Does telkoms network impose limitations?

[GerardWP]

This may be a silly question.

I am looking to shift to a 4Mbps uncapped line at my home. I do not game or stream in HD but I do use stream some music and SD material (lectures and webinars).

I keepbeing told that there is no point in chasing specific speeds od connection because, at the end of the day, Telkom has the last word in terms of the speed of your connection. I don't feel like 4Mbps is too much to ask of Telkom but a few people have told me there is no point...one of them services tractors on my farm so I thought this might be a better place to ask.

Thanks

 

[Mr.Jax]

First things first, you live on a farm right? I'm making the assumption then that your home would be a significant distance from the Telkom exchange, which would be the biggest factor determining what speeds you can get on your ADSL line.

Aside from that, should you be able to get a 4Mbps adsl sync, there's a pretty good chance that you would be able to get your close to 4Mbps speed (its going to be around 3.5Mbps). There are various other factors that come into play that could affect your speed, such as exchange and/or back-haul congestion.

One more thing, since you're not really watching any HD content or downloading a whole lot, I'd say you're better off using a capped account; uncapped would be a waste.

So in summary, yes Telkom has the last word in terms of speed, but in all my years of using ADSL, right back from the good old 384Kbps days, right up to 40Mbps VDSL, I've personally almost always gotten what I've paid for.

Hope this helps.