Need an answer in plain language

[quik1]

Hi all

I had my adsl installed yesterday and while browsing through the forums here @ myadsl.co.za, i am suddenly very confused.

I rent the line from telkom for about R99 - no problem with that. i understand there`s no getting around that.

Now - i also used Telkom as the ISP and pay R199 for that.
The thing is, I thought that you must rent the adsl line from them for about R152 for a 384kbps line, then get an isp for about R100. This adds up to R250 a month for a 1gig cap. telkom gives you everything for R199.
This sounds like a good deal?

While browsing i find that a 1gig "cap" sounds like nothing compared to what everybody else is using.
WebAfrica is also selling 1gig for R199, does this include the rental from telkom?
Did i make a bad choice?
How does it all come together?
90% of the people i know uses the R199 option from telkom.
What is the 1gig cap for? If i "reach the cap" will i still be able to check my mail? browse?
Whats going on?

Can somebody just give me an answer in plain language!
not everybody understands "hard cap" & "soft cap" or local bandwidth & int. bandwidth.
Telkom could`nt answer my questions?

I mainly use the internet to check mail, general browsing, tagging music,etc.
I would however like to download pictures, stream radio and video - you know, the things that other people are dong.

How long will a gig last me? If i stream radio or video does that affect your
"gig"? I`m not much of a gamer, although i would like to explore that option.

What must i do? Please help!

 

[Scooby_Doo]

1. You pay for you line at R99 think its cloaser to R110 now
2. You can chose either to pay telkom directly for your 384 line at R150 or something close to that and then choose a ISP for your adsl username password for a gig of data at +/- R60, or get the one you got that combines data and line rental into 1 price, so that web africa thing would fall in here.
3. With telkom as an isp you get 10 gigs local for every 1 gig international data you buy so 1 gig international bags you 10 gigs local, 2 gigs international bags 20 gigs local etc. If you use more that the alloted 10, 20... etc gigs you get charged R28 per gig there after.
4. Streaming video and radio will eat your 1 gig like a fat kid next to a cake.
5. As long as your email server is within south africa you should be able to get your mail and browse local site such as banks and myadsl.co.za

ps local bandwidth is bandwidth within SA, international is any data that leaves our borders.
pps, with regard to point 3, the first gig will be blended so any data regardless of where you use it (local or international data) it will count towards that first gig, once that gig is gone international access is restricted and you will only be able to look at stuff inside sa, so no google, no msn messenger etc.

Questions?

 

[quik1]

so if i leave telkom and go to eg. webafrica will i get a better deal?
How do i monitor my usage? is ther an app. for it.
Can i buy additional gigs elsewhere and still use telkom (cause of the email adress)
If i want to download stuff - what do i do (use my 1gig and download 10 gigs locally?)

 

[Arzy]

I think you missed a part in your calculation. Currently what you pay for is as follows:

Without DoBroadband:
Telephone Line Rental R110
ADSL Rental R152
ISP account R100
So about R370 in total.

With DoBroadband:
DoBroadband 1 R200
Telephone Line Rental R110
So about R310 in total.

Even if you go with one of the other complete packages you will still have to pay the normal telephone line rental(R110) to Telkom, I don't think there is anyway you can get past this currently. So taking the R200 complete package from WebAfrica would cover your DSL portion and then R110 to Telkom for the telephone line.

There is also not really a fixed rule about how long a gig will last you. It all depends on what you do. I'm currently using 3G for connectivity at home, I have a 1GB data bundle from Vodacom and so far I've never used it up in a month. This is basically just checking a couple of webpages and my mail daily though. If I wanted to though I could go through 1GB in a couple of hours.

 

[Ecco]

so if i leave telkom and go to eg. webafrica will i get a better deal?
How do i monitor my usage? is ther an app. for it.
Can i buy additional gigs elsewhere and still use telkom (cause of the email adress)
If i want to download stuff - what do i do (use my 1gig and download 10 gigs locally?)

The telkom deal is not bad, cause you get that local bandwidth above the 1st Gig you use, at no extra cost, with other ISP's i dont think you get that (somebody please confirm, i know this is the case with Axxess and the prepaid option)

I think telkom should have some sort of online usage monitor, where you can track your usage (again somebody with telkom please confirm, this is offered my Axxess, even with prepaid)

Yes, you can buy additional bandwith from any of the other subsribers, you just need to update your router/modem with their username and password

To download you got no choice but to first use up the 1gig and then if you can download locally, then you can use the remaining 10Gigs.

 

[quik1]

A couple of my friends internet stopped working completely after a few days. Telkom told them that they have used up the 1gig and need to buy an aditional gig.
What happened to the 10gig local?

P.S - Telkom has a internet usage tracker on the website, I was refering to something you can install to add evering up for you.

 

[Ecco]

A couple of my friends internet stopped working completely after a few days. Telkom told them that they have used up the 1gig and need to buy an aditional gig.
What happened to the 10gig local?

P.S - Telkom has a internet usage tracker on the website, I was refering to something you can install to add evering up for you.

I use axxess prepaid, somebody with a telkom account will best be able to help you out. But if your friends are not browsing local websites, then they will need to buy another gig.

 

[quik1]

Their email accounts is local and they cant access it.
I mean that the internet is completely off. Is it possible to receive 10gig of email for a month? I think that is highly unlikely. most ISp`s give you a mailbox with a 10mb quota. Times checking that everyday gives you about 300Mb of emails.
I just dont want this happening to me!

 

[Thestealth]

Quik1, welcome to the forums!!