Telkom Mobile - SmartBroadband Uncapped 2 Breaching T&C's !!!!!!

[Gatekeeper]

Ok so it has now been going for 4 Months with numerous case numbers and faults Telkom Mobile is not resolving
So now its time to start doing something about the lies of congestion and tower issues I have submitted the following to ICASA
for review I suggest others in the same situation do the same. I have compiled a report for Icasa as requested they are investigating the case.
Telkom Mobiles call center staff has numerous times confirmed telepathically and via social media and emails they are throttling down speeds
this is on all protocols not only bandwidth intensive so be aware to all subscribers this is some of my finding I have much more information.
which will be posted after the Icasa review has been completed. I will try and get hold of an editor for mybroadband to maybe cover an article
on the situation so the LTE users who are paying for their great advertised service gets what they are paying for. if by change they do
read this please pm me to gather all information for a article so far after 5 faults and no answers in 4 months and no one getting back to me
Im now fed up and hopefully the rest of you are too. thanks for the help.

Note: I this is the SmartBroadband 2 UNCAPPED LTE Please review the T&C's Attached. especially points 6 / 7 / 8 / 9

Please see my findings and attached reports : https://goo.gl/R09flL

 

[SFW007]

Please check spelling mistakes before submitting.

Looks like you a serious downloader son with the array of HP`s

 

[Swa]

They're overselling it.

 

[cavedog]

Just a quick climpse at your "throttling" speedtest quickly confirmed 1 thing. Congestion.

There is no way that Telkom would throttle your connection in such a way the the latency to a local server would be 400ms+

It's a clear sign of congestion as simple as that. Sadly this offering is susceptible to congestion because that is how the technology works. Simple as that. The towers bandwidth is shared and when 10 people download at the same time it will be slow.

The fact that the R599 is so cheap and truely uncapped will make that congestion happens more frequently.

It's actually listed in the Terms too. Point number 12:

The only thing I think Telkom is doing wrong is that when there is too much congestion they need to see who's causing it and inform them to say reduce your usage or do your usage between midnight and 6am. If they refuse then give them the option to cancel the contract.

Telkom should also give the option to cancel and return the hardware to anyone not happy with the service after a Technician investigated and confirmed it's on Telkom's side.

I think this is a great prodduct. Why deny someone the possiblity of having world class internet for cheap just because it might get congested. I think it's a risk worth taking.

My tower has seen 16 people join already and normal capped LTE users like the Deal of the Month users and it's still doing pretty good. People are behaving. In fact I feel a bit guilty having done 480GB so far. Youtube and Twitch just defaults on the highest quality and can really eat bandwidth.

 

[Gatekeeper]

Ok forget best effort service and crap like that do yourself a favor and call in to the call center and ask the help desk if your speed is being throttled down
100% guaranteed they will tell you it is and dont know why. that's the argument not point 12 as stated towers are not congested well this is in my case
the back office techs and antennae installation techs have confirmed this. its not at all like dsl doesn't even get monitored the same way as stated not
a heavy downloaded as confirmed by the social media team and help desk have not met thresholds is so its not being mentioned. the service is worse
than my spelling so don't worry about it im sure you can make out what im talking about. as stated these are old servers how much storage could you possibly
cram into a microserver and the be dl140 is only being used to test vm's as stated. I applied for the LTE service as it seemed better that the crap dsl in the area
as can be said from numerous users in the area who are struggling all im trying to do is rectify the situation and have always tried to make little of no impact
on the networks as stated downloading between 1:00 and 4:00 as not to have others suffer in this way.

---
My downloads only via nntp : [ seeing that its the 27th this is not high at all ]

Bandwidth:
Total: 243.5 GB
Today: 2.5 GB
This week: 41.4 GB
This month: 157.8 GB

 

[airborne]

I've noticed this congestion issue hitting virtually any Internet connection type and provider, if you live in a built up area within a major city there's a good chance of it happening. I'm out in the sticks and virtually never have this issue, when I was in a city I often had slo-mo Internet.

