Be gentle.: Reality Check

herbs · Jul 28, 2003

Howdy,

As per usual, we have to live with below par service in RSA.

Why not use this bone of contention to get the Telkom monopoly to recognise that we, the consumer i.e. people who pay, are sick and tired of below par service.

There are three problems:

1)Installation turnaround takes too long
2)Service is too slow and not comprehensive
3)It costs too damn much.

To solve problem 1)

Make them realise that we are PAYING THROUGH OUR EARS therefore we can expect European standards of service.[:I]

To solve probnlem 2)

512kb/s is an abomination of intl standards, I am sure Telkom uses intl telco equipment, why not have it optimised to those standards.[8)]

To solve problem 3)

Yell and scream and shout to your MP, even the national Communication minister, who by the way is of the new black elitist ANC government, to the CEO (how does one become the CEO of a govt institution?) of Telkom and vent your feelings.[

!]

paully69 · Jul 28, 2003

Today i went to the Telkom ADSL BW Monitoring page. Logged in with my username etc. and clicked on the monthly stats. It shows that my usage during July is sitting at 3.7 GB. I called the DSL help desk 0800375375 and they told me to contact my ISP (Which i thought i had already) the number they gave belongs to intekom which apparently is my ISP. Great I enquire as to why the report on the graph shows i have used 420MB over the weekend. When all the machines at my office where switched off and the DSL Modem unplugged. Below is the response i received from the Telkom call center.

FIRST MESSAGE

Hi Paul,

I tried to locate the email I told you about, but couldn't get it.
But what is actually happening is: The graph does not show the daily stats, it shows the bandwidth used from the beginning of the month until the day you went to the site to check the graph.

For a more detailed explanation, you can either call me from 7:00am to 16:00pm during the day, or the internet support anytime of the day, its open 24 hours a day.

Thank you.
Tryphina

SECOUND MESSAGE

----- Original Message -----
From: "shainal Patel(Shain)" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2003 8:29 AM
Subject: ADSL CLIENT WHO HAVE BEEN CAPPED!

Hi

Just a little insight into the procedures that needs to be followed if a client reaches his 3 gigabyte cap. We do not currently offer a product to increase the 3gig cap. If a client would like another 3gigs he needs to contact Idirect to apply for another adsl username and password(AN EXTRA
LOGIN) , This will cost him an additional R239.00 . Please inform him that this is an extra account so if he wants to revert to his old username and password next month he has to call in and cancel the extra account.Or else he will be billed for 2 usernames and passwords (6 gigs) in future.

Kind Regards
Shainal Patel(Shain)
Specialist Electronic Business Support
Telkom ISP Operations

ASnogarD · Jul 28, 2003

To those who claim Telkom has deliverd what it promised via small print and those who argue ADSL is cheaper than Diginet:

If you purchase a ADSL connection and get told that after your 3gig cap you will get transfered to a slower international connection....wouldn't you at least expect a speed that compares to a old 56k analouge modem ?? If I got that I would of been satified enough. Where does it say on the website Telkom is allowed to dictate what you may do with your connection (network shaping) ? If you argue the network shaping is to protect normal users from evil power users that use P2P programs like Kazaa...do you realise it also effects local IRC traffic ? It can be so bad that a ADSL user expierences severe lag will chatting.

If I was informed that the slow connection is virtually unusable and that they prioritise ports to control traffic (against P2P users) I would of rather gone ISDN... I am one of those evil Kazaa users [}

]

I was expecting to get a 24 / 7 connection that was equal to or faster than my old modem internationally - with the addition of ADSL speed for local use (Online gaming, IRC and local sites). The 3gig would of been a prime dl time - reserved for special downloads. Am I that greedy ?

mithrandi · Jul 28, 2003

Just a simple question: why the hell should Telkom give a damn about anyone complaining? They know full well their customers have no recourse.

mithrandi

Karnaugh · Jul 28, 2003

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by mithrandi
 Just a simple question: why the hell should Telkom give a damn about anyone complaining? They know full well their customers have no recourse.

mithrandi
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

My point all along...

Sparks · Jul 28, 2003

Just answer me this... how is it that telkom can afford to give away millions to people... but they can't afford to give us the service we are paying for...

telkom claims to be on par with the rest of the world, but they can't even come close to providing the service the rest of the world has...

most americans spend 24/7 online and it costs them nothing... they get data speeds that would make out local ADSL look like it was going backwards...

we're demanding better service, but telkom is only after profits...

EXEcutioner · Jul 28, 2003

I can understand the reasoning behind most of what Telkom has done, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

What really irritates me, is not only do they cap us @ 3GB, but they are now telling us what we may and may not use that 3GB for. They might as well post a list of websites on their homepage saying what pages we may visit and during which hours.
The other major thing that is annoying me, is yes I was told that I would experience "slower performance" once I had been capped. But the speeds etc that I am getting after being capped are worse than a 33.6 Modem! 90% of stuff just times out.

And finally, If they could find a way of making local downloads not count towards your international 3GB, that would be good.

ASnogarD · Jul 28, 2003

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by mithrandi
 Just a simple question: why the hell should Telkom give a damn about anyone complaining? They know full well their customers have no recourse.

mithrandi
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

So you advise us to meekly accept what scraps we are given and be gratefull that we get such off Telkom ?

