BitCo Consumer Review

CriticalConsumer said:
Am not sure why the FUP is such a big issue...

I have said on many occasions I am on the new trial FUP and have been on the old FUP...I have no problems watching content in high quality video.

Firstly why would you want to watch TV all day? Streaming content in HD is nice but totally unnecessary in many cases. Downloading content (P2P) on the other hand is more likely to attract a FUP application.

If you look at the ADSL ISP's that provided Uncapped Unshaped data initially had no issues with their networks however have now applied stricter FUP's and network management tools just to cope with the demand - so much so that many customers are looking for alternatives to ADSL. Many of us were those clients!

I would rather have a high quality network where measures are put in place from Day 1 to ensure happy customers that can perform a multitude of tasks using their links. These point to point links are 1:1 from your premises to the high site. Thereafter the bandwidth is contended in the core network.

Where do you get that kind of service on ADSL or LTE?

Disclaimer: I do not work for nor am I involved in any form with BitCo.
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I'm sure it would hurt people when watching series for example. When you start a season more than never you will land up watching 4/5/6/7 episodes one after the other

If the contention is 1:1 from home to the high site then what is the contention on the backend ?

Maybe the same contention as ADSL ?

That should be the contention ratio they tell their customers not that you have a direct link to the high site

HD is what people want, if you still watching SD then chances are you haven't experienced HD

What happens when 4k content becomes available. Netflix already has UltraHD content

We can't move backwards

We are all for protecting their network against abuse, should streaming be seen as abuse is the question

I'm sure most streaming services would most likely use UDP ports instead of TCP ports so shouldn't be too difficult to see which is which
 
Viashen said:
I'm sure it would hurt people when watching series for example. When you start a season more than never you will land up watching 4/5/6/7 episodes one after the other
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This, I usually stream series/YT for 6+ hours in evening while I work.


No issues on 10mbps now :P

asfasf23.PNG
 
No offense taken :-)

We all friends here

I do work in the IT industry. System/Network administrator so I understand the terminologies being referenced.

With the 1:1 contention we have dedicated links to the high site but it will be contended beyond that.

Most wireless providers have a 1:1 contention to the high site but that doesn't really help if the contention after that is 20:1 or 50:1 or whatever it might be

It should be more clear that you don't actually have a 1:1 contention all the way through.

If a person reads the 1:1 contention as stated in the FAQ's it's very brief and doesn't actually give the true story. More clever advertising rather than false advertising.

In short if home users have a contended backend with a 1:1 link the bottleneck would still be the slowest point.

It's like having a 100mb link and u only able to retrieve 50mb for example. Doesn't really help if you know what I mean :-(
 
Just an update on streaming as well, so yesterday I was catching up on some series while I had some time.

I watched from about 3:30 PM and was throttled at 8:00 PM

So that's roughly 5 episodes or 2 Movies

HD was flawless until throttled then I just put it off :-(
 
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The wait is unbearable. And Bitco isn't exactly the fastest to respond. Took a week just to get a quote. Now another few weeks for installations, then another few days for this "soaking period".

Even Telkom is faster.
 
SplaT said:
The wait is unbearable. And Bitco isn't exactly the fastest to respond. Took a week just to get a quote. Now another few weeks for installations, then another few days for this "soaking period".

Even Telkom is faster.
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Which method did you use to obtain a quote?

The wait is worth it - trust me. So hang in there. Telkom's current timeline for installing ADSL in many areas is around the October 2015 timeline at the earliest...that's if you are lucky!
 
Viashen said:
No offense taken :-)

We all friends here

I do work in the IT industry. System/Network administrator so I understand the terminologies being referenced.

With the 1:1 contention we have dedicated links to the high site but it will be contended beyond that.

Most wireless providers have a 1:1 contention to the high site but that doesn't really help if the contention after that is 20:1 or 50:1 or whatever it might be

It should be more clear that you don't actually have a 1:1 contention all the way through.

If a person reads the 1:1 contention as stated in the FAQ's it's very brief and doesn't actually give the true story. More clever advertising rather than false advertising.

In short if home users have a contended backend with a 1:1 link the bottleneck would still be the slowest point.

It's like having a 100mb link and u only able to retrieve 50mb for example. Doesn't really help if you know what I mean :-(
Click to expand...

Any service provider cannot provided 1:1 internet connectivity at the consumer level from your premises to the core. Business links however are another story as they pay a premium for this 1:1 path.

From a PoP to the metro Ethernet network for consumers the bandwidth will be dedicated per high site. The core bandwidth is never available directly for consumers (and even businesses). The link / bandwidth capacity per high site also plays a role and is apportioned dependent on the projected users in the area.

I don't think that BitCo promises 1:1 to all the way through...no ISP does for a consumer. Even businesses may never achieve 100Mbps on a 100Mbps link. You may get very close depending on routing. Remember we are playing around with a lot of theoretical numbers when it comes to electronic equipment and many physical and physics factors will impact performance.

