iBurst AUP

I don't understand the problem with having a shaped service (nearly ALL services employ SOME form of bandwidth management across different protocols). My ADSL, which is a shaped service, performs perfectly fine across numerous different protocols (when uncapped), and I frequently obtain top speeds on P2P (BitTorrent) and low latencies locally and acceptable latencies internationally for gaming (well, the games I play anyway).

Capping and especially having to pay for additional usage is FAR worse than having a shaped service (something you are unlikely to notice the effects of unless you're suddenly told that the service is being shaped).
 
I can tell you now, we will NEVER leave the bandwidth dark ages if this "pay per usage" model catches on.
 
We never leave the dark ages,until Telkom goes bye-bye.
Well we can dream that Telkom goes,but that won`t happen.


Google is so smart,I typed in Hellkom and guess what google said

Don`t you mean.....<insert evil laugh>
TELKOM!
 
The key problem for me with shaping is threefold:

1.) I, as the user, have no control over what gets shaped. If iBurst suddenly changed their shaping setup, apps that I use could suffer, and then I'm paying for something I can't use the way I want.
By being able to pay per GB used, at least I have control over my usage.

2.) I have yet to see a shaping solution that works properly. I have often seen irratic results on shaped products, and for me that is not acceptable. Additionally shaping automatically introduces an aspect of controvesy with iBurst's products. Its too easy to blame shaping for poor performance. If everyone knows there's no shaping, then problems with throughput are clearly because of something else, and the whole service is that much more transparent.

3.) Shaping is also not the best way to discourage system abuse. There are plenty of ways to download over HTTP and other "unshaped" protocols, so your system usage can still be excessive without a capping mechanism.

My proposal has no cap or shaping - it simply a "pay for play" service. Ultimately its not the most ideal in a global context, but in South Africa I think it is the best way forward.

At least one gets exactly what you pay for.

Tharaxis, what would probably satisfy people in both your camp and mine would be if iBurst offered both shaped services and unshaped, "pay for play" services. That way everyone can choose what suits them best [:)]

<font color="blue">Telkom needs a leash, ICASA needs some guts, and the </font id="blue"><font color="red">SA consumer</font id="red"><font color="blue"> needs to make it happen</font id="blue">
 
If I'm paying for a flat rate service, I expect a flat rate service, I want to pay exactly what I bought into. If I happen to use 1GB less than normal, then so be it, it serves to subsidize the individual who downloads 1GB more than usual, and maybe next month he uses a GB less and I use a GB more, and he serves to subsidize my usage.

If I didn't want a flat rate service I would go back down to a dialup service such as ISDN or standard analog dialup where I'm charged for the amount of time I spend online. If I go for flat rate, I expect flat rate, no more, no less.
 
lol there isnt a chance in hell im paying per gigabyte i download, this product as it says on the website is a FIXED MONTHLY RATE! the soft cap of 30gigs per month (MINIMUM) sounds good to me..

24% Signal
Tower 60 Woodmead
 
Correct me if am wrong, but *total* traffic will probably be taken into account towards a cap. So if you're a heavy p2p user, and not just leeching :-), your 30GB might be 20GB down and 10GB up.

128K|21%|13SNL|36 Menlopark 2530
 
Some of the posts may be raising expectations excessively. In a country such as Australia, where bandwidth is abundant and cheap, caps on offer range from 0Mb, 500Mb to 10Gb.

http://www.ultraserve.com.au/Broadband/iBurst/pricing.php

If one converts directly to ZAR, a 10Gb cap package amounts to approximately R940 on 12 month contract. Adjust that for South African bandwidth pricing.

Granted, South African will not be based on this model, but this may give an idea of more realistic expectations.

I doubt WBS would be able to meet everyone's requirements here on rollout, possibly later.

<hr noshade size="1"><center><i><font size="1">
My views are mine, and mine alone.<br />irc://za.shadowfire.org/iburst</i></font id="size1"></center>
 
I don't think wanting an unlimited service would be considered "raising expectations excessively" though you seem to be implying that you're more in the know than the rest of us. If this is the case, then perhaps you should set the record straight and give us an idea of what they're looking at.

R940 would not be above expectations for the South African market, in fact, I would say R940 for 10GB would be considerably BELOW expectations and realistic pricing here.
 
Tharaxis, other than reading some WBS press releases and some discussions with some WBS people where some prices have been mentioned, I have little idea on how iBurst will be bundled. Even with the prices mentioned, these are meaningless depending on how the bundles are packaged. I am merely trying to get some indication from the forum on what the perceptions are of iBurst, and what the expectations are.