Karnaugh · Jul 29, 2003

No, he is saying you have no choice but to do so.. And as such, telkom arnt going to give a toss how much you try to complain

plug · Jul 29, 2003

I reckon Telkom has it's ADSL customers by what you call the nickers if I'm not putting it too strongly - They can do what they like whenever they like. They have no reason at all to improve ADSL. Improving it would mean loosing Diginet customers that will loose them millions upon millions in my humble opinion. The Diginet part was a Telkom conspiracy theory thingy I was thinking up. I think ADSL has the ability to royally kick Diginet's arse - technologically speaking.

Sooo, I guees it's take it or forget about it, or the alternative would be to not surrender never give up.. make a noise untill somebody listens or something to that effect. Anybody interested in toy-toying in front of parlement with a keyboard or other piece of hardware?

Karnaugh · Jul 29, 2003

No ADSL does not have the ability to "kick" a leased switched circuit technologically.

For one the A in ADSL, asymetrical - diginet is symetrical, much lower latency and it is guranteed bandwidth. The same does go in every country.. ADSL is no match for T1's etc.

Wasnt there something about a 100Base-FX network being implemented in Pretoria for businesses?

plug · Jul 29, 2003

But if they didn't constantly change IP addresses and there was no bandwidth problems, I believe a web server, mail server and the works would run fine on ADSL for small business use.

ItalicBold · Jul 29, 2003

Everyone argues that ADSL is eating into Telkoms business clients, and thus Telkom are severly hindering the service. But realy, if Telkom went all out and provided full 512/256 24/7, this would severely up the strain on local business sites, forcing them to upgrade there service. ATM Telkom is scared of adsl users hosting there own services over adsl, but if everyone had high speed connections this realy wouldn't be feasable. Basically, what I am saying is that if Telkom would just let go, the market would adapt itself.

ernstn · Jul 29, 2003

If this is so expensive and so good on Telkoms's part, why is it that Telkom guard their monopoly so sacredly, starting in the early internet years where ISP's had to use Telkom's infrastructure after exploiting an opportunity which Telkom ignored for too long. They were then forced by laws which include the fact that you cannot even set up a link across a road to another building without Telkom's intervention, to use SAIX which are also part of Telkom. I am sure that there are many people that would love to install a solution for us power users - definitely not abusers, I mean the internet is going to be the medium to deliver multimedia content at demand, VOIP is even mentioned by Telkom, live conferencing etc is all part of most people's lives overseas. Telkoms argument sounds pretty much the same as that of an MD of a company which years ago said that his company will not use PC's because they are a fad. Maybe Telkom should not sneak in technology such as adsl, which caught most ISP's by surprise and was originally used to give Telkom an unfair advantage over ISP's in getting new users for their own ISP, but rather open up the market and allow whoever wants to, to provide a solution. Some of these solutions may fail but I am sure that some others will provide a far better infrastructure than Telkom. The problem with the way that Telkom gets competitors is that it takes extravagantly huge startup costs and thus ensures that small niche markets cannot be exploited.

The government has also targeted the IT market as a development market and maybe by legalising people to setup their own infrastructure to provide services for aa niche market, more BEE opportunities can be achieved in a market stifled by incompetence and crying out for competition.

DigitalSoldier · Jul 29, 2003

well only ************ in ** are we got **************** the ********* ********* on top and ************ ****** *****doing **** jobs just ****************

____________Edit by admin______________

Sorry, this forum is open for ADSL discussions, not your political prefrences. Please seach ananzi.com for political forums, if you want to discuss politics.

____________Edit by admin______________

syntaX1 · Jul 29, 2003

I'm sad to announce that I will more than likely be taking my business offshore. Rather than keeping the money here in South Africa, I will probably be hosting my sites internationally. These are the prices which I've been given, and if people really do wish to keep our intellect here in SA, why would they not too wish to keep our money? This is all hosted on a 450mbit line. Oh what it must be like to live in a first world country again.

-------------------------------------------------------
1: a max of 10 domains, 200 mb at 20$ per month.
2: a max of 20 domains, 400 mb at 30$ per month.
3: a max of 40 domains, 1000 mb at 40$ per month.
-------------------------------------------------------

At those prices, it makes you think...

martin · Jul 29, 2003

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by DigitalSoldier
 well only real problem in sa are we got black empowerment the ****ing idiots on top and the really smart guyz doing **** jobs just 2 pay there rent

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

DS, I do not want to start a flame war, but I don't think that remark can be viewed as constructive criticism.

paf · Jul 29, 2003

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by martin

DS, I do not want to start a flame war, but I don't think that remark can be viewed as constructive criticism.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
I agree. Please can we try and do without that kind of stuff?

plug · Jul 29, 2003

Below is server hosting pricing in 2001 from Telkom:

server hosting = You can take your server to a server farm hosted by Telkom. You set up your own server and manage it.

R1500 and Unlimited Bandwidth

In 2002 Telkom changed things. Now there is bandwidth limit of 1GIG per server and R10 per MB there-after. (Might be wrong about the R10 but it was some ridiculious amount)

So we were forced to move the server because where the cost was R1500 per month it would now with the new pricing work out on something like R10 000 per month.

We reasoned with Telkom and they would here nothing about us and were forced to move oversea's.

We now bought some servers here: http://www.cihost.com

R1000 per server (500 GIG transfer per month) - You don't even have to pay for the server.

I think in a couple of months or maybe years Telkom will wake up and wonder where all thier hosting customers went.

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