Moving back to SA...

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f4llen

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Hey guys,

I'm moving back to the Western Cape after a 5 year stint in Ireland. I'll still be doing alot of work for the Irish company I'm involved in. Soooo... I've trawled through the boards and visited millions (hehe) of ISP sites but still can't figure out the best way forward. If you could post your thoughts on the below points I'd really appreciate it.

1) I need to be up and running (internet wise) within days of getting back, this will involve e-mails, ftp to international websites and receiving/sending large files. Which company/service would offer me this functionality without a 5 month waiting period? i.e. within a couple of days? Dialup?

2) ADSL... I've read the horror stories so although I'm applying for a phoneline with a view to get some form of ADSL... I'm hedging my bets with point no.1. So there are 3 carriers, SAIX, IS and Verizon - from what i've read the verizon ADSL seems to be the most reliable & fastest with no capping and no shaping which are both positives. How does their service compare to the other 2 price and performance wise? Any good for international FTP, Skype & gaming?

3) ISPs... I know there are loads of comments on different ISP's but if I go for the Verizon service which ISP offers that? Can I go straight to Verizon? Do I still need to deal with Telskom and in what capacity? Where does my dependency on Telskom stop and the Verizon network take over?


I'm flying out of here (Dublin) next month and would love to have at least some sort of plan in place for when I land. Your help would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Ruan
 
if you need immediate connectivity the best option is to get a 3G card and use either Vodacom or MTN, at least initially. For ADSL you pay Telkom for the phone line and then for the ADSL line rental, www.vanilla.co.za offers Verizon accounts which you pay for in addition to ADSL line rental.
 
I'm guessing you have your passport now after 5 years. Many returning people are not aware of the creeping changes that have happened in the country. You will probably discover things are not so rosey when you ask for Telkom to have your broadband installed.
My advice - stay put.

While you are here, you will find out that, unlike in Europe, mobile data is just as competitive as fixed line. MTN data is the most reliable and is in a price war with Vodacom, whose service is terrible and as unreliable as their data. Virgin mobile are here too, and cheap, but it is not impressive with GPRS/EDGE speeds only running on CellC - and sometimes Vodacom.
[3G has evolved to the 1.8MB/s standard and later this year will go to 3.6. Real average speeds are far lower.]
 
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Hey Syndyre, cheers for that. How does the 3G card work? Does it plug into a laptop/PC via USB or Wireless Adapter slot?
 
I believe you will always have to deal with Telkom first (if you go the ADSL route). I.e. you need Telkom to install your line and "maintain" it. You pay for this separately [lease line costs which everyone is fighting about] per month.

Only THEN can you start looking at an ISP. Then you pay the ISP for the amount of bandwidth ON TOP of the Telkom Line costs. So if you see things like "uncapped, unshaped,10GB, yadah yadah @ R500 p/month" then it usually excludes your R300+ telkom costs.

For immediate connectivity i will also suggest get 3G/HSDPA (MTN Prepaid or some Vodacom form of the same thing or some contract) . You will notice this is cheaper than ADSL [as you don't have the leased line costs, only ISP cost]. i.e. 2GB for R389 p/month [a bit more if you take a modem].

f4llen said:
Hey Syndyre, cheers for that. How does the 3G card work? Does it plug into a laptop/PC via USB or Wireless Adapter slot?
Click to expand...

You get the USB modem [like a bluetooth dongle] and the PCMCIA modem [the datacard]. I'd go for the USB one ..which you can plug into any PC. The datacard imho is old tech, alot of laptops don't even come out with that PCMCIA slot anymore.
 
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Thanks for the replies, Skeptik, I don't have a choice in the matter of going back to SA, family member is ill so it's a bit ****e.

Just spoke to a Verizon rep, told me they offer a pay-per-mb service which is uncapped and unshaped running on their -supposedly- solid network, but using Telkom's exchanges. They can provide this to me through a company called Frogfoot (http://www.frogfoot.com/). Anybody have any experience with this crowd? I'm going to be getting ADSL at some stage so its a matter of package and ISP.

For a backup I'm going with either ISDN or other dialup connection, just in case the ADSL goes pear shaped. Does anybody have experience in ordering ISDN or a similar dialup service? What kind of lead-times am I looking at?
 
You'll probably have to sign up for 24 months for any contract.
Mobile pay-as-u-go with USB HSDPA modem is an option as a good way to start off until you find your way around the deals.
 
Avoid ISDN as Telkom seem to get very very confused changing an ISDN line to an ADSL line.

Do you have iBurst coverage where you are going? 24 hour setup and more than adequate as a holding account until ADSL gets installed.

If you go for the ADSL self install you run the chance of having ADSL installed in less than a week as well.
 
Hey f4llen

Frogfoot is one of Verizon's bigger Unshaped ADSL resellers. We also use the Verizon network for our ADSL VPN services. Usually we don't offer uncapped accounts to consumers as it involves a bit of risk and it's a bit more accounting work, but it can be arranged.
 
f4llen, what exactly is your idea of a "large file"? Sending really large files over 3G is fairly expensive.

adsl is the best way imo...assuming you can get them to install an adsl line.
 
Skeptik said:
I'm guessing you have your passport now after 5 years. Many returning people are not aware of the creeping changes that have happened in the country. You will probably discover things are not so rosey when you ask for Telkom to have your broadband installed.
My advice - stay put.
Click to expand...

What a load of cr_p!! The guy did not ask whether he should come back, he asked for specific ADSL related advice! Take your pessimism elsewhere!

Ruan, welcome back and may you discover the vast potential this country still has for yourself! Not sure what cap you are after but I have just joined Nashua Broadband for R139 per month for 1Gb data including the 384k ADSL line rental and a Billion 7300G wifi router. I believe they are on the Verizon network. Yes, it is a 12 month contract but I do not see this as too long for this price and the router!

The only other cost on top of this is the Telkom phone line rental at R110 odd per month. Additional gigs can be purchased as needed or obviously you could get more gigs from another provider. I had an ADSL line already but they got me switched over to them in just over a week. Not sure how long they would need to convince Telkom to install your line if you did not have it already as I have had mine for a few years now.
 
Apply for a normal voice line, it takes 2 to 3 weeks to install. In the mean time buy a 3G data card and a MTN and Voda pre paid sim. Check which provider works best for you (3G card never goes to waste its great for travelling). Voda in my case they have better coverage in WC. Once voice line is installed apply for an ADSL upgrade, it takes less than a week.

This approch works best for me. I get alot of clients comming in from overseas and want exactly what you want.
 
Why did you reopen this thread??? Its over a year old and I am sure this guy is already back in SA and lying on the beach! So lets just lay this thread to rest! R.I.P
 
Aha, didn't even notice that until you pointed it out! The new forumite, JoeFrog, obviously dug it out in ignorance and the rest of us merely responded to a new post under "new posts"!

Sorry.

Possibly an argument for threads older than perhaps three months to be closed to further comments....
 
Thats actually not a bad idea hey. Say once a thread has had no reply for eg 3 months get them locked.
 
It depends on the thread. Sometimes its useful for someone to be able to post a followup rather than start a whole new thread.
 
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