HSDPA versus ADSL

albert123 said:
if merc says "faster than a bmw" its advertising complaints longer than my arm..... doesnt the same count here?
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No I dont think so. ADSL is a technology and not owned by telkom. I guess it would be kind of like Merc saying their (imaginary) hydrogen car was faster than a petrol car, but not specifically which petrol car.

The fact that telkom are the only ones providing ADSL in this country is just happy coincedence. :)
 
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Having a 2mbps ADSL line and a 3GB cap is like getting the chance to drive a F1 car round a racetrack with a brick wall built across the track 500m from the start. It defeats the entire purpose.
 
HSDPA sounds pretty dissapointing right now, those speeds are really bad for a almost totaly uncongested service. Even so the pings are surprising, but nothing thats really going to anyone want to spend so much money on HSDPA.

Its weird how every company takes their theoretical max speeds and uses them to death in advertising campaigns, yet they dont even bother to make their technologies work at half the advertised speeds. 500-600kb average for local is pretty pathetic, especially if youre claiming 1.8M/bits max. At least Iburst or sentech can burst to their max speeds, not to 300kb below that just after the launch.
 
Sure we all want to pay R2,500 for a 5GB capped account on 3G
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When you think about this we pay the R2 500 anyway - whether we have 3G or not... who can afford R2500? Only companies - selling service or product to the SA public... so ultimately we pay these exec bills through increased pricing on product across the board - driving up the inflation rate, making the country less competitive... Yawn.
 
Article said:
Firstly, price remains a big distinguishing factor when comparing a wired offering like ADSL to wireless broadband offerings like HSDPA, MyWireless and iBurst.
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:confused: Why on Earth does the article say that? You can't lump MyWireless and Iburst into the same price bracket as HSDPA.

I would have thought that price was also the big distinguishing factor when comparing HSDPA to MyWireless and Iburst. If there was any kind of price parity between HSDPA and Iburst I'd be off to the nearest Vodashop today...

But receiving the equivalent of my Iburst package would cost me almost five time more with HSDPA.
 
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The real question is "why", not "how much"

How much we are charged for bandwidth and connectivity is largely determined by Telkom somewhere along the line.

The real question for me would be "why". Why does cellular data cost so much more than MyWireless / iBurst services ? The technology is not that much different between 3G/HSDPA and CDMA-TDD.

Cellular providers have been fooling us for years into thinking that what they provide is a premium service and that we should be charged accordingly higher rates as opposed to fixed line telecoms.

Realy don't understand why there is a premium on cellular. Dropped calls, network unavailable, network busy, electronic interference. ...... and don't bother to report it, they care even less than Telkom.

We have been hoodwinked by Vodacom and MTN, it realy does not cost that much to make a phonecall, but they figured that they could make up any figure and the SA idiots would pay it.

So why does it cost so much more ?
 
Very true MyDraadloos, and why exactly are sms's up to 86c or so? All they could possibly cost the networks is 2c, or less, its about 1 or 2 kb of data! And everything going through the cellular networks is local, on their own network, so they are hardly paying for bandwidth. Where does the cost even come into it for a company that owns a bunch of towers and transmits data between them, besides paying huge salaries.

With Vodacom being partly owned by Telkom, shurley they use the Sat3 cable for international access, so how can they justify a price like R500 for 1 gig? Iburst and Sentech use more expensive providers for their bandwidth yet charge lower prices. A real scam that just works on the good old SA apathy towards pricing or comparative prices.
 
In the old days we used to watch cigarettes advertisements that showed people having fun in exotic places ........ at least we knew that they were killers.

Now the bulk of the advertising spend lies with the cellular operators. In a strange twist of fate we now have to watch a dancing, aenemic, mangy meerkat or be inspired by bile yellow banners or clever word play on the letter "C" wanting money from our pockets.

With some sort of unholy tri-party alliance between the operators, we will never see cheap cellular rates. The three of them are, "The good, the bad and the ugly".
 
Because it goes thru the golden wireless router before going thru telkom. ;) nah seriously i've asked the same question over and over. i mean the main equipment they have to maintain is base stations which serve more than just a single individual, then again they do pay alot for the bandwidth allocation(frequency band/radio waves) which limits the number users per station unless they increase number stations but even so, the cost reminds of the whole get your profit in and recover costs asap plan. Since the is no copper path dedicated to an individual(shared medium) its kinda worse than adsl rental, since the cost is alot per gig too.
 
Why is it so expensive? Because when cellular operators started implementing their networks icasa allowed them to charge high prices to recover their cost. Icasa hasn't changed that mindset yet so the prices are still high and this has now spilled into the broadband area.
 
infoseeker said:
I hope this 1.8 Mb/s is not just the theoretical limit of the modem.
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No, it's real. I've run at 1.7 to 1.8Mb/s when the radio conditions were optimal.

But the speed will decrease as the radio deteriorate and at some point the system fall back to 3G then EDGE then GPRS.

Normally I will average just over 1Mb/s.
 
You mean it will drop from HSDPA to 3G and then a second or so after that it will skip EDGE altogether (since I have never experienced it - only get either 3G or GRPS-) and fall back to GRPS-. Sorry for being so pessimistic but this seem to be my experience with using 3G.
 
relative, its ALL relative

relative, its ALL relative.

Personally Im serriously considering HSDPA.

My usage can be limited to around 500mb per month for my business. The portablility is great for me (but not required).

I dont "download" as such. And if I do, the file size is under 50mb a shot.

Also, buying the 3G budle as "adhoc" (once-off) is looking very inviting to me. I can spend R500 once off, and get 1gb "credit". Then use that untill it is depleated, then buy another bundle again. No contract, or wasted usage to worry about.


1. I dont have ADSL available in my area (yet). HELLKOM!!!
2. If I go ADSL I have to sign a contract, or buy the router, setup cost, etc..
3. Even if I get a 3gb capped 192kbps line, which will in total cost me in the region of R400 per month, I may not "need" the full 3 gb. So, I will in effect end up paying for something I never use.
4. Exceding the cap gets interesting, but its a loose / loose situation as far as I see it. It either gets cut (hard cap), or I get charged for extra useage (ouch!)
5. HSDPA, on an adhoc basis, however means that I will only have to upgrade my contract (to get 3g phone), and buy adhoc bundles. For my R500 I get 1gb usage. It does not expire, and so lasts me as long as I need.


The unfortunate thing with conectivity in SA is that you HAVE to be conservative with your usage. Choose a plan, and stick to it.

Personaly, I HATE signing contracts, esp in such a volitile market! Today its 3g, tomorrow its ADSL, then 3g HSDPA, then ADSL 2gb, then... Signing up a 2 year contract with any of these options is gonna mean Im stuck in a "less than optimum" service.
 
JohnnyG said:
relative, its ALL relative......

Personally Im serriously considering HSDPA.
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i must agree. i dont think hsdpa is really for anyone who want to download millions of things. its more for the mobile business user and for the the 500mb is propably perfect. even 1gb if it must. and then its not that expensive.
 
When I was still a consultant travelling a lot last year... MTN EDGE and 3G was very very usefull and well priced for the type of service. I could access office network from clients, hotels etc and the cost was reasonable in my opinion for the service and convinience. We seem to forget our mobile data rates are some of the cheapest in the world. This is the one part of our telecoms industry which is well priced.
 
telkomsuig said:
We seem to forget our mobile data rates are some of the cheapest in the world. This is the one part of our telecoms industry which is well priced.
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you sure about that? cause they say our adsl is like way to expensive, and if our mobile data is cheaper than most countries then they must really be moaning about cost of mobile as the difference would be much more than here,m right?
 
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