 

[Adenoid Hynkel]

If they would shape you, your latency would be normal.

Your tower is congested

 

[cavedog]

If they would shape you, your latency would be normal.

Your tower is congested

IF they shape or throttled him latency would be fine unless they throttle you to like 0.01Mbps where it's so slow to even complete a ping which is highly unlikely.

@OP you are wasting your time. The tower is congested.

 

[Gatekeeper]

IF they shape or throttled him latency would be fine unless they throttle you to like 0.01Mbps where it's so slow to even complete a ping which is highly unlikely.

@OP you are wasting your time. The tower is congested.

Ok so, Im speaking out of context now this was information i received,

1. The Smartbroadband uncapped LTE have 150 slots [ which has a set bandwidth depending on back haul to tower ] some towers have more than others in this case I understand congestion, not in my case.
2. The slots are provisioned for each user to get max bandwidth no matter what. that's the reason for the 150 [ you can actually call in to confirm this ] in my case Max being 65 - 80 Mb/s.
3. Congestion would not effect the overall latency but packet shaping will. - I can do the same thing internally on my lan so do understand what / how they are doing it.
4. As stated by numerous Techs, The Backoffice Staff and the Antennae installers the bandwidth provisioned to the tower is not being exceeded it is not congestion.
5. The times this is happening is very exact, so it looks to be a time based traffic shaper.
6. ---> This argument is incorrect [ If they would shape you, your latency would be normal. ] - depending on how they set up their Queue sizes and Bucket Sizes [ Slots ]. if done correctly the normal end user wont notice it.
7. This is basics of traffic shaping please see https://calomel.org/pf_hfsc.html -- now decreasing packet loss rate on the shaper might help counter act the latency but this is not my case.
8. For me to be having a usable / stable connection I now have to set a traffic shaper to drop packets where not needed but then again I will sacrifice speed so need the speed & latency to stabilize as to get basic values.
This counteracts the effects of their shaping its pretty easy to get it down to 14ms but then I loose more than half my speed to do this.
9. Im not arguing or trying or trying to start an argument on the form im just informing people what is happening
10. My case was resolved today with still no calls but a sms - tested service and called them back ... this is how they fixed it [ http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5283105211 ]

 

[MidnightWizard]

Cop-Out !

IF they shape or throttled him latency would be fine unless they throttle you to like 0.01Mbps where it's so slow to even complete a ping which is highly unlikely.
@OP you are wasting your time. The tower is congested.

OK fine
but
Is this a problem that the user / consumer should have to worry about ?
It is like going to the coffee shop and buying a cappuccino -- but four other guys are also drinking from it and you only get the last mouthful. ( but paid in full )
THEN
The excuse is read the T&C -- which is basically a complete cop-out
To my mind it is fraudulent and criminal !
The T&C should be based on what the actual potential of the technology is -- not how many others are drinking from the same source.
It is exactly the same as the early days of ADSL -- squeezing blood out of a stone -- to generate capital to not only pay exorbitant salaries and perks but also build up the infrastructure.
VODA got so big because they got in first -- and for some time were the only show in town
This is what is happening now with the "LTE-Wars"
I wonder if Telkom understand -- "Market-Churn" ? perhaps they understand the SA subscriber better
Always wanting more for less chasing after the impossible dream !

TATA MA CHANCE -- your Telkom Mobile Uncapped will ALWAYS work to its full potential.

 

[MidnightWizard]

Fixed

Ok so, Im speaking out of context now this was information i received,

9. Im not arguing or trying or trying to start an argument on the form im just informing people what is happening

10. My case was resolved today with still no calls but a sms - tested service and called them back ... this is how they fixed it
[ http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5283105211 ]

GO BIG GO RED GO VODA

 

[Gatekeeper]

@ MidnightWizard appreciate your terminology Thank You you seem to see where I am going with this.

