Recent yoohah about Broadband doesnt add up

[Simple Twist Of Fate]

Looks like our Pommie friends are tripling the data they give to their clients.

http://www.uk-bug.net/Article911.html

see prices chart on the link


Something for nothing is always welcome, so cue Metronet's decision to tripple the included data allowance on their PayGoExtra service.

Metronet operate off a typically low headline monthly subscription rate, throw in a bundle of inclusive data allowance, charge if you exceed this, but cap the amount that you'll pay them in any given month. The result is that for many users, they're keeping their bills as low as possible.

With the new allowances, both new and existing subscribers to either PAYGoExtra500, 1000 or 2000 will be able to download three times as much, and we suspect that for the majority of its customers, will not be paying any more than the advertised minimum monthly price.

 

[VQuest]

I had a quick look - not sure what the minimum and maximum prices mean, but if we take the maximum price, they pay about R450 for a 90GB cap.

It sickens me.

In 2020 Telkom will offer us a 2mbps connection for R5000 p/m with a 3GB cap.

Telkom: Like it or lump it you South African suckers.

 

[werner]

everyone seems to forget the fact that when adsl first launched in the uk we HAD to pay £150 for installation, and it was £49 a month for an "unofficial" (read:soft) cap of 30gb.

That was round about when the exchange rate was 19:1.(2001 or so....I)
So, R3000 installation, and R1000/month for 512k adsl.

If was only when ther local loop became unbundled that prices started to topple, because before then, British Telecom acted the same as Telkom...a monopoly on the adsl line and reselling services to other ISP's. The only upside is that we only paid our normal phone line rental per month, not phone line+adsl line rental like you guys do.

If/When ICASA does what it is meant to do, then the prices should start falling into line...slowly...it took the UK 4 years or so to get where it is (after LLU unbundling was approved).

But right now the only thing I think you can do is complain here and email/write/phone whomever you can to get the message spread. And then remember it WILL take time. There are no overnight solutions.

The UK only got where it is by complaining that the guys in the states in japan and most of europe had it better than us....so now it is S.A.'s turn to complain until prices fall into line...

Telecommunications companies are dinosaurs from the last century...things move slowly...

 

[noswal]

I assume there is little of no theft of copper cables in the uk?
pehaps if local scrap metal dealers would devalue the price of copper then there would be less theft here.

 

[VQuest]

everyone seems to forget the fact that when adsl first launched in the uk we HAD to pay £150 for installation, and it was £49 a month for an "unofficial" (read:soft) cap of 30gb.

That was round about when the exchange rate was 19:1.(2001 or so....I)
So, R3000 installation, and R1000/month for 512k adsl.

If was only when ther local loop became unbundled that prices started to topple, because before then, British Telecom acted the same as Telkom...a monopoly on the adsl line and reselling services to other ISP's. The only upside is that we only paid our normal phone line rental per month, not phone line+adsl line rental like you guys do.

If/When ICASA does what it is meant to do, then the prices should start falling into line...slowly...it took the UK 4 years or so to get where it is (after LLU unbundling was approved).

But right now the only thing I think you can do is complain here and email/write/phone whomever you can to get the message spread. And then remember it WILL take time. There are no overnight solutions.

The UK only got where it is by complaining that the guys in the states in japan and most of europe had it better than us....so now it is S.A.'s turn to complain until prices fall into line...

Telecommunications companies are dinosaurs from the last century...things move slowly...

You make perfect sense werner. I know ADSL in the UK was also expensive in the beginning. Our ADSL has been around for about 3+ years now. In the beginning we were paying around R1000 for 3GB. So for the UK to pay R1000 for 30GB doesn't seem so bad when compared I actually went to the UK when the exchange was at it worst - I believe it was around R16.50 / £1. Lets take the worst case scenario and say it was R17 * £49 = R833 for 512 with 30GB. Thats basically what we were paying before August for a 384 connection with 3GB. It's quite sickening.

So the war continues....

 

[daysleeper]

Well!

My new "best" friend's dad has installed this satelite on their house. But get this it not this VSAT crap, you have to rent space on the satelite.

The deal is R15700 p/m included vat and about R10000 for the setup. You have fixed IP and can host and everything.

Just for fun I ran the telkom speed test and it said the line speed was infinity. A 700mb avi file downloads in 40secs and Pings to london are +/- 35ms.

