"The Citizen" on iburst

won't get fooled again !

Marketing hype is not even worth reading, especially in our Bandwidth Backwater.
This time, I'll wait an extra four months after initial launch instead of two.

They can write what they want - it amounts to nothing until they've rolled out to a significant user base.

No longer will I get excited about Telekoms in this country.

I'd love to know where they are going to get all the bandwidth from with that big 900kg gorilla cruising round stomping on all competition and innovation.

Rolling out a service even capable of 384kbps is just asking for it with our puny international bandwidth. 3000 hardcore mp3/video etc. downloading users will soak the bandwidth up in no time flat, which will inevitably result in traffic shaping and then capped connections - it's so obvious this will happen. If it's happened in countries where broadband is widely available and there's some telco competition, it'll happen here.

The fact is, they want to sell us the promise of broadband, but because of our current situation, with the monopoly, it's simply not possible. Not with decent contention ratios and download speeds and not without capping and traffic shaping.

I'm not sold. I may just move back to the "better the devil you know" situation and just get ADSL.
 
Is this a "GENUINE" 384kbps or @ a contention ratio of 100:1 .......

I would like to know that before anything else......

Could be another Sentech SAGA if they dont declare that at the start
 
The package we are all currently testing, is 1Mbps down, 384Kbps up. No packages of 384Kbps have been announced.

With regards to contention ratios, from what I've heard, ratios will be better than Sentech's MyWi.

Anything else at this stage is pure speculation.

My views are mine, and mine alone.
 
It's way too early to get excited about this but it is nice to know there are alternatives on the horizon. It's also too early to crucify iBurst before it's had a chance to prove itself in the market. I'm sure WBS are taking notes of the flak Sentech are receiving and that people will not be fooled around again.

It would be truly awesome to have a 1Mbps connection at R700 per month and with reasonable usage (hopefully no cap and a correctly configured packeteer managing traffic). This will bring SA much closer to the rest of the world though I feel Telkom will do their utmost to prevent this... bastards [:(]
 
I have been informed that Sentech's MAXIMUM contention ratio is 30:1. Believe it or leave it.

Guys, Telkom will prevent (as with everything else) iBurst from being FAST. What bugs me is who is paying for the uncontended 1Mbps (per user) now? The future users thats who.
 
Greedy,

Chill out dude. Let them test, of course the Future paying users will pay for the R&D and rollout...That's business. If iBurst have a viable business model - more power to them. The more competitors, the better for the consumer.

Die wet van Transvaal: K*k en betaal.
 
If sentech had to bring out their 1/2mbps products just imagine the prices owwwwwww. for a 1mbps u would likely pay 3000 for a 2mbps 6000.
So we've got 2 iburst infiltrators already interesting. remember when sentech came out the same thing happened where the beta testers were raving over the service an how fast and how blah blah blah.

But I wish Iburst all the best in their endeavour cause the more competition we have the less telkom can have.
at this point i still recommend sentech over telkom just for the simple fact that their not telkom themselves.


Proud South african rip offs.
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by armitage</i>
<br /> So we've got 2 iburst infiltrators already...........
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Infiltrator I am

[:p]

Disclaimer: I'm not employed by WBS, views are mine and mine alone.
 
Whilst iBurst should be able to offer good speeds locally - due to using only cheaper local bandwidth - the whole package will fail on international bandwidth. The reason: Hellkom.

Until top tier ISPs can get access to SAT3/SAFE cables at reasonable pricing, international connectivity will be slow and heavily contended. So whenever WBS launches, unless the state of pricing for international bandwidth has changed, it will probably have the same problems as Sentech as far as international bandwidth goes.

I doubt their network and local connectivity will suck as bad as Sentech though [:)]

<font color="blue">Telkom needs a leash, ICASA needs some guts, and the </font id="blue"><font color="red">SA consumer</font id="red"><font color="blue"> needs to make it happen</font id="blue">
 
We are easily achieving 120-130KB/s downloads from international sites. Currently, during test phase, there is adequate bandwidth, local and international, for a a couple thousand users, before contention ratios come into play.

EDIT: Please ignore this post. After calculating what I have been told, the figures can't be right. (Surely WBS can't be paying this much for international whilst testing?) I will double-check with them tomorrow.

--- My views are mine, and mine alone. ---
 
maybe WBS have found a loophole enabling them straight access to the sat3 cable. pre-emptive strike through knowledge of some new legislation perhaps....BRING ON 2005 YEEEE HAAAW!

"Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness, experiencing itself subjectively. There's no such thing as death - life is only a dream - and we're the imagination of ourselves.” – Bill Hicks
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Cloud</i>
<br />maybe WBS have found a loophole enabling them straight access to the sat3 cable.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

http://www.ee.co.za/VectorForum/~forum.asp?action=view&primaryKey=421

Seems that what was going to be the SNO initially had ideas to license Telecom Namibia's portion of SAT3:

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">"CommuniTel will be able to offer affordable broadband access via Telecom Namibia's rights of use on the SAT3/SAFE/WASC submarine cables in the short term, if it is successful in being awarded the 51% share in the SNO. But in the medium to long term, full enfettered access to the cables will become mandatory if momentum is not to be slowed down."<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Just wondering something ... WBS do the Lottery network ... is that mostly wireless? Will WBS be building the iBurst network infrastructure 'on top of' existing Lottery network infrastructure (e.g. towers), or is it a new, separate network?
 
Mostly, new separate network. Different frequencies, different equipment is involved.

--- My views are mine, and mine alone. ---
 
I am sure other packages will be available too. 512k, possibly 256k.

--- My views are mine, and mine alone. ---
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Turtle</i>
<br />
<i>Originally posted by Cloud</i>
<br />maybe WBS have found a loophole enabling them straight access to the sat3 cable.

http://www.ee.co.za/VectorForum/~forum.asp?action=view&primaryKey=421
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Thanks for that great link, Turtle; it was very informative.
Click to expand...
 
LoneGunman: I'm getting some local wireless of my own soon, maybe we can sort something out...
 
Well they're getting a lot of bandwidth from somewhere and I doubt they would be investing in all this testing if they didn't feel they could offer a reasonable service (yeah I know Sentech did the same but they weren't exactly a private company putting their nuts on the line). I don't think R700 is too much for 1mbps uncapped (managed) bandwidth. This is very much in line with many developed countries (read: NZ, Aus, UK) and I'm sure the prices will come down with competition. At the moment it looks promising [:)]

P.S. Hey LoneGunman, can we start calling you Goat Boy? [;)] I also love Bill Hicks (rest his soul), one of the most scathing social commentators this planet has ever produced. I certainly enjoyed the fact he spoke freely and didn't care what anybody thought.
 
http://free.financialmail.co.za/04/0730/technology/atech.htm

"It says it will offer various packages, including one tailored to home users that will compete directly with Telkom's dial-up Internet business. These packages, which will provide consumers with an always-on connection to the Internet, will be comparative in price to the average R380/month that consumers pay now to connect to the Internet using Telkom lines, says WBS COO Thami Mtshali. The difference is that users will pay a fixed fee and not be charged for time spent online."

So I guess you're right about various packages Anakin...



Telkom se ma...
 
"The 34 investors in the SAT3/WASC/SAFE cable would expect a reasonable return on the $670-million investment."

Anybody got spare cash around to put in another submarine cable? :)
 
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