IS to enhance ADSL latencies and local browsing experience

[rpm]

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/ADSL/718.html

 

[ldmelsa]

The business offerings include their recently launched Business ADSL uncapped service, and according to IS the take-up of this product has very been good. “Those SMMEs who prefer to have the option of faster speeds rather than the benefit of a totally uncapped service, have taken well to this product,” said Anthony Southgate from IS.

56kMan confused. Can someone please explain.

So is it uncapped or not? What is the definition of uncapped?

 

[GougedEye]

ahh you have to understand SA Broadband speak. Very simple really. You are never, ever capped. You merely have no more bandwidth available until you purchase more.

 

[Alchemist]

56kMan, you and me both

 

[Moederloos]

"enhance latencies"? Sounds like they are going to improve the latency from 1000ms to 2000ms?

I just do not get the double speak - in fact, Telkom is more uncapped than IS uncapped.
Follow my logic:
Once IS is "capped", you cannot even log on, while at least with SAIX you can log on and go to the ISP page.
Therefore, SAIX is uncapped (just limited to where you can go), while IS is capped.

 

[ldmelsa]

ahh you have to understand SA Broadband speak. Very simple really. You are never, ever capped. You merely have no more bandwidth available until you purchase more.

56kMan, you and me both

This is a load of rubbish. It's capped or it's not. They can't have it both ways. Why doesn't ICASA nail them?

 

[Moederloos]

This is a load of rubbish. It's capped or it's not. They can't have it both ways. Why doesn't ICASA nail them?

Dont think its ICASAs jurisdiction?
It may well interest the Advertising Associations tho.

 

[ldmelsa]

Dont think its ICASAs jurisdiction?
It may well interest the Advertising Associations tho.

Yes. That's what I meant.

 

[MFour]

Telkom has created this so called ADSL environment, and everyone else is cashing in on it. Come NeoTel, we are going to have to put up with the same crappy offerings. There is no reason for them to do anything better, ie. uncapped = no limit. There is nowhere else we can go, and they know it. VC can take on Telkom as much as they want to create an impression of competition, but I don't really see any competition. After so many years we still have pathetic caps, speed and exorbirant pricing structures. How is the competition helping exactly?

IS is charging for something which is supposed to be free, according to ICASA, so is Telkom, VC, MTN, IBURST, etc. Local was regulated to be not be limited, so how come it still is?

Again I ask: How is "competition" helping us? Please don't tell me that the meger price decreases we have seen is something to be happy about. Telkom reduces pricing for one element and jacks up pricing for another, nice deal. The rest just make sure they stay inline or barely undercut Telkom, now we have competition. Please...

 

[antowan]

I am a happy IS local only customer via WebAfrica. It works out great! If only International prices can come down. For that we need undersea competition first.

 

[Gatecrasher]

Again I ask: How is "competition" helping us? Please don't tell me that the meger price decreases we have seen is something to be happy about. Telkom reduces pricing for one element and jacks up pricing for another, nice deal. The rest just make sure they stay inline or barely undercut Telkom, now we have competition. Please...

I agree completely. Until we have competition at the wholesale level, accompanied by falling prices for basic bandwidth usage, broadband competition in SA is an illusion.

The only things falling in price are the things that should never have existed in the first place.

Telkom has destroyed the local broadband market with their rapacious price-per-gig model. But lets face it, it has proved very popular with ISPs and with Telkom's so-called "competition", VC, MTN, Iburst, Sentech, et al. It has provided for some very robust business models. Too bad that consumers continue getting screwed as usual.

For all their faults, IS has at least provided some out-of-the-box alternatives for businesses and consumers, that move some way from the gig-counting obsession. If they could just unhook themselves from any reliance on Telkom (ie IPConnect fees). I'm sure we will see them take Telkom on in the core bandwidth markets as well. The 2/28 IS accounts is like an oasis in a broadband dessert. New thresholds on their "uncapped" express accounts, however, make these accounts far less attractive than they once were.

 

[redheadfan]

Yes international latency is an issue but personally I'd like to see local latency being improved.

 

[ic]

Again I ask: How is "competition" helping us? Please don't tell me that the meger price decreases we have seen is something to be happy about. Telkom reduces pricing for one element and jacks up pricing for another, nice deal. The rest just make sure they stay inline or barely undercut Telkom, now we have competition. Please...

Apart from Telkodemonopolies, I am not aware of any other wired fixed line network operators in South Africa, Telkodemonopolies still is the de facto wired fixed line monopoly of South Africa, the competition you refer to is only a figment of imagination.

