How much bandwidth do you use per month?

[dualmeister]

I've never used less than 3 GIGs / month except when I was still on a dial up 56K modem. I would never survive

When I had ISDN I used Telkoms R7 call to the max.

When I had wireless connection, it was uncapped.

When I got my first ADSL line you could still buy 30 GIGs INTERNATIONAL bandwidth for R299.00 / month and I did.

3 GIGs only .... Hell NO !!

 

[Telkomhater]

Streaming video can kill it very quickly, BF2, ouchies there. Downloading Vista, theres a few gigs, linux distros.

Plus if some of us had more bandwidth and static IPs who would have their own website?

The question as to what you mega downloaders are downloading has been asked multiply times in this thread, but only one reply!

So if you are an ordinary home user (not running a business from home) what are you downloading to reach 170 gigs a month.

I think you are all talking *** when you say you use that much (I am speaking to home users only).

 

[rwenzori]

So if you are an ordinary home user (not running a business from home) what are you downloading to reach 170 gigs a month.

I think you are all talking *** when you say you use that much (I am speaking to home users only).

Home user downloading 70Gb of MP3s a month approx. Not talking ***!

 

[RSnow]

I think that about 10Gb would probably suit most people pretty well. (Talking about normal humans here, not necesarily forumites). I do a lot of downloading for other people as well as myself, so I'd quite happily use a couple of hundred Gb/month, if I could afford it. (Linux distros, development tools, game demos, updates, stuff like that. And I game online a bit myself. Those guildwars updates are killers sometimes... It all adds up depressingly quickly. And, of course, some anime, but that's not my primary use.) All I can afford is a 30gb local only and a 5gb webafrica for international.
The majority of people I know who have adsl mainly use it for gaming. Doing a bit of intense gaming, and downloading patches, mods, and game demos, 3gb becomes a bit rediculously restrictive. Some months, it will be enough, others it just won't. And I know for a fact that a lot of the people I know specifically limit their internet habits because of the cap. They stay under it because they have no choice.

 

[dabouncer]

Newsgroups. Cracked somewhere over 100gb last month. Downed about 8gb already this month!

 

[Telkomhater]

Newsgroups. Cracked somewhere over 100gb last month. Downed about 8gb already this month!

I not a newsgroup reader, but at the cost of bw, isnt it cheaper to buy a newspaper.

 

[rwenzori]

I not a newsgroup reader, but at the cost of bw, isnt it cheaper to buy a newspaper.

LOL! Newspapers don't carry MP3s!!!

 

[dabouncer]

I not a newsgroup reader, but at the cost of bw, isnt it cheaper to buy a newspaper.

LOL, binary newsgroups buddy. As in files not Zuma news.

 

[JBFRobisher]

I not a newsgroup reader, but at the cost of bw, isnt it cheaper to buy a newspaper.

That's classic!

 

[Kompete]

I dont wanna go of on a rant here, but I think I need to have a little tête-à-tête with my bandwidth hungry forumites.

This thread so far is proving one point:

The people that shout "lack of bandwidth is a restraint to economic growth" and so on, are the same people that want to use that bandwidth to download 70Gig of...well lets just say you're not going to use it to complete your doctorate...

Oh and another point...this survey is actually meaningless (60% of mybroadband forumites that actually care about the cap limit use >18gigs a month doesnt say much).

If we really want to demonstrate that capping is a big issue, we should first find a compelling reason why an average home user need that much bandwidth (and no, downloading the latest ripped version of your favourate DVD or CD doesnt count). If we as forumites cannot articulate why this is necessary...then goodluck to convincing ICASA or whomever is in charge

 

[dabouncer]

Go away, this thread obviously isnt for u. Learn to manage ur bandwidth u n00b.

 

[Highflyer_GP]

ICASA can sick my duck, they've proved themselves to be useless, there's no need for us to prove anything to them anymore.

Kompete did it ever occur to you that we make up a small minority of internet users? Businesses could do with alot more data usage. Yes data usage. Bandwidth is the speed of the pipe, and we could do with more of that too. And it's not 60% of forumites, it's 63 out of the 136 people who have voted (or 46% of the 136 voters). What we use our data for is neither yours nor ICASA's business. We pay for it, we use it as we see fit. The point is the price of this data and bandwidth is way beyond what we should be paying. Personally I wouldn't mind paying R100 for 10GB, but R200 for 3GB i ridiculous. That's what everybody is complaining about. This is what drives me to support IS - 30GB local for R139. If you cannot find things to do with your 30GB local, there's no need to scrutinize the rest of us

 

[Kompete]

ICASA can sick my duck,

LOL

Kompete did it ever occur to you that we make up a small minority of internet users?

