Need help Acquiring Broadband

[Regalrip]

Hiya

After reading all the dreadful encounters most of you have had with Telkom I would please like some advice of what I should do to Acquiring Broadband in SA.

I've been living in London for the last 4 years and all the past Melkom issues I have encountered have conveniently left me. As I currently have an 8Mbit Conn with a 500GB Soft Cap per Month for £29.00. UNTILL I started looking at Broadband for my parents back in SA.
Now I am just looking for a cheap option that is 24h on, so that I can use it to communicate with them at some half decant speed. The Home DSL should probably do. What are the potholes I should look out for, line rental, ISP account, caps ect.
Any help and advice would do, as I am snarling at the fact that I will have to deal with Telkom again.

Thanx

 

[ic]

Regalrip, welcome to MyADSL .

Your best bet is to start by eliminating the options not available in the area where your parents are located: is ADSL available to them? Is WCDMA 3G coverage available to them? Is Sentech's MyWireless available? Is WBS iBurst available to them?

Once you know what they can get without moving somewhere else, we can debate on forum which is the better of the available options .

 

[Regalrip]

Have you ever heard of a place called Klerksdorp. Its in the North Wes. Aprox 164Km from JHB.
Last I looked Sentech's MyWireless is out of reach.
And I doubt if WBS iBurst or WCDMA 3G will cover.
The Exchange they are on is ADSL enabled.
(I have a spare Wifi ADSL modem and filters for them to use. Just need to mod some Phone connection plugs.)
So I think DSL would be best except if you could suggest something better.

 

[Regalrip]

I am amazed to say that seems like Vodacom's 3G is covering the area but mobility wouldn't be a huge advantage.
As I was thinking in the Line of HomeDSL192.

Thanx for the help.

 

[ic]

Ok, but to be sure, check Vodacom's 3G coverage map, and MTN's 3G coverage - somewhere on that site...

If your parents have a cellphone with either Vodacom or MTN, it is possible to tell from the 2G cellid if their local cell tower has had 3G added to the fake palm tree...

But, ADSL would probably do the trick if they don't need the option of mobility...so HomeDSL192 should work fine for Skype/VoIP and everything else your parents might want to do online...

I will have a look for the table of 1st month prices I posted somewhere in the MyADSL General ADSL discussions forum

Added: Ok, found it, here are [post=279337]the ADSL prices according to my calculations...[/post]

 

[LoneGunman]

I assume the posters folks are just after mostly email - nothing requiring (by SA
standards) 'large' downloading or video conferencing - in which case, it should be
quite easy to get the parents rigged up suitably.

Just make sure they know the routes on the PC to open the necessary apps to
send/get mails - and that they have a firewall (something simple like zone alarm)
and maybe an anti virus/spyware thing - as, if they're newbies, its very easy to
accidentally trash the pc, without knowing how or why. (its happened to my dad a
few times - as you don't want to have to be doing tech-support calls long
distance from the UK..

 

[Daveogg]

Regalrip, i dont want to dissagree with IC here, but if your main reason for getting broadband for your folk is to skype or any other voip, then i am afraid that Telkom's shaping policy is going to result in a lot of frustration. As odd as it may sound to you, on a 8mb/s adsl line, isdn would then probably be a better option for your folks. Granted its not 24/7 although if you can get infinit call then at least you can be connected weekends and nights.

Hopefully Icasa will stay the course with the adsl report and force telkom to drop the shaping.

 

[ic]

LOL Daveogg, I disagree with myselves all the time, all the more that have a different opinion, the better .

 

[Arcadies]

Regalrip, i dont want to dissagree with IC here, but if your main reason for getting broadband for your folk is to skype or any other voip, then i am afraid that Telkom's shaping policy is going to result in a lot of frustration. As odd as it may sound to you, on a 8mb/s adsl line, isdn would then probably be a better option for your folks. Granted its not 24/7 although if you can get infinit call then at least you can be connected weekends and nights.

Hopefully Icasa will stay the course with the adsl report and force telkom to drop the shaping.

or just buy an unshaped acc?