Sentech National W-DSL Launch 1/12/03 !

[Sash]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Nemesis</i>
<br />The R3000 setup fee is a bit high, but I suppose its acceptable for such a great service like this!!<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

I think the setup fee is largely due to the equipment cost - which i'm assuming is not quite as readily available as DSL modems and the like at present. I'd think there would still be some value on this if you moved areas or something as you could sell it.

There again Telkoms ADSL modems are very expensive in comparison to international standards i'm not sure if this is due to the ICASA stamp or what - which probably is what Sentech have had to go through.

Somebody maybe able to clafify, but you maybe able to import the equipment from overseas at a reduced cost - tho I think its illigal to use if not approved.

 

[Nemesis]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">There again Telkoms ADSL modems are very expensive in comparison to international standards i'm not sure if this is due to the ICASA stamp or what - which probably is what Sentech have had to go through<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

No, thats just Telkom ripping us off even more..

 

[cAde]

i cant wait to get this.... i live in JHB...


[][][][][]

South Africa / Poland / UK

 

[Shackleton]

I had Wireless ADSL access. Wireless access to a central point where it is relayed to a fixed line ADSL. Works ok if there is no RF interference and proper control. Both of these conditions were not satisfactory so I discontinued my subscription.

 

[microfast]

We still have no clear information from Sentech,

Here is something they ought to match, after all satellites in the sky are the same cost for everyone - no matter where you are.

http://www.rapidsatellite.com/SearchResult.aspx?CategoryID=43

Two-way link - no limit - free equipment - R700pm for 15 months R420pm thereafter -
Or R4000 down & R420pm

 

[ProAsm]

Yeah there are many good offers but you must remember we are limited to satellites of which have a footprint covering SA. The particular bird you talking about is over the Atlantic and our dish at Hartebeeshoek only just sees it at 5 degrees West and that is a monster dish. The average business or home user would not have a hope in hell seeing that bird.
Basically we are limited to satellites in the east, PAS7, PAS10 etc which also lie low at 63 and 66 degrees East and these birds are fairly expensive in comparison.

 

[cAde]

whats the speed on the sat link , i cant find it anywhere on that site.....and will if work of PAS7/10 sats...or only US ones...?



thanx


[][]

South Africa / Poland / UK

 

[microfast]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by cAde</i>
<font color="blue"><font size="2">whats the speed on the sat link...</font id="size2"></font id="blue"><hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
These are US prices for US only.

<b>Q: How fast is DIRECWAY compared to other high-speed services? Aren't they faster? </b>

A: Everyone's Internet technology is based on shared bandwidth, so sometimes one option will allow you to do things in less time than others. But because everyone uses shared bandwidth there's truly no definitive answer.

<b>Q: What is transmission latency? </b>

A: Latency refers to the time it takes for signals to travel to and from the satellite. This typically creates a sub-second lag. For this reason, DIRECWAY may not be ideal for playing some "twitch-games” and time sensitive “online” trading.

 

[SK33T]

Just out of a matter of intrest,why cant they put up satelites directly above us instead of these very fine angles.[]

 

[PierreLeRiche]

All geostationary satellites have to be directly above the equator. It's the only place they can hold position above the same spot on the ground, some 40000km up in the sky.

It wouldn't be possible to hold position anywhere else and still maintain a regular elliptic orbit around the centre of the earth (to where gravity pulls it). Of course, if you don't want gravity's help you can just burn up a fortune in rocket fuel and try to force it to stay where you want it ;-).

 

[alex]

Humm intresting fact

 

[Sparf]

&gt; burn up fuel


would that be cheaper than paying telkom ?

 

[armitage]

wonder what happened to good ol bill's idea of putting up leo geostationary satelites around the world so that basicaly the whole world could be connected.
just imagine how much worse it would be if microsoft owned the net infrastructure...........maybe not that bad considering microsoft actually does do a lot of customer relation and actually listens once in a century to their customers.
though yet again if u look at microsofts pricing model.....crap. never mind[!]


