Seacom on track for its switch-on

I am kinda excited about this. Maybe I should be political and say I am tentatively excited and cautiously optimistic. :)
 
SEACOM

Trixanno said:
Are any of the ISPs (or even Neotel) involved with the testing, or are these test still 100% handled by SEACOM. I presume that the first few weeks of testing will be the techies from SEACOM playing around with settings etc (what ever they do) to get optimal performance out of their network and hopefully after that they'll include more resellers. Any news on this?
And surely 29 days before commercial go-live the ISPs should have some sort of indication as to what the pricing will look like?
/still holding thumbs
Click to expand...

OK -- I was at SEACOM launch yesterday. What a crazy bunch of journos and media phreaks -- with exceptions :D

SEACOM station staff are seconded from NEOTEL.

TATA is the piper that calls the tune -- NEOTEL know the dance steps -- all the other guys just follow along.

SEACOM see their responsibility ending at the landing station -- you can think of this as the "DEMARK"

From the landing station further into the country is the responsibility of the national operators. TELKOM / NEOTEL / INFRACO
( who all OWN parts of the national infrastructure -- ie. land based fibre )

As much as SEACOM would like to see their vision become a reality it does depend to a large extent on the incumbent SA operators playing nice -- that is if OLIGOPOLIES can "play" nice

Contrary to all the "warm&fuzzy" stuff that SEACOM is telling us it is still a bit of a mystery as to how the BACKHAUL is going to work -- WHO has cable -- WHO owns the cable and how the "peering" ( and multiplexing ) is going to work. eg -- will the NEOTEL fibre into Durban connect to the Durban Fibre Metro WAN ?

HHhmm I wonder how much DARK fibre Telkom installed in MTUNZINI and left behind when EASSY went South :confused:

What IS worrying me is that we are so close to "switch-on" and I am NOT seeing anything anywhere from any of the BIG ISP's about price cuts :confused::(

Perhaps all the initial bandwidth has already been bespoke by the Federations Cup -- and 2010 ( is the timing co-incidental ??? ) as well as that multi-million MTN data centre in EMPANGENI ......

MW
 
MidnightWizard said:
HHhmm I wonder how much DARK fibre Telkom installed in MTUNZINI and left behind when EASSY went South :confused:
Click to expand...

Just a clarification, EASSY has *NOT* gone south, it is still on track for sometime in 2010, its under the control of a company called the west indian ocean company or something, I forget the exact name. I know that Neotel has also got a stake in this.

The landing station for EASSY is actually pretty close to the SEACOM landing station as well, though it hasnt been constructed yet. There is a fair amount of fiber going towards that landing station though, both from Neotel and other parties, ourselves (TENET) included.
 
MidnightWizard

WHERE did YOU buy THAT caps LOCK alternating KEYBOARD?

MUST have SET you BACK a PRETTY penny?

:P
 
The way they gonna test the cable...lol

They are gonna host a [0] 5v5 dota -ap. If no one laggs out in any of the countries, the latency tests will be concluded.:p
 
Please Elaborate

SlowJoe said:
Just a clarification, EASSY has *NOT* gone south, it is still on track for sometime in 2010, its under the control of a company called the west indian ocean company or something, I forget the exact name. I know that Neotel has also got a stake in this.
The landing station for EASSY is actually pretty close to the SEACOM landing station as well, though it hasnt been constructed yet. There is a fair amount of fiber going towards that landing station though, both from Neotel and other parties, ourselves (TENET) included.
Click to expand...
Is the "fair" ammount of fibre going towards the current SEACOM landing station or the proposed EASSY station ???

Does TENET have it's OWN fibre infrstructure then ??? That must cost a "pretty penny" ???

Would you care to elaborate just exactly where this fibre is ( physical spatial topographical location )

I have seen quite an interesting map that purports to show every bit of existing cable in this country -- who owns it , which ISP's use it , and where all the junction points are.

