OpenWeb ADSL Feedback Thread (Pt2)

[MrBEEP]

We cannot give exact contention numbers, as Telkom no longer seem to be publishing their exact numbers.

We can however state, like we do, that the more you pay, the lower your contention will be.

I'm on the 4mbit Gamer's King, weekdays between 8:00 and 17:00 my general experience has been around 250kB/s.
Speedtest always seem to run 100% of course, but the rest of everything is pretty much half speed. Within reason, latency is always great.

I don't mind it, but I'm not a idiot either...

It would be great if ISP's would start being open about their specific contention ratio's on their products and immediate network traffic. The cloak and dagger (or marketing and obscure statistics) approach will always breed mistrust.

 

[PostmanPot]

We need some substantiation otherwise a vague answer is just vague.

Where is the evidence of Gold clients having a superior product? Without resorting to the "thousands of Gold clients who do not partake in this thread."

If Gold clients suffer equally during hours as other clients on lesser accounts, where is the superiority?

If Gold clients suffer more during hours than other clients on lesser accounts, where is the superiority?

If Gold clients and clients on lesser accounts generally become unshaped at 17h00 weekdays and on weekends, where is the superiority and benefit of having a Gold account?

Am I asking too much?

Please kindly answer the above questions in this thread. I do not see any circles, it is a direct question that needs an unvague answer. Please substantiate where the lower contention ratio and higher priority is witnessed.

From a customer service perspective, it will do a lot to keep many of your clients on this forum happy, who are doubting the value of their Gold accounts. Certainly more than evading the questions.

/twiddles thumbs

 

[slvR]

MrBEEP, here is a scenario.
A customer has a 1k/pm budget for an account. He has the option of going 10Mbs Gold Orange or 20Mbs Everyday.
He has been an Openweb customer for nearly 2 years, does he benefit from the supposed reduced contention you mentioned in the original thread in early 2013?
Would the added priority of Gold level out the added 2x bandwidth pipe? Or would the higher contention make the experience deteriorate?

tl;dr
1k budget. 10Mbs Gold or 20Mbs Everyday.

 

[KALSTER]

/twiddles thumbs

What do you expect of him? Should he give you access to his internal policy documents or accounting or something?

Overall there are a few people who complain here out of thousands of customers. You have very little to base your suspicions on in actuality. If you think his claims are bogus, then don't support OpenWeb. Your demands are unreasonable.

 

[scrappy_coco]

What do you expect of him? Should he give you access to his internal policy documents or accounting or something?

Overall there are a few people who complain here out of thousands of customers. You have very little to base your suspicions on in actuality. If you think his claims are bogus, then don't support OpenWeb. Your demands are unreasonable.

We want more transparency on how our account are managed. FFS, we are paying for our accounts but have little idea how they work in terms of contention and stuff

 

[KALSTER]

We want more transparency on how our account are managed. FFS, we are paying for our accounts but have little idea how they work in terms of contention and stuff

MrBEEP has said numerous times, once on this page, that he can't give precise contention ratios as Telkom doesn't publish theirs.

Apart from that, the differences are given on the Openweb site in terms of extra redundancy, prioritisation of protocols and so on. Different parts of the country experience different levels of service depending on the load and possible network problems in those specific areas. I have been happy with my gamers King account while Gold account holders have been complaining of poor connectivity during office hours mostly. Usually the problems are in the CT area. I am in Welkom. That doesn't mean I get a better service than gold members, as the particulars of each problem is different. During Unshaping events, the more expensive accounts are also given higher priority over the cheaper ones.

I have not really tried a gold account, so can't give feedback on how it is better than other packages. I do know my Gamers King account has been performing better than the Vanilla account I used to have.

Do you really get better info from other ISPs?

 

[Fox1]

Hi MrBeep,

I see a few forumites are always complaining about their internet only being usable after 6pm on weekdays. How about offering a hybrid capped and uncapped product similar to Atlantic? Seems like a win situation since it negates the excuse of not being able to use the internet during the daytime.

 

[patrick123]

Quote Originally Posted by MrBEEP View Post
Gold clients do have a superior product. They have a lower contention ratio on the network and higher priority. This does not mean they have an unshaped service.

We need some substantiation otherwise a vague answer is just vague.

Where is the evidence of Gold clients having a superior product? Without resorting to the "thousands of Gold clients who do not partake in this thread."

If Gold clients suffer equally during hours as other clients on lesser accounts, where is the superiority?

If Gold clients suffer more during hours than other clients on lesser accounts, where is the superiority?

If Gold clients and clients on lesser accounts generally become unshaped at 17h00 weekdays and on weekends, where is the superiority and benefit of having a Gold account?

This is unfortunately my complaint as well. Being on a 10MB Gold Power account, all I asked for was a guarantee that I will at least get 30% of my bandwidth during the day. I unfortunately also received vague replies to the likes of:

Hi Patrick

We cannot guarantee speeds on ADSL i'm afraid.

However, you will be sharing with alot less people so there will be a definite improvement

Tell me, if I upgraded to the Gold Uncapped original, are you going to guarantee that I don't get this? Because right now this is simply an After-Hours only package which does not suite my needs at all.

Hi Patrick

Downloads will be shaped during peak. Right now for example the network is very busy, and shaping is being strictly enforced.

Hi Keoma,

I have taken time before replying to you as I tried to get my head around what you are telling me. In summary from my side:

I was on 8MB Silver, it performed satisfactory DURING business hours.
I upgrade to 10MB entry level Gold & it runs slightly better than a 384Kb During business hours - because of dynamic shaping???
Now I have to upgrade again at an extra cost, to hopefully get the same level of performance I had before I initially upgraded?

