are close to the 20% margin. In all fairness, the system is not transparent.
In the evenings, after 10pm or so when the network is under less strain, the shaping lets go.
You will only regain your stars once you're no longer in the 20% league and there is a 10-day rolling system for that. This means it doesn't reset at the end of the month and you could start the month shaped, which is ludicrous!
AXXESS is just a reseller for IS bandwidth. Any restrictions imposed are not AXXESS's fault. This is quite a common reaction if you moan about the above system!