Problem is the owner never let it out of their sight ;)

On site we were told ( with straight faces ) that the SEACOM cable has been spliced into the existing UNDERGROUND TELKOM fibre at MTUNZINI -- in fact right there at the landing station.

As I mentioned -- explicit detail about the BACKHAUL is still something of a mystery.

The only problem is that I have never seen anyone ever digging any trenches in that area :confused:


MW
 
Priceless

Cloud said:
MidnightWizard
WHERE did YOU buy THAT caps LOCK alternating KEYBOARD?
MUST have SET you BACK a PRETTY penny?
:P
Click to expand...
TENET student damaged redundant stock :D:D:sick:

The nasty sticking keys are also a "feature" :)

BUT the capslock is all MY fault :D

MW
 
OK, from what I am reading it seems that Neotel pretty much have this cable in their back pocket. They are managing the station, linking it to their network. Is it fair to assume that we should see the 1st price cuts coming from them? Should we not be seeing a restructuring of the neoconnect/neoflex pricing and possibly new products coming. Considering this does connect to their (TATA) international network, they should have the most influence in bringing down the prices. Does this make sense?
 
DeesCent said:
OK, from what I am reading it seems that Neotel pretty much have this cable in their back pocket. They are managing the station, linking it to their network. Is it fair to assume that we should see the 1st price cuts coming from them? Should we not be seeing a restructuring of the neoconnect/neoflex pricing and possibly new products coming. Considering this does connect to their (TATA) international network, they should have the most influence in bringing down the prices. Does this make sense?
Click to expand...

Not really, cos there are lots of other players who have also bought direct space on the cable.
 
so the existing providers are getting cheaper bandwidth? and we think that its going to filter down to us? ha..haha.
 
Prices will come down within three months. Trust me. You do have reason to expect a little relief. It only takes one competitive ISP to start the ball rolling.

Let's make a deal... the First ISP to cut prices by [at least or more than] 20% we all make the switch in the first month. That will send a VERY clear signal. :p
 
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According to SEACOM the R 267-00 per Mbps per month is multiple times lower that of Satellite at R 231 000, Telkom’s SAT3 (JHB/CPT to beach) ranging between R 3 500-00 and R 11 000-00
Click to expand...

so is this alledged 40% price decrease down on telkom's R 11 000?:confused:
 
Behind the curve

SlowJoe said:
Just a clarification, EASSY has *NOT* gone south, it is still on track for sometime in 2010,
Click to expand...
From all my reading it woud appear that in order to be on time for 2010 they should have started laying undersea cable already :eek:

I do not see any cable laying ship off of Mtunzini :confused:

Neither do I see anyone constructing another cable landing station at Mtunzini


It looks like SEACOM is going to have to carry the can { bandwidth :) }

( in which case goodbye cheap broadband -- for awhile anyway )


MW
 
Bizkit87 said:
so is this alledged 40% price decrease down on telkom's R 11 000?:confused:
Click to expand...

Telkom's price ranges on the bandwidth supplied via fixed cable, so yes... they will improve on the entire range, from R3500 to R11,000 depending on the type of service provided. Or is that what you were asking?
 
t123 said:
TENET will be getting 10Gbs for the same price as they were paying Telkom for 200Mbs. So you can't say they haven't lowered prices. Maybe university students will notice an increase in connection speeds next month and let us know.
Click to expand...

We get 200 MB for free at UP (internet usage) per year (LMFAO). I don't think I'll be able to complete any conclusive tests that I may decide to run. I am fortunate to have ADSL, so I don't rely on campus for my internet 'needs.' :D One of my friends this week told me: "I bought another 50 MB because I reached my cap." At first I was clueless and wanted to burst out in laughter at the... (joke???) But I quickly realised she was serious.

The horrific thought of 'buying' 50 MB in the 21st century will haunt me for the rest of my life. Oh and here's another piece of trivia for anyone that might care: each student has personal storage on the UP servers totalling 50 MB. Ok I know it's not such a big deal. My 4 GB and 16 GB flash disks solves that problem quite nicely, but it's still funny as hell.
 
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