Telkom's new billing structure

V

Vio

Expert Member
Joined
Dec 3, 2004
Messages
1,683
Reaction score
1
Hi Guys,

If you haven't heard Telscum's new pricing structure on ADSL bandwidth is coming into play the beginning of November. As you may or may not know it seems Telkom wants to charge ISP’s for every gig of data the users transfer also eliminating uncapped local access and also increasing the general cost of ADSL for us. The price per gig has been quoted as high as R100/gig(don't know the excact cost yet).

If you guys also have a problem with this new high cost billing for high usage users system, please take the time and drop a complaint/problem message at the ICASA.

Here's my message:
Hi,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank ICASA for its excellent findings on Telkom's ADSL access and to state that I fully support ICASA’s findings on ADSL. I would like to point out thought that ICASA’s ADSL findings document recommended higher caps and lower costs in general for the ADSL service.

Telkom has in the mean time decided that they will move away from having ADSL as a flat rate service for ISPs and change it into a usage based service. This means you will they have to pay for every gig of data their users transfer instead of a flat rate one flat rate. The exact cost per gig seems to be unconfirmed, but it is rumored to be as high as R100/gig. Currently ADSL users enjoy pricing of as low as R10 per gig as one can purchase 30 Gig ADSL accounts from some ISPs like www.saol.com at R299pm. This change will be financially disastrous for users that need the current 30 Gig accounts, as the traffic costs will run into the thousands of Rands. E.g. 30 Gigs of data would cost the user R3000.

Telkom has also changed the service from the perspective of local traffic. Currently a user could use his 30 gigs and still enjoy local access to South African sites. Telkom intends to remove this unlimited local access component completely from their package. This means that users that had in the past used their 30 gigs and continued to use their connection to get local media will be left paying even a higher price. I am one of these users and my monthly usage on the local front is usually an additional local access 20 gigs above the international access 30 gigs that were provided. If Telkom's change goes it means that my bandwidth costs as an internet user will go from R299/month to R5000/month (based on the R100/gig estimate).

I feel that this new “trend” from Telkom serves to undermine ICASA’s intent of lowering the cost of high speed data services in South Africa and Implore ICASA to intervene in this radical change in pricing structure.

Telkom will try to argue that 99% of their users use less than 3gig’s, but if you know your service is going to become useless if you exceed that amount surely you aren’t going to use all your available bandwidth?

I do not know if ICASA has the authority over what Telkom is allowed to charge for bandwidth costs, but if you do only you can make a difference in this exploitation of the monopoly.

Telkom intends to make its new nightmare a reality from the 1st of November, 2005.

Kind Regards,
XXXXXX XXXXXX
Click to expand...
 
I agree we should inform ICASA of this but I also think we should wait and see whats happens when ICASA drafts its regulations in a couple of weeks before jumping to any conclusions or start panicking
 
May Telkom's servers crash and may their directors get fired.
Sno here I come.
 
GougedEye said:
Whats the source for this? Lotsa threads complaining, but I have yet to see any source whatsoever??
Click to expand...
Pedantic, from the Internet Service Provider SAOL (www.saol.com), who has direct contact with SAIX and Telkom. But other ISP's (including WebAfrica and Axxess) have been talking about this for a while now. This is just the first confirmation that it will be taking effect on the 1st of November.
 
This pricing structure goes against everything that ICASA has said, they cannot be allowed to get away with this, its not right.
edit: I have phoned Icasa about this proposed billing, I aint taking this lying down, no way.
 
Last edited:
Again, this is not confirmed. It's a rumour. And on top of that if its true (probably is), the pricing structure is unknown How you gonna complain to ICAS abut what the pricing structure when you don't know what it is? Now I grant you that it is a very good Educated Guess, but until there is any sort of announcement or confirmation from Telkom, it's just a rumour.

Whats the point of getting so freaked out about it now? We can really get to look like whiny idiots if we bitch to ICASA, and the press with absolutely no factual basis, especially if we prove to be wrong later (Or Telkom change it's evil little mind).

What if it's true and they charge R10 a gig? Ok, no bloody way, but the fact is we just don't know anything right now.
 
I concur (was getting tired of the word 'agree') - we need to wait until an official announcement re pricing is made before we grab the pitchforks and torches.
 
MotherF*&(ers may telkom perish those thieving bastards. I think i am going to cancel my adsl that i ordered. This is utter BullS%^T
 
Are we never going to move towards a comparable international pricing structure.

My website is hosted in the USA for obvious reasons even if "capped" people cant access the site its still 10x cheaper for me. My websites bandwidth allowance for the month is 30 gigs, for which I pay about R2.00 per gig for the first 30 gigs (This is an assumption as I pay R116/m. This includes my bandwitdh and hosting fee of 1 gig space, SQL services, etc) and R35 per gig there after...

How can R79.00 per gig be a fair price!

Another question, Is this shaped or unshaped?

EDIT
I think telkom works on the same bases as incredible connection. Buy something from the USA, add packing fees.. double the price since its imported and then add vat
 
Last edited:
I just got a call from Markinor, apparently another survey they're running, two interesting bits stood out to me:

1) How likely would you be to go for a 1mbits connection + wireless router for R800pm (extremely).

and

2) How positive would you be to usage-based billing, with charges in the region of R2 per MB... this is what got me, TWO RAND per MB? that's 2 grand per GB... now naturally this is not what they're going to charge their resellers but still, a price so incredibly high will *never* work.
 
If the overall pricing for ADSL (Telkom + ISP) is even 1c over what I'm currently paying then Telkom can take their ADSL and shove it!
 
warichard said:
I just got a call from Markinor, apparently another survey they're running, two interesting bits stood out to me:

1) How likely would you be to go for a 1mbits connection + wireless router for R800pm (extremely).

and

2) How positive would you be to usage-based billing, with charges in the region of R2 per MB... this is what got me, TWO RAND per MB? that's 2 grand per GB... now naturally this is not what they're going to charge their resellers but still, a price so incredibly high will *never* work.
Click to expand...

At R2/mb, Telkom can take their equipment back, and I will go with MTN 3G - same price per MB, no monthly "connection" fee and portable.

Although, that HAS to be incorrect - Diginet would be cheaper than ADSL @ R6000 per 3GB cap. R6K is already 20 times more expensive, and will NEVER fly.

In fact, according to my calcs, a 24/7 ISDN connection with infinitcall and NO Cap is R5,500 or so per month. should give you about 20 GBs.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X