Hey all
I'm honestly shocked when I read the different ISP offerings that are out there. How does the average jo manage to "affordably" have enough bandwidth for the medium/heavy internet user.
Telkoms answer is dont use P2P, play games on local servers only or buy more bandwidth.
Even though 80% or more of SA's traffic is web traffic, there are many services that we regularly use, or would like to use but can't because we're held back by this crap provider.
Say you wanted to get Bioshock or OrangeBox via Steam. Since you can preload the full game before it comes out and when the game is released you put your key in and away you go. No waiting shipment, or awaiting stock at your local game store which takes 2 weeks or more. That is almost impossible for the average casual gamer. Having to download 6+ Gb's just for Bioshock and another 4-5Gb's for Orange Box.
Makes me sick to think how much money they are milking this country which prevents growth as a nation. And it scales from the individual home user right up to the big corporate business's having to fork out for uncapped solutions.
Now I read the bandwidth limitations local traffic will be lifted. Great! that doesn't really help when more and more business's are hosting their company websites abroad purely because they can't afford the cost of bandwidth from their hosting provider.
Look to Japan, where they have unlimited bandwidth at insane speeds and it has directly helped people explorer the internet, to learn, get creative, make a website, host it on your PC. It creates opportunity.
To me it seems as if SA's internet infrastructure is like an old dodgy LAN were the all the cabling was pulled out of a sinking ocean liner and salvaged for use. It seems like a very frail network with constant problems.
For example, having your "unshaped" bandwidth beamed out of the country into space and bounced back down and they call this unshaped bandwidth, that's faster! The only way I see faster internet is upgrading the infrastructure and having proper Fiber cabling. But since we like to keep investors smiling and profits rising rather than moving forward as a country, and being the positive force to grow South Africa economically.
On the flip side, since ordering my 384k Home DSL, which was a self-install, I've had excellent service on telkom's part. My DSL was ready and I had it installed in 3 days from placing the order.
I would love to one day be able to have HD content streamed to my TV, video on demand over internet, voip phones around the house and no limitation on my usage. The internet is a global wealth of information that should be easily accessible to everyone and made very affordable. I feel like im in the stoneage with my 384k, which should not even be called broadband.
oh and i'd LOVE more broadband for my god damn rand! but it's seems I the other way around
I'm honestly shocked when I read the different ISP offerings that are out there. How does the average jo manage to "affordably" have enough bandwidth for the medium/heavy internet user.
Telkoms answer is dont use P2P, play games on local servers only or buy more bandwidth.
Even though 80% or more of SA's traffic is web traffic, there are many services that we regularly use, or would like to use but can't because we're held back by this crap provider.
Say you wanted to get Bioshock or OrangeBox via Steam. Since you can preload the full game before it comes out and when the game is released you put your key in and away you go. No waiting shipment, or awaiting stock at your local game store which takes 2 weeks or more. That is almost impossible for the average casual gamer. Having to download 6+ Gb's just for Bioshock and another 4-5Gb's for Orange Box.
Makes me sick to think how much money they are milking this country which prevents growth as a nation. And it scales from the individual home user right up to the big corporate business's having to fork out for uncapped solutions.
Now I read the bandwidth limitations local traffic will be lifted. Great! that doesn't really help when more and more business's are hosting their company websites abroad purely because they can't afford the cost of bandwidth from their hosting provider.
Look to Japan, where they have unlimited bandwidth at insane speeds and it has directly helped people explorer the internet, to learn, get creative, make a website, host it on your PC. It creates opportunity.
To me it seems as if SA's internet infrastructure is like an old dodgy LAN were the all the cabling was pulled out of a sinking ocean liner and salvaged for use. It seems like a very frail network with constant problems.
For example, having your "unshaped" bandwidth beamed out of the country into space and bounced back down and they call this unshaped bandwidth, that's faster! The only way I see faster internet is upgrading the infrastructure and having proper Fiber cabling. But since we like to keep investors smiling and profits rising rather than moving forward as a country, and being the positive force to grow South Africa economically.
On the flip side, since ordering my 384k Home DSL, which was a self-install, I've had excellent service on telkom's part. My DSL was ready and I had it installed in 3 days from placing the order.
I would love to one day be able to have HD content streamed to my TV, video on demand over internet, voip phones around the house and no limitation on my usage. The internet is a global wealth of information that should be easily accessible to everyone and made very affordable. I feel like im in the stoneage with my 384k, which should not even be called broadband.
oh and i'd LOVE more broadband for my god damn rand! but it's seems I the other way around
Telkom sucks 