 

[cavedog]

Ok so, Im speaking out of context now this was information i received,

1. The Smartbroadband uncapped LTE have 150 slots [ which has a set bandwidth depending on back haul to tower ] some towers have more than others in this case I understand congestion, not in my case.
2. The slots are provisioned for each user to get max bandwidth no matter what. that's the reason for the 150 [ you can actually call in to confirm this ] in my case Max being 65 - 80 Mb/s.
3. Congestion would not effect the overall latency but packet shaping will. - I can do the same thing internally on my lan so do understand what / how they are doing it.
4. As stated by numerous Techs, The Backoffice Staff and the Antennae installers the bandwidth provisioned to the tower is not being exceeded it is not congestion.
5. The times this is happening is very exact, so it looks to be a time based traffic shaper.
6. ---> This argument is incorrect [ If they would shape you, your latency would be normal. ] - depending on how they set up their Queue sizes and Bucket Sizes [ Slots ]. if done correctly the normal end user wont notice it.
7. This is basics of traffic shaping please see https://calomel.org/pf_hfsc.html -- now decreasing packet loss rate on the shaper might help counter act the latency but this is not my case.
8. For me to be having a usable / stable connection I now have to set a traffic shaper to drop packets where not needed but then again I will sacrifice speed so need the speed & latency to stabilize as to get basic values.
This counteracts the effects of their shaping its pretty easy to get it down to 14ms but then I loose more than half my speed to do this.
9. Im not arguing or trying or trying to start an argument on the form im just informing people what is happening
10. My case was resolved today with still no calls but a sms - tested service and called them back ... this is how they fixed it [ http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/5283105211 ]

I'm not very tech savvy when it comes to the technical side of how the towers work but honestly what you are saying just does not sound right.

So why would Telkom intentionally shape specific people on specific time and not just throttle their speeds but have a traffic shaper that is so complicated that only very technical savvy people would understand that would degrade your connection in such a way that it's unusable but it's not a contstant degration.....

Whaaat. Why would Telkom even do that? Why would they need too. They would simply throttle your speeds and slam you with the Terms saying you are using too much.

Why would they do all that and only to specific people that use less bandwidth than most people that I have seen on this product.

I does not make sense. Honestly your statement is just a guess just like my congestion statement. It's a guess we don't have access to the tower info and network info......

 

[cavedog]

OK fine
but
Is this a problem that the user / consumer should have to worry about ?
It is like going to the coffee shop and buying a cappuccino -- but four other guys are also drinking from it and you only get the last mouthful. ( but paid in full )
THEN
The excuse is read the T&C -- which is basically a complete cop-out
To my mind it is fraudulent and criminal !
The T&C should be based on what the actual potential of the technology is -- not how many others are drinking from the same source.
It is exactly the same as the early days of ADSL -- squeezing blood out of a stone -- to generate capital to not only pay exorbitant salaries and perks but also build up the infrastructure.
VODA got so big because they got in first -- and for some time were the only show in town
This is what is happening now with the "LTE-Wars"
I wonder if Telkom understand -- "Market-Churn" ? perhaps they understand the SA subscriber better
Always wanting more for less chasing after the impossible dream !

TATA MA CHANCE -- your Telkom Mobile Uncapped will ALWAYS work to its full potential.

I never said what is happening is good or even okay and I would probably be more angry than you are right now. I just can't see Telkom being so sneaky to have a traffic shaper that shapes certain people using not that much but degrades their connection intentionally to such an extent it's unusable. It just does not make sense at all.

I mean I use more than you, reached my p2p cap still download during peak time at full speed probably causing congestion for some one else but I'm not being hit with any shaper or throttler. Why? Why did it choose you and not me?

See that is why I lean towards the tower congestion or problem of some sort rather than a shaper.