The whole point of this is that
1 the technology is out there (at a price) and
2 you get what you pay for
3 telkom is a monopoly with the state (ANC mostly) as it's stakeholders
4 demand and supply

Thus as the prices of broadband (dsl is hardly broadband anymore) as they are, telkom is making lots of money and they don't see the need for people to have superfast high cap connections.

So, we don't want to pay more and they don't want to give us more speed and traffic.

STALEMATE!

 

[PCW]

I assume there is little of no theft of copper cables in the uk?

None

 

[Silent_Bob]

daysleeper, is the sat in the uk or here. It sound nice, but 15grand a month, WOW!

 

[antowan]

It is not stalemate. Bring in competition and the problem is solved. Not just one competitor, 3 and more! The government should not have privatized Telkom before competition was assured. The correct thing IMO would have been to split Telkom up in 3 or four smaller telcos that would by law be forbidden to rejoin for 20 or so odd years. Compete mofos! Do or die... Sink or swim...

There is no stalemate. ICASA needs to be the competition until gov realises that their current strategy is too slow and that the only barrier to market entry should be cost and not legislation and lengthy negotiations with government. STUFF THAT! The only negotiations that should be needed would be that between owners before they launch Telkom's competition...

 

[Silent_Bob]

antowan u r very right, the only thing i am scared of is they pull of what cellphone oppertators do, they cost an arm and a leg but there is competition.

 

[mccrack]

Cellular companies have reached a point where they are comfortable, do not undercut each other and are simply offering variations.

 

[sburrell]

antowan u r very right, the only thing i am scared of is they pull of what cellphone oppertators do, they cost an arm and a leg but there is competition.

No there isnt.... the cell phone companies are acting as a cartel, which everyone knows is happening yet they do nothing about.

 

[antowan]

Yup! Why? Because market entry is restricted! If anybody could enter the market in any industry that industry cannot form a cartel...

It is sooo simple!

 

[mccrack]

Perhaps if our comm min had some sort of degree in communications we would have a hope.

 

[antowan]

LOL! Perhaps she got her college degree in Russia ala our health minister in a 6 weeks jobby...

 

[mccrack]

Lol, Fast Track course.

Hell, had she done a fast track course we might be in a better situation.

I often wonder why gov does not have some sort of performance ratings / KPA / KPI so
the weak ones can be whittled out.

Poor kids of today, they have to resort to graffiti too communicate cuz a phone call costs too much

 

[Simple Twist Of Fate]

The pricing should be the same world over, agreed we pay the exchange rate for Imported hardware, but dont Telkom use locally manufactured hardware?
The labour input cost should be the same if not a bit less?
Surely we should be paying the same???
ICASA must prove by costings on Telkom that we are being ripped off.

 

[daysleeper]

It is stalemate!

It is not stalemate. Bring in competition and the problem is solved. Not just one competitor, 3 and more! The government should not have privatized Telkom before competition was assured. The correct thing IMO would have been to split Telkom up in 3 or four smaller telcos that would by law be forbidden to rejoin for 20 or so odd years. Compete mofos! Do or die... Sink or swim...

There is no stalemate. ICASA needs to be the competition until gov realises that their current strategy is too slow and that the only barrier to market entry should be cost and not legislation and lengthy negotiations with government. STUFF THAT! The only negotiations that should be needed would be that between owners before they launch Telkom's competition...

If this were true, then why did the cell phone tariffs not come down after the introduction of competition?

another thing is that some private individuals have a stake in SAT3/SAFE and business is business!

me could do with a couple more of these cables!

The bottom line is that if telkom drop the R449 part of the ADSL then ICASA, MyADSL and the people win. This will leave a most bitter taste in my mouse because I have spent thousands in the past years, that should not have been there according to the regulator.

Its already a case of too little to late!

 

[TheRoDent]

Biggest lie ever heard...

A 700mb avi file downloads in 40secs and Pings to london are +/- 35ms.

Now that is the biggest lie I've ever heard. 40sec pings to London. Riiiiiight. Over sattelite? Riiiiiiight...

 

[sburrell]

Now that is the biggest lie I've ever heard. 40sec pings to London. Riiiiiight. Over sattelite? Riiiiiiight...

agreed, satelites connection have the highest latency of any communication device, cos of teh distance traveled. Instead of say 10000km via fibre, data has to be transmitted 20000Km into space, then to a relay station in south africa or london and then retransmitted.

But.... Butt...

Once the data is streaming, they can be faster than the fibre connections, because of the restrictions of dsl, and open-nes of satelite bandwidth.