Shopping Around - iBurst vs aDSL Pricing

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RatX

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My company currently pays for my 6 gig iBurst subscription. I've been signed up since November last year and am generally happy with the service - it is fast enough (if there is such a thing) and quite reliable. Latency could be better, but since I don't play online games or chat much on VoIP, that isn't an issue.

However, since this service costs R900 per month, I thought I could save the company a few nickels if I looked at aDSL, in light of the recent price cuts. So I shopped around online for 5 minutes and discovered that the saving was not particularly significant. Factoring in all the costs I could think of (analog & aDSL line rental, 3 gig account + 3 gig topup from Cybermart), the total comes to about R800, for a 384kbps line. I chose Cybersmart because I've heard good things about them and the 384kbps line because it's cheap.

Jumping through all the hoops to get the lines installed & activated for a R100 saving on a slower connection doesn't seem worth it. I'd like to know if any other iBursters have tried this exercise recently and what their findings were. Are there any signs of iBurst revising their pricing structure at the mid to high-end of their packages?
 
At the moment there is insufficient price differential for Iburst to lower their prices on existing packages. So we've seen peripheral price reductions and gimmicks like killing the installation costs, dropping the modem prices, introducing a cheaper 1 Gig contract package (where competition is tightest), carryover of additional purchased bandwith, but no price relief yet for loyal customers of long standing...

You've done the numbers and as you point out there is no compelling reason to jump ship right now, just a lot of hassle, Telkom, and waiting for delivery.

However, if ADSL (and other broadband) prices continue to drop, Iburst will have no choice but to follow suit.

I expect that the next price reduction we will see will be the cost of additional out-of-package bandwidth, which is currently far, far higher than it needs to be. I'm pretty sure that Iburst would be more than compensated for any price reductions here with a large uptick in demand.

Comparing the G6 and G9 packages, you get an extra 3Gb for R200, plus no shaping. So if they can offer that extra bandwidth at R66 per Gb, why are they charging R139 and upwards per additional Gb. Makes no sense to me. Buying additional bandwidth from Iburst is just plain stupid right now, even if they do allow you to carry it over to the next month.
 
I'm not certain whether IBurst will drop their prices significantly, even if the price of ADSL comes down substantially. Wireless broadband services in SA compare well with their international counterparts, on price level. ADSL on the other hand, is up to 800% more expensive.

I don't know whether any of the wireless providers will have enough room to maneuvre if Telkom drops the price of ADSL by something like 500%.
 
The funny thing is that, like you say codemonkey, internationally wireless broadband is usually much more expensive than ADSL or cable and the like. It suits a niche of businessmen who have to ahve mobility and can afford it. Yet in SA, Iburst and Sentech etc can actually undercut ADSL, it shows how terribly over priced ADSL is. Unfortuanatley for us it also shows that ADSL has much more potential for price drops, while Wireless broadband doesnt necesarily have to drop by that much and they can still retain a fair share of their customer base.

Yet Iburst even say themselves they are more a fixed mobile solution and will probably (hopefully) try to stay competitive with ADSL, or at least with Sentech, so hopefully Sentech will drop their prices ( but they are very low already....) and then Iburst should definatley follow.

Oh, and there is NO worry of Telkom dropping prices by 500% any time soon, maby if they open up for more competition Iburst will also have access to cheaper bandwidth and the price drops will be in line.
EDIT: wait a minute.. you cant drop prices by more than 100% can you??
 
You are right. Prices cannot drop by 500%. That would mean Telkom would pay us to have ADSL!

Momentary lapse of reason from me, well spotted EHV.
 
Well a job that uses internet often does that right? Many people get their ADSL lines paid for if they really need it, or at least a wireless service for doing business while out on the road.
 
Ekhaatvensters said:
Well a job that uses internet often does that right? Many people get their ADSL lines paid for if they really need it, or at least a wireless service for doing business while out on the road.
Click to expand...

true dat. got that at work thinking about it -also vnc straight into my work machine and download torrents there. saves my bandwidth here which explains why i have only used +/-300MB of my 3Gb this month.

but slsk will sort that out quickly :D
 
halicon said:
true dat. got that at work thinking about it -also vnc straight into my work machine and download torrents there. saves my bandwidth here which explains why i have only used +/-300MB of my 3Gb this month.

but slsk will sort that out quickly :D
Click to expand...

