Capping, shaping & per gig billing is evil

mando

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I have been lurking here - waiting for prices to drop so that I can get ADSL (but Telkom thinks the market is already saturated!) - and I just have to chip in here when I read how people justify per gig billing 'because thats all they personally need'.

Per gig billing is an attempt to create scarcity where there is none! Its a purely economic decision motivated by profit and has very little to do with technical issues.

One reason Telkom uses is 'some users will abuse the system'. You have a cetain line speed allocated that you pay for - wether you transfer more or less data you can never exceed your quota of available line speed. Same goes for shaping - if you do p2p or web browsing it makes no difference - you can never exceed your quota on the line. You pay for the line speed you want! There is (or should be) a contention ratio that you pay for - if on the cheaper 50:1 then no matter what you do you can never exceed your quota - its impossible to 'abuse' it - you are sharing the line with other people - no matter what a single user does. Pay more for a 20:1 contention ratio on Business ADSL if you need it. You pay for a specified line speed and contention ratio and its impossible to go above these limits!

One reason that telkom uses for capping is 'most people use less than 3gig anyway' - so what about a FAMILY or SCHOOL or SMALL BUSINESS? Must I get separate ADSL for my wife and kids and mother? If most people use less than 3gig then the cap should be 30gig to make it useful for a whole family or other group. Most people use less because they get capped if they go over!

Per gig billing is an evil bull**** scheme being pushed by telkom and certain greedy ISPs that see a way to increase profits -> make it SEEM cheaper but nail them with per gig charges! Its actually very clever: charge each suscriber the maximum that they are able to pay - they will regulate themselves to this level! But its crap: copper is not like wireless and cellphone - the copper is not scarce like with a tower - its there - one strand going to each house or busniss or school! Telkom is creating a scarcity where there is none!

Whats next? Callmore time on ADSL? Their costs suddenly drop after hours? Bull****. Callmore exists as a way to maximise profits and has nothing to do with running costs.

Its purely a case of charging the maximum possible amount that the market will bear, and creating a pricing model that allows Telkom to extract the most money from each subscriber.

Capping, shaping & per gig billing is evil because Telkom uses bull**** excuses as to why they are doing it and lies and uses smokescreens to justify it. Its evil because we dont have normal competitive free market.

Capping, shaping & per gig billing is evil because Telkom was built with taxpayers money and as a monopoly needs to provide a basic service.

Capping, shaping & per gig billing is evil because it is.
 
how people justify per gig billing 'because thats all they personally need'.
so what about a FAMILY or SCHOOL or SMALL BUSINESS?
Exactly what I was trying to tell Snekko on this post.
Telkom was built with taxpayers money and as a monopoly needs to provide a basic service.
I wonder how many times I have stated that fact here on this forum. Sigh.

Excellent first post Mando! :)
Welcome to the forum.
Your input is most welcome.
 
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I wonder how many times I have stated that fact here on this forum. Sigh.

People have been brainwashed into this scarcity - where none really exists - thats why ADSL with 2gig caps can be sold in this country. We go for it because its more than what we have had before.

As a monopoly Telkom can create and control this scarcity (and from economics greater scarcity = greater profits). Telkom careful restricts what they bring to market to maintain this scarcity (Do you think that the equipment they bought 3 or 4 years ago couldnt handle higher speeds? Of course it can!)

Excellent first post Mando!
Welcome to the forum.
Your input is most welcome.

Thanks! I have been waiting so long now for prices to drop to what I find reasonable that I wonder if it will ever happen.
 
Yes, that was a very good post Mando...

I've also always wondered what the point of this shaping is when we are already paying for the line speed. Using "high bandwidth applications" only means that your connection will most likely reach the maximum speed you are ENTITLED to use... or am I wrong??? If that's correct, then what's the point of shaping???

Some people might respond by saying that shaping ensures you don't reach your CAP (if it exists) quicker. BUT, if I'm paying for my CAP with my own money, why should Telkom "shape" my connection so that I don't reach a CAP that I've paid for??? If we had NO CAPS, then this counter argument would work. But, because we are CAPPED, I really don't see why this "shaping" thing is used. As Mondo mentioned, there doesn't seem to be a way to exceed the line speed you've been allocated with!!!

Another thing that's related to this... I keep hearing people compain about users who use high-bandwidth intensive applications. The complaints are based on the idea that these users are using up most of the bandwidth that could also go to other users. But does this complaint really hold if we take the "line speed" issue into account??? EVERYONE, including these "high-bandwidth" users, is allocated a certain line speed they can AT MOST use. If I, as a "high-bandwidth" user, consistently reach my maximum line speed (which i've paid for), why should other users complain about me "wasting" bandwidth??? After all, I've paid to use my allocated line speed and CAP!!!
 
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Agreed. One of the points raised in the ICASA hearing was that telkom consider the maximum use of your line as abuse.

Oh, and welcome to the forum! :)
 
Exactly!

Why should it make a diffrence what protocol someone uses - Is it going to make a difference if I transfer 1 GB over port 80 or port 1080 or whatever? Whats the difference if I download via ftp or torrent?

The only difference is that it gives Telkom a way to charge more for unshaped.

Use their monopoly to create an artificial shortage, and then charge for solving it! Very clever!
 
munwaal said:
Agreed. One of the points raised in the ICASA hearing was that telkom consider the maximum use of your line as abuse.

Oh, and welcome to the forum! :)
Yet now telkom advertises that HomeDSL is FOR movies, music and gaming.
 
bwana v.3 said:
Yet now telkom advertises that HomeDSL is FOR movies, music and gaming.

I don't think telkom's ass knows where its elbow is. That steven white clown says that it's for browsing and email, then, as you point out, their new ad campaign for the uber super whopping drooling fast 192k broadband will allow you to download music and movies in seconds, rather than minutes.

I think telkom needs the money they are making to support their CRACK habbits.

Telkom, YOU ****ING SUCK.
 
Contradictions

“Telkom's ADSL service was never intended for bandwidth-hungry applications, such as gaming or online trading,” according to the submission by Telkom at the ICASA hearings.
Source IT Web 13 April 2005.


"The ADSL deployment is a key phase in Telkom's preparations for its imminent initial public offering and the deregulation of the South African telecommunications market. Telkom is targeting residential, small and medium-sized enterprises and the small-office home-office market with new ADSL services, including high-speed Internet access with always-on connections on an incremental basis. ADSL will enable faster downloads, file-sharing across remote IT networks and the ability to access Internet-based broadband entertainment services, including games, video and music".
Marconi’s website dated the 25th of September 2002.

I cannot speak for Online Trading, but I have been playing games using ADSL and before that ISDN and 56K. So I am not sure what that Telkom dude was trying to say. What I can say is that it sucks that you have to pay for all this bandwidth usage even though it is all local and is added to your Cap. :mad:

munwaal said:
uber super whopping drooling fast 192k broadband
192K and Broadband cannot be put into the same sentence.
192K is not broadband it is rather narrow band. Grrr.
ASA anyone?
 
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