Businesses get priority and once the core runs out of bandwidth capacity an upgrade is required (which was recently done in BitCo's case).

This does benefit consumers as well however the proportioning depends on the usage per segment. I get full 5Mbps out of my link and I download quite a lot + stream all my content.

I hope all this makes sense to those that are non-technical...and helps enlighten you on how your connectivity works.
 
CriticalConsumer said:
Any service provider cannot provided 1:1 internet connectivity at the consumer level from your premises to the core. Business links however are another story as they pay a premium for this 1:1 path.

From a PoP to the metro Ethernet network for consumers the bandwidth will be dedicated per high site. The core bandwidth is never available directly for consumers (and even businesses). The link / bandwidth capacity per high site also plays a role and is apportioned dependent on the projected users in the area.

I don't think that BitCo promises 1:1 to all the way through...no ISP does for a consumer. Even businesses may never achieve 100Mbps on a 100Mbps link. You may get very close depending on routing. Remember we are playing around with a lot of theoretical numbers when it comes to electronic equipment and many physical and physics factors will impact performance.

Businesses get priority and once the core runs out of bandwidth capacity an upgrade is required (which was recently done in BitCo's case).

This does benefit consumers as well however the proportioning depends on the usage per segment. I get full 5Mbps out of my link and I download quite a lot + stream all my content.

I hope all this makes sense to those that are non-technical...and helps enlighten you on how your connectivity works.
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Bitco doesn't promise 1:1 contention all the way through but as before it it advertised as the only contention ratio they give on their site.

So it's merely masking the truth in a way. I understand how it works but it should be described as such instead of describing the best parts of the network only don't you agree ?. It should be the actual info we need to know.

Are you on a 10MB link or a 5MB link ?

Sent From My Bitco Link (Throttled :cry:)
 
SplaT said:
The wait is unbearable. And Bitco isn't exactly the fastest to respond. Took a week just to get a quote. Now another few weeks for installations, then another few days for this "soaking period".

Even Telkom is faster.
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Hi SplaT,

Thanks for the post

Sorry for the delay with the quotation, typically you would receive your quotation within 24 hours of lodging your request and speaking to one of our home broadband consultants.

It seems over the festive season we had quite a backlog of requests and it took the agents a few additional days to clear the queue

i can confirm we are back inline with our standard request lead times, your order lead time will be 2-3 weeks from date of order for installation and a few additional days for soaking depending on the link quality.

It will be well worth the wait :-)

Mike
 
Nikers said:
My site inspection was on Friday. No clear line of site. Well then I have to remain on 2Mb ADSL.
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:( Sorry to hear that

We are on a big drive in 2015 to build more high sites so hopefully you will get a call from us in the near future if LOS becomes available

Mike
 
Received an email a couple weeks back for an APC UPS from Bitco. Have you guys run any tests to see how long that UPS would keep the connection running for?
 
Viashen said:
Bitco doesn't promise 1:1 contention all the way through but as before it it advertised as the only contention ratio they give on their site.

So it's merely masking the truth in a way. I understand how it works but it should be described as such instead of describing the best parts of the network only don't you agree ?. It should be the actual info we need to know.

Are you on a 10MB link or a 5MB link ?

Sent From My Bitco Link (Throttled :cry:)
Click to expand...

5Mbps
 
Sparky_za said:
Received an email a couple weeks back for an APC UPS from Bitco. Have you guys run any tests to see how long that UPS would keep the connection running for?
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"IF" I read that e-mail correctly the UPS seems to only be for their equipment. So the dish, the switch and the router only. I might be wrong though.
 
Pitbull said:
"IF" I read that e-mail correctly the UPS seems to only be for their equipment. So the dish, the switch and the router only. I might be wrong though.
Click to expand...
That's all I need

Laptop and tablets will cover the rest so no need to keep those powered.
 
CriticalConsumer said:
5Mbps
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I have the same package, i'm not sure how you manage to not get throttled with that much of streaming and downloads on top of that as the past 2 2 evenings with watching Series alone i got Throttled both times

when streaming, if i remember correctly i average around 75 % line utilisation with 1 or 2 spikes here and there

The problem with leaky bucket is that you it's usage over time

So if you trickle at 10% utilisation after about 8/9 hours throughout the day you would still be throttled because of the time you used your link for

You literally have to keep track off how long you use the link for and pace it out
 
Viashen said:
I have the same package, i'm not sure how you manage to not get throttled with that much of streaming and downloads on top of that as the past 2 2 evenings with watching Series alone i got Throttled both times

when streaming, if i remember correctly i average around 75 % line utilisation with 1 or 2 spikes here and there

The problem with leaky bucket is that you it's usage over time

So if you trickle at 10% utilisation after about 8/9 hours throughout the day you would still be throttled because of the time you used your link for

You literally have to keep track off how long you use the link for and pace it out
Click to expand...

You streaming via Netflix?
 
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