martin
Expert Member
Got this in the mail today from a column I subscribe to called Pete's Weekly. If we adopt this "we should not take the big guys on" attitude, we'll just get screwed over more often from every large company out there.
<b>Internet Access - ADSL= Cheaper, better, faster</b>
A few weeks back I mentioned that I was installing ADSL. A whole bunch of helpful folk wrote back with lots of good reasons why I shouldn't. These are, in no particular order, as follows.
Telkom is an ogre because ADSL access in SA is 4 times more expensive than anywhere else in the known universe. Indeed they are much more expensive. [But this facility is still cheaper than the alternatives - dial-up, ISDN, Diginet, satellite, bongo drums, two tin cans connected with string, etc.]
Telkom is evil because they 'cap your bandwidth'. In English, they limit how much you can upload and download, and if you exceed that limit they slow down your international access. Indeed this is also true. [But most small business users will not come near the 3 Gigabyte (a gigabyte is a thousand million characters) limit.]
Telkom is unfair because they have artificially introduced a non- static IP address. [The English rendition is that they don't want you to host your own web site in your own office via ADSL, so they will stop you from trying.] And this too, dear friends, is true. [But most of us don't have a web site, and certainly wouldn't want to host it at home.]
But that's not the point. The point is that the existing ADSL service - warts and all - is better than anything else Telkom offers, and cheaper - by quite a way. That's why I opted for it. And I use a LOT of bandwidth - yet even so I am on target to sneak under the 'cap' each month.
[In my case 3 Gigabytes allows me each month - to send 100,000 emails, receive 10,000 emails, surf 2 hours/day, and download as much software as I could possibly want to. The 'cap' really only hurts folk downloading big picture files, games, and movies. For most of us small business owners the 'cap' isn't an issue.]
Most of the emails I received wanted me to lead small business owners in a Don Quixotic crusade to change the rules. I really don't like taking the big guys head-on. We little guys should not stand on principle - unless we're talking murder or morals, but surely not money? Shouldn't we little guys simply skirt around looking for better alternatives and bide our time. [A small business 'guy' by my definition includes all persons of the male and female genders, as well as any persons in between.] This means taking advantage of whatever is best at the time, rather vthan trying to fix everything in concrete.
As it happened, I decided to cover all my bases, and called Telkom to arrange a second ADSL access account. [The 'cap' is not for the physical ADSL line itself, but for the Prolog Internet access account that Telkom offers - just as your Telkom telephone facility is different from your Internet ISP.] After waiting 7 minutes for a sales person to take my order - while a friendly electronic fellow invited me to enjoy a full 3 course lunch while assuring me that my custom was critical to Telkom and I remained amongst their most important clients - I gave up.
Don't get me wrong. I can be pretty patient - but I had just completed a 9 call safari to disconnect an ISDN line, as well as a 15 call polar expedition to get ADSL installed in the first place. So the cup of patience wasn't exactly runnething over.
[You may be interested to know that Telkom now applies a credit limit of R1000 to any new business account - even if you have a record of paying them between R3000-R6000 each month - and in my case they forgot to mention this limit to me - so my ADSL line was cut within the first 2 weeks for non- payment - before receiving that first bill! Fortunately that was only 4 calls and 20 minutes on a cell phone to their toll free numbers.] They seemed surprised that I couldn't use the disconnected facility to call their toll free numbers to reconnect the line. That's the corporate environemnt for you.
Anyway - Plan B was to phone a different ISP - in my case Eastcoast.co.za - and arrange an additional account. I chose them because they're just up the road, but that doesn't matter as they supply ADSL access countrywide. A real live human being quickly answered - one of the many, many reasons I prefer dealing with smaller businesses. The account was set up within a few minutes. So where was that problem again?
This means that the first 3GB costs me about R800 [R600 line rental plus the first ISP account] - which also gives me a regular telephone line. The next 3GB costs a mere R239.
Put this in perspective - to download 6GB otherwise you would have to be on a dial up or ISDN line continuously for about 30 days. Which gets kinda expensive at 40 cents/minute. My previous ISDN account plus Mweb access - cost about R2700 each month - and was much slower. So my savings are just under R2000 per month - or R23000 per year. That's more beer than even I can drink.
Bottom line - don't get lost in the emotion. Focus on what you want and need to achieve your dreams. And we cannot achieve our dreams if we're focused on getting even with others. Can we? Despite Telkom being the worst supplier in the history of man - it's worth the hassle of getting ADSL. It will open up your horizons while saving you money.