I rest my case

Businesses could do with alot more data usage. Yes data usage.

In full agreement

What we use our data for is neither yours nor ICASA's business. We pay for it, we use it as we see fit. The point is the price of this data and bandwidth is way beyond what we should be paying. Personally I wouldn't mind paying R100 for 10GB, but R200 for 3GB i ridiculous. That's what everybody is complaining about.

Unfortunately thats not convincing enough...to address the issue from a price comparison point of view ONLY is futile, as you will find people on the other side of the fence who will always have a cost argument...no matter if its correct...imo the best way is to appeal to the hearts and minds of the regulators, and therefore find qualitative reasons why the cap limit is an issue

If you cannot find things to do with your 30GB local, there's no need to scrutinize the rest of us

I actually only use 1GB...but be sure you will be scrutinised, when you stand in front of the regulator and have to defend your high cap requirement as a home user

Disclaimer: I do not support current pricing on bandwidth and data...i'm only stirring since I have nothing better to do tonite
...and dabouncer...you're a dunce

 

[dabouncer]

Ur stiring an empty pot im afraid. Ur waste of time got nothing better to do posts will do nothing but make the pages tick by. Nobody really cares wat low cap fanboys have to say. The internet was invented for us to use,abuse and do what we want with. Get used to it.

 

[Highflyer_GP]

Kompete: cap limit isn't the issue here, the wholesale pricing structure is. MyADSL and many others in the IT industry have stood in front of ICASA and presented our arguments. They have proved that they are absolutely useless. The ONLY way to sort this out is via an open market - let competition take it's course. It's unfair to assume that everybody with a high cap requirement is downloading illegal stuff via p2p.

Try this: spend a few hours browsing through videos on youtube, listening to streaming radio stations, going through sites like hi5 and myspace, get a copy of Vista Beta or RC1, add in a few linux distro's and buy some downloadable software online. Let me know how much data that consumes

 

[dabouncer]

Ive chewed over 3gb worth of m$ data today, RC1, Visual Studio trial,msdn,sql server. Thats all free stuff.

 

[sludge]

LOL

Unfortunately thats not convincing enough...to address the issue from a price comparison point of view ONLY is futile, as you will find people on the other side of the fence who will always have a cost argument...no matter if its correct...imo the best way is to appeal to the hearts and minds of the regulators, and therefore find qualitative reasons why the cap limit is an issue


I actually only use 1GB...but be sure you will be scrutinised, when you stand in front of the regulator and have to defend your high cap requirement as a home user

mmm... So you have yet to experience the full capabilities of your broadband line There is tons to do with your data allowance. Download movie trailers, download actual movies, legally. Just browsing around these days can pretty easily waste 2GB. Especially if there's more than one person on your line.
Electronic journals aren't just plain text document nowadays, you can get a journal with pictures and even video attached nowadays!!! wow!
Free linux distros, openoffice (Granted you don't have to downlaod it every day), Norton Antivirus Intelligent Updater is a kewl 12MB or more, dunno how much data is transferred for automatic live updates though, but I geuss that it is a few MB's. You can stream the news, hundreds of reports from all over the globe, everyday.. www.reuters.com, www.cnn.com, www.bbc.co.uk etc.
Have I mentioned YouTube yet? That can also eat away at your cap.

And this is just some stuff you can do...
Granted, as you pointed out, everybody doesn't do these things, but there are people out there, like me, that does. Also, we are 3 people who use the line, we cannot afford to buy 3 x 3gig accounts... Realistically, very few people can.

I trust you have seen the error of yor ways and so then the error of ICASA's and telkom's ways too THEY are at fault, because as was pointed out on these very forums at least a thousand times before, all the ADSL users in the country don't use their lines for just reading e-mails and mweb's text only news. Some of us are better informed than others and know of the other techno-joys out and educational resources etc. out there.

Thanks for bearing with me. (Only accept the thanks if you read through everyting)

EDIT: Yeah, as H-GP and dabouncer and myself pointed out, there is plenty to do with your data allowance. Lets rest this one for once and for all.

 

[hj2k_x]

wow, how did i miss this!? Another day, another troll stirring up k@k ( and even admitting to doing just that!)

One gig of bandwidth/month is laughable. What do u use ur dsl for Kompete?

 

[Highflyer_GP]

One gig of bandwidth/month is laughable. What do u use ur dsl for Kompete?

Probably text emails and chatrooms

 

[dabouncer]

If that....!