Seacom - Expected Prices?

Not trying to be the bad guy but from the days of cheap international cap in '06 *??* to the recent years "uncapped local" *Mweb* to Telkom increasing prices over the last 3 years by more than 10% *bandwidth wise* to them wanting to decrease it by 10% over the next 3 years to Neotel's minimal impact of the scenario after giant smoke clouds blew for just over two years to the matter at hand FIFA.....

Don't get me wrong I like progress just as much a the next person.......I think everyone knows what needs to be done.........it's just that we want the right people to do it ;)
 
I mate of mine owns a WISP and buys from Telkom wholesale. He recently had a very interesting chat with someone at Telkom who informed him that the minimum "chunk" of bandwidth that you can buy from Seacom is 155mbps. That means that "buying into" Seacom is going to still be a rather costly affair.

More importantly though is another point that he raised, and I'd appreciate some comment here if possible. If you get your hands on Seacom bandwidth, you are STILL going to have to get to Mtunzini somehow, and the only people that can physically get you there are Telkom and Neotel (correct me if I am wrong). So add on the cost of a 155mbps ATM link from JHB to Mtunzini from Telkom and suddenly your bandwidth isn't so cheap after all...
 
More importantly though is another point that he raised, and I'd appreciate some comment here if possible. If you get your hands on Seacom bandwidth, you are STILL going to have to get to Mtunzini somehow, and the only people that can physically get you there are Telkom and Neotel (correct me if I am wrong). So add on the cost of a 155mbps ATM link from JHB to Mtunzini from Telkom and suddenly your bandwidth isn't so cheap after all...

Infraco also have cables to Mtunzini, and other companies have their own plans to get there. The bottleneck won't be there for long... especially with other cables coming as well.

The minimum cost applies to buying an STM on seacom, but there is a month to month rental option.... not much cheaper though.
 
The minimum IRU you can buy is 155mbps for 20 years. But there is nothing stopping a consortium of ISPs collectively buying a 155mbps link and then sharing the bandwidth from the Midrand POP.
 
The minimum IRU you can buy is 155mbps for 20 years. But there is nothing stopping a consortium of ISPs collectively buying a 155mbps link and then sharing the bandwidth from the Midrand POP.

seriously? 20 yrs? wtf?

look how much technology advances every year. 20 years ago 2400bps modems were the fastest you could get. considering that 3G is currently 7.2mbps, and taking moores law into account, in 12 yrs time we should have 115mbps HSDPA connections, so those suckers who paid 2009 prices for a 155mbps connection will be crying
 
seriously? 20 yrs? wtf?

You have 2 options on SEACOM. The first is, you literally buy a portion of the cable that you own outright for the period of 20 years. You have full rights to this capacity. You can split it up, resell it or even use it to make a hat. Whatever you want. The --> minimum <-- unit is an STM-1 or 155Mbps. This does not mean a big player like IS or Neotel would only buy 155 Mbps. They probably bought 1 Gb or more. Of course, you can buy further capacity at any time in the future. So yes, 155 may be nothing now, but you can buy more later.

The other option is to just 'lease' a circuit on SEACOM for a shorter period, but this costs more and is more suited to big business.
 
You have 2 options on SEACOM. The first is, you literally buy a portion of the cable that you own outright for the period of 20 years. You have full rights to this capacity. You can split it up, resell it or even use it to make a hat. Whatever you want. The --> minimum <-- unit is an STM-1 or 155Mbps. This does not mean a big player like IS or Neotel would only buy 155 Mbps. They probably bought 1 Gb or more. Of course, you can buy further capacity at any time in the future. So yes, 155 may be nothing now, but you can buy more later.

The other option is to just 'lease' a circuit on SEACOM for a shorter period, but this costs more and is more suited to big business.

sure, but to pay up front or agree to a set price for 155mbps is just stupid, considering that 155mbps will cost nothing in 20yrs time
 
I hate it when companies are so cagey about pricing, means nothing will be cheap.

remember how long it took neotel to get their pricing out? Look at how poor the pricing is.

This is looking bad if you ask me. I suspect we are all in for a massive surprise in the next 2-3 months and not the real uncapped accounts for 400 bucks kinda surprise
 
http://www.neotel.co.za/neotel/view/neotel/en/page46607
The service offers a guaranteed 1:1 contention ratio and, directly through the Johannesburg POP, provides flexible and controllable IP visibility of the Internet without the complexity and cost of traditional transmission-based point-to-point IPLC's to foreign POPs.

Why do I keep reading about contention ratio's of 20:1? Is neotel lying to us?

http://www.neotel.co.za/neotel/view/neotel/en/page46604
Through Tata Communications, Neotel has access to one of the most extensive networks of submarine cables in the world, including capacity on the SAT3/SAFE cable system connecting South Africa to Europe and Asia. The availability of these multiple cable routes internationally will ensure the reliability of the connections, providing connectivity without the associated strain of unreliable circuits.

If they have access to so many submarine cables, why would they drop their prices when one more comes along?
 
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