ISP change > Process ?

Dolby

Dolby

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One worry with changing is that, being Telkom, I thought the process would be slow and cumbersome to change to another ISP. I figured they'd keep charging after cancelled (ala happened in the past) and missions to try get that money back. All in all - a mission!

Have things changed at all?
 
Dolby said:
One worry with changing is that, being Telkom, I thought the process would be slow and cumbersome to change to another ISP. I figured they'd keep charging after cancelled (ala happened in the past) and missions to try get that money back. All in all - a mission!

Have things changed at all?
Click to expand...

Changing what? ADSL rental or ISP account?
 
Well, there are two aspects to changing your ISP:

1) The data portion
2) The Telkom circuit (often referred to as the line)

You can move the data portion without "migrating" the circuit. In other words, Telkom continue to manage your DSL line, and your ISP provisions you with the data. Or you can move both - the choice is yours.

The data portion is subjected to whatever terms your ISP and you agreed in your terms and conditions. With us, our customers can cancel in their current month, before the 19th. If you move your Telkom circuit to your ISP, Telkom will begin billing the ISP the moment the transfer is finalised, which takes a few days on average. If you were on a post-paid model with Telkom, you may still owe a month to them for the last month, which sometimes appears to be double-billing but is not - it's simply what happens when you move from a post-paid to a pre-paid payment model. If however Telkom bill for the month as well as your ISP, you can contact Telkom, show them the billing info from your ISP who will confirm the date upon which the "migration" was successful, and Telkom will credit that final payment of the DSL portion on your next invoice. In other words, the balance is "squared".

With regards to the data portion, I've not come across Telkom doing anything untoward here at all. If anything, simple human or systems errors can result in occasional issues but they are quick to resolve them.

With regards to the circuit portion, I've also not come across any untoward behaviour at all, and again, they are more than happy to resolve any billing issues that arise from a "migration" of the circuit to your ISP. In short, there's not much to concern yourself with - just get the info in writing.

Note that you cannot migrate the voice line rental and/or costs to your ISP at all at this time.
 
Last edited:
Everything - as much as possible ;) <<< to Sinbad reply

I've got Telkom 4mpbs uncapped and sometimes it battles to stream a video from Liveleak or such. Speedtests show 3.6mbps download and some downloads are running at 430kb/sec. All I'd really want is :

Cheaper, if possible
The ability to stream a standard 480 resolution cat video ...
 
My experience of the circuit migration has been great.
I initially migrated to Afrihost. I did get double billed for one month but that was reversed the next month with no action taken by me (I was warned to expect it).
I then migrated back to myself and to CW in the same month. No issues whatsoever, never even touched the telkom bill.
 
The process for migrating your line is easy. Confirm in writing or the systems your ISP has in place that you wish for the Telkom circuit to be moved to the ISP. The ISP will initiate the process on your behalf with Telkom Wholesale, who a few days later will confirm success or failure of the migration. Your ISP will bill you, and if a billing query arises it's 9/10 resolved with a single call to Telkom.

If you have an existing contract with Telkom the line migration process will be rejected by Telkom. If you benefited from a discounted installation or free router and are still within 3 months of installation, the migration will be rejected. These are the two most common reasons for a migration failure from Telkom to the ISP.

If your line is currently managed by another ISP, Telkom require it to be moved back to them before migration to the new ISP.
 
Everything is TI atm.

Thanks for the feedback!
 
My experience was like a fairytale... I cancel with Telkom internet, give my months notice, they phone me a week later as part of a customer retention program, give me a 25% discount on my line and cancel my account immediately. This bought it to cheaper than any ISP managing my line.
 
Crystal Web said:
Confirm in writing or the systems your ISP has in place that you wish for the Telkom circuit to be moved to the ISP. The ISP will initiate the process on your behalf with Telkom Wholesale
Click to expand...

I skimmed past this part - are you saying I NEVER deal with Telkom in the scenario?
All done through you guys?
 
Dolby said:
I skimmed past this part - are you saying I NEVER deal with Telkom in the scenario?
All done through you guys?
Click to expand...

Correct. And subsequent line issues are handled by us as well. The only time you deal with Telkom is if a site visit is required and they need to arrange a time with you.
 
If I don't need to chat to them, I'm keen - I need to chat to the support guys for some pricing?
 