I based my comparisons on the Australian rollout, and I would doubt we could be offered better products, given the bandwidth cost in South Africa on rollout. But the South African iBurst offering would nevertheless be a great product, with the speeds and coverage promised of this technology.

<hr noshade size="1"><center><i><font size="1">
My views are mine, and mine alone.<br />irc://za.shadowfire.org/iburst</i></font id="size1"></center>
 
Realistically we should be charged as little as possible without the company going bust, which is actually what Telkom should do being as the monopoly they are, but as they are preying on a 3rd world country the hopes for that are slim. We could be almost as cheap as the US and UK - there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to. Telkom paid around $80 million for the SAT3 slice they have - they could have bought the entire thing cash with their profits last year. Telkom is charging a premium on bandwidth to make up for their investment in the cable as soon as possible instead of spreading it out over say 20 years. Good business sense under normal circumstances but as they're denying a basic human right to most of the country it's unacceptable. Personally I don't know how they sleep at night, but money can buy the best sleeping pills I'm sure.

<font color="navy"><font size="1"><b>Where others have progress, we have Telkom.</b>
Hellkom website - www.hellkom.co.za</font id="size1"></font id="navy">
 
Remember WBS still have to compete with Sentech who, while struggling at the moment, are still offering UNCAPPED packages for affordable prices. Sentech will eventually iron out the (significant) wrinkles in their product. I don't think it is unrealistic to expect uncapped (or soft capped) products regardless of what the iBurst situation is in Australia. We need to let WBS know what we as potential customers find appealing and they can adjust products accordingly. If we set the bar too low then we will just keep sucking it down.

This forum is basically free market research for WBS, hope they're reading [;)]
 
I really hope they release a package aimed at home users like me who reads email and listens to Radio 702 online in the evenings. I've calculated that I hardly reach 1 GB of traffic per month. Surely that can be priced at R300 or lower cause the Telkom costs exceed that.

Half of my friends think that p2p is a new roll-on deoderant. They only care about browsing and emails.

The current packages from Sentech and ADSL is just too expensive. Period. Cost is the main factor here.
 
Something in the region of 10 to 15 Gig's Cap would be great at around R 500 - R 600 a month. But it should be done on an average per quarter manner. Meaning no hard cap but if you exceed 15 gig's 3 months in a row they should have a chat with you. For example someone could do 30 gig's one month and 5 gig's the next without any hassles. Sort of a Bandwith on demand sorta thing. Sorta a monthly average taken over a yearly usage timeline. Don't know how easy this would be to implement? Almost like the free minutes on cell phone contracts that carry over.
 
I think stability comes first, If Iburst is going to be extremly stable i dont really mind a cap...
Anything is better then that useless 3 Gig cap of telskums...
 
To be honest anything is better then that lame 3 gig cap from Telskum,
Iburst must do one thing and that is establish the difference between local and international bandwidth so in truth they can give us a true international cap...
But truth be told i would be happy with a 10Gig international link and unlimited local bandwidth but on the other hand i dont know if that will happen...
Look it this way telkom doesnt pay for local bandwidth because they own it but companies running though them might get local bandwidth for cheap but they still pay for it... with local p2p's these days iv seen some ADSL guys using 200GIG's of local Bandwidth a month... if this happend on a R600 a month account on Iburst that account would no longer be profitable.
 
If IBurst wants to compete with adsl there mustn't be any cap for local usage. A cap of about 30gig a month international is acceptable after which your international speeds are mabey lowered to about 64kbits/sec so browsing international sites are still possible. I am totally against a pay-per-usage service.
 
I think the 30GB cap int and local uncapped is a fair assumption, it will depend on you speed though.

"Broadband in SA is like the holy grail - everybody knows what it is but nobody has ever found it"
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by ChezAnwyne</i>
<br /> At the moment, I can download about 1GB over the weekend with my 56K dialup for about R8.50.

Chez
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">


What the HELL are you smoking boy?!

Hell, my gran on a scooter with a memory stick is faster than Sentech's MyWireless!
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by noone</i>
<br /><blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by ChezAnwyne</i>
<br /> At the moment, I can download about 1GB over the weekend with my 56K dialup for about R8.50.

Chez
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

What the HELL are you smoking boy?!

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

In theory, a constant 5K/s over 60 hours during weekend callmore time will give you just about 1GB.

In reality, I managed to download a 700MB Gentoo ISO image from ftp.is.co.za. Started Friday night sometime and finished Sunday afternoon sometime.
 
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