Aah yes. I love soulseek. Too bad they dont seem to be putting much effort into the program, thecreators that is. A new version hasent come out in ages and it still looks terrible. But it works well so Im happy.
 
It makes me wonder, would I rather have Iburst lower their current prices with same speed line or have them keep the same price but upgrade the speed...
 
RatX said:
My company currently pays for my 6 gig iBurst subscription. I've been signed up since November last year and am generally happy with the service - it is fast enough (if there is such a thing) and quite reliable. Latency could be better, but since I don't play online games or chat much on VoIP, that isn't an issue.

However, since this service costs R900 per month, I thought I could save the company a few nickels if I looked at aDSL, in light of the recent price cuts. So I shopped around online for 5 minutes and discovered that the saving was not particularly significant. Factoring in all the costs I could think of (analog & aDSL line rental, 3 gig account + 3 gig topup from Cybermart), the total comes to about R800, for a 384kbps line. I chose Cybersmart because I've heard good things about them and the 384kbps line because it's cheap.

Jumping through all the hoops to get the lines installed & activated for a R100 saving on a slower connection doesn't seem worth it. I'd like to know if any other iBursters have tried this exercise recently and what their findings were. Are there any signs of iBurst revising their pricing structure at the mid to high-end of their packages?
Click to expand...

before i go on my rant I will give you my short answer.
Stay with I-Burst.

now the long answer. I had been applying for an ADSL line for over a year now about Telkom cant put it in so I got I-Burst. I was thinking that I would get an ADSL line when it was avalable and stop iburst.......but.......
Iburst is working great... good speed, good uptime 64k after cap so it does us well so even if i can get ADSL tomorrow I wont, I will support Iburst instead of Telkom, so its a drop in the ocean for Telkom, but i feel better so screw them!
 
S1ght: Speed upgrade would be the last thing I would want. I get between 60kB/s and 100kB/s. But imagine if they upped your bandwidth limit. That to me would be more value./ To be honest the speed issue is the least of my worries.
 
Ja, I think most peopel definatley want the price to decrease. The speed is not nearly as important and is fast enough already.

Chances are the speed (browsing and general usage) will be much faster if they can decrease their international latency and get more towers up to giove everyone better singal and lighten the load on towers. Latency makes more of an impact on browsing, gaming, VOIP and IM and is much ore usefull with ibursts current situation.
Just incanse anyone from Iburst is listening.

But honestly I think they will probably increase the speed if they can. Up everyone to 2mb/s. They know it doesnt matter as much to them, they pay per gig or mb, and our caps still stay. Anyway p2p and other protocols would still be shaped so its most benificial to them.
Then they can claim to be the fastest internet around, TWICE as fast as ADSL. It will get more customers and save them money. Too bad its not what we want, but they could hardly care.
 
Ekhaatvensters said:
Ja, I think most peopel definatley want the price to decrease. The speed is not nearly as important and is fast enough already.

Chances are the speed (browsing and general usage) will be much faster if they can decrease their international latency and get more towers up to giove everyone better singal and lighten the load on towers. Latency makes more of an impact on browsing, gaming, VOIP and IM and is much ore usefull with ibursts current situation.
Just incanse anyone from Iburst is listening.

But honestly I think they will probably increase the speed if they can. Up everyone to 2mb/s. They know it doesnt matter as much to them, they pay per gig or mb, and our caps still stay. Anyway p2p and other protocols would still be shaped so its most benificial to them.
Then they can claim to be the fastest internet around, TWICE as fast as ADSL. It will get more customers and save them money. Too bad its not what we want, but they could hardly care.
Click to expand...

"most people" nah... all people :D
agreed Latency is not I-burst's strong suit but it is far better then somethings out there. you cant really expect wireless to have the same latency as cabled but saying that I wonder why the Latency to the tower is so long?
guess because it is non LOS.

As time goes on people will want nothing less then 1mbit on any broadband connection (isn't that the definition of broadband?)

for work purposes (or any other) it is really nice to have a fast connection to get a file down quickly when you need it.

TWICE as FAST with TWICE the CAP. that is would i would like to see.... oh without TWICE the PRICE.
maybe ten times the cap.....
/me wakes up
 
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