Hi folks
I put together a basic letter to the media about problems related to ADSL and Telkom. If you want to add something newsworthy, suggest something or simply improve on the letter (which is most welcome), please do it here. After all is said and done I will send this to all relevant newspapers and websites.
Regards,
RPM
________________________________________________________________
Hi
A website called MyADSL (www.myadsl.co.za) was launched in July this year to address the problems related to Telkom’s ADSL service. Initially Telkom was reluctant to acknowledge our validity, but with a steadily growing membership that now stands at over 650 members, we are currently nothing short of a respectable organization that represents ADSL users in South Africa. MyADSL is privately funded by ADSL users and no advertisements or other commercial activities are allowed on the site. Our aim remains to try to improve the ADSL service in South Africa.
In August MyADSL extended a hand of friendship to Telkom. We offered to work with Telkom to try to improve ADSL in South Africa. Regrettably Steven White, in charge of New Product Development at Telkom, made it clear that they are not willing to improve the service to accommodate a group of customers. Telkom’s position as a legally protected monopoly makes this type of inflexibility completely unacceptable. The one concession we did receive from Telkom in our meeting with them was the promise of open communication. This has unfortunately not materialized. Most of our letters are simply ignored while customers suffer. There are some serious issues that need to be addressed, but it seems that Telkom’s strategy is simply to ignore these concerns.
Many interesting facts have surfaced in discussions on the forums at MyADSL. We feel Telkom should address these issues, and we are in the process of lodging a formal complaint with ICASA regarding these issues.
Telkom claims that most ADSL users are happy with the service, but all ‘public’ statistical evidence refutes this claim. We challenged Telkom to do an ‘open’ survey to substantiate their claims, but they have refused this offer.
The cost of ADSL in South Africa is exorbitant in comparison with other countries. Telkom’s excuse is the cost of international bandwidth, but only 25% of the total cost of ADSL is influenced by bandwidth. All the other charges, like line rental and modem costs, are not influenced by our location and should be internationally competitive. This is not the case, and Telkom charges more than double the international rates.
Telkom is not prepared to provide users with the basic information about the service. Telkom is not prepared to commit to a Service Level Agreement (SLA) other than stating "No guarentee" or "best effort". The service levels experienced by ADSL users are bad. During the day, ADSL speeds slow down noticeably, even for browsing local websites. For a service advertised as “super fast lane” broadband Internet, this is misleading to say the least.
In many cases users struggle to get services from Telkom which they have already paid for. These services include web space and email services. In many instances Telkom did not inform users that there was a problem and only apologizes after lengthy complaints from users.
Telkom’s port prioritization strategy means that ADSL becomes useless for online gaming and any other application using ports other than HTTP, FTP and SMTP. This is a regrettable situation since the value of broadband is closely related to these applications. Users were not informed about this strategy before they purchased the product, but Telkom made it clear that they will not be prepared to refund customers on the basis that they purchased the product for these purposes.
After the dreaded 3 Gigabyte cap is reached, the ADSL service becomes unusable, and we feel that more bandwidth should be made available for capped users.
For more information about the ADSL service in South Africa, please visit MyADSL.co.za or contact me directly. Telkom’s stranglehold on the South African telecommunications and Internet industry is costing this country billions of Rands, and we feel their misuse of their monopoly should be exposed.
We hope you see your way clear to investigate these issues and inform the public about true state of ADSL in our country.
___________________________________________________________________
I put together a basic letter to the media about problems related to ADSL and Telkom. If you want to add something newsworthy, suggest something or simply improve on the letter (which is most welcome), please do it here. After all is said and done I will send this to all relevant newspapers and websites.
Regards,
RPM
________________________________________________________________
Hi
A website called MyADSL (www.myadsl.co.za) was launched in July this year to address the problems related to Telkom’s ADSL service. Initially Telkom was reluctant to acknowledge our validity, but with a steadily growing membership that now stands at over 650 members, we are currently nothing short of a respectable organization that represents ADSL users in South Africa. MyADSL is privately funded by ADSL users and no advertisements or other commercial activities are allowed on the site. Our aim remains to try to improve the ADSL service in South Africa.
In August MyADSL extended a hand of friendship to Telkom. We offered to work with Telkom to try to improve ADSL in South Africa. Regrettably Steven White, in charge of New Product Development at Telkom, made it clear that they are not willing to improve the service to accommodate a group of customers. Telkom’s position as a legally protected monopoly makes this type of inflexibility completely unacceptable. The one concession we did receive from Telkom in our meeting with them was the promise of open communication. This has unfortunately not materialized. Most of our letters are simply ignored while customers suffer. There are some serious issues that need to be addressed, but it seems that Telkom’s strategy is simply to ignore these concerns.
Many interesting facts have surfaced in discussions on the forums at MyADSL. We feel Telkom should address these issues, and we are in the process of lodging a formal complaint with ICASA regarding these issues.
Telkom claims that most ADSL users are happy with the service, but all ‘public’ statistical evidence refutes this claim. We challenged Telkom to do an ‘open’ survey to substantiate their claims, but they have refused this offer.
The cost of ADSL in South Africa is exorbitant in comparison with other countries. Telkom’s excuse is the cost of international bandwidth, but only 25% of the total cost of ADSL is influenced by bandwidth. All the other charges, like line rental and modem costs, are not influenced by our location and should be internationally competitive. This is not the case, and Telkom charges more than double the international rates.
Telkom is not prepared to provide users with the basic information about the service. Telkom is not prepared to commit to a Service Level Agreement (SLA) other than stating "No guarentee" or "best effort". The service levels experienced by ADSL users are bad. During the day, ADSL speeds slow down noticeably, even for browsing local websites. For a service advertised as “super fast lane” broadband Internet, this is misleading to say the least.
In many cases users struggle to get services from Telkom which they have already paid for. These services include web space and email services. In many instances Telkom did not inform users that there was a problem and only apologizes after lengthy complaints from users.
Telkom’s port prioritization strategy means that ADSL becomes useless for online gaming and any other application using ports other than HTTP, FTP and SMTP. This is a regrettable situation since the value of broadband is closely related to these applications. Users were not informed about this strategy before they purchased the product, but Telkom made it clear that they will not be prepared to refund customers on the basis that they purchased the product for these purposes.
After the dreaded 3 Gigabyte cap is reached, the ADSL service becomes unusable, and we feel that more bandwidth should be made available for capped users.
For more information about the ADSL service in South Africa, please visit MyADSL.co.za or contact me directly. Telkom’s stranglehold on the South African telecommunications and Internet industry is costing this country billions of Rands, and we feel their misuse of their monopoly should be exposed.
We hope you see your way clear to investigate these issues and inform the public about true state of ADSL in our country.
___________________________________________________________________
]. Im sure Telkom is getting worried with wireless broadband around the corner. Its time for them to buckup!