I stopped my downloads on Saturday night. Telkom internet usage showed 15gb local and zero (o) Blended. I then checked my usage on Sunday which showed 5gb Blended and 10gb Local even though I only ever connected to SAIX.
@davemc, please see the legal document below and explain the section (in bold) where Telkom say that they have no mechanism to distinguish local versus international, then explain to me how they were able to calculate that I had downloaded 15gb Local ONLY with no such mechanism in place!!
RE: ICASA Ref CA/WC8546: Tommygun
We wish to respond as follows on the subject matter.
Mr. Tommygun has an ADSL 384 powered by Telkom Internet with a 3GB cap
and has lodged several allegations against Telkom (Telkom
Internet/SAIX) being in breach of section 3.4 of the ADSL Regulations.
These allegations include that Telkom is charging for local bandwidth;
that local traffic is subject to the cap; that Telkom / Telkom
Internet are stealing resources from customers who have paid for
international bandwidth. Mr. Tommygun requests that Telkom explain
the mechanism used to ensure local bandwidth is not subjected to the
cap.
On 17 August 2006, the Authority published regulations regarding the
provision of ADSL services. The ADSL Regulations necessitated some
changes in the manner in which services were provided, the result was
that some providers, including Telkom, had been in default since the
day of publication. However, Telkom thought it prudent to provide the
Authority with feedback on the extent to which Telkom was in
compliance with the Regulations and on 10 November 2006, Telkom wrote
a letter to the Authority to provide it with an update as to the
extent that Telkom, both as a network operator and as an ISP, was in
compliance with the ADSL regulations.
With respect to Section 3.4 of the Regulation, we indicated that, with
regard to the combination of local and international bandwidth
counting towards the cap, at this stage Telkom is not in a position to
control the ratio of local versus international bandwidth usage in
real-time. The reason for this is because technical developments are
required on Telkom's local and international IP networks to enable the
functionality of separately measuring between local and international
bandwidth usage. Based on the technical developmental requirements,
Telkom's readiness with regard to the local usage on this service is
forecasted for November 2007. Therefore, any usage whether local or
international, will count towards the customer's cap until the
necessary development is completed on the IP network.
In view of the fact that Mr. Tommygun indicates a prevalent use of the
ADSL based service for gaming, it might be worthwhile for Mr. Tommygun
to make use of the uncapped service offerings that are available.
We trust that the above final feedback meets with the satisfaction of
the Authority.
With thanks and regards,
Dr. Sharon Horton
Senior Specialist
Regulatory and Public Policy
