Telkom negotiations letter

rpm

rpm

Admin
Staff member
Joined
Jul 22, 2003
Messages
66,805
Reaction score
5,057
Location
Johannesburg
Hi guys

Here is the basic letter to Telkom regarding possible improvements to the ADSL service. Please give your comments and proposed changes. I will be glad to make amendments before sending it. I realize that there is currently quite a bit happening on the forums, but I think it is a good idea to start with all the proposed actions and see where we stand and what we should focus on.

Regards,

RPM

__________________________________________________________________

Mr. White

The ongoing discussions at MyADSL have identified points where Telkom can easily accommodate ADSL users in South Africa. Telkom’s willingness to improve their service in this respect will go a long way to show us that you have our best interests will at heart.

1. Since international bandwidth is expensive to Telkom, the 3 Gigabyte Cap can be calculated regarding international traffic usage only. Should Telkom not currently have the technology to facilitate this, we feel it is fair that you invest in this technology as it will greatly benefit the ADSL service and users.

2. We think credits should be earned after 12 hours of service downtime. An uptime of higher than 99% is generally seen as acceptable in the ISP industry, and considering that a single downtime of 12 hours will drop this percentage to below 98.5%, we feel that this is a fair request. Many hosting companies and ISP’s worldwide will scrap a full month’s service fee for every 6 hours downtime, and I think Telkom will do well to follow a similar criteria.

We hope you find these improvements agreeable.

Regards,

Rudolph Muller
MyADSL

__________________________________________________________________
 
Last edited:
A few suggestions:
a) Invite him to put a link on their site to myadsl, esapecially since he believes that onlu a few disgruntled users exist. That should then lead to a fairer reflection as regards to Telkom's side of the story. The way you have designed this site, I believe that newbies can gain valuable insite.

b) Port prioritisation is even more important according to me than capping. Each person should use his internet experience his own way. This is an even bigger issue than the 3 gb cap, because this was NEVER a condition previously. One of the main reasons I changed to ADSL was to provide me with a 24 hour connection for support of my customers. The port prioritisation is provoding me with endless hassles when i use a VPN and I am sick and tired of having to log on on a 10 minute basis.

c) Once capped or during the 8-5m period, the speed should at least be ISDN 64kb level.

c) I also believe that Telkom is generally changing the rules on a one-sided stuff us basis. The application of the 3 gb cap(now local +overseas,up and download) and suggestrions on how to use the internet are prime examples of this.
 
<i>Originally posted by rpm</i>
Mr. White

The ongoing discussions at MyADSL have identified <font color="blue">several</font id="blue"> points where Telkom can easily accommodate <font color="blue">their </font id="blue">ADSL users in South Africa. Telkom’s willingness to improve their service in this <s>respect</s> <font color="blue">regard,</font id="blue"> will go a long way <s>to show us</s> <font color="blue">towards both showing us and demonstrating</font id="blue"> that you have <font color="blue">y</font id="blue">our <font color="blue">subscribers</font id="blue"> best interests <s>will </s>at heart.

1. Since international bandwidth is expensive to Telkom, the 3 Gigabyte Cap <s>can</s> <font color="blue">should</font id="blue"> be calculated <s>regarding</s> <font color="blue">with respect to </font id="blue">international traffic usage only. Should Telkom not currently have the technology to facilitate this, we <s>feel</s> <font color="blue">believe that</font id="blue"> it <s>is</s> <font color="blue">would be</font id="blue"> fair that <s>you</s> <font color="blue">Telkom</font id="blue"> invest in this <font color="blue">type of service, since</font id="blue"> <s>technology as</s> it will <font color="blue">be of</font id="blue"> great<s>ly</s> benefit <font color="blue">to the company, your</font id="blue"> <s>the</s> ADSL service and <font color="blue">related </font id="blue">users.

