New LTE AUP from September 2016

[Daigomi]

Just to add quickly, I've got two services (work and home) and I received the sms for home (which is a heavier user) but not work. Home does around 350gb per month and has done 200gb so far this month (mostly streaming and game updates, but some seedbox stuff this month) while work has not received the message (30gb used this month).

As many of you are saying, if they start throttling me I will make a complaint. The contract only mentioned the throttling of P2P services which I have not used at all.

 

[Saba'a]

My streaming of netflix x 2 most nights and youtube x 3 most nights is hardly unreasonable. Unless mistaken it was marketed as a streaming service.
Add in daily social media and web browsing.

 

[Saba'a]

This has been before the ASA? (I think) before, and the ruling was that uncapped does not mean unlimited. So they are allowed to throttle you at a certain point and still call it uncapped, as long as they don't cut you off. UNLIMITED is the one want.

It needs to be reasonable. Is my streaming netflix x 2 and youtube x 2/3 unreasonable on a uncapped streaming product limited to 150 users?
Telkom mismanaged their infrastructure by rolling it out nationwide and now want to blame users.

 

[furpile]

It needs to be reasonable. Is my streaming netflix x 2 and youtube x 2/3 unreasonable on a uncapped streaming product limited to 150 users?
Telkom mismanaged their infrastructure by rolling it out nationwide and now want to blame users.

That is why AUP terms are always so vague, so that they can implement anything they want anytime you are deemed to "cause a degraded service" to other customers or however they want to word it. Even with ADSL very few ISP's actually state on their uncapped products what the limits are. I don't know the AUP for this LTE product though, maybe check what their wording was?

 

[cavedog]

I think you guys are getting ahead of your selfs.... Telkom pointed everyone to the AUP but did not change it? I think they would have updated it first then started pointing people too it.

Let see whats up first before making assumptions...

 

[furpile]

I think you guys are getting ahead of your selfs.... Telkom pointed everyone to the AUP but did not change it? I think they would have updated it first then started pointing people too it.

Let see whats up first before making assumptions...

Yip, they did the same with their uncapped ADSL a year or two ago. They did not initially implement their AUP restrictions, but once the network got loaded they sent out the same notice that they were going to start enforcing it. If you stay within their rules you should not be affected.

 

[furpile]

Typical legalese double speak.

The SmartBroadband Uncapped Wireless service shall be offered at full speeds (no time limit applies)
for all traffic types except bandwidth intensive protocols
The SmartBroadband Uncapped Wireless service will offer uncapped data for all traffic types except
bandwidth intensive protocols

SmartBroadband Uncapped Wireless services operate on shared radio resources and Telkom reserves
the right to apply restrictions on an uncapped account if a customer’s behaviour is determined to be
affecting the user experience of other customers on Telkom’s mobile broadband network. Such
restrictions include but are not limited to throttling a customer’s throughput speeds to an appropriate
proportion of the actual port speed and / or shaping a customer’s bandwidth to limit the use of bandwidth
intensive protocols and applications

They can do what they want basically.

 

[Saba'a]

Typical legalese double speak.



They can do what they want basically.

Reasonable is the test so I beg to differ. They can do what they want within reason. The question is - what is reasonable?

 

[TofuMofu]

I'm not phased, if they put a limit they should put a generous one like 500gb or something. I'm more interested in speed and quality of the connection.

Yep, that would be fine.

The sad part is, there are people who abuse the service. Bandwidth is expensive and you paying R799 for it doesn't entitle you to milk it for all it's worth just because you can.

I used to be like that...but people grow up. Some take longer than others.

I use my internet for streaming and browsing. Nothing else.

 

[cavedog]

Yep, that would be fine.

The sad part is, there are people who abuse the service. Bandwidth is expensive and you paying R799 for it doesn't entitle you to milk it for all it's worth just because you can.

I used to be like that...but people grow up. Some take longer than others.

I use my internet for streaming and browsing. Nothing else.

So downloading 300GB is unacceptable but streaming 500GB is?

Technically streaming especially in HD chows data more and I reckon can just be as bandwidth intensive as p2p. The only thing that makes p2p downloads worse is the fact they can be left to saturate the tower for hours on end where stream when you exit the stream the bandwidth consumption stops.

I personally think Telkom made a mistake with the uncapped LTE. Let people go crazy with unlimited unshaped data between 11pm and 6am but the rest of the time only certain stuff should be unlimited.

That is how you can cater for the heavy downloaders and the day to day customers and you also squeezing all the bandwidth out of your network. win win for everyone.

 

[Gaz{M}]

Well, for between R599 and R799 a month, what do CAPPED people get in terms of data allocation?

Would that not be a reasonable test on what you can expect to receive on an "uncapped" account? Fibre and ADSL work the same way. I think they give you between 100 and 200GB a month on a capped account for the same money as uncapped? Although fibre uncapped pricing varies wildly between providers.