PS And finally, lest you have another conspiracy theory to share. This article is written without any financial incentive being offered or requested - especially from Telkom. I simply wanted to air the thought that we get lost in the petty stuff and lose focus on the important stuff.
http://www.petesweekly.co.za/
<b>Internet Access - ADSL= Cheaper, better, faster</b>
A few weeks back I mentioned that I was installing ADSL. A whole bunch of helpful folk wrote back with lots of good reasons why I shouldn't. These are, in no particular order, as follows.
Telkom is an ogre because ADSL access in SA is 4 times more expensive than anywhere else in the known universe. Indeed they are much more expensive. [But this facility is still cheaper than the alternatives - dial-up, ISDN, Diginet, satellite, bongo drums, two tin cans connected with string, etc.]
Telkom is evil because they 'cap your bandwidth'. In English, they limit how much you can upload and download, and if you exceed that limit they slow down your international access. Indeed this is also true. [But most small business users will not come near the 3 Gigabyte (a gigabyte is a thousand million characters) limit.]
Telkom is unfair because they have artificially introduced a non- static IP address. [The English rendition is that they don't want you to host your own web site in your own office via ADSL, so they will stop you from trying.] And this too, dear friends, is true. [But most of us don't have a web site, and certainly wouldn't want to host it at home.]
But that's not the point. The point is that the existing ADSL service - warts and all - is better than anything else Telkom offers, and cheaper - by quite a way. That's why I opted for it. And I use a LOT of bandwidth - yet even so I am on target to sneak under the 'cap' each month.
[In my case 3 Gigabytes allows me each month - to send 100,000 emails, receive 10,000 emails, surf 2 hours/day, and download as much software as I could possibly want to. The 'cap' really only hurts folk downloading big picture files, games, and movies. For most of us small business owners the 'cap' isn't an issue.]
Most of the emails I received wanted me to lead small business owners in a Don Quixotic crusade to change the rules. I really don't like taking the big guys head-on. We little guys should not stand on principle - unless we're talking murder or morals, but surely not money? Shouldn't we little guys simply skirt around looking for better alternatives and bide our time. [A small business 'guy' by my definition includes all persons of the male and female genders, as well as any persons in between.] This means taking advantage of whatever is best at the time, rather vthan trying to fix everything in concrete.
As it happened, I decided to cover all my bases, and called Telkom to arrange a second ADSL access account. [The 'cap' is not for the physical ADSL line itself, but for the Prolog Internet access account that Telkom offers - just as your Telkom telephone facility is different from your Internet ISP.] After waiting 7 minutes for a sales person to take my order - while a friendly electronic fellow invited me to enjoy a full 3 course lunch while assuring me that my custom was critical to Telkom and I remained amongst their most important clients - I gave up.
Don't get me wrong. I can be pretty patient - but I had just completed a 9 call safari to disconnect an ISDN line, as well as a 15 call polar expedition to get ADSL installed in the first place. So the cup of patience wasn't exactly runnething over.
[You may be interested to know that Telkom now applies a credit limit of R1000 to any new business account - even if you have a record of paying them between R3000-R6000 each month - and in my case they forgot to mention this limit to me - so my ADSL line was cut within the first 2 weeks for non- payment - before receiving that first bill! Fortunately that was only 4 calls and 20 minutes on a cell phone to their toll free numbers.] They seemed surprised that I couldn't use the disconnected facility to call their toll free numbers to reconnect the line. That's the corporate environemnt for you.
Anyway - Plan B was to phone a different ISP - in my case Eastcoast.co.za - and arrange an additional account. I chose them because they're just up the road, but that doesn't matter as they supply ADSL access countrywide. A real live human being quickly answered - one of the many, many reasons I prefer dealing with smaller businesses. The account was set up within a few minutes. So where was that problem again?
This means that the first 3GB costs me about R800 [R600 line rental plus the first ISP account] - which also gives me a regular telephone line. The next 3GB costs a mere R239.
Put this in perspective - to download 6GB otherwise you would have to be on a dial up or ISDN line continuously for about 30 days. Which gets kinda expensive at 40 cents/minute. My previous ISDN account plus Mweb access - cost about R2700 each month - and was much slower. So my savings are just under R2000 per month - or R23000 per year. That's more beer than even I can drink.
Bottom line - don't get lost in the emotion. Focus on what you want and need to achieve your dreams. And we cannot achieve our dreams if we're focused on getting even with others. Can we? Despite Telkom being the worst supplier in the history of man - it's worth the hassle of getting ADSL. It will open up your horizons while saving you money.
PS And finally, lest you have another conspiracy theory to share. This article is written without any financial incentive being offered or requested - especially from Telkom. I simply wanted to air the thought that we get lost in the petty stuff and lose focus on the important stuff.
http://www.petesweekly.co.za/
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