Bitco Consumer Q&A

Viashen said:
Exactly, see below. straight from their website

http://bitco.co.za/home-internet-faq/

What is your current contention ratio for the home product?
1 : 1

So you can see how if you don't know any better, you get taken for a ride
Click to expand...

Hi Viashen,

I can reiterate and confirm again that we do not shape or limit online media streaming. This service falls into a high quality of service on our network and is classified as high priority.

Please do not confuse our Fair Usage Policy with our with contention or shaping.

We do enforce a shaping policy during business hours on abusive protocols such as P2P.

If you would like to watch high definition video for long periods of time we would suggest upgrading to a 10Mbps package

Mike
 
BitCo said:
Hi Viashen,

I can reiterate and confirm again that we do not shape or limit online media streaming. This service falls into a high quality of service on our network and is classified as high priority.

Please do not confuse our Fair Usage Policy with our with contention or shaping.

We do enforce a shaping policy during business hours on abusive protocols such as P2P.

If you would like to watch high definition video for long periods of time we would suggest upgrading to a 10Mbps package

Mike
Click to expand...

Hi Mike

Thank yo for the info

My reference was in regard to Streaming is still using data which Bitco see's as usage and therefore the FUP applies. So if you stream content you will be throttled after some time.

The contention ratio was as quoted from the Bitco website so no misunderstanding could be had in that regard. You'll do state 1:1 contention do you not with no further explanation ?

I wish Bitco would have stated that in the beginning instead of advertising something then removing it

Lets be honest here, you pay for a 5MB line yet you cannot achieve 5MB for a prolonged time because of the FUP. you really offer a 2MB line with a few hours of 5MB usage

I got burnt by Bitco with their advertising and false promises so i wouldn't want anyone else to be in the same boat

These days o stream at max 2/3 episodes then call it a day because anymore and i get my R899 a month 2MB line worth

Regards
 
Viashen said:
Hi Mike

Thank yo for the info

My reference was in regard to Streaming is still using data which Bitco see's as usage and therefore the FUP applies. So if you stream content you will be throttled after some time.

The contention ratio was as quoted from the Bitco website so no misunderstanding could be had in that regard. You'll do state 1:1 contention do you not with no further explanation ?

I wish Bitco would have stated that in the beginning instead of advertising something then removing it

Lets be honest here, you pay for a 5MB line yet you cannot achieve 5MB for a prolonged time because of the FUP. you really offer a 2MB line with a few hours of 5MB usage

I got burnt by Bitco with their advertising and false promises so i wouldn't want anyone else to be in the same boat

These days o stream at max 2/3 episodes then call it a day because anymore and i get my R899 a month 2MB line worth

Regards
Click to expand...

Hi Viashen,

Thanks for the reply

Our fair usage policy has always been clearly defined on our web site and all relevant marketing information.

Many ISP's will choose to heavily contend the bandwidth and implement soft caps for customers to protect their networks against large unsolicited downloads.

We have chosen to give users access to dedicated unshaped international and local bandwidth and implement an FUP around this.

You are correct on a 5Mbps Link you will reach the FUP if you stream for a long period of time in HD as it uses a constant stream of high quality international bandwidth.

All online streaming services use different compression protocols so bandwidth consumption will vary between services

Dedicated international bandwidth is very expensive and uncontended bandwidth would not be viable without a form of FUP

I can confirm i am on a 10Mbps home package and no matter how long i stream online media my content remains in HD

Mike
 
BitCo said:
Hi Viashen,

Thanks for the reply

Our fair usage policy has always been clearly defined on our web site and all relevant marketing information.

Many ISP's will choose to heavily contend the bandwidth and implement soft caps for customers to protect their networks against large unsolicited downloads.

We have chosen to give users access to dedicated unshaped international and local bandwidth and implement an FUP around this.

You are correct on a 5Mbps Link you will reach the FUP if you stream for a long period of time in HD as it uses a constant stream of high quality international bandwidth.

All online streaming services use different compression protocols so bandwidth consumption will vary between services

Dedicated international bandwidth is very expensive and uncontended bandwidth would not be viable without a form of FUP

I can confirm i am on a 10Mbps home package and no matter how long i stream online media my content remains in HD

Mike
Click to expand...

Thank You Mike

Unfortunately the FUP and the product offerings contradicted itself when i took my package and was not given what was advertised but Bitco knows my story so won't get into too much detail.

Correct, if a soft cap where to be implemented only the heavy downloaders and abusers would be affected and not us normal folk. right now the FUP affects all users. i wish Bitco cold see that.

