Hi Newbie from the UK

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Killie77

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Hello
Came across the Forum while looking for some info on Broadband services in SA
I currently live in the UK Glasgow to be precise.
The wife & myself are planing to move to SA hopefully September this year.
We currently use Sky Broadband through an ADSL line its OK but the speeds can drop off
Anyway we have purchased a House in Thatchfield Centurion and I was wondering if anyone knew what the
Exchange was like do they have Cable Fibre Optic or would it be Twisted Copper ?
Any recommendations on which provider to go with ?
Thanks
Ian H
 
Why would you want to move to SA? xD
If you have the landline number of the house you purchased, you can enter it at http://www.telkom.co.za/checkadsl/ to see what speeds your exhange supports.
Other than that, all I can tell you is not to move to SA...
 
greetings Ian, fibre is available in SA but at a massive cost, you're looking at R22500 for installation and I think R1700 pm for a 1mbps account, otherwise there is usually 4mbps ADSL in most populas areas, you're gonna be in for one hell of a shock when you try use the South African Internet, it's very expensive and notoriously temperamental, congested exchanges are common and unfortunately mobile isn't really an alternative, Telkom (our BT) has only released 40mbps VDSL in march and it is limited to 4 areas country wide if I'm not mistaken, besides the cost of it is prohibitively expensive, better use your Internet as much as you can before you come down
 
CptNukeEm said:
Why would you want to move to SA? xD
If you have the landline number of the house you purchased, you can enter it at http://www.telkom.co.za/checkadsl/ to see what speeds your exhange supports.
Other than that, all I can tell you is not to move to SA...
Click to expand...

haha that tool says my areas maximum speed is 1mbps but I'm on 2, better to just ask a potential ISP what speeds clients in the area are able to maintain
 
Thanks for all the replies
Tried entering the landline number. But got a reply from telecom to try later as they were having problems.
Have family in Jo Burg reason were moving over plus hope to get better weather than we have in Scotland generally get 4 seasons in one day on average
Downloading everything I can over here so as to have some movies and shows to watch over their . Will play it by ear when we get over before deciding which
ISP to go with .
Will keep an eye on the Forum to see what develops
Thanks again
Ian H
 
Thanks for the Info
Had a look at the list did not see centurion or thatchfield on their
Just my luck as we have already bought the house. Hopefully they might include the area in the future
Thanks
Ian H
 
Any recommendations on which provider to go with ?
Click to expand...

Recent similar thread
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/517515-Advice-for-ADSL-newbie

I'd advise you to get your ADSL line directly from Telkom & NOT hand it over to an independent ISP to order & subsequently handle for you. By doing so, you can chop & change and even have multiple accounts from different ISPs at the same time.
Also, if your ADSL line is with one ISP, when things go wrong they tend to blame Telkom & vice versa.

Preferable to also buy your own router / modem, and not get one for free, which is usually the result of signing a 24-month contract - stay away from those.
 
TBH as far as weather goes Joburg as the worst weather in SA. Interestingly I am seeing lot of old pensioners from all over the UK settling the Scottburgh on the KZN south coast recently
 
Thanks for the info
Any recommenations on which router to buy ?
will get one over in UK before coming over. Was thinking of going direct to telcom as I suppose thy would be in charge of the
phone. Haring a lot of problems with the copper line going missing, hope the thatchfield area is not to bad for that kind of problem
thanks
Ian H
I O U said:
Recent similar thread
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/517515-Advice-for-ADSL-newbie

I'd advise you to get your ADSL line directly from Telkom & NOT hand it over to an independent ISP to order & subsequently handle for you. By doing so, you can chop & change and even have multiple accounts from different ISPs at the same time.
Also, if your ADSL line is with one ISP, when things go wrong they tend to blame Telkom & vice versa.

