International bandwidth

[BucK]

How does this international bandwidth work, and why is it so expensive?
If I'm right, people like iBurst need to buy their bandwidth from telkom at a premium rate. Currently anyway.
Now my question is: Do they pay for the amount of data running over the cable?
And am I correct in saying that from 1st of Feb they don't need to pay telkom any more and can organize their own sh*t, at cheaper rates.

My point is, could we then possibly see an affordable un-capped option?

Would be nice.

 

[stoke]

Wanna buy international bandwidth:
Option 1 = SAIX = Teklom.
Option 2 = Sattelite.
Sattelite = Bad Lag and weather problems.

Telkom is connected to the rest of the world by means of two undersea optical fibre cables and other links to neighbours:
- SAT3/WASC (Southern Africa/Western Africa Submarine Cable) connecting South Africa to Europe via Portugal.
- SAFE (South Africa – Far East Submarine Cable) connecting South Africa to Reunion, Mauritius, India and Malaysia.
- Direct links from/to Telkom SA and Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique are mainly microwave links equipped with SDH and PDH systems.
- Optical fibre cable routes exist between South Africa (Johannesburg) and Namibia (Windhoek) and between South Africa (Johannesburg) and Botswana (Gaberone).

The international SAT3/WASC undersea optical fibre cable is 14,350 km long with 4 fibres and equipped with Wave Division Multiplex (WDM) systems. The SAFE undersea optical fibre cable is a 13,500 km long with 4 fibres and equipped with WDM systems. The cables are capable of transmitting data at a speed of 2.5 Gbit/s on each of the 8 wavelengths (lambdas) per fibre.

The two undersea cables belong to two companies and Telkom leases international bandwidth from these two companies. Telkom is a shareholder in both undersea cable companies.

blah blah blah ... (http://free.financialmail.co.za/report/telkomcable/btelkom.htm)

So - to compete - do a microwave link to Botswana / Namibia and then we're talking, and after FEB 1, we CAN.

 

[kuberkoos]

How does this international bandwidth work, and why is it so expensive?

international traffic is carried via undersea cable or sattelite. checkout http://www.cybergeography.org/atlas/cables.html

i guess it's expensive because home internet users have to compete with bussiness, telephone callers, broadcasters and the like for that bandwidth.

other reason is that satellite & long haul cable cable technology does not keep pace with the rest of ICT. you just can't "upgrade" a satellite or cable once it's launched or layed.

If I'm right, people like iBurst need to buy their bandwidth from telkom at a premium rate. Currently anyway.

nope. have a look at http://www.ispmap.org.za/topmap.html - everyone AFAIK everyone under the little SUX (erm... sorry. SAIX) blokkie uses telkom organised international bandwidth. big ZA ISPs are allowed to do their own thing as far as international INTERNET bandwitdh is concerned.

the law of the land used to FORBID these ISPs to carry things like VOIP or anything that competes with hellkom (erm... sorry telkom) over these links. AFAIK that is what is about to change .

if there are any 'Net savvy liers (erm... sorry. lawyers) on this board please correct me.

My point is, could we then possibly see an affordable un-capped option?

unlikely but you and your ISP won't be SUED by telkom for using something like SKYPE to talk to your grangran in North West Uzbekistan.

chz,
kk

 

[guest2013-1]

iburst is using UUNET as their backbone provider (and jinx for their local if im not mistaken)

Now, they're the same as IS, they buy the bandwidth from Telkom, and resell it. Now because telkom already charges such a high price for something my grandad already paid for, the reseller, working on his profit margin, who needs to support his kids and family and grow a business... charges the consumer extra PLUS, they have their policies in place and proxies etc to skim more off the bandwidth so they don't use that much for xyz...

Got to love South Africa

 

[hArTh]

The only people ISPs can legally buy international data connectiviy from is Telkom.

Retail on SAT3 is about R4-6k per month for a 64kbps segment. Which is so outrageous it beggars belief. 10-100X more than it should cost.

Telkom have sole control of SAT3 which is why they can charge what they like.

SAT3 was paid for when Telkom was still state owned. We paid for it. Now Telkom uses it to bleed us dry.

Unless the gov breaks Telkom's hold in SAT3 we will NEVER see cheaper net access in ZA.

There arn't any other cables ...

www.safe-sat3.co.za

 

[aborg]

How can we charge them to get our money back... We need an ZA internet Robin Hood!

 

[edrean]

The only people ISPs can legally buy international data connectiviy from is Telkom.

Retail on SAT3 is about R4-6k per month for a 64kbps segment. Which is so outrageous it beggars belief. 10-100X more than it should cost.

Telkom have sole control of SAT3 which is why they can charge what they like.

There arn't any other cables ...

What about SAT2? How does it fit into the picture?
Seems that IS has share in SAT2, SAT3 and SEA-ME-WE3...

See IS' geographical routing