The truth about Telkom’s 20Mbps and 40Mbps VDSL

[rpm]

The truth about Telkom’s 40Mbps VDSL

Telkom’s new 20Mbps and 40Mbps VDSL services are fast, but its value may be limited said industry players

 

[Totempole]

Telkom launched its 20Mbps and 40Mbps VDSL products on 4 March 2013

Launched on the 4th of March?

 

[elriconess]

Today!

Launched on the 4th of March?

 

[HavocXphere]

its value may be limited said industry players

Those linux distros aren't going to download themselves are they?

 

[Nether]

Just as I thought. VDSL wont really do anything and it certainly wont effect the current market.

 

[MickeyD]

Just as I thought. VDSL wont really do anything and it certainly wont effect the current market.

Quoted for future reply...

 

[Roadrunner]

Telkom's bark has always been about keeping the shareholders interested, but when it comes to their bite, they are toothless.

 

[Pixual]

Vapourware, in other words...

 

[magneto]

seems they left a couple of areas off in the article

Geographic Availability
Network upgrades have been completed in the following areas:
Durban North Benmore Gardens Fourways Waterkloof Durbanville Craighall North Altria Avoca Hills Newlands Blouberg Randburg Persequor

*Update looks like wynberg/plumstead CPT can get 20/40 DSL

 

[stricken]

cmon people. you didn't think Telkom could just poop out a 40mbps VDSL network overnight. And no mention of what that upgraded backhaul will do for us 10mpbs mortals?

Telkom is not my favourite, but I have to give them credit for getting me ADSL in 4 days from order to blinky lights. Waay better than 3 years ago when it took like 3 weeks.

/blah blah monday morning blah.

 

[zeely]

cmon people. you didn't think Telkom could just poop out a 40mbps VDSL network overnight. And no mention of what that upgraded backhaul will do for us 10mpbs mortals?

Telkom is not my favourite, but I have to give them credit for getting me ADSL in 4 days from order to blinky lights. Waay better than 3 years ago when it took like 3 weeks.

/blah blah monday morning blah.

actually, after all their "next generation network" advertising during 2010 world cup soccer, I was expecting something tangible 3 years down the line. Rather, we get 10 vdsl enabled exchanges (out of 2800)...

And they wonder why the share price keeps slipping

 

[abandonallhope]

actually, after all their "next generation network" advertising during 2010 world cup soccer, I was expecting something tangible 3 years down the line. Rather, we get 10 vdsl enabled exchanges (out of 2800)...

And they wonder why the share price keeps slipping

Telkom = Eskom.

The fact that their ghetto infrastructure cannot cope is the consumer's fault. The NGN is an insult at best.

I still think that their current copper last mile in and around 6/10 exhanges is good enough to at least double our current max speeds, but 9/10 of their exchanges are connected via THIS

 

[grok]

Joubert said that they have found that Telkom is very strict when it comes to its VDSL selection criteria, which means that the service will only be provided to clients with near perfect conditions.

Near perfect conditions? Bitch please!

Telkom cannot even properly maintain my paltry 4mbps service, when it's not hovering around 2mbps it's completely down. I've had no service from Telkom since mid Nov 2012 with the brief exception of 2 weeks uptime in Feb before my line went dead again. Just yesterday I received a sms 'Dear Client your service has been restored' yet I don't even have dialtone on the line.

Telkom is like Zuma, pose pose pose for the cameras but behind the scenes rotten to the core.

ps. Case in point - so this morning the Telkom fault reporting telephone prompts doesn't take me through to the fault reporting section, and the web escalation form at http://www.telkom.co.za/emailcontact/escalationform.htm gives

500 Internal Server Error

Servlet error: An exception occurred. The current application deployment descriptors do not allow for including it in this response. Please consult the application log for details.

Useless ****ing company!

 

[deweyzeph]

Why don't they get ADSL sorted first, before playing around with VDSL?

I'm surprised the ISP's are even wasting their time with VDSL products given the almost non-existent footprint.

 

[Sinbad]

CRAIGHALL?!

As in craighall park? What exchange prefix?

 

[BGE]

I can't understand why Telkom is investing so much time, money and effort on copper line based products, that essentially cannot deliver the performance they (theoretically) promise. Shouldn't they be using these resources to roll out FTTH? So much money is being spent on intermediate solutions, when we all know the winning one is FTTH. The rest of the world have moved on to fibre, but alas South Africa is technologically stuck in the stone age playing with copper!

 

[LazyLion]

Just as I thought. VDSL wont really do anything and it certainly wont effect the current market.

^^^^ This. At least nothing significant will happen for another 3 to 5 years.

South Africa is just falling further and further behind international standards and Telkom is the reason why.

 

[eddief1]

I can't understand why Telkom is investing so much time, money and effort on copper line based products, that essentially cannot deliver the performance they (theoretically) promise. Shouldn't they be using these resources to roll out FTTH? So much money is being spent on intermediate solutions, when we all know the winning one is FTTH. The rest of the world have moved on to fibre, but alas South Africa is technologically stuck in the stone age playing with copper!

Well this is not entirely true, they are rolling out their MSAN's to support VDSL, yes this is an intermediate solution, but the MSAN can be configured to support multiple technologies simultaneously. Via cards they can be configured to run ADSL, VDSL, GEPON and Active ethernet fibre, POTS so you could argue that this is a step towards FTTx. All that would be needed for FTTx would be sufficient backhaul, fiber line card in MSAN and the fiber drop.

That's why it is called a Multi-service access node, multiple services from the same node. Telkom know that FTTx is where it is at, they working towards it, and their MSAN project is the first step.

 

[Cicero]

This isn't even news? Just look at the 10mb availability, its shocking.

THe only difference between that and VDSL is the fact that its gonna have worst availability. Inevitable.

 

[BGE]

Well this is not entirely true, they are rolling out their MSAN's to support VDSL, yes this is an intermediate solution, but the MSAN can be configured to support multiple technologies simultaneously. Via cards they can be configured to run ADSL, VDSL, GEPON and Active ethernet fibre, POTS so you could argue that this is a step towards FTTx. All that would be needed for FTTx would be sufficient backhaul, fiber line card in MSAN and the fiber drop.

That's why it is called a Multi-service access node, multiple services from the same node. Telkom know that FTTx is where it is at, they working towards it, and their MSAN project is the first step.

I fully understand what a MSAN is, and what it does. What I don't understand is Telkom gearing up for VDSL, when the copper based last mile infrastructure is in such a poor state that it cannot support the top speeds of the current product offering... that being 10mbps ADSL. Our offices are in a relatively new building & area, with new infrastructure close to Telkom's core network, yet our 10mbps line is only capable to delivering bursts of 6mbps. I can't see how this poor copper infrastructure is going to support 40mbps VDSL, therefore I cannot see the point of offering something you can only deliver to such a small group of customers. With the above in mind, it would make much better sense to leave residential customers with 10mbps ADSL, while gearing up and offering fibre connectivity to the corporate market, that way you can already start earning funds off the investment and then in turn use those funds to roll out FTTH(obviously in selected areas). That makes better sense than rolling out another under performing product to a very small target market!