Capped?

[youradsl]

Was anyone capped in December between 0 - 50 GIGs on a Telkom account?
I've read that users used 60+ etc and then got capped, but would like to know if anyone was capped for using less than 50?

 

[mamacosjd]

Yeah me too muhahaha

 

[antowan]

Well Telkom works it out like this according to their email. At least this is what it looks like simply put.

total userbase bandwidth baught = a
total userbase = b
average bandwidth available per user = c

a/b=c

Everybody can surf as much as they want until the average is struck and then capping occurs.

This is better than the hard caps but not perfect yet. I must however give Telkom credit for going out on a limb and finally allow at least a little spillage because with this system there could in fact be more usage than was baught although it is unknown to us just how many people actually do use their allocated bandwidth...

I suspect the system is a little bit more complex than this and is adjusted on a daily basis according to 24 hour usage patterns.

 

[matt loves telkom]

Can i ask....

Does downloading say 10 gigs a month put any 'strain' on the lines?
Lets say 80% of dsl users dl 10 gigs... would the communications stutter or even halt?

 

[MrJones]

Well Telkom works it out like this according to their email. At least this is what it looks like simply put.

total userbase bandwidth baught = a
total userbase = b
average bandwidth available per user = c

a/b=c

If they are using that type of system, would that not be anti-competitive and as such illegal. I mean couldn't other ISP's take them to the cleaners?

 

[arni1954]

If they are using that type of system, would that not be anti-competitive and as such illegal. I mean couldn't other ISP's take them to the cleaners?

From what I understand SAOL are using the same thing in 10G account.
This way they can sell unused gigs twice

 

[MrJones]

hmmmm, I suppose it does work, and they probably have some sort of legal loophole anyway. They probably say that Telkom Internet as a seperate entity has huge amounts of capital to buy huge amounts of bandwith, and then they can aportion (is aportion a word?) it anyway that they want to. And I suppose the other ISP's are in a postion to do it themselves if they want to, they just need to buy bandwidth. Gotta give it to Telkom, when they f**k you, they really think long and hard about just how they are going to do it, and then they do it properly.

I still feel that it is anti-competitive though and not in the spirit of creating more business, and employment in our economy, after all, the government still has a large piece of them, and they should be trying to encourage new business.

Freaks...

 

[arni1954]

Yes they do use their size to bully the market. But so does Microsoft , Google, Sasol you name it.

 

[rsachoc]

My take on how it works

Take the userbase and times by 3gigs - so lets say 10000 users X 3gigs = 30 000 gigs available to the entire userbase

Then they have a pre-determined threshold set, lets say 75% of the bandwidth. They probably monitor this on a daily basis. If 75% of the total bandwidth has been used, then cap all people over the bandwidth limit.

This allows the people who have not used their total 3 gigs to continue surfing, and TelkomInternet does not take a monetary loss, because odds are the people who have not reached the 3 gigs will use less than 25% of the rest of the total bandwidth for month.

Just my 2c

 

[PostmanPot]

don't they buy bandwidth in line speed, and not in GBs?

 

[jabulani]

don't they buy bandwidth in line speed, and not in GBs?

Yes, pretty sure that is the case. And they devise these crazy capping formulae to limit use so as to limit the interconnect speeds they must buy and keep their costs down. None of it really makes much sense at the end of the day because the caps kick in only late in the month if at all, and prior to that their interconnect lines have been providing enough bandwidth for the "full" load.

As MrJones says above:

Gotta give it to Telkom, when they f**k you, they really think long and hard about just how they are going to do it, and then they do it properly.

 

[swordfish1]

Can i ask....

Does downloading say 10 gigs a month put any 'strain' on the lines?
Lets say 80% of dsl users dl 10 gigs... would the communications stutter or even halt?

absolutely not!

the lines don't care how much you transfer through them, there is no even wear and tear from that! The only strain is put on the international link which has limited capacity, so if everyone started to download international stuff all at the same time at full speed, I presume that the speed of the international access will degrade substantially

 

[ShadowSA]

Does this new capping scheme only apply if Telkom is your ISP or does it apply to axxess users as well?

 

[PostmanPot]

only telkom isp..

 

[Maestr0]

I'm downloading over 100gb per month...started in November and I've been going strong ever since. Sitting with a 1mbit line as well. I still hate Telkom, but hey...the past 3 months I've really liked them.

 

[swordfish1]

I'm downloading over 100gb per month...started in November and I've been going strong ever since. Sitting with a 1mbit line as well. I still hate Telkom, but hey...the past 3 months I've really liked them.

100GB

and not being capped!!!!

 

[Maestr0]

100GB

and not being capped!!!!

Looks like things are starting to change now...damn. I just have one question...when you are hardcapped now, can you still access your account or do you get the "incorrect username and password" message?

Thanks

PS: I knew this free wave would finally crumble and turn into stupid white wash.