Preferable to also buy your own router / modem, and not get one for free, which is usually the result of signing a 24-month contract - stay away from those.
Click to expand...
 
mmmig said:
TBH as far as weather goes Joburg as the worst weather in SA. Interestingly I am seeing lot of old pensioners from all over the UK settling the Scottburgh on the KZN south coast recently
Click to expand...

Ha Ha
you think the weathers bad in Jo Burg try a week in Glasgow we get snow in June
I;m 58 so i suppose that does put me in pensioner territory, but hoping to do some work overin SA. Would be nice to work in the sun for a change
as opposed to Rain & Snow all the time
Ian H
 
Hi There,
Yes you are going to find the infrastructure different to what you have over there. The ADSL connectivity is reasonable and the comments about over crowded exchanges can be true but Telkom is addressing them. The ISP market is quite competitive and I would advise looking at who is offering what when you are out here.
In general thought the communications are far better than they were even 12 months ago.

Regards

Tim
 
Killie77 said:
Thanks for the info Any recommenations on which router to buy ? will get one over in UK before coming over. thanks Ian H
Click to expand...

What I'd suggest is once you get settled, to ask neighbours in your area whether they get stable ADSL, if they've experienced copper theft etc., and you can then decide if ADSL is the way to go.
Note that if your tel/ADSL line is with them, you can also have them as your ISP separately (like any of the other ISPs), and give them notice at any time if you want to go with another one.

But, your neighbours may instead suggest one of the 3G providers (Vodacom, MTN, Cell C, 8ta (Telkom owned) or even Virgin - though that's unlikely ?).
In that case, you could buy a cheapish dongle / bring an unlocked one & get the local SIM-cards (usually free, 50c but no more than a few Rand) & test them out with some pre-paid data.
Just buy airtime vouchers from supermarkets / retailers (Pick 'n Pay, Checkers, PEP Stores/Hi-Fi Corporation - they both tend to discount a bit), convert to data & test away.

That will give you some breathing space before committing to ADSL - maybe try it out for a month before deciding which route to go ?

On the modem front, there are zillions of threads to do with which modem/router is best/cheapest etc. to buy in SA.
My advice would be for you to put one or a combo of the following words into Google search (''adsl modems routers''), then copy / paste ''site:mybroadband.co.za/vb'' afterwards (leave a space between the last searched-for word, and the MyBB search function)
eg.
adsl modems routers site:mybroadband.co.za/vb
You'll get many threads (one pg. after the other) that'll probably interest you in reading up on.

I personally am happy with my D-Link 2500U & TP-Link Wireless N Router (TL-WR841ND)
You can see more about them here : http://www.dbg.co.za/index.php?cPath=1_55_57
.. they sent via courier, the TP-Link and delivery was a day or two after, but you can pick-up from their JHB office instead.

Telkom also sell modems - think one of them is a decent Netgear, but they only have about 3 or 4 at any-one-time to choose from, far as I'm aware.

You might want to try them out if you get ADSL :
Afrihost ADSL capped prices slashed
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/adsl/75611-afrihost-adsl-capped-prices-slashed.html
(I have a 1GB free a/c with them, and it usually works fine, but have other ISPs just in case!).

Some general info. - to search for anything on the forum to do with SA, use :
(search word/s)_site:mybroadband.co.za/vb
.. using the above method.
_ = a space

All the best with your move here.
 
Last edited:
Forget about fibre...

Certain forumites have been known to take their British satellite decoders & smart cards to SA though...and may or may not have discovered that they get reception here too. Not sure whether it was sky or BBC or what.

Just don't sign a 24 month contract for any internet service...all other fck-ups you can fix later except that one. And ask on this forum if you have your eye on something specific...collectively this forum knows everything. :D
 
Glad I hooked up with the Forum the amount of Info is really great.
Will look in to picking up a Dongle or 2 before we come over maybe even a MiFi Device.
Interesting to hear about the Sky Decoders possibly working in SA might bring mine over on the off chance I can get it to work
The amount of Stuff I'm thinking of bringing over is to going to play havoc with the Baggage Allowance :)
Ian H
 
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