Is broadband 256 Kbps?

[3XE]

What are they smoking?

IMHO, Broadband minimum standard should be:

1MB/s down and 500KB/s up, looks fair to me. And to add to my Broadband definition, its a always connected link (ie: DSL/fixed line) not when needed.
So that would be, mmmm, 10Mbps down and 5Mbps up.
But lets be more realistic for South Africa:
400KB/s down and 100KB/s up should be good enough till networks can handle more stable connections at higher speeds.

So in closing.
Telkom, please forget about going "faster" and "faster" when your network cant even handle your current subscriber base at minimum 4Mbps.
Get a standard across the board to all subscribers first and then start looking at increasing speeds.

Back on topic, DoC and ICASA, who are they? and what do they do? ;P

 

[thisgeek]

The US FCC has recently redefined broadband as being 4mb down, and 1mb up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadband_Internet_access

 

[kevinswan007]

broadband should be the ability to watch a youtube video with it having to cache.

 

[ponder]

broadband should be the ability to watch a youtube video with it having to cache.

Then my 384kb/s adsl is broadband

Well so is dial-up.

 

[ToAsTeD]

I guess broadband is broadband when it is ribbed for your pleasure.

lol +1

 

[nanonyous]

So in closing.
Telkom, please forget about going "faster" and "faster" when your network cant even handle your current subscriber base at minimum 4Mbps.
Get a standard across the board to all subscribers first and then start looking at increasing speeds.

You must not realise that the international connectivity is the slow link (read: SAT3, SEACOM and the upcoming EASSY/SAFE cables).
Your local connection could theoretically be a matter of hundreds of megabits/s by now; technically we already have ADSL+2 (that's 24mbit/s down), the issue is that our DSLAMs themselves are still using outdated hardware and until those are upgraded country-wide it's not feasible for Telkom to roll out such a connection lest they wish to incur the wrath of swathes of idiots at their doors bitching and moaning because they [live too far from the exchange to get] aren't getting 24mbit speeds, and are instead getting something significantly lower.

Our exchanges aren't densely packed enough in relation to our housing's spread-out topography to provide it. We could have Fiber connections, but that'd involve Telkom rolling out an entirely new hardware-dependent service that people would understand even less, and with cable theft rife as it is, you can bet those stealing the cables would still have no qualms with cutting into an optic cable even if it's worthless to them.