Uncapped 10mbps advertised but not really?

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LoganY87

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I'm a new entrant into the 10mbps pool of ADSL users and so far, I'm rather underwhelmed.

I was very excited to find that with their special, Openweb's 10mbps offering would only be marginally more expensive than MWeb's 4mbps Premium package that I was on. This is to say that my bills to Telkom and Openweb every month are, cumulatively, only ~R50 more than what I was paying MWeb. And I get an extra 6mbps bandwidth to play with. How awesome is that!

So before I got everything set up, I expected my bandwidth would be split something like

Code: 
 6mbps downstream / 4mbps upstream

Now this is the crux of my issue. According to my router which outlines the maximum bandwidth available, I'm actually getting shaped as per below.

Code: 
 8mbps downstream / 0.6mbps upstream

Don't get me wrong, I like this downstream, but I was expecting more upstream bandwidth (like, 1.5mbps more), I mean after all, I bought a 10mbps line, not whatever this is that I'm getting...

I've included a screenshot of my router screen below.

The guy at Telkom said "yes, but its not 10mbps, it's up to 10mbps". I checked, Telkom's website doesn't say "up to" anything, it says "10mbps uncapped".

So what's the deal here? Am I just misunderstanding something or what?

8DP9lvi.png
 
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The guy at Telkom said "yes, but its not 10mbps, it's up to 10mbps". I checked, Telkom's website doesn't say "up to" anything, it says "10mbps uncapped".
Click to expand...

This is correct. It's a "Best Effort Service"
 
LoganY87 said:
So before I got everything set up, I expected my bandwidth would be split something like

Code: 
 6mbps downstream / 4mbps upstream
Click to expand...

That's not how ADSL works. Full 10Mbps ADSL has a link speed of 10Mbps/1Mbps (Down/up).


LoganY87 said:
The guy at Telkom said "yes, but its not 10mbps, it's up to 10mbps". I checked, Telkom's website doesn't say "up to" anything, it says "10mbps uncapped".

So what's the deal here? Am I just misunderstanding something or what?
Click to expand...

The Telkom guy is correct, it is "up to" depending on the quality of your copper and distance to the exchange. Look for the ADSL line stats in your router and post that info, it will be able to tell us if you're getting the maximum speed your line supports.
 
At best ADSL from Telkom is 10meg down 1meg up, so where you got 4 meg up from I've no idea...

You're not being "shaped" you're just a bit far from the exchange so the best your line can handle is 8meg.
 
Sigh, another person falling for Openweb's crap.
Can someone dig up the 'truth about Openweb' thread, I can't find it.


You are comparing to different things. One is the physical speed of your line (up to 10 Mbps) which depends on the quality of your telephone line and how far from the exchange you are.
The other is the data that you pay for (10 mbps uncapped).
 
Pox said:
Sigh, another person falling for Openweb's crap.
Can someone dig up the 'truth about Openweb' thread, I can't find it.


You are comparing to different things. One is the physical speed of your line (up to 10 Mbps) which depends on the quality of your telephone line and how far from the exchange you are.
The other is the data that you pay for (10 mbps uncapped).
Click to expand...

The truth about OpenWeb, managed to fill a 60+ page thread, without counting the feedback thread.

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line will always have a higher download than upload (actually, definition of asymmetric: In this question, asymmetric is an adjective that means characterized by lack of balance in the arrangement of parts. You describe something as asymmetric when it lacks the mirror-image quality of symmetry.).
Speeds are (download/upload):
1Mbps/0.5Mbps
2Mbps/0.5Mbps
4Mbps/0.5Mbps
8Mbps/not sure on this number, think 0.6Mbps?
10Mbps/1Mbps

Then you have to take overheads which count about 17% of your line, so of 8Mbps you are getting 6.64Mbps.

ADSL sucks, but it's better than dial-up, has a lower latency than 3G/LTE (unless the exchange is congested) and cheaper data. Fiber is the future though, higher speeds for lower prices, lower latency and less maintenance issues hopefully (copper rusts over time, fiber does not).
 
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DrJohnZoidberg said:
Look for the ADSL line stats in your router and post that info, it will be able to tell us if you're getting the maximum speed your line supports.
Click to expand...

