Telkom - Your 'Best Effort' sucks

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Keith

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Since getting my 384K ADSL line in September 2006, my download speed ranged between 360Kbs and 410Kbps. All of sudden during the course of last month, it dropped to between 290Kbps and 330Kbps. I’ve noticed this similar trend with other users on this forum. Last week I logged a call with Telkom regarding this issue and have received conflicting feedback from various official Telkom representatives every single day since Wednesday. A technician even came to my house yesterday to test my line. The technician informed me that Telkom had recently reduced the line speed due to users being issued with faster speeds than what they were paying for. He also told me that ADSL was a ‘best effort’ service and that speeds of approximately 320Kbs were NORMAL for a 384Kbs line.

This morning I received various calls from Telkom reps asking me whether or not my line was fixed. I informed them that eventhough the technician had been at my place, nothing had been done. This was contrary to what the technician had logged for job. Their work log indicates that my internal line and wall connection had been replaced, which is an absolute load of CRAP! The last call I received from a Telkom technical rep, I was told the same story that the Telkom rep had given me was indeed correct.

The rep said...
TELKOM says that for a 384Kbs line, speeds between 32KBs and 38KBs (that equates to 256Kbs and 304Kbs) are within the NORMAL range.

I’ve never heard such crap in my life! :mad:

What makes things even worse, is that the rep has informed me that eventhough I never requested the callout of the technician, I will be charged the callout fee! They’ve just gotta try it….. :mad:

Bring on the alternatives…..
In fact, as I’m feeling at the moment, bring on ANY alternative to Telkom!
 
I will join you at the forehead bashing session - similar complaints. At least the technician came out. I have 2 promised visits that came to nought.
But the painful thing is - Whats the alternative, carrier pigeon is too risky as there is bird flu and my runners keep getting taken out by taxis'.
 
This whole best effort thing is a sham of note.
How can anybody charge anybody for a product that has no real parameters nor value ?
More proof that ICASA is completely useless, this product should not exist at all in it's present state.
Other companies should have been allowed to implement ADSL and provide actual garauntee's.
 
More evidence that Telkom is shafting the consumer.

The consumers are taking notes.
My own line has been similarly "downgraded", despite the fact that the speeds we were getting were accepted as the norm even if according to Telkom they were not.
In other countries consumers have been "upgraded" at no further expense.
Here we have to bend and accept what Telkom dishes out.
Same old, same old.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. :mad:

Best effort service fits into the same category as the customer centric approach.
All lies and hot air belching from the depths of the corporate juggernaut of a monstrosity named Hellkom.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. :mad:
 
Last edited:
Keith said:
Since getting my 384K ADSL line in September 2006
Click to expand...
HTF did (will) you do that ? ;)

Keith said:
my download speed ranged between 360Kbs and 410Kbps. All of sudden during the course of last month, it dropped to between 290Kbps and 330Kbps.
Click to expand...
so you were (mistakenly) on a 512 connection and telkom rectified the mistake.

Keith said:
He also told me that ADSL was a ‘best effort’ service and that speeds of approximately 320Kbs were NORMAL for a 384Kbs line.
Click to expand...
yes, in this country, that is the norm.

Keith said:
I’ve never heard such crap in my life!
Click to expand...
guess you've never dealt with telkom before ...

Telkom like to claim that the lost bandwidth (getting 50KB/s on a 512Kb/s line when you theoretically should be getting 64KB/s) is due to TCP overhead. 14KB/s on overhead. What a load. TCP does not have that much overhead, and in any event, if the lost bandwidth was really due to overhead, you can be sure that telkom would count it towards your cap - hell they count authentication attempts. So in a full day on 512, you'd do about 5.3GB of traffic but no usage stats for a 512 line every indicate more than 4.4GB (excluding multiple connections.)

Bottom line : Telkom lie. We know it. They know we know. They don't give a damn. There is no alternative. Now bend over ...
 
Telkom has found a possible loophole to exploit...:confused:

If they redefine a Byte as 10Bits (patent pending), then 384Kbs would equate to 38KBs..more cash from the already raped cash cow! :rolleyes:
 
Keith said:
Telkom has found a possible loophole to exploit...:confused:

If they redefine a Byte as 10Bits (patent pending), then 384Kbs would equate to 38KBs..more cash from the already raped cash cow! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Oh heck, if they do that why stop at 1Byte = 10bits, they probably move it up to 1byte = 100bits, that way you will have a 3.8K line and be told how good the deal is ...

Although that does seem to be what they have done !
 
How can they intentionally lower your speed to below what your package states, and then claim that it's best effort? And why haven't upload speeds been throttled? ICASA is useless, they know the need for introducing SLA's, they even suggested it in the broadband findings report. It seems like the state is empowering Telkom more than ICASA, because everything that ICASA suggests is met with a bunch of Telkom lawyers. That's like giving a prisoner more power over their guard. I mean wtf. The state should empower ICASA to the level that the FCC is in the USA. What the watchdog says goes.
 
I have noticed that everytime I log a call for a problem on my ADSL it seems to be downgraded. Initially when getting my ADSL line, I will refrain from calling it a service as I have a different view as to what a service should be, the router reported it as:

Downstream Rate 512Kbps
Upstream Rate - 384Kpbs

It then changed to:

Downstream Rate 512Kbps
Upstream Rate - 256Kpbs

at this stage is is reported as:

Downstream Rate 512Kbps
Upstream Rate - 128Kpbs

Am I still getting what I am paying for?
 
I have been torrenting prison break for the best part of 8 hours and in that time the download has always been way lower than the upload and in the last few hours it has been like 16k down and 18-20k up. How is this possible??
 
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