Seacom Connectivity

Blackhand said:
I don't get the problem. There was quite a bit of warning that there would be Seacom maintenance and that alternate bandwidth (less capacity though) had been acquired for the duration of the maintenance. We were also warned that it may be extended/delayed due to bad weather.
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Interesting perspective. However the news update on the official SEACOM site reports the planned maintenance as follows:

Repair work on Mediterranean segment of SEA-ME-WE 4 cable may cause brief SEACOM network disturbance - 23 Apr 2010
SEACOM experienced an interruption in its network on 14 April 2010 which lasted around seven minutes as a result of a fault on the Mediterranean section of the SEA-ME-WE 4 submarine cable system, which SEACOM currently utilizes to connect to London.

SEA-ME-WE 4, which stretches from South East Asia to Europe via the Indian Sub-Continent and Middle East, is now scheduled to undergo repairs on Saturday 24 April 2010 to fix the affected fibre pair in the Mediterranean Sea. This process will be carried by a repair ship which has been deployed to the location of the fault where it will pick up the cable, cut it and bring it onboard to undergo the repair on the optic fibre before the cable is put back in the water. This will result in the power being shut down on the cable for the duration of the repair.

Whilst the disruptive portion of the repair process is expected to be minimal, the precise chronology and actual duration is unpredictable due to exogenous factors such as weather conditions.

SEACOM has been actively working with its clients to put in place suitable alternative channels that will ensure continuous availability during the planned repair work.
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Blackhand said:
So its maintenance time, international still works but is pretty congested due to the lower capacity, I don't think they quite deserve to be crapped all over. There are ALOT of people sitting without any international at the moment because their ISPs quite frankly did no preparation at all.
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There is maintenance and then there is maintenance. I don't quite classify this as a "brief" network disturbance. Sure the maintenance can be affected by bad weather, etc. But why start the maintenance when the conditions are not right?

If you look at their news update today they claim to have assisted operators with alternative Internet breakouts in India. I guess IS (and I presume Neotel) haven't "opted to work with SEACOM".
 
Just got another update from IS advising that this could go on as long as 30/04/2010...

Dear IS Customer

SMW4 Maintenance STILL IN PROGRESS - continuing.

Seacom have informed IS that this work may be extended/completed on Friday, 30 April 2010 (tentative - not yet confirmed).

The nature of the undersea cable repair work and the sea environment is affecting the time to repair.

Emergency Seacom Maintenance Notification.

AFFECTED SERVICE: International Consumer DSL, Clear Channel & Velocity
AFFECTED POPS: international traffic between SA and London/New York
START DATE: Sun 25 Apr 10 14h00 (SAST)
END DATE: Tentative extension up to 30 April 2010
EXPECTED DURATION: Unconfirmed
IMPACT: Service interruption - no connectivity
REASON FOR CHANGE: SMW4 repairs affecting Seacom traffic
IS REFERENCE: Seacom

ADDITIONAL INFO:
Seacom has advised that repair maintenance work is still in progress, affecting traffic across the Seacom cable system.
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True redundancy for the home user will be expensive because it ultimately means you can switch over to any of your options and continue "working" as per normal.
It entails getting two adsl lines, two adsl modems, one linked to a SAT3 ISP, the other to a Seacom ISP and a 3G connection with sims for all the providers (VC, MTN, Telkom).
The 3G one is what will kill you when both your SAT3 ISP and Seacom ISP goes down at the same time.
 
SabreWolfy said:
Irrelevant, and you know it.
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No, you are just used to local ISP's substandard service and I'm disappointed that you are prepared to settle for this?

If I pay an ISP (in this case an exorbitant fee) I expect to be able to utilise the connectivity as offered when I signed up.

When [you] ISP profess to have sufficient redundancy and your main backhaul ISP has a problem there should be sufficient bandwidth to cater for your subscribers or the ISP concerned is just trying to make a quick buck. It's totally unacceptable.

When contacting the ISP concerned they can't provide an estimated time of resolution and I have to call the backhaul ISP to get the relevant info?

Where in the world is the service? They have taken down my cell number, email address, etc. - why wasn't I informed when the resolution time changed, therefore allowing me to make alternative arrangements?

You try a stunt like this in the first world and you will not have one customer left.

Do yourself and other subscribers a favour and stop being so complacent.


Hopefully they reduce their fees charged for this month, since I am ready to launch a complaint for false advertising at ASASA.

I trust that you understand.