That's what I posted in the screenshot from my router.

It says, and I quote:

DSL Connection

Link Information

Uptime: 0 days, 4:10:12

DSL Type: ITU-T G.992.5 Annex A (ADSL2+ over POTS)

Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]: 635 / 8.191

Data Transferred (Sent/Received) [MB/MB]: 98,76 / 412,25
Click to expand...
 
Pox said:
Sigh, another person falling for Openweb's crap.
Click to expand...

There really is no call for this kind of comment. I needed a faster line so I got one for a price I could afford. Not that I have to justify my choice to you.

I'd happily have stayed with MWeb actually but I can't afford the extra R600-R800 they'd have charged me for the same service and until you can pay for my internet on my behalf, you can keep your snide, condescending opinions about what I do with my own money to yourself thank you very much.
 
LoganY87 said:
There really is no call for this kind of comment. I needed a faster line so I got one for a price I could afford. Not that I have to justify my choice to you.

I'd happily have stayed with MWeb actually but I can't afford the extra R600-R800 they'd have charged me for the same service and until you can pay for my internet on my behalf, you can keep your snide, condescending opinions about what I do with my own money to yourself thank you very much.
Click to expand...

See here - http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/622747-The-truth-about-Openweb
 
LoganY87 said:
Whether it was a good decision or not is irrelevant, I think. I needed faster internet and I got it. I got it for a minimal difference in cost to what I was paying.

Don't tell me its a crappy option if you think so; give me a better alternative for similar cost. This way, you'll at least be helpful
Click to expand...

You get what you pay for and you'll soon learn that the hard way.
 
LoganY87 said:
zc9PSKY.png
Click to expand...

You should easily be able to sync at 10Mbps, why are you on 8Mbps?

You might want to consider a capped account if your usage allows it, it will go at line speed, rather than uncapped if you have lower usage. It should help with costs.
 
LoganY87 said:
zc9PSKY.png
Click to expand...

You need to log a fault with Telkom because your line is not syncing @ 10Mbps but 8Mbps. This needs to be rectified first.

When you sync @ 10Mbps your line stats should be 10239k down and 1019k upload.

When that is syncing fine then you can start judging ISP accounts. That said Openweb 10Mbps uncapped account is garbage. I would suggest a capped account that has capped peak time data but uncapped afterhours data for downloads and stuff. That would mean you get full line speed on capped accounts.
 
cavedog said:
You need to log a fault with Telkom because your line is not syncing @ 10Mbps but 8Mbps. This needs to be rectified first.

When you sync @ 10Mbps your line stats should be 10239k down and 1019k upload.

When that is syncing fine then you can start judging ISP accounts. That said Openweb 10Mbps uncapped account is garbage. I would suggest a capped account that has capped peak time data but uncapped afterhours data for downloads and stuff. That would mean you get full line speed on capped accounts.
Click to expand...

Actual rate (up) 1020 kbps
Actual rate (down) 10236 kbps

For me :p
 
cavedog said:
You need to log a fault with Telkom because your line is not syncing @ 10Mbps but 8Mbps. This needs to be rectified first.

When you sync @ 10Mbps your line stats should be 10239k down and 1019k upload.

When that is syncing fine then you can start judging ISP accounts. That said Openweb 10Mbps uncapped account is garbage. I would suggest a capped account that has capped peak time data but uncapped afterhours data for downloads and stuff. That would mean you get full line speed on capped accounts.
Click to expand...

Many thanks for the input. I'll get on the phone with them right away and see what can be done.

Unfortunately, with ~9 people using the line around 16-20 hours/day, a capped account is just not viable. We were on MWeb's 4mbps Premium account which offered a 400gb soft cap before they start managing the line. Short of that much data availability, we really can't manage the cost.
 
LoganY87 said:
Many thanks for the input. I'll get on the phone with them right away and see what can be done.

Unfortunately, with ~9 people using the line around 16-20 hours/day, a capped account is just not viable. We were on MWeb's 4mbps Premium account which offered a 400gb soft cap before they start managing the line. Short of that much data availability, we really can't manage the cost.
Click to expand...

Then you definitely want to move away from OpenWeb and are going to need a larger budget.
 
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