Why not do a survey and ask people if they would prefer a soft cap or the current leaky bucket system and see what the response is like ?

People are not against a FUP but against the way Bitco implements it. on a 5MB package the average is around 400GB a month FUP on most ISP offerings which is fair i would say

On a 10MB line, when throttled you will still be at 5MB which is perfect for HD streaming

On a 5MB line if you throttled you are at 2MB which at this point, HD is out the window

I'm sure that i speak for a lot of people when i say a FUP is to protect the network from abusers, a soft cap will ensure people are diligent and only abusers would feel the pinch

Why affect everyone when it's just the abusers you'll are after

Regards
 
Viashen said:
Thank You Mike

Unfortunately the FUP and the product offerings contradicted itself when i took my package and was not given what was advertised but Bitco knows my story so won't get into too much detail.

Correct, if a soft cap where to be implemented only the heavy downloaders and abusers would be affected and not us normal folk. right now the FUP affects all users. i wish Bitco cold see that.

Why not do a survey and ask people if they would prefer a soft cap or the current leaky bucket system and see what the response is like ?

People are not against a FUP but against the way Bitco implements it. on a 5MB package the average is around 400GB a month FUP on most ISP offerings which is fair i would say

On a 10MB line, when throttled you will still be at 5MB which is perfect for HD streaming

On a 5MB line if you throttled you are at 2MB which at this point, HD is out the window

I'm sure that i speak for a lot of people when i say a FUP is to protect the network from abusers, a soft cap will ensure people are diligent and only abusers would feel the pinch

Why affect everyone when it's just the abusers you'll are after

Regards
Click to expand...

Hi Viashen,

We have spent a considerable amount of time looking at our FUP and the individual users.

Many aspects would need to be considered before looking at changing the uncontended access to a contended + soft cap model.

We have made the decision to keep the current FUP in place for now and rather give the users the premium experience with lowest possible latency and highest quality bandwidth possible.

We do educate customers to consider a 10Mbps package if their requirement is continuous online media streaming in HD

My suggestion to you would be to consider an ADSL type service once your contract has completed, this way you would get both the contention from Telkom's side and the Soft Cap model from the ISP of choice.

I cannot comment on how well online media streaming will work over an ADSL line as we do not offer this service.

I can confirm our network latency and quality would be significantly better than an ADSL type service

The best comparison would be to run some ping tests to local and international servers and compare this to an ADSL connection.

Mike
 
BitCo said:
Hi Viashen,

We have spent a considerable amount of time looking at our FUP and the individual users.

Many aspects would need to be considered before looking at changing the uncontended access to a contended + soft cap model.

We have made the decision to keep the current FUP in place for now and rather give the users the premium experience with lowest possible latency and highest quality bandwidth possible.

We do educate customers to consider a 10Mbps package if their requirement is continuous online media streaming in HD

My suggestion to you would be to consider an ADSL type service once your contract has completed, this way you would get both the contention from Telkom's side and the Soft Cap model from the ISP of choice.

I cannot comment on how well online media streaming will work over an ADSL line as we do not offer this service.

I can confirm our network latency and quality would be significantly better than an ADSL type service

The best comparison would be to run some ping tests to local and international servers and compare this to an ADSL connection.

Mike
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike

Bu using the Leaky bucket system the experience is worsened as you have a good experience for a short while then bam, half your line speed gone.

The 10MB package is way too expensive at an additional R600 monthly and you still technically have a 5MB line because you will get throttled again if you try to utilise 10MB to it's full potential.

Technically you pay R1499 for a 5MB line and 10MB sometimes which you can see discourages people a lot

I might lean towards LTE as an option as Neotel has a 4MB constant speed with a 400GB soft cap as well as uncapped for roughly the same price as the Bitco 5MB / 2MB service

For R1499 you could almost get a 40MB Line Uncapped and i'm pretty sure it will be fine for even 4K streaming lol. We have one at work for our Guest wireless and never misses a beat. could just be our luck i guess

Just a quick googled price

Do Elite+ Uncapped 40Mbps R1799

It's just sad that you can can have the best quality network but you are still limiting the speed of the guys so how can they actually utilise it ?

Bitco's offering should be geared towards web browsing only, media streaming, downloads, p2p or anything that can actually use the links full speed would just cause you to be throttled

Maybe in the future you'll might change but for now it really is a lot of money to spend every month if you cannot use it

Regards
 
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So i see there are problems. Which worries me as i was considering bitco if i move to a no Adsl area. Sad
 
kianm said:
So i see there are problems. Which worries me as i was considering bitco if i move to a no Adsl area. Sad
Click to expand...

