Help Required - Just Moved to SA

D

dagsky

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hey all, i need some help please as i'm really not understanding how the broadband system works in SA!

I've just moved from the UK and now i have got a telkom line. I have been looking on vodacom and mweb for a deal BUT i don't understand how the options work!!:twisted:

I am based in Jo'Burg. From my understanding i need to have a telkom line for voice calls if i want voice calls. I then need an ADSL line if i want broadband. Now this is where the first part of confusion comes in! I only want broadband i'm not bothered about voice calls.

Secondly i don't understand this capped and uncapped issue becuase some people say that uncapped is actually capped etc etc BUT my main aim of this is that i use about 20gb a month AND that includes downloads from private torrent sites with protocol encryption enforced so my traffic can NEVER be seen as p2p file sharing! BUT i believe there is TRAFFIC SHAPING but i don't know if it is based on my personal downlaods or EVERYBODY'S downloads!

Thridly where do i go to check out the best deals? like a comparison site with ALL the providers on there. I checked out this sites comparison but it only shows 4 diff comapnies.......

I would like a 4mb speed service prefebly with an uncapped unshapped allowance BUT at a reasonable cost! Coming from Uk and paying ÂŁ8.99 for BOTH line rental and broadband is certainly a shock to the system!!
 
welcome to telco hell...

dagsky said:
hey all, i need some help please as i'm really not understanding how the broadband system works in SA!

I've just moved from the UK and now i have got a telkom line. I have been looking on vodacom and mweb for a deal BUT i don't understand how the options work!!:twisted:

I am based in Jo'Burg. From my understanding i need to have a telkom line for voice calls if i want voice calls. I then need an ADSL line if i want broadband. Now this is where the first part of confusion comes in! I only want broadband i'm not bothered about voice calls.

Secondly i don't understand this capped and uncapped issue becuase some people say that uncapped is actually capped etc etc BUT my main aim of this is that i use about 20gb a month AND that includes downloads from private torrent sites with protocol encryption enforced so my traffic can NEVER be seen as p2p file sharing! BUT i believe there is TRAFFIC SHAPING but i don't know if it is based on my personal downlaods or EVERYBODY'S downloads!

Thridly where do i go to check out the best deals? like a comparison site with ALL the providers on there. I checked out this sites comparison but it only shows 4 diff comapnies.......

I would like a 4mb speed service prefebly with an uncapped unshapped allowance BUT at a reasonable cost! Coming from Uk and paying ÂŁ8.99 for BOTH line rental and broadband is certainly a shock to the system!!
Click to expand...

yeah i remember clearly the day when i finished my working holiday visa and had to leave my 8mbit line behind... and this was back in 2005... all i can really afford now is a 384k line and an uncapped account. 5 YEARS LATER.

You see, the point of ADSL up till now (hopefully) was to milk every last cent out of the connedsumer (this is what telco companies use to refer to you) and shortsightedly only sell to a high margin low quantity market. Now if only our telco regulator had the insight (we mostly get ministers placed in positions where they are incapable and completely unqualified to cope, but still enjoy the bonuses of their failures) to see that a low margin high quantity market almost always will result in your enterprise gaining more profits and further introducing healthy competition keeping you in check, we wouldn't be having this rant.

But as the milk is spilt, and we're still crying anyway, as your line just hit 1000ms ping in WOW, and your rogue looks like its on autorun, the best solution at the moment imho for you, would be a 4bmit mweb uncapped connection (they're a little more lax on sending you letters about torrents - gross invasion of privacy).

Just give mweb a call and they'll set it all up for you. (can already see other people saying ahh this and this isp is better, but they're really not that bad.):D
 
I would also suggest a service from Mweb or Openweb. Get it on month-to-month and change whenever you want. Just remember that glitches are fairly regular so it usually help to give it a bit of time before deciding to change ISP.

And if you can dish out a bit more get a torrent_download_service. There's many to choose from: Downstorm, Astroweb(?), AeroVPS etc etc.
 
dagsky said:
Coming from Uk and paying ÂŁ8.99 for BOTH line rental and broadband is certainly a shock to the system!!
Click to expand...

Not bad. When I left in 2007, I paid 10.50 to BT for line rental and 19.99 for 16mbps to Sky.
 
Yep, unfortunately you'll need the voice service whether you use it or not - its just the way it works around here.
 
Wow thanks for all the replys! Why did i move to SA?...... Biltong......Braais......... W E A T H E R!!!! I really think guys down this end are being ripped off BIG time! R1018 for your phone line, adsl 4mb, and uncapped d/l! thats like ÂŁ84 per month!!!! Us brits would go on the rampage if we was asked to pay anything near that! I mean a 50mb line i got just b4 i left from virgin was only costing me ÂŁ35/month!! What i find frustrating is that you need a voiceline like any other country in the world if you're using copper for your adsl, thats fine paying R130 BUT then telling you to pay an extra R413 on top of R130 is madness as all they're doing is making a few adjustments to a line that already comes into your home AND is capable of carrying an adsl signal anyway!!

One thing i must that does impress me is the fact that you can do 30 day rolling contracts with your provider! Over in UK its now going 18mths and 24mths!
 
dagsky said:
I really think guys down this end are being ripped off BIG time! R1018 for your phone line, adsl 4mb, and uncapped d/l! thats like ÂŁ84 per month!!!!
Click to expand...

Its the price we pay for sunshine round the year.
 
dagsky said:
One thing i must that does impress me is the fact that you can do 30 day rolling contracts with your provider! Over in UK its now going 18mths and 24mths!
Click to expand...

the reason 30 day contracts have arisen imo is due to the volatility in bandwidth supply and all the changes happening at the moment.
we're still getting screwed, but that's largely due to a lack of supply and infrastructure (and the monopoly of the government telco).
that, however is rapidly changing - you'd be surprised how far we've come in the last two years.
with more fibre and international cable being rolled out, open peering, and high speed low-cost mobile connectivity, it's anybody's guess where prices and consumer products will be a year from now.
just try to remember that it's a good idea to avoid deals with bundled hardware and 24-month contracts.

oh, and welcome to ZA and mybb - poms are more than welcome.
just shout if you have any other questions.
 
dagsky said:
I only want broadband i'm not bothered about voice calls.
Click to expand...

Sure you do! Alone callling Telkom's unhelpline (0800-375375, the most important and still useless number) makes up to 80-90% of my voice calls. The rest are calls to Mr Delivery and incoming callls from my mom in Germany. Don't you have a mother? LOL

With about 20 GB of usage I'd also would recommend a capped acc with Afrihost. Their 25+25 deal is unbeatable right now. Hands off uncapped accounts though, they throttle you to death.
 
welcome dagsky, i hope you brought the super slippery vaseline from the uk, cause you gonna needed when telscum are gonna rape you left, right and centre. do you prefer anal or the missionary. you see, we as saffers don't feel the penetration anymore, cause we used to it. you'll feel like a virgin for the very first time.

remember this, pause touch engage
 
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