Step by step on getting internet.

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thomascmyk

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So, I thought this might be an interesting idea for a thread.

I am in the process of getting internet at my apartment. I live in Cape Town CBD (where you would expect fast internet lines to be very popular as this is the business district after all).

Now my idea for this thread would be to give blow by blow posts of the progress and the steps I have to take to get this done.

I am clueless with this whole process as I have not gone thru it before and it is not very clear anywhere online unless you do everything thru telkom which most people I think avoid doing as they do not seem to be a very good isp for anyone planning on being a heavy user (including myself in that).

Now step one in this process is to get your copper phone line installed and hooked up to the exchange in your area. I did a check online and it said my exchange is capable of handling the 10mps lines which is what I have my heart set on now.

I phoned telkom last week wednesday (04 September 2013) and spoke to a very helpful lady (who misunderstood every second word) requesting the line to be installed and hooked up. I got an sms later that day to inform me of my order number and that they would contact me with an installation date.

Once my line finally gets installed I will be in contact with Afrihost to request the DSL line hook-up. After all the research I have done I have decided to go with afrihost as my ISP as well as well as doing my DSL line rental thru them (at R897 for 10mps uncapped including line rental... you just can't say no)

Now I only thought of this idea for this thread today but a small update: I have still not gotten any further correspondence from telkom. It is now 5 days later.

With this thread I hope to make it easier for other people like myself who dont know anything about the process to see how to go about everything as well as the time it takes to get a phone line as well as internet hooked up at your place.

On a side note: I think it is horrific that telkom has such a monopoly on fixed line telecommunications in South Africa. It is literally faster for me to order something online from America or Australia and have it shipped here, go thru customs and get delivered to my door than for me to get a local company to install a phone line and get internet hooked up.
 
Hi There,
Could you not have asked Afrihost to manage the whole installation from start to finish? I am sure it is a service they offer.
I would suggest that you go back to them regarding the installation date.
In terms of the Telkom Monopoly, there is Neotel available as well but it may be that they are not available in your area.

Regards

Tim
 
Hi Tim, I did speak to afrihost first. They do not handle the installation of copper telephone lines, that I or whoever else need to do personally with telkom. They only handle the dsl line rental/activation and internet packages.

Then yes there is Neotel, but you can not use their phones and then have another isp (afrihost, openweb, etc.). As I understand it if you want a phone and/or internet from them then that's cool but if you want to use any other isp for internet then you are forced to use telkom for the phone line. I did however check into neotell but the speed in my building using one of their 10 gig deals and a 3g stick was horrible, 10 gigs would not have been enough bandwidth for me either as i need to use my internet for work and play without making any sacrifices on speed
 
Not yet, I am still waiting for them to contact me with an installation date. (tomorrow would be one week)

I spoke to a friend of mine who lives in the same building and he said that they contacted him one morning a week after their application and asked if they could come then, very little warning.

I must also just say, I am not trying to slam Telkom or make them look bad but just trying to show a timeline with steps taken for anyone else like myself who is interested in getting DSL but who does not understand the process so that they can plan better knowing in advance roughly how long certain things take.
 
Telkom can take a few days to install the line.
Imo you should have gone all inclusive from Telkom to speed up installation.

Afrihost are going to take a couple days to get your ADSl line up.
 
It might have sped up the installation BUT I plan on using Afrihost as my ISP as the reviews on every Forum and website I have been on say they are the best. Plus there is a nice price saving with doing the DSL line rental and uncapped account with Afrihost. (I am not trying to punt their service, it just happens to be the service I chose to make use of)

I am fine with them taking a few days to get my DSL line up if I think about the price saving and the ease of having them deal with telkom (I would like to deal with Telkom as little as possible).
 
That is indeed a great blog/link! thank you very much! Will give it a proper read thru a bit later today! :)
 
thomascmyk said:
On a side note: I think it is horrific that telkom has such a monopoly on fixed line telecommunications in South Africa. It is literally faster for me to order something online from America or Australia and have it shipped here, go thru customs and get delivered to my door than for me to get a local company to install a phone line and get internet hooked up.
Click to expand...
Any licensed company can set up their own fixed line network. As an example you could have asked neotel for a fixed line...
 
sure but can you then use Afrihost/openweb/etc. as an isp and get internet running on that line? Not as far as I saw during my personal research. And that is the point in me getting a phone line in the first place... so that i can get fast uncapped internet installed at my place.
 
Hi There,
I had Afrihost up and running in a matter of minutes when I moved to them as the ISP.

Great service from them.

I would still go back to Telkom for a progress update.

Regards

Tim
 
That is great! lucky you! I think it will take slightly longer for me as they are going to need to get Telkom to activate the DSL on my phone line once we get to that point.
 
It took a week for my line to be installed and an additional week for ADSL to be connected and working.
Telkom smsed me to confirm an installation date but never came on the day communicated.
They rocked up the next day when I was at work, I was luckily able to go meet the technician otherwise it would not have been installed.

I followed up each day regarding my ADSL as I was promised 72 hrs by everyone I called.

Do yourself a favor and PM TelkomZA if you would like speedier service.
 
Tim the Techxpert said:
Hi There,
I had Afrihost up and running in a matter of minutes when I moved to them as the ISP.

Great service from them.

I would still go back to Telkom for a progress update.

Regards

Tim
Click to expand...

Electric said:
It took a week for my line to be installed and an additional week for ADSL to be connected and working.
Telkom smsed me to confirm an installation date but never came on the day communicated.
They rocked up the next day when I was at work, I was luckily able to go meet the technician otherwise it would not have been installed.

I followed up each day regarding my ADSL as I was promised 72 hrs by everyone I called.

Do yourself a favor and PM TelkomZA if you would like speedier service.
Click to expand...
The problem is that Telkom wont give him any feedback if Afrihost are doing everything for him. He'll have to ask AH to request constant feedback from Telkom as AH is Telkom's client, not him.
 
Afrihost is not doing everything for me, they will only handle the dsl line activation, I have been in contact with Telkom myself to get the phoneline installed.

Electric, what number did you use to follow up?

I will send TelkomZA a pm in a few minutes.

Thanks to everyone for your input.
 
I obtained my first ADSL line in Durban in 2007, somehow Telkom installed everything withing 72hrs and I was on a fast exchange. I have now moved to Cape Town and it took close to 1 month to get an ADSL line in my flat.

I must be honest that the technicians which did the CPT install were very helpful once they arrived but there seemed to be issues with the copper.

Good luck....
 
MickeyD said:
The problem is that Telkom wont give him any feedback if Afrihost are doing everything for him. He'll have to ask AH to request constant feedback from Telkom as AH is Telkom's client, not him.
Click to expand...

I will never again in my life have the adsl line with the isp. It's a ball ache and when something goes south it's always telkoms problem according to them. Telkom becomes the scapegoat.
 
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