Hi KianM

Personally, i have issues with streaming especially but if you just do browsing then you should be fine

If you plan on getting the 5MB package and do streaming via Netflix, youtube etc then expect to have a 2MB line and no HD for most of the day unless you cap yourself at 2/3 episodes max

So at R899 for a 2MB line technically i find that extremely expensive as you only get 5MB if you do not actually use 5MB continuously which to me is just plain daft
 
Viashen said:
Hi KianM

Personally, i have issues with streaming especially but if you just do browsing then you should be fine

If you plan on getting the 5MB package and do streaming via Netflix, youtube etc then expect to have a 2MB line and no HD for most of the day unless you cap yourself at 2/3 episodes max

So at R899 for a 2MB line technically i find that extremely expensive as you only get 5MB if you do not actually use 5MB continuously which to me is just plain daft
Click to expand...

I am a streamer i cancelled my monochoice sub so that would be a problem on 5Mbps i see. I'm sure of they introduce capped home packages many wpuld be happy because i know averagely how much i need and could switch to capped. Going for 10Mbps package just because you would get throttled doesn't make sense for the consumer ( though it's more $$ for the business so I'm sure they are happy with such arrangements)
 
kianm said:
I am a streamer i cancelled my monochoice sub so that would be a problem on 5Mbps i see. I'm sure of they introduce capped home packages many wpuld be happy because i know averagely how much i need and could switch to capped. Going for 10Mbps package just because you would get throttled doesn't make sense for the consumer ( though it's more $$ for the business so I'm sure they are happy with such arrangements)
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Agree with you 1 000 000 %. i wish they could just see that

People don't want to pay for 10MB just be be guaranteed 5MB.

I am also a streamer like many others so a 400 / 500 GB cap a month on a 5MB package is in line with the norm from other ISP's.

This helps with multiple things as well

People cannot abuse the link because if you do then you will hit your soft cap and get throttled. In turn abusers will only suffer

Shaping won't happen because you have the soft cap and that alone is a big win for customers

Honestly, i haven't been to many ISP's but the first i heard of this Leaky Bucket thing was at Bitco. Not sure which other ISP's actually use this method.
 
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BitCo said:
Hi Viashen,

Thanks for the reply

Our fair usage policy has always been clearly defined on our web site and all relevant marketing information.


Mike
Click to expand...

What bull****!! The last thing the fair usage policy is, is clearly defined! Also I am really tired of hearing people say that it is for the customers benefit!! Again BS, Bitco/Mike you are making promises that are not kept.

No streaming shaping - err except if this and except if >51% of line speed for 60Min
1:1 Contention err except if you try use it
P2P Is fine err except right now it is 0 traffic (P2P is a home use thing, why should home users be penalized anyway - Bitco sold us Home use packages??

Profiteering I think is the word.
 
I must say that the throttling after 1 hour has put me off pursuing this company as an option.

Not really worth it for my usage patterns* - please seriously consider changing the packages.

* virtually no use in the daylight hours, fairly consistent usage for 3-4 hours in the evening.
 
I'm on the 2mb package, occasionally it spikes to 5mb...

uploadfromtaptalk1437893294843.jpg
 
i got a quick question,

when is bitco going to support 24 hour support for the home user.
why im asking is my router at home lost it configs after loadshdding yesterday. now i need to wait til the next working day to get support to get sort. would think would have 24 hour support now. as they getting (SO) big.
 
Hi Jarrid,

We have recently implemented after hours support until 7pm and are currently working on expanding these hours even further.
 
Does Bitco cover Joburg south,namely Alrode Glenvista and Brackenhurst?
 
Hi. I am in the RTB area. I have had Bitco for 2 years now without any issues. Now the last 2 weeks i have been experiencing low network speeds due to what the helpdesk describes as interference. And i am not the only one. there are several people in my Estate that use Bitco and they have the same problem.

Today i got a mail from them telling me in no uncertain terms that they are willing to give me R300 discount a month and then i must just be happy to have internet whether it is bad or good. I mean really??? I pay for a 10meg line R999 a month and they are not even willing to look for the cause of the interference. They are not willing to move my dish to see if it is geographical issue. they are not willing to move me to a different radio on the high site...Nothing.... They just want to silence me so that they can keep taking my money.
 
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