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Question of the Day: Do you think Bafana Bafana will win tonight?
Bandwidth consumption billing shelved
- Thread starter rpm
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TelkomUseless
Honorary Master
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If the goverment didn't protect Telkom, we could have bigger caps by this time. But hey, this is SA, were you get milked for every penny.
In the article states that the senator(s) got involved.. and stop them, with us goverment makes huge money out if this, screw the consumer.
In the article states that the senator(s) got involved.. and stop them, with us goverment makes huge money out if this, screw the consumer.
ads
Senior Member
The fundamental reason why South Africa remains out of line with the rest of the world on broadband billing (apart from Telkom, which is obvious) is the fact that a large part of the market is dominated by so-called "mobile broadband".
As has been done by mobile networks almost everywhere, the mobile operators have protected their lack of backhaul and their price cartel by making download size (caps and associated "data bundles) the de facto benchmark for broadband billing in South Africa. As a result, most consumers really don't care about things like speed or performance, and measure everything in Rand/MB (or cents/MB if you have the right provider or package).
This plan by a cable company is out of line with the billing conventions in the US fixed line broadband market. The model would probably not raise an eyebrow on a US mobile network (or any other mobile network around the world). In South Africa, most consumers would view it as perfectly normal. If (most) South African broadband users were prepared to pay for speed and performance, rather than simply measuring the price per Megabyte, providers (OK, except for Telkom) would price differently.
As has been done by mobile networks almost everywhere, the mobile operators have protected their lack of backhaul and their price cartel by making download size (caps and associated "data bundles) the de facto benchmark for broadband billing in South Africa. As a result, most consumers really don't care about things like speed or performance, and measure everything in Rand/MB (or cents/MB if you have the right provider or package).
This plan by a cable company is out of line with the billing conventions in the US fixed line broadband market. The model would probably not raise an eyebrow on a US mobile network (or any other mobile network around the world). In South Africa, most consumers would view it as perfectly normal. If (most) South African broadband users were prepared to pay for speed and performance, rather than simply measuring the price per Megabyte, providers (OK, except for Telkom) would price differently.
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LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Yes, the mobile broadband argument does not make sense. Wireless services around the world are typically tighter controlled. We are talking about a fixed line service here, in comparison to the rest of the world. 3 Gb caps don't cut it anymore. Heck even 10 Gb caps are not enough anymore. My 10Gb cap from WebAfrica is getting used up by the middle of the month with just basic browsing and e-mail.
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Dam!?!?
What's people mailing you?Smallville Season7
The large majority of internet sites these days are no longer designed for dial-up. 90% of sites these days include flash/video/applications. Between Gmail, Facebook, Youtube, and CNN, you can expect to use 10 or more megs per visit. Multiply that by several visits a day and you can quickly see where the GBs are going. Telkom expects you to ration that to one visit per day or per week.. which is just ludicrous. Add three other users in the same house and the usage quadruples!
How would you feel if the SABC told you that you can only watch TV for one hour an evening?
Great point, mobile broadband should in my opinion never be used as a families main ISP. The name mobile broadband suggests this? MOBILE!
grok
Honorary Master
Lies, damn lies!
I fail to see how this benefits the consumer, surely the only benefit is higher profits to the operators?
I fail to see how this benefits the consumer, surely the only benefit is higher profits to the operators?
It boggles my mind that people think uncapped is better.
A fully utilised 64k line costs the ISP as much as a 20GB cap to provide to end users. Yet an ISP can provide that 20GB cap over a 1Mbps or even 4Mbps and the user experience is much better than browsing at dial-up speed. Broadband is a contention service and all the people that are complaining about caps are power users who expect their broadband line to perform like a dedicated circuit running at full speed all the time for a much cheaper price.
This is simply unfair on all the average users who are then footing the bill and suffering degraded service due to (ab)users.
A fully utilised 64k line costs the ISP as much as a 20GB cap to provide to end users. Yet an ISP can provide that 20GB cap over a 1Mbps or even 4Mbps and the user experience is much better than browsing at dial-up speed. Broadband is a contention service and all the people that are complaining about caps are power users who expect their broadband line to perform like a dedicated circuit running at full speed all the time for a much cheaper price.
