Telkom technical brief for Nov 1

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MaD

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This is some serious s1ht......

Several things are frightening to say the lest, but the worst is that during the ICASA hearings, Telkom clamed the ISP enforced the cap. According to this document the ISP will have to enforce it, despite the fact that SAIX are passing on the cost.
If the ICASA findings are challenged, Telkom will try to use this, retrospective, document to prove that the ISP, and not Telkom are responsible for the capping.

This is not just underhand, it is blatant subversion.

LG can this be submitted to ICASA?

Cheers
Chris
 
One of the first things the SNO should offer is a static IP and higher cap.. and a few other things but I dont want to give Telskom any ideas for fear of cannabilising the SNO's potential customer base even further other than getting people to sign lengthy contracts.
 
What is interesting is the limited access list. Looks like isp's will be able to provide full speed access, but throttle certain sites. This can be good if not abused. After your 3GB is up you can still have access to eg. microsoft updates, but other high bandwidth sites can be throttled.
 
sparklehorse said:
What is interesting is the limited access list. Looks like isp's will be able to provide full speed access, but throttle certain sites. This can be good if not abused. After your 3GB is up you can still have access to eg. microsoft updates, but other high bandwidth sites can be throttled.
Click to expand...

How can any form of censorship be good.

Telkom and the ISP can determine what you can do, both before and after the cap.

This should be (must be) against the constitution, and it is no good saying that this is better than we have, a lesser crime is still a crime.
 
I didn't say censorship is good. And it will only be censorship if they cut off some sites completely. Point is - it will be up to the ISP to decide what he wants to offer the customer.
Hopefully you will still have a choice to dump the ISP if he decides to block you from certain sites.
 
Sorry sparklehorse,

That was not meant to be an attack on you :) I came across a bit strong.
What I meant is that Telkom is now allowing the ISP to decide on the lesser evil, and therefore protect itself. Basically Telkom is making the ISP be cannon fodder.
The bulk of SA users will fall for it, if we don't get this out as soon as possible.

BTTB has already drawn the mods’ attention to this thread
 
Action?

I received confirmation from my ISP that the per GB billing system is indeed fact and not a rumor. My question to this forum: is ANYbody doing anything about this? Seriously? Or are we just going to react when Nov 1 comes and still pay for the exhorbitant prices after moaning? (Similar to what was done with the high banking costs in this country) - Sorry, I'm also probably coming on a bit too strong - but geez Telkom can't get away with this!

If I have to pay R2k+ for 30GBs of international traffic I have no option but to pack up my family and move to the U.S. and continue working for a firm over there. It's a little web development firm, so nothing major, but with these high bandwidth costs it's going to make it extremely difficult to stay afloat over here in SA.

Can't we as a collective voice submit a complaint to ICASA, or have we used up our "frequent flyer miles"? Isn't this something worth complaining to ICASA about?

In my opinion, b/c ICASA is forcing TELKOM to stop charging us on the (duplicated) ADSL line rental fee, Telkom has found a way to still include this "cost" in it's proposed per GB billing system (thereby effectively eliminating the functions broadband was created for). At the end of the day you can still purchase an ADSL 512k (and much faster) line in other countries for around R200-250 a month without excruitiating limitations such as capping and port prioritization. I don't know if it's Telkom's strategy to strip as much money from us before the SNO enters the market or what the deal is.

These upcoming telecoms costs are definitely out of my budget.
I pay R2600/mo for rent, now include R2000+ for ADSL. What about all the other monthly expenses like water/electricity, groceries, tax, cell phone costs, car payments (if you can still afford them), etc. I can't see the poor rural communities ever being able to afford ADSL, and narrowing the digital divide. It's as if Telkom wants to keep them in the dark, b/c they're afraid if the rural population finds out the facts on how the monopoly is suppressing them technologically/socially they'll have an angry national mob on their hands. Evidence of this is already happening in a hellkom article from MyADSL: City dwellers not so fond of Telkom (http://mybroadband.co.za/nephp/?m=show&id=786)

I sent RPM a PM earlier this month or last month about this and what's being done (if anything), but haven't heard anything from him yet (I know he's very busy). MaD, what can we do?
 
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Looks like isp's will be able to provide full speed access, but throttle certain sites
Click to expand...
No thats not it. You will be restricted to only access the sites (IPs) listed in the access list.
I expect the idea here is to allow the client to visit the ISPs admin interface and perhaps clear his email (all with only a 16k connection say). But this will be something ISPs can all decide for themselves and opens up lots of potentialy different package combinations if ISPs get creative with the pricing.

For the margins ISPs make on ADSL accounts its a wonder its worth their while to bother doing business. If they get their sums slightly out and do not monitor things properly they could find themselves bankrupt.
 
For ISPs a few thoughts:

1) Insist that Telkom gives you a login to monitor the total bandwidth stats. They are going to bill you for this at the end of each month and must be adding up radius accounting logs to get the total. They should be able to provide a login for each ISP that has stats much like userstats.adsl.saix.net has, but for your total business. You can compare that total to your own to make sure eveything is working as it should.

2) Lost radius accounting records are going to cost you money if the lost data is a heavy user. Saix should offer a way to download your accounting records if the realtime ones go missing due to a line or server being down, I suspect they do not currently offer that.
 
These throtteling of capped users is a good thing, it means the ICASA reports means something to telkom, they heard something. Its not good enough but its a start.
 
I can't believe that Telkom are still trying to control, restrict and mould the way we use the internet. This is completely overboard and it smacks of internet restrictions that have been used on and off in China over the past decade.

Introducing Net Nanny for South Africa. Proudly brought to you by Telkom.
 
Something that I did not pick up in this brief is the per gig billing system. Its not even made refrance to. Wonder whats up with the silience.

edit: Oh no wait, they mention per ussage billing but not any kind of billing structure.
 
onionpeel said:
Introducing Net Nanny for South Africa. Proudly brought to you by Telkom.
Click to expand...

That should read:

Proudly enforced for you by Telkom.
 
This will be mentioned to ICASA when the legislative process gets moving and our participation is required. We are waiting to see what the contents of it will be but believe me when I say Telkom will get all the flak they are asking for at the moment!

We will nail them against the wall! All we need is time and ICASA and the ministry to work for the public...
 
November 1 Silence

The reason for the speculation on November 1 per gig billing is very interesting.

Its now the end of september, october remains then so this new system is 5 weeks away.

If telkom say nothing until its upon us. Then they can keep charging these rates for 3 months to feb 2006 at least, until ICASA hopefully intervenes. Because I'm sure telkom have legal remedies available to them that they can use as a delaying tactic in the meantime, like judicial review of the administrative decision and so on. This is presuming that ICASA does anything.

This whole thing smells like a conflict of interest. Government and BEE own big pieces of telkom. They like the share values and dividends. The executive control ICASA ultimately.

To them it would be like burning down your mother's shack. The fire would be exciting albeit short lived, but mommy goes homeless!

anyway if you want to spam nick van niekerk's cellphone, the number is on the imageshake letter! (082 825 8189)
 
The document doesnt describe how the ISPs set up the "LIMITED" access-lists. Anyone have an idea how the access-lists will be created/updated?
 
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