 

[Swa]

It's congestion, simple as that. The 150 is just a base figure Telkom chose and in some areas where that figure is reached there will be congestion at times. It's inconceivable with 150 people on a tower that can only do 100Mbps on the radio link that there would not be congestion.

As for the actual product I have said in the past that networks should just let people use what they want and not focus on the quality aspect. The real problem is with how this is structured. R599+ is just not justifiable for a product that can never function like its fixed line equivalent.

 

[MidnightWizard]

Nothing for MAHALA !

As for the actual product I have said in the past that networks should just let people use what they want and not focus on the quality aspect. The real problem is with how this is structured. R599+ is just not justifiable for a product that can never function like its fixed line equivalent.

The price would be completely acceptable and justifiable IF the product worked as advertised
IF the service becomes degraded so quickly with so few [relatively] subscribers then obviously there is a MAJOR problem.
You cannot keep on piling on more users when the infrastructure is inadequate !
( You DO of course course keep on making more money )

 

[Swa]

The price would be completely acceptable and justifiable IF the product worked as advertised
IF the service becomes degraded so quickly with so few [relatively] subscribers then obviously there is a MAJOR problem.
You cannot keep on piling on more users when the infrastructure is inadequate !
( You DO of course course keep on making more money )

What's advertised? It's a mobile best effort service. There are no guarantees. And 150 is anything but a few subscribers on a limited radio link that can't be upgraded.

 

[MidnightWizard]

WELCOME TO THE FUTUREHOOD

What's advertised? It's a mobile best effort service.
There are no guarantees.
And 150 is anything but a few subscribers on a limited radio link that can't be upgraded.

Best choose your words carefully ...

THIS is what is being advertised ( the Earth Heaven and everything in between )

The speed throttling of peer-to-peer traffic has been effected to ensure that Telkom maintains a good user experience for all users on the base station and that Telkom’s network performance during peak network periods is not compromised.

http://www.telkom.co.za/today/unlimited-broadband/

https://secure.telkom.co.za/today/shop/futurehood/

As far as I am aware LTE CAN be upgraded -- just add more infrastructure ( it does cost MONEY though )

 

[Gatekeeper]

Im not talking about all towers just in general my tower which has been said to not being exceeding its usage and not a lot of users on
the towers [ well as yet ] and Im not saying its intentional or just me just advising in general. [ this is what is happening to me ] alot im sure im not on the same tower as you.
It could be they are upgrading infrastructure but did specifically query this and all was fine. according to the back-office.
It cant be 100% for over a month no problems and all of a sudden bang gone to crap and its really not complicated shaper, you can literally
put in bandwidth percentages and times you want it to run on what protocols and ports even per user and much more with a few clicks this could
effect the towers link if not done correctly Swa has a good statement I primarily moved from extremely bad dsl to excellent LTE to well poor LTE with higher latency
they still cannot tell me what is going on they can see there is a problem but maybe the tech really just dont know whats happening. with the link.
let me get back to running more tests and talking with the team to hear whats happening. if its congestion I will advise but as mentioned the times and
way this is happening is what is giving it away this even happens over long weekend when people are not home unless someone is seriously abusing bandwith
and they are just to stupid to pick it up me ssl NNTP runs full speed no matter what unfortunetly everything else does not..

 

[Swa]

Best choose your words carefully ...

THIS is what is being advertised ( the Earth Heaven and everything in between )

The speed throttling of peer-to-peer traffic has been effected to ensure that Telkom maintains a good user experience for all users on the base station and that Telkom’s network performance during peak network periods is not compromised.

http://www.telkom.co.za/today/unlimited-broadband/

https://secure.telkom.co.za/today/shop/futurehood/

As far as I am aware LTE CAN be upgraded -- just add more infrastructure ( it does cost MONEY though )

I don't see any guarantee there. What if there's no p2p traffic but it's still congested?

As for the upgrading option. You can add all the infrastructure you want. There's still no way you're going to deliver more than xMbps/MHz.