Dolby said:
If I don't need to chat to them, I'm keen - I need to chat to the support guys for some pricing?
Click to expand...

Yup - they're available 24 hours per day during the week and 10am to 5pm on weekends to discuss relevant pricing for your needs. :)
 
Crystal Web said:
The process for migrating your line is easy. Confirm in writing or the systems your ISP has in place that you wish for the Telkom circuit to be moved to the ISP. The ISP will initiate the process on your behalf with Telkom Wholesale, who a few days later will confirm success or failure of the migration. Your ISP will bill you, and if a billing query arises it's 9/10 resolved with a single call to Telkom.

If you have an existing contract with Telkom the line migration process will be rejected by Telkom. If you benefited from a discounted installation or free router and are still within 3 months of installation, the migration will be rejected. These are the two most common reasons for a migration failure from Telkom to the ISP.

If your line is currently managed by another ISP, Telkom require it to be moved back to them before migration to the new ISP.
Click to expand...

During the migration process (either to an ISP or back to Telkom) would the end user, like myself, experience any down time with the ADSL line?
I would imagine not as the physical line is not touched? Then another question, is it possible to move the DSL line to an ISP - such as CrystalWeb - without using them as your ISP?

I'd imagine it to be possible although won't be allowed? I imagine that if your line is through an ISP you can still dial up a different ISP's account as well?

ie. Line with Afrihost and you have a capped Afrihost account and then if I had an uncapped CrystalWeb account I can still connect to it and make use of it despite my line being with Afrihost?


GreyBush said:
My experience was like a fairytale... I cancel with Telkom internet, give my months notice, they phone me a week later as part of a customer retention program, give me a 25% discount on my line and cancel my account immediately. This bought it to cheaper than any ISP managing my line.
Click to expand...

25% discount, thats not fair :( Although you had a Telkom account as well - using Telkom as your ISP?
Wonder if I try to cancel whether they would just cancel or give me a discount? :S
 
PsyCLown said:
During the migration process (either to an ISP or back to Telkom) would the end user, like myself, experience any down time with the ADSL line?
Click to expand...

No downtime at all. :)

PsyCLown said:
I would imagine not as the physical line is not touched? Then another question, is it possible to move the DSL line to an ISP - such as CrystalWeb - without using them as your ISP?
Click to expand...

We reject these applications as we don't make any margin on the DSL line rentals whatsoever. But why would you? We're awesome. :p

PsyCLown said:
I imagine that if your line is through an ISP you can still dial up a different ISP's account as well?
Click to expand...

Correct. Nothing is locked on the data side to your ISP.

PsyCLown said:
ie. Line with Afrihost and you have a capped Afrihost account and then if I had an uncapped CrystalWeb account I can still connect to it and make use of it despite my line being with Afrihost?
Click to expand...

Most modern routers allow you to run multiple WAN connections concurrently. So you can do this and more.
 
Signed up ;)

The worst past is trying to reach Telkom to change my line speed. 15 min+ so far ... and I have to work.

Do they have Facebook or an electronic way of doing this?
 
Crystal Web said:
No downtime at all. :)



We reject these applications as we don't make any margin on the DSL line rentals whatsoever. But why would you? We're awesome. :p



Correct. Nothing is locked on the data side to your ISP.



Most modern routers allow you to run multiple WAN connections concurrently. So you can do this and more.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

The last part is interesting - so basically have two ISP accounts dialed up on a single router at the same time? Both full PPPoE connections?
Then you can either switch between them via a timer perhaps or IP ranges?
Do you know whether TP Link offer such a feature? I'm planning on getting myself their W9980 VDSL router.

Could be nifty if such a thing is possible.
 
PsyCLown said:
Thanks.

The last part is interesting - so basically have two ISP accounts dialed up on a single router at the same time? Both full PPPoE connections?
Then you can either switch between them via a timer perhaps or IP ranges?
Do you know whether TP Link offer such a feature? I'm planning on getting myself their W9980 VDSL router.

Could be nifty if such a thing is possible.
Click to expand...

Yes, and we suggest Mikrotiks. We're actually about to launch something quite cool in this respect. Pre-configured, and no learning curve for you. We'll do it all for you, and keep the firmware and scripts that control this updated at all times for you.

The TP-Links do offer a very dumbed down version of QoS like this and you can dial multiple PPPOE connections, and switch routes, but manually.
 
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