This is simply unfair on all the average users who are then footing the bill and suffering degraded service due to (ab)users.
LazyLion
King of de Jungle
um, we are on ADSL not mobile broadband. Where did I say anything about mobile?
I am in Senegal right now for a business trip, and they have 1Mb ADSL unlimited uncapped unshaped whatever we call it in SA for 40 euros (including TV via ADSL !)...
It really help small businesses here, there is an important ecosystem growing around ADSL !
It really help small businesses here, there is an important ecosystem growing around ADSL !
I can only bare to watch 1 hour a night. These rest is such sheit!
Sorry, its not the "power users" fault that the rest of the users is uninformed or brainwashed about the internet. Because we use the net to it fullest (iam not talking about 500gigs download /month) doesnt mean I have to suffer while pietie/ sannie thinks the internet is for downloading email.
As been said millions of time on this forum... broadband in SA isnt even broadband.
If I cant watch a stream on Youtube without any buffering imo its not broadband.
In this link they are already talking 7Mb/s as minimum.
http://www.techdirt.com/article.php?sid=20090112/0818343377&threaded=true
Nope I want my 50Gig a month with at least a speed of 5Mb/s.
bekdik
Honorary Master
The government owns Telkom.
Netguy
Senior Member
Although paying for speed as well as usage sounds odd, is that not what we have in SA? Both ADSL as well as Neotel connections are charged that way. It's only 3G where, in terms of charges, there is no real speed differentiation anymore.
Bollox
EISH! you got it all wrong. The problem is not the power users it is the contention ratio which in RSA is among the highest in the world. Up to 2000 users per line is wayy wayy over the odds and has nothing to do with fair!
You pay for a service you should be able to GET IT> not accept second best!
If I am paying for 4Mbs I want 4Mbs not 4000/2000 = 2kbs if I am lucky!
This is a fact> USA 20Mbs - 100Mbs = $12pcm
UK 20Mbs GBP15 including unlimited local calls
also now with the new secom cables coming in that old gem of - we dont have enough local bandwidth - phwa! London Internet exchange has 6 terabyte connection, Metronet 30GB optical, Telkom with secom1 connection . That the fact that Morrocco has more subscribers per 1000 is a disgrace for South Africa, supposedly Africa's leading economy.
Fact. It is possible to provide unlimited internet for under R300 per month.
It is possible to provide reliable services without using a telkom line.
Fact. It is time for South Africans to stop accepting second or third best, just because that is the way it used to be done.
Demand more, pay for what you get. Unlimited should be the standard.Expect more.
EISH! you got it all wrong. The problem is not the power users it is the contention ratio which in RSA is among the highest in the world. Up to 2000 users per line is wayy wayy over the odds and has nothing to do with fair!
You pay for a service you should be able to GET IT> not accept second best!
If I am paying for 4Mbs I want 4Mbs not 4000/2000 = 2kbs if I am lucky!
This is a fact> USA 20Mbs - 100Mbs = $12pcm
UK 20Mbs GBP15 including unlimited local calls
also now with the new secom cables coming in that old gem of - we dont have enough local bandwidth - phwa! London Internet exchange has 6 terabyte connection, Metronet 30GB optical, Telkom with secom1 connection . That the fact that Morrocco has more subscribers per 1000 is a disgrace for South Africa, supposedly Africa's leading economy.
Fact. It is possible to provide unlimited internet for under R300 per month.
It is possible to provide reliable services without using a telkom line.
Fact. It is time for South Africans to stop accepting second or third best, just because that is the way it used to be done.
Demand more, pay for what you get. Unlimited should be the standard.Expect more.
Where do you get that number from?
You just proved my point.
You are not paying for 4Mbps - you are paying for a contended service of up to 4Mbps and you are expecting the service of a 4Mbps leased line...If you are going to debate stuff then the least you can do is get your facts straight
JINX has plenty of capacity for ISPs to expand. That certainly isn't the bottleneck.
Morocco is a tad closer to Europe (and large amounts of Internet content) then we are. Remember Seacom is not live yet and we can't expect post-Seacom prices pre-Seacom
Really - do you have a killer business plan that the rest of the industry hasn't thought of? If you do PM me... I'm sure I could find you investors!