Completely outrageous

[richard2003]

I have just returned from the USA, where I had DSL through Qwest/MSN for 2 years.
It cost me $50 per month, for both the line and the ISP charges.

Take that $50, apply the exchange rate of close to R8 to the dollar, you get R400 per month.
Since my earning potential in this country is half what it was in the States (not to mention the tax), would mean the cost should be R200 per month to compare to DSL "affordability" in the USA. I guess the difference is the competition with Cable Internet Service there.

I had no limits nor restrictions on a 256/512 line, and suprisingly good service and support to go with it.
You can guess I don't have a DSL connection in SA now.

 

[Loft]

You're not missing much - I had a leased line from Telkom. Naturally, I thought that the obvious thing to do was get ADSL once it was launched. I was advised against it by nearly ALL the tech-heads I spoke to, but I figured they were being sceptical.

If only I'd known...

My leased line was slower, yes, but at least it hardly ever died. By comparison, it seems as though my ADSL connection hardly ever works. When it does (after numerous phone calls) it seems to come and go in bursts (kinda like taking a garden hose and squeezing and then releasing etc). Sometimes I have to refresh a website 5 times before it loads...

I have two mates overseas who have ADSL (one in Scotland and one in London), and you wouldn't believe the continuous speed they get, and it's UNCAPPED!

 

[plug]

Been hearing the same kind of thing from a friend returning from England. He says you cannot compare the ADSL there against ours. He didn't get ADSL here either... Don't blame him.

 

[Pumba]

To be taken serious, we should argue the real issues.

Sure the R400 argument is valid, but that is where it stop. Bringing in earning potensial and tax structure is completely irrellevant for any company to detemine prices.

 

[richard2003]

"affordability"

 

[Chubs]

I agree Riachard2003. As a returnee from the UK I am also not willing to pay more than I was over there, for a much POORER service.

 

[Loft]

Affordability is the big issue here. Pretty soon companies like Telkom will realise that we are trying to shake that whole 3rd world image. I don't believe that a telephone should be a luxury anymore. I believe that everyone has a right to have one. The same should go for internet connectivity soon.

Another mate of mine in UK doesn't pay a cent for his internet telephone line or calls. He pays 13 pounds a month subscription, and then gets an 0800 to connect. IS it slow? No... At least no slower than our standard dial-ups, mostly faster.

ADSL in this country is massively overpriced. Boy I wish AT&T or somebody ith some clout would come here to compete...

 

[ASnogarD]

"ADSL in this country is massively overpriced. Boy I wish AT&T or somebody ith some clout would come here to compete... "

I second that wish, if Telkom <i>is </i>delivering the best possible service in the current situation then Telkom should have no fear of competition, so why not throw the market open to all intrested parties ? Telkom should have an advantage in an open market <i>if </i>it <b>is </b>delevering quality service. To be fair there may be factors affecting Telkoms ability to deliver a service that we are not aware of and in that case competitors should also have to deal with those factors.

 

[leonardharley]

We have to keep the cost of the long haul between Africa and Europe / US in mind when talking about cost.

Personally I think comparisons between US / European infrastructure and African infrastructure costs is not a fair comparison method.

DSL is quite fairly priced (if Telkom actually delivers the product) in SA considering the costs involved with connecting to the International Internet community.

I feel the real bitch is about uptime / speed / latency / limits...

 

[fismail]

Who or where can we find technical specs of who at Telkom layed down the plans to design the physical network offering ADSL to the ZA user.

We cannot compare ourselves all the time to the US and UK and so on , this is a baseless comparison.

No 2 networks are the same AFAIK even if the same core devices are used , the topologies and geographical boundaries and limitations are way different.

I personally see ADSL as a nice to have - a comfort zone , beyond Telkom jacking up the techie who answers your call / complaint , you're not going to get anyway quick without educating yourself.

Until we can find out tech specs of how this offering was built and what it was primarily designed for including the type of cable used bearing in mind we have cable theft , we ultimately will get crappy speeds on Kazaa and so on.

Whoever has a friend or buddy at IS should ask them just why they scrapped the idea ( www.isdsl.net ) considering they part of the DD Group and we all assume being part of something so big means they have a almost limitless amount of cash for R & D !

In conclusion , use your existing service , this is why the techies says what they do , hearsay sometimes is better than finding out the hard way.

In any event since most "peer to peer" is "illegal" , why are some users on ADSL even bothering with it.

*comments in this are personal , I've my own gripes with Telkom , no intention is made to undermine any company , I reserve the right to delete my posts and terminate my membership at will*

 

[bullstein]

Even if ADSL is nice to have and even if Telkom is not that expensive (which they are as all monopolies are), it still would be nice of them to stick to their promise of always available internet. Internet would be international not just local sites. Forget about peer to peer. The 3 Gig gap can be used up on many other things such as gaming etc. within a few days.

Telkom is biting us where it hurts - in our wallets. We can only hope that tomorrow's meeting brings good results.[]

 

[Jerrek]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Loft</i>
<br />Another mate of mine in UK doesn't pay a cent for his internet telephone line or calls. He pays 13 pounds a month subscription, and then gets an 0800 to connect. IS it slow? No... At least no slower than our standard dial-ups, mostly faster.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
In North America all local calls are free of charge. We don't need 800 numbers. For 5 UK pounds a month you can get unlimited 56k internet. For 13 pounds a month (less than that actually) you can get a 24/7 128 kbps cable connection. It boggles my mind how a first world country can have telecoms that charge for local calling. That is a great way to stagnate your economy when you can't even call to make a dentist appointment without being charged. I spend hours and hours on the phone with other IT professionals when I'm implementing a system that uses their system, or vice versa. My personal record is a 13 hour call to Florida. Telecommunications is one of the three vital parts of a country that is required to become first world (the other two are universal education and transportation). Without a good telecom intrastructure you restrict economic growth and expansion. I can't understand why governments would protect such monopolies, except maybe if corruption and bribery is a problem.