Fibre vs DSL

[mibloem]

Ok, this is a basic question, but it needs to be asked:

DSL was introduced in SA with significant limitations from the get-go: Low speeds, usage thresholds, throttling. All in the name of limiting scarcity of bandwidth. Even with the introduction of Seacom and other submarine cables, these limits have not been removed. (some have been increased, but still...)

Now fibre is being rolled out, with absolutely no throttling, usage caps or other limitations.

What gives? Both fibre and DSL runs over the same undersea cables and shares some of the backbone links.

Why is DSL crippled? What's different with fibre that not even the cheapest Fibre ISP is talking about limits and throttling?

 

[Grouter]

My DSL (20 Mbps VDSL) isn't crippled. R675 pm, uncapped, Vox PureDSL. Best bang-for-buck internet in these parts.
No fibre for us in this little town.

 

[Rocket-Boy]

data on fixed connections has been like this for a while in SA already. I dont think you can get capped ADSL anymore.
I still like to keep a backup capped account handy for times when uncapped is being slow. Slow is still not really that noticeable on a 200mb connection though.

 

[isie]

Ok, this is a basic question, but it needs to be asked:

DSL was introduced in SA with significant limitations from the get-go: Low speeds, usage thresholds, throttling. All in the name of limiting scarcity of bandwidth. Even with the introduction of Seacom and other submarine cables, these limits have not been removed. (some have been increased, but still...)

Now fibre is being rolled out, with absolutely no throttling, usage caps or other limitations.

What gives? Both fibre and DSL runs over the same undersea cables and shares some of the backbone links.

Why is DSL crippled? What's different with fibre that not even the cheapest Fibre ISP is talking about limits and throttling?

Imagine you live in Germany you get to the autobahn the road is clear and many many lanes so they have no speed limits. you can go as fast as you can but you then take your offramp to a single country gravel road and have to drive slow and there's a toll but that's the only road you use to get to and from home , and so many people use it and over the years they widen it slightly but not in relation to how many more people use it, and its still gravel and you cant still go fast, the autobahn is still there and once you get to it you can go as fast as you like but your old country road to get to it and from it still is slow.

Now some guy comes in and builds his own road parallel to your old country road, and on that road you can go as fast as you want if you pay him and he doesn't charge much to use it in fact for some people its cheaper then the old country road so more and more people use it but he increases its size to cope..
the old country road is thill there and some people still use it, but there's less traffic its still gravel and you go slow but since less people use it you can go faster then you did before but not as fast as the other guys road.


If you not sure how's this relates to your question , at least you can say I told a nice story about roads.

 

[Mike Hoxbig]

DSL stability and maximum attainable speed decreases the further away you are from the exchange.

Also copper in itself has limitations in the amount of bandwidth it can provide...

 

[ponder]

Ok, this is a basic question, but it needs to be asked:

DSL was introduced in SA with significant limitations from the get-go: Low speeds, usage thresholds, throttling. All in the name of limiting scarcity of bandwidth. Even with the introduction of Seacom and other submarine cables, these limits have not been removed. (some have been increased, but still...)

Now fibre is being rolled out, with absolutely no throttling, usage caps or other limitations.

What gives? Both fibre and DSL runs over the same undersea cables and shares some of the backbone links.

Why is DSL crippled? What's different with fibre that not even the cheapest Fibre ISP is talking about limits and throttling?

dsl is not crippled, who's your isp?