Uncapped ADSL now the norm: MWEB ISP CEO Derek Hershaw

gregmcc said:
Not on the 4Mbps uncapped accounts. They had better be soon otherwise I'm sure their number of subscribers will be dropping.
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Okay, I see it's still R539 per month for MWeb uncapped 4Mbps which is the same as the launch price in 2010.
 
I do not think that the uncapped products are unsustainable.

I am on the 1Mbps uncapped option and this month thus far I have used 4.48GB

Next month I may use a lot more again.... It all balances out in the end.
 
MWEB stunned the local broadband market when it launched the country’s first affordable uncapped ADSL services in March 2012.
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was this the uncapped for R219?
I must be in a time capsule.
 
Boris Becker said:
Most people are on 384 so they haven't really experienced real speed hence they can't appreciate it.

Aldo, Consider the recent article about broadband speeds achieved (v advertised) that put said we get 75% of advertised speeds on average (line & account quality before throttling ?) then subtract throttling on uncapped during office hours and the result is in general uncapped is a highly compromised product - quantity over quality (speed) - thus destroying much of the beauty of the web.

I don't download much so I'll stick to my Afrihost capped account and enjoy great speeds all the time.
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We usually pull 50-100GB/month on our 1Mbps uncapped MWeb line. My pings to the likes of World of Warcraft are an insane 175ms at all times of day, torrents fly no matter what time of day, and my downloads run at full line speed.

I'd never dream of going back to a capped account.

Penquin said:
Nah, it was March 2010. It's been more than two years already and Mweb is still sitting at the same prices. Alas, I believe MWEB has gone back to it's old self of ripping off customers like they did before they "freed the web"
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The only MWeb prices that haven't changed are 4Mbps. And one could argue that due to inflation that is a good thing (considering the likes of Telkom are hiking line rental etc.)
 
Some dumb questions from a non ADSL user:
1. Is uncapped ADSL really uncapped? What is all this shaping and throttling about? And fair use policies?
2. How does 3G speed compare to ADSL 1MB line? Faster? In ADSL MB ratings, what would average 3G (the fastest I guess, HSUPA or is that HSDPA?) speed be?
 
I don't have uncapped. Still on the 30GB/100GB Webafrica special.
 
Boris Becker said:
Most people are on 384 so they haven't really experienced real speed hence they can't appreciate it.

Aldo, Consider the recent article about broadband speeds achieved (v advertised) that put said we get 75% of advertised speeds on average (line & account quality before throttling ?) then subtract throttling on uncapped during office hours and the result is in general uncapped is a highly compromised product - quantity over quality (speed) - thus destroying much of the beauty of the web.

I don't download much so I'll stick to my Afrihost capped account and enjoy great speeds all the time.
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You do that. And remember to check how much you use...
Me, I'll stay on my 1M uncapped with MWEB. Just enjoying the internet, not having to worry if/when I'll be cut off. Honestly, the only times that I experience any degradation of speed in any way, shape or form, is when there's physical Seacom/Telkom issues. And in either of these, MWEB does a great job to minimise the impact and resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

I have various computers running various flavours of OS that often have big updates. Not to mention a few Steam games and the like. So each month I download several gigs of legitimate updates. And I rarely get <100KB/s. And when I do get less, it's typically the server I'm downloading from.

But you go on telling yourself capped is better...
 
zeely said:
yup.. already cancelled. moving to afrihost 4mb uncapped @ end of month
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I'm also considering that, but from what I can gather (judging by our work connection and a friend who is on the Afrihost 4M uncapped), on those accounts, each connection seems to be throttled to ~1Mbps anyway. So if you have 4 simultaneous downloads, each will get about 1Mbps, but if you only have 2, they both still only get about 1Mbps. Can anyone else confirm deny this?
 
Also, is there any indication from MWEB how much their 2M uncapped accounts will cost when the line speeds get upped?
 
Boris Becker said:
Most people are on 384 so they haven't really experienced real speed hence they can't appreciate it.

Aldo, Consider the recent article about broadband speeds achieved (v advertised) that put said we get 75% of advertised speeds on average (line & account quality before throttling ?) then subtract throttling on uncapped during office hours and the result is in general uncapped is a highly compromised product - quantity over quality (speed) - thus destroying much of the beauty of the web.