Over all the years that I have been an Openweb subscriber I have never had to contend with just 5% of my purchased bandwidth?

Please tell me where I am getting this wrong?

Regards
Patrick

It is easy to blame Telkom - Seacom or whatever Kom you want to. But the bottom line is there must at least be a minimum service delivery both day and night for the package that you are paying for!

 

[KALSTER]

Having almost no connection for browsing or email during the day is definitely not cool though. But Whenever I have experienced something similar, the problem was usually Telkom or cable related. There is little MrBEEP can do about that apart from harassing Telkom, no?

 

[PostmanPot]

Having almost no connection for browsing or email during the day is definitely not cool though. But Whenever I have experienced something similar, the problem was usually Telkom or cable related. There is little MrBEEP can do about that apart from harassing Telkom, no?

Please let MrBEEP address our complaints. Perhaps read the replies since this morning to get a better idea.

Edit: And, Please with a capital P, stop blaming Telkom. It is not Telkom related.

It it was Telkom, there should be no such thing as Gold accounts, since we have no indication of how they are superior. All we have proof of is how they are equal to lesser accounts, and in some cases even worse. If for example Gamers King or Silver perform equally dismally (or better) during hours, and both Gamers King and Silver become unshaped after hours, just like Gold, then please show me the point of Gold, all its marketing and 'promises', and why people should pay more for it?

 

[adam_g]

Please let MrBEEP address our complaints. Perhaps read the replies since this morning to get a better idea.

Edit: And, Please with a capital P, stop blaming Telkom. It is not Telkom related.

It it was Telkom, there should be no such thing as Gold accounts, since we have no indication of how they are superior. All we have proof of is how they are equal to lesser accounts, and in some cases even worse. If for example Gamers King or Silver perform equally dismally (or better) during hours, and both Gamers King and Silver become unshaped after hours, just like Gold, then please show me the point of Gold, all its marketing and 'promises', and why people should pay more for it?

+1 moving to AH business I cant take the slow speeds during the day anymore. Huge loss of production time.

 

[slvR]

Too many variables to get a solid indication of how your account will perform. Because Openweb has to rely on Telkom, your hardware and their upstream providers all working together at once. Just use it, or move ISPs.

 

[scrappy_coco]

MrBEEP has said numerous times, once on this page, that he can't give precise contention ratios as Telkom doesn't publish theirs.

Apart from that, the differences are given on the Openweb site in terms of extra redundancy, prioritisation of protocols and so on. Different parts of the country experience different levels of service depending on the load and possible network problems in those specific areas. I have been happy with my gamers King account while Gold account holders have been complaining of poor connectivity during office hours mostly. Usually the problems are in the CT area. I am in Welkom. That doesn't mean I get a better service than gold members, as the particulars of each problem is different. During Unshaping events, the more expensive accounts are also given higher priority over the cheaper ones.

I have not really tried a gold account, so can't give feedback on how it is better than other packages. I do know my Gamers King account has been performing better than the Vanilla account I used to have.

Do you really get better info from other ISPs?

Lol, maybe you should try a gold account FIRST before accusing us of accusing Mr. Beep unfairly about GOLD issues.

 

[patrick123]

Too many variables to get a solid indication of how your account will perform. Because Openweb has to rely on Telkom, your hardware and their upstream providers all working together at once. Just use it, or move ISPs.

I beg to differ. I am fortunate that my A/H tracert is only slightly worse that my Business Hours tracert ( I work from home), but yet Business hours kills me completely. This last week ( I posted a while back) has been within acceptable limits, but the Turn of the Month was horrendous.

It's like telling me that my building contractor "might" build me a decent house depending on the Cement, Bricks, Nails, etc. that he purchases, & I must be lucky that he is actually building me a house, even though I'm paying for it!!!

 

[patrick123]

I beg to differ. I am fortunate that my A/H tracert is only slightly worse that my Business Hours tracert ( I work from home), but yet Business hours kills me completely. This last week ( I posted a while back) has been within acceptable limits, but the Turn of the Month was horrendous.

It's like telling me that my building contractor "might" build me a decent house depending on the Cement, Bricks, Nails, etc. that he purchases, & I must be lucky that he is actually building me a house, even though I'm paying for it!!!

In fact I would go as far as to say, that we expect a certain level of performance/service from one level up ( Our ISPs) would it not be the same that they expect certain guarantees from their providers??? All the way up the chain.. Typical South African attitude... Lack of accountability!!

 

[slvR]

MrBEEP, here is a scenario.
A customer has a 1k/pm budget for an account. He has the option of going 10Mbs Gold Orange or 20Mbs Everyday.
He has been an Openweb customer for nearly 2 years, does he benefit from the supposed reduced contention you mentioned in the original thread in early 2013?
Would the added priority of Gold level out the added 2x bandwidth pipe? Or would the higher contention make the experience deteriorate?

tl;dr
1k budget. 10Mbs Gold or 20Mbs Everyday.

anyone?

 

[sybertiger]

so for 6mbps

everyday and orange old are my only options?

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

anyone?

If you have a 20Mbit line I would definitely go for the 20Mbps account.

 

[Del Piero 10]

If you have a 20Mbit line I would definitely go for the 20Mbps account.

This. The things I would do with that line speed...

 

[slvR]

If you have a 20Mbit line I would definitely go for the 20Mbps account.

Check your PM, Dr John.
Just worried about the daytime performance though.