Regards

M
 
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Well said who.is.michael. South Africans need to understand when to complain and when to stop being petty. I'm a paying customer and my service provider hasn't provided for the necessary downtimes or informed me of the potential issues up-front or during. Instead they (the ISPs) sit back and blame it on a higher level provider and take no responsibility for the problem.

The only two ISPs I've seen any meager form of customer service is from Afrihost who've setup a proxy server and MWeb who keep updating their customers of the issues.
 
P0is3nIvy said:
True redundancy for the home user will be expensive because it ultimately ....
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I meant redundancy in terms of the ISP's and network providers having single routes, and as said before by another user, thus single point of failure. Any ISP should realise they carry mission critical data to and from their end-users (albeit a socalled "home user", SOHO or business) and as such, have fall back options. Think about it as one power outlet in your whole home....! Cheap and practical, but fear they day the plug goes bad!
 
abjater said:
I meant redundancy in terms of the ISP's and network providers having single routes, and as said before by another user, thus single point of failure. Any ISP should realise they carry mission critical data to and from their end-users (albeit a socalled "home user", SOHO or business) and as such, have fall back options. Think about it as one power outlet in your whole home....! Cheap and practical, but fear they day the plug goes bad!
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That is why home/soho/business fail-over is a factor at the moment. Until all the other sea cables land, we have to take the power into our own hands.
 
EricsON said:
Well said who.is.michael. South Africans need to understand when to complain and when to stop being petty. I'm a paying customer and my service provider hasn't provided for the necessary downtimes or informed me of the potential issues up-front or during. Instead they (the ISPs) sit back and blame it on a higher level provider and take no responsibility for the problem.

The only two ISPs I've seen any meager form of customer service is from Afrihost who've setup a proxy server and MWeb who keep updating their customers of the issues.
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Agreed. If we condone bad service it will just continue.
 
I'm not subscribed to SEACOM. I pay a service provider a princely sum each month for a specific service. I really couldn't care if my ISP line is down, thats not what I'm paying for. I'm paying for a reliable set service as agreed between me and my ISP. Anything else is irrelevant. I don't pay for a car that only works when the sun shines!
 
who.is.michael, congrats sir.

problem is, south african's don't complain. Why else would you have a car monopoly like present, internet charges that beg belief and overall ****e customer service from numerous companies (cough, vodacom, c**nts, cough). you are paying for a service and if you don't get that service, you have every right to complain.
 
Dear who.is.michael.

Let's look at this. Anyone with DSTV currently pays around the same amount to DSTV for their Satellite service, as most consumer uncapped solutions cost these days.

What happens when it rains ? Yup, your DSTV signal disappears, or you get interference. Ever tried to get DSTV to give to refund you for that, or arrange a "Redundant" path through non-interfering clouds? Yeah, right. Like they can control the rain. I'ts the same with an undersea cable. Problems are going to occur. Corrosion occurs.

The fact is that if you want CHEAP bandwidth, then chances are likely that you're not going to get redundancy. But then again, it was CHEAP. You get what you pay for.

If, on the other hand you want EXPENSIVE bandwidth, up most of the time, then be prepared to pay for it, via parties such as Telkom. It's unfair to praise ISP's on one hand for lowering bandwidth costs, and bringing out uncapped solutions, but on the other hand you want to lynch them when something entirely out of their control causes service disruption. To have redundant links via SAT3/SAFE *and* SEACOM would nearly triple the costs for an ISP to deliver you your service.

This is Africa. Not the United States with a fibre cable under every bush.

Get a frigging grip.
 
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Yeah it's about time people actually stop moaning for once in their lives, as if they got nothing better to do with their time...
 
TonyA said:
I'm not subscribed to SEACOM. I pay a service provider a princely sum each month for a specific service. I really couldn't care if my ISP line is down, thats not what I'm paying for. I'm paying for a reliable set service as agreed between me and my ISP. Anything else is irrelevant. I don't pay for a car that only works when the sun shines!
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Your logic is incorrect. What you are saying is if you pay big bucks for a car and the road is broken you don't care because you paid for the car? The fact is the car relies on the road and if the road is broken it's not the car's fault. So you can blame the Car Dealer all you want but you should really be upset with the Roads Department. The fact is all ISPs are dependant on other ISPs and sometimes really bad things happen. If South Africa had more and cheap redundant fibre routes to the rest of the world (like we should once Eassy and WACS is up) it would have been another story.

You are probably complaining about your international bandwidth, which granted, must be very important to you. But South Africa is really this tiny blip at the end tip of Africa and telecoms liberalisation has only recently started to have an effect (mostly due to Seacom). Seacom should be praised for what they have done so far so before you decide to hammer someone consider all the links in the chain.
 
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