I don't download much so I'll stick to my Afrihost capped account and enjoy great speeds all the time.
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If you don't download much then obviously capped makes more sense, but the service I receive from Mweb with my 4mb shaped uncapped is excellent. I downloaded a 13GB game overnight last night and just a few minutes ago I downloaded an episode of a TV show at 360KB/s. Last month my usage was in excess of 500GB. Only P2P applications give crap speeds.
 
Shayd said:
Capped is dead. Why would you consider a cap if uncapped starts at a meagre R200?
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I won't quite say capped is dead. There is still a market for low data capped accounts (web + email). It's just not the ENTIRE market like Telkom, up to recently, believed.
My parents are on the Afrihost 1G + 1G free @R29/month account. They barely get through the first 1G in a month, if at all. So it's hard to justify paying almost 7x more per month for ISP charges for no benefit what so ever. I do believe that this market is shrinking though.

The only thing I can even remotely see competing with uncapped though, is reasonably priced high capped accounts. Something like 100G/R150 or something. But I guess for ISPs to offer that amount of data as unshaped + unthrottled might be tricky.
 
Pienats said:
I won't quite say capped is dead. There is still a market for low data capped accounts (web + email).
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The days of mom and pop who only want to read email are just about gone.
- XBox/PS3 updates and online gaming
- Operating system updates (patches and antivirus)
- Home surveillance systems (check your home from work via IP video cameras).
- Connect smart phones via Wifi/ADSL to save 3G data costs
- Smart TV's with built in web browsers
- Browsing YouTube, Vimeo, etc

Uncapped Internet opened a whole world of options that I was unable to afford on capped products.
 
Paul_S said:
The days of mom and pop who only want to read email are just about gone.
- XBox/PS3 updates and online gaming
- Operating system updates (patches and antivirus)
- Home surveillance systems (check your home from work via IP video cameras).
- Connect smart phones via Wifi/ADSL to save 3G data costs
- Smart TV's with built in web browsers
- Browsing YouTube, Vimeo, etc

Uncapped Internet opened a whole world of options that I was unable to afford on capped products.
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I agree, but the key phrase is "just about". It won't be gone completely for a while still, but it is on the way out.
If my parents had to suddenly pay R200 pm for uncapped instead of R29 pm for 2G though, we'll probably cancel their ADSL, as uncapped will simply be overkill.

I myself won't be able to go back to capped though, for most of the reasons you've listed.
 
Funny article about uncapped. My 4mb 'uncapped and shaped' account just got cancelled by MWEB for abuse. I see subscribers nailing it as hard as I so I don't know what I am missing. I don't dispute the abuse but then they say I must email them to log a query. HELLO! My account is cancelled! Besides, what about the shaped? Is it my responsibility to shape my traffic? Besides, I noticed some pathetic speeds on numerous occasions.

Kindly tread carefully whilst using MWEB, you may just get a nasty 'fine print' surprise without formal notice. Unreliable and poor customer service from their part.

I had to login via a different SP to type this message. From a very reliable and truly 'uncapped' ISP service.
 
biatch30 said:
Funny article about uncapped. My 4mb 'uncapped and shaped' account just got cancelled by MWEB for abuse. I see subscribers nailing it as hard as I so I don't know what I am missing. I don't dispute the abuse but then they say I must email them to log a query. HELLO! My account is cancelled! Besides, what about the shaped? Is it my responsibility to shape my traffic? Besides, I noticed some pathetic speeds on numerous occasions.

Kindly tread carefully whilst using MWEB, you may just get a nasty 'fine print' surprise without formal notice. Unreliable and poor customer service from their part.

I had to login via a different SP to type this message. From a very reliable and truly 'uncapped' ISP service.
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As far as I know the only things that will get Mweb on your case are persistent months of extreme usage (450GB+) and VPN and https connections. Does this apply to you? I've been using a torrent-to-http service for over a year with minimum monthly usage around 250GB and maximum just over 500GB. Haven't heard a squeak from Mweb.
 
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