New service by Telkom broadband speeds up to 5kbps for only R1k a month. heheh

 

[SK33T]

So why is all dstv dishes facing east,should nt it be facing north as this would be closest to us in the south.
I still dont understand why they have to be above the equator(not saying youre wrong),surly if its in space they can position it so it would stay in same orbit over the same place all the time,this would also mean there would be hundreds of satelites over the equator.In one big line
Im not to clued up about this as you can see[]

 

[Jerrek]

A <b>geostationary orbit</b> is an orbit synchronized with the sidereal (not solar!) rotation of the earth. 1 sidereal day is 23 hours, 56 minutes, and 4 seconds. The orbit has an inclination and eccentricity of zero. Inclination measures deviation from the equator, and eccentricity measures it "roundness." Eccentricity of 0 means it is round.

A satellite in geostationary orbit always appear in the same spot in the sky.

The reason why it has to be over the equator is because the earth is rotating around its own axis. Picture an apple, and draw an imaginary axis through the top and bottom. Now incline that by 23.5 degrees, and start rotating. You'll see the equator, which is orthogonal to the N-S axis, sometimes goes to the "top" and sometimes to the "bottom." That is how you get seasons.

If a satellite didn't orbit around the equator, how are you going put a satellite up there that stays in the same spot in the sky? Try it. Try to use a small coin and see if you can do it. You can't... Because if you're halfway between the equator and the north pole, you're going "up" and "down" as the earth is rotating. You can't put a satellite in orbit that will stay in place unless it is over the equator. It is kind of hard to explain, but I suggest you try it physically with an apple and a coin or something.

So how do you cover areas far north and far south? You can't always point your satellite to the equator. That is where geosynchronous orbits come in.


A <b>geosynchronous orbit</b> is an orbit synchronized with the sidereal rotation of earth, but does not have an inclination and eccentricity of zero. Meaning, it isn't over the equator. It makes a figure eight accross the sky.

Geosynchronous orbits are often used for telecommunication satellites. The ground stations MUST have a steerable ground station because the satellite keeps changing location in the sky, in a figure eight pattern.

You don't want to do that with your TV's dish, do you?

 

[SK33T]

Jerrek
Thanks for the answer
But WHY cant you put up a satelite that stays in the same place and just follow the place as the earth orbits.Sort of like a kite were the kite is always above the guy holding the line.
LOL,I dont know if I made any sense here []

 

[Solar]

Well, everything is always subjected to gravity of some sort. If you put your satellite far enough away from any orbiting planet the gravitational forces (that makes it fall back to earth) will be close enough or equal to zero. The problem with that is: the earth is moving.

So, you will have a sattelite far far away, essentially not moving, but with the earth still moving in its orbit.. If you want the sattelite to stay in one place relative to earth, you will have to first get it in a orbit that won't decay (too much) with time.. otherwise the sattelite will just fall back.

The only place where you can put the satellite, so that it stays in the same place relative to earth, is above the equator.

 

[SK33T]

OK so I go back to my first question of why are dstv dishes facing east when the the more logical place would be north as the equator runs not to far north of here(mid africa).If its facing east surely there is more of a delay as there would be more distance for the signal to travel and the signal would have more atmophere to travel through,creating a sort of resistance.[]

 

[tommy]

I think they going to share it so much that the bandwidth will be useless. They do not allow anyone to test the service they currently got out but first sign a 3 year contract and then we will supply. They also dont give any SLA on the bandwidth guarantee. I wouldnt touch that product for at least 6 months after it has been launched. I have left 30 messages for someone to phone me back and I never received any calls back. They scary and will be worse than Telkom on their service.

 

[celeborn]

Well ...

To be honest the contact I have had with Sentech has been relatively painless. I have contacted them on numerous occasions and they have always been helpful <b>where possible</b>. I do feel that their marketing department could use a little work though. I have to get a solution in place by 2004/01/15 and they have not been very forthcoming when it comes to releasing information on their VSTAR1000 service - rumoured to have lower contention ratios, SLA's etc etc etc.
Of course one can understand why, empty promises dont make for a good public image. However it would be nice to have some solid dates.

I do agree though that people should be cautious when signing that 36 month contract. While comparing them to the likes of the infamous MegaWAN or Savage's MegaLan is unfair, locking yourself into a new un-guaranteed service would be tantamount to playing Russian roulette with a semi.

Regards
Celery