Uncapped broadband: Google versus Telkom

[Necuno]

I think the article is good, as it shows exactly how far behind we are. Its good to have a comparison to see what is the type of broadband is out there.

US reporting in RSA, what is the point really? It just as good as those countless A from the B has done C and now we all most feel D.

 

[Mr.CookieMonster]

What is the point of this article? You cannot compare 3rd world and 1st world.

 

[burn]

Why so serious everyone? Just a fun comparison

 

[Roadrunner]

Give it time, guys.

The network has just been implemented and will be refined and tuned over time to improve performance.

Telkom on the other hand, has decided to go the other way. We are still sitting with 4Mb/s speeds, like we did six years ago when I signed up. Speeds have even gone down because of exchange congestion.

Don't really know what the hell those 1,000 people at the NOC are doing to keep themselves occupied, which is just a stone throw away.

 

[nelwa]

wow, Telkom is really on the forefront!

 

[werny]

 

[markings]

How quick and how widely will this service be available to households in the US?

 

[lilggg]

No doubt before telkom ever upgrade 384 ;/

 

[EddG]

Its a joke.. right? Why tease us with this broadband fantasies?

 

[snail]

buh ha ha ha ha....dude you cant compare hellkom to Google....That's like comparing Hitler to the US.

I hope hellkom share price crashes and hellkom go under.

 

[crackersa]

i think the article is brilliant. it actually highlights the fact that south africans do nothing when they know they are getting shafted.

 

[bekdik]

The difference between Telkom and Google, is that Google invested heavily in dark fibre when there was a surplus of supply.

This is called forward planning.

Telkom, on the other hand, increased it's profits in order remove money from the company by way of declaring artificially high dividends, this it did by firing 30% of staff and by not spending on upgrades.

This is called gravy training ...

 

[htpc]

If Google is doing this in the US, when is Aartvark going to do it here?

 

[cerebus]

And yet 3 million Americans are still paying for AOL dialup.

 

[bekdik]

And yet 3 million Americans are still paying for AOL dialup.

So less than 1%, not too shabby!

Internet Usage Statistics
239,893,600 Internet users as of June/10, 77.3% of the population, according to ITU.

Latest Population Estimate
310,232,863 population for 2010, according to the US Census Bureau.

 

[Allin]

Google’s services and pricing may set the new global benchmark for Internet services, and it is [-]instructional[/-] utterly depressing to compare local broadband access to Google’s Fibre offerings.

@rpm: There, I corrected it for you as I couldn't see what is "instructional" about the comparison!

 

[daserraf]

What the hell is the point of this article. We know we have crap internet. Now I just feel worse :|

agreed

 

[Cicero]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

[LazyLion]

The point of the article is to continue to highlight how pathetic Telkom is so that....

1) They can quit advertising their stupid pathetic network as "World Class Internet"
2) Hopefully somebody in Government takes notice just how far behind the rest of the world we are.
3) They can feel really crappy about the dismal state of their offerings which are light years behind the real world.

It's not for us to feel crappy, the ones who should be embarrassed and disgusted are Telkom themselves (and their shareholders, and the government and ICASA).

 

[elvis_presley]

How quick and how widely will this service be available to households in the US?

It's just a proof of concept right now, don't think there's any plans of making this widespread.

I see this as more of a reflection on how feeble our local competition is, rather than Telkom. This is the kind of project that Neotel, Vodacom, etc should be doing here to connect gated communities. I don't expect this from a parastatal, I expect it from the high-tech competition with billions of rands to throw at trials.