IS is charging for something which is supposed to be free, according to ICASA, so is Telkom, VC, MTN, IBURST, etc. Local was regulated to be not be limited, so how come it still is?

The fact is that IS does not just resell SAIX-ADSL, IS rents network infrastructure in the form of several IPConnect links between IS and the Rosebank exchange, ADSL traffic flows through those IPConnect links, SAIX-ADSL resellers do not need IPConnect links, and Telkodemonopolies charges IS a huge amount of money every month per IPConnect link.

Forget about what !CASA's shoddy ADSL Regulations say - even !CASA doesn't know what those regulations say, free local ADSL should only have been applied to SAIX-ADSL, and not to other ADSL providers that actually have local network infrastructure to pay for.

 

[Moederloos]

I am a happy IS local only customer via WebAfrica. It works out great! If only International prices can come down. For that we need undersea competition first.

I fail to understand how you can be happy paying for something that was not meant to be charged for.

 

[general_koffi]

IS currently has roughly double the international latency of shaped SAIX, so they'll have to something drastic to improve on that front... That satellite of theirs is not going to cut it.

 

[bobtheuglybunny]

Moederloos: I dont understand how you can expect companies to give anything away for free?

Volunteer staff running our of an RDP house with sponsored badwidth and obsolete routing infrastructure....hold on that still leaves enormous telkom bills?!?

Just cause ICASA suggest local bandwidth should be uncapped doesn't mean a thing...it reminds me of a Zimbabwe style price cut i.e. It just ignores fundamentals of business...

 

[damian24]

Just cause ICASA suggest local bandwidth should be uncapped doesn't mean a thing...it reminds me of a Zimbabwe style price cut i.e. It just ignores fundamentals of business...

If these are business fundamentals, why then is it not at all difficult to find low cost or comparable cost services in most other countries that are in fact un-capped (internationally...) the no-cap is a realistic expectation, it's kind of like telkom that charges for local (same exchange calls) when there is no actual cost incurred as it's a completely local infrastructure that is theoretically paid for by line rentals.

Why not just lay the blame at the correct door, viz. in any other environment where Telkom did not exist, IS would offer uncapped local bandwidth as it wouldn't have to recover costs for the usage of the IPConnect products.

D

 

[bobtheuglybunny]

Something else to bear in mind is that in other countries (mainly Eurpoe and the US) where all these kewl dsl products exist they are only really interested in "local". Their local content and networks are that big.

Just like any other product, if you have to import its gonna be more expensive. On top of that many of these countries just connect to their neighbors and the network grows from there. i.e they dont need long under sea cable cause they just connect to the next guy who, in turn. connects to the next guy. Unfortunatley for us, Africa really is "darekest" africa when it comes to the Net, so ZA run's cables (or Sat) links that go all the way to europe and the US direct...that costs more...

If that wasn't enough, last time I heard there were only 4mil internet users in Za where most of the companies providing these much discussed adsl products overseas have 10's of million of subscribers...now adsl pricing and speeds are linked to averages and multiplexing so of course they will be able to provide cheapers services...

Don't get me wrong Telkom is by no mean blameless, not at all - they suck, but I'm just trying to point out that there are some real hurdles facing the internet in ZA so we will never be able to pass a few laws and just fix everything....IMHO

 

[Moederloos]

Moederloos: I dont understand how you can expect companies to give anything away for free?

uhm, ICASA told ISPs that local may not count towards the cap.
Therefore, with a standard 1GB package, local is effectively free.
Quite easy.

 

[DOOMIE61]

Telkom has created this so called ADSL environment, and everyone else is cashing in on it. Come NeoTel, we are going to have to put up with the same crappy offerings. There is no reason for them to do anything better, ie. uncapped = no limit. There is nowhere else we can go, and they know it. VC can take on Telkom as much as they want to create an impression of competition, but I don't really see any competition. After so many years we still have pathetic caps, speed and exorbirant pricing structures. How is the competition helping exactly?

IS is charging for something which is supposed to be free, according to ICASA, so is Telkom, VC, MTN, IBURST, etc. Local was regulated to be not be limited, so how come it still is?

Again I ask: How is "competition" helping us? Please don't tell me that the meger price decreases we have seen is something to be happy about. Telkom reduces pricing for one element and jacks up pricing for another, nice deal. The rest just make sure they stay inline or barely undercut Telkom, now we have competition. Please...

well true but come november things are going to really change if the plans for the SAT-3/SAFE cable go ahead as planned, my point is the only thing that is stopping SA from having uncapped services is that cable. if every ISP gets hold of that cable i can see telkom crapping themselves... but who knows