2. We <s>think</s> <font color="blue">believe that a system of</font id="blue"> credits should be <font color="blue">implemented</font id="blue"> <s>earned</s> after 12 hours of service downtime <font color="blue">to your subscribers</font id="blue">. An uptime of <s>higher</s> <font color="blue">greater</font id="blue"> than 99% is <s>generally seen </s><font color="blue">considered as the</font id="blue"> acceptable <font color="blue">norm</font id="blue"> in the ISP industry, and considering that a <s>single</s> <font color="blue">total </font id="blue">downtime of 12 hours<font color="blue">/month</font id="blue"> will drop this percentage to below 98.5%, we feel that this is a fair request. Many hosting companies and ISP’s worldwide will scrap a full month’s service fee for every 6 hours <font color="blue">of</font id="blue"> downtime, and <s>I think</s> <font color="blue">we believe that</font id="blue"> Telkom <s>will</s> <font color="blue">would</font id="blue"> do well to follow a similar <font color="blue">service</font id="blue"> criteria.

We hope you find these improvements agreeable.

Regards,

Rudolph Muller
MyADSL

<hr noshade size="1">

rpm, I hope the above will be of some help to you.

In addition to the above I am in full agreement with ernstn.
<hr noshade size="1">

If at first you can't download, try and then try again...
 
I also think that you should complian about the 3 gig cap being for uploads and downloads combined. Dont overload them with too many complaints - rather keep the port prioritisation for the next letter.
Also I dont think that the port prioritisation is sooo bad...i can still manage over 10Kbps on Kazaa if im lucky...
 
In my opinion the port prioritization is the most serious flaw of Telkom's ADSL implementation. You should be able to get 50kbit/s on Kazaa.

What's the difference if I use up my cap by downloading on FTP or HTTP or Kazaa? You can easily do a sustained 182 Megabytes per hour download via FTP or HTTP. In other words in less than 17 hours you could reach your cap.

So the prioritization is pointless. It only serves to frustrate and even deny service to users who need access to what Telkom seems to see as "non standard" ports.

The cap can at least be worked around by purchasing an additional account.
 
I personally don't think the cap and port prioritisation should be played up against one another. They are equally important problems. Port prioritisation must go and if there has to be a cap, it needs to be increased. 3GB is clearly not enough for the average user. There should be no need to purchase a second account.


----------------
United we stand!
----------------
 
Hi folks

I agree fully that the issues mentioned are of great importance. My aim with this letter is not to address all problems, but rather to give Telkom the opportunity to show that they are willing to improve this service. It must be something that can easily be achieved and easily verified. I think we must start off with something small, like international bandwidth only, and then try to address some other issues.

Please let me know if you do not agree with this. This letter must be a reflection of MyADSL member’s views.

Regards,

RPM
[email protected]
 
Thats fine with me. Any improvement made will help.


----------------
United we stand!
----------------
 
Lo all.

I agree with RPM, dumping a whole load of requests on telkom in one letter will probably not work as well as focusing on one point and pusing that point until it is changed.

Keep rockin' RPM and MyADSL users [:D]

Chow, Nick

Nick Smit
[email protected]
 
Hi guys

I send the ‘improved’ version of the letter to Telkom. I agree with Paf and others that we might not see the second request fulfilled soon, but these two request will quickly reveal Telkom’s attitude towards us and its users. We will definitely address port prioritization and other issues in future.

There are still two outstanding responses from Telkom (over one week each). The first is the letter with questions raised on the forum, and the other is the one dealing with BlueIce’s hosting problems. I hope to bring you news about these two soon.

Regards,

RPM



RPM
[email protected]
 
Port prioorities has been raised in a previous letter - if my memory does not fail me.

We are still wating for a response.

Thanks RPM.

Telkom is in the defensive mode at present thanks to your letters.

I trust the press will take up the line again.
 
Id rather see a letter that goes similar to this ,
(very abrieviated)
Here are our problems that we are having,blah,blah blah.
But at the moment could we perhaps concentrate on the following,(then go on about int b/w).


I dont know man ,its difficult,but we dont want them to forget about the other issues either.
I see your aproach,but we dont want them to go to the press and say ,We did this for them and now we get another letter,they are a constant moaning bunch.
I dont know if Ive put this right in words,do you guys get what Im trying to say here?[:)]
 
I see where you are getting at , and I can practically visualise the Telkom guys at thier meeting saying something like "Give them an inch and they will take a mile".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X