 

[TofuMofu]

Well, for between R599 and R799 a month, what do CAPPED people get in terms of data allocation?

Would that not be a reasonable test on what you can expect to receive on an "uncapped" account? Fibre and ADSL work the same way. I think they give you between 100 and 200GB a month on a capped account for the same money as uncapped? Although fibre uncapped pricing varies wildly between providers.

100%

 

[Azg]

So downloading 300GB is unacceptable but streaming 500GB is?

Technically streaming especially in HD chows data more and I reckon can just be as bandwidth intensive as p2p. The only thing that makes p2p downloads worse is the fact they can be left to saturate the tower for hours on end where stream when you exit the stream the bandwidth consumption stops.

I personally think Telkom made a mistake with the uncapped LTE. Let people go crazy with unlimited unshaped data between 11pm and 6am but the rest of the time only certain stuff should be unlimited.

That is how you can cater for the heavy downloaders and the day to day customers and you also squeezing all the bandwidth out of your network. win win for everyone.

+1. Telkom "uncapped" ADSL has a data cap for usage from 07:00 to 23:59 & uncapped Night Surfer from 00:00 - 07:00 where you can download all you want as the network is less congested during that period. A similar arrangement on the LTE Uncapped would change downloading habits to everyone's benefit.

 

[Saba'a]

Consider the R99 entertainment bolt on for adsl Do capped packages.
Compare a R699 Do premium with R99 entertainment bolt on with more stable ping? vs uncapped lte.

Seems entertainment bolt on limited to showmax?

 

[Saba'a]

+1. Telkom "uncapped" ADSL has a data cap for usage from 07:00 to 23:59 & uncapped Night Surfer from 00:00 - 07:00 where you can download all you want as the network is less congested during that period. A similar arrangement on the LTE Uncapped would change downloading habits to everyone's benefit.

Yep. Doubt anybody signed up for p2p. However, how does the seedboxers affect this?

 

[RVR]

This has been before the ASA? (I think) before, and the ruling was that uncapped does not mean unlimited. So they are allowed to throttle you at a certain point and still call it uncapped, as long as they don't cut you off. UNLIMITED is the one want.

Yes i know uncapped doesnt mean exactly that but notice how most ISPs make you aware there is some limit like after 100gigs used, they will throttle you. But with this deal, there was no mention of it except the p2p 50gig. Most of us took this (i believe) because it does'nt mention anything about capping for streaming, gaming etc...

that's why the 24month contract didnt seem too bad

 

[Saba'a]

Yes i know uncapped doesnt mean exactly that but notice how most ISPs make you aware there is some limit like after 100gigs used, they will throttle you. But with this deal, there was no mention of it except the p2p 50gig. Most of us took this (i believe) because it does'nt mention anything about capping for streaming, gaming etc...

that's why the 24month contract didnt seem too bad

Exactly I committed to a 24 month for the netflix streaming. They can throttle youtube (kids) and p2p but streaming is why I contracted for this.

 

[Zyzzyva]

Well, for between R599 and R799 a month, what do CAPPED people get in terms of data allocation?

Would that not be a reasonable test on what you can expect to receive on an "uncapped" account? Fibre and ADSL work the same way. I think they give you between 100 and 200GB a month on a capped account for the same money as uncapped? Although fibre uncapped pricing varies wildly between providers.

Considering what we signed up for when we agreed to a 24 month contract, anything under a 300 gig soft cap is going to make a lot of people angry. DSL users can always upgrade to a bigger cap the following month if they run out - we sadly do to have that option. 100 to 200 gigs will simply not be enough for many users doing Netflix and the like.

The lowest soft cap i would consider reasonable would be 300 gigs. Perhaps, 200 gigs daytime with uncapped between 12 and 7am would also work, but even that is not what we signed up for.

In saying that i would welcome a crack down on people doing 500 gigs or more considering the slow speeds between 6 and 10PM every night.

 

[SeaSickMama]

Considering what we signed up for when we agreed to a 24 month contract, anything under a 300 gig soft cap is going to make a lot of people angry. DSL users can always upgrade to a bigger cap the following month if they run out - we sadly do to have that option. 100 to 200 gigs will simply not be enough for many users doing Netflix and the like.

The lowest soft cap i would consider reasonable would be 300 gigs. Perhaps, 200 gigs daytime with uncapped between 12 and 7am would also work, but even that is not what we signed up for.

In saying that i would welcome a crack down on people doing 500 gigs or more considering the slow speeds between 6 and 10PM every night.

What they should do is just stop people that use a Seedbox they the main problem

 

[Zyzzyva]

What they should do is just stop people that use a Seedbox they the main problem

Not really, the network is only suffering slow down between 6 and 10PM. That means streamers are causing all the problems.