Were Does SA get its broadband from?

Tpex

Tpex

Teh Cyber Ninja
Joined
Sep 4, 2008
Messages
18,265
Reaction score
4,707
Location
UK
Were does South Africa get its broadband connection to the world from from? And does South Africa get it for free? Why Do we pay so much, Is this “World Broadband Company” charging us a lot for it?
 
Only one interational cable coming into the country at the moment and that's the SAT3 cable along the West Coast of Africa.

There's a consortium that owns it and resells bandwidth to (formely only) Telscum and now also Neotel.

Telscum had the monopoly on the line and inflated prices to the wholesale market, saying that the prices they were being charged was exhorbitant.
Blatant lie - because they could inflate to any price they wanted as they were the only ones in control of it.

So the goverment is also to blame, but lets just leave it on Telscum for now.
 
Ok thanks, so Telscum owns the line that connects us to europe? IS there no like world broadbadn commision that handles internet access and stuff like that?
 
Tpex said:
Ok thanks, so Telscum owns the line that connects us to europe? IS there no like world broadbadn commision that handles internet access and stuff like that?
Click to expand...

They don't own it - like I mentioned earlier there is a consortium of owners, Telscum not being one of them.

They sell to Telscum and Telscum in turn supplied the local market with inflated prices, because of their monopoly.

There isn't an international body of sorts (that I know of anyway) that has any say about pricing.

Various cables throughout the world are owned by different companies.

Other 1st world countries have cheaper internet due to competition and legislation that makes the market open for many players.
Our handicap has been the converse. :rolleyes:

EDIT: Oh wait - we're still handicapped...
 
Oh sorry I didnt relise that telscum was a play on telkom...
I see now thanks for the help and info shake&bake.
 
Shake&Bake2760164 said:
Only one interational cable coming into the country at the moment and that's the SAT3 cable along the West Coast of Africa.
Click to expand...

The other part of that cable, SAFE, runs up the east coast to the far east.
 
Actually theres a SAT-2 cable as well that connects to Canary Islands, Casablanca and Lisbon. It runs throught the middle of the ocean whereas the SAT-3 cable runs up the west african coast like S&B said. SAT-2 is an Alcatel maintained cable . . . I think.
 
Tpex said:
Were does South Africa get its broadband connection to the world from from? And does South Africa get it for free? Why Do we pay so much, Is this “World Broadband Company” charging us a lot for it?
Click to expand...

Telkom buys it in checkers packets.
 
Garyvdh said:
Telkom buys it in checkers packets.
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity... Does Telkom buy bandwidth or usage from the SAT-3 consortium?

I'd like to know if they pay a fixed fee for the usage/bandwidth or if it depends on how much is used and how much they pay per... whatever it is they use. Would be interesting to know how royally we're getting ripped.
 
Lycanthrope said:
Out of curiosity... Does Telkom buy bandwidth or usage from the SAT-3 consortium?

I'd like to know if they pay a fixed fee for the usage/bandwidth or if it depends on how much is used and how much they pay per... whatever it is they use. Would be interesting to know how royally we're getting ripped.
Click to expand...

Probably buys it from international Tier 1 ISPs or something to that effect.
 
ponder said:
Probably buys it from international Tier 1 ISPs or something to that effect.
Click to expand...

Ah, but what is "it" exactly - bandwidth or usage?

The reason I ask is because I've sort of been thinking... Broadband is basically just a somewhat intricate LAN, correct? As in, if I have two computers connected to a network, there is no limit to the amount of data I can transfer back and forth, however, there is a limit on the speed. Now, if I had 10 computers connected to a network and they all tried to grab huge files simultaneously, the speed impact will be felt by each computer.

The reason I asked is because "capping" doesn't entirely make sense to me if all we should be paying for is the access and speed (bandwidth) we want, not the "usage." I don't understand where restricted "usage" comes from or what it helps other than to force people to "use less."
 
Lycanthrope said:
Out of curiosity... Does Telkom buy bandwidth or usage from the SAT-3 consortium?

I'd like to know if they pay a fixed fee for the usage/bandwidth or if it depends on how much is used and how much they pay per... whatever it is they use. Would be interesting to know how royally we're getting ripped.
Click to expand...
As I understand it, Telkom buys bandwidth from the SAT-3 And SAFE consortiums. Telkom ISP then pays telkom for that bandwidth as well as termination/connection fees at the point where they connect as part of an internet exchange.
 
Lycanthrope said:
Ah, but what is "it" exactly - bandwidth or usage?

The reason I ask is because I've sort of been thinking... Broadband is basically just a somewhat intricate LAN, correct? As in, if I have two computers connected to a network, there is no limit to the amount of data I can transfer back and forth, however, there is a limit on the speed. Now, if I had 10 computers connected to a network and they all tried to grab huge files simultaneously, the speed impact will be felt by each computer.

The reason I asked is because "capping" doesn't entirely make sense to me if all we should be paying for is the access and speed (bandwidth) we want, not the "usage." I don't understand where restricted "usage" comes from or what it helps other than to force people to "use less."
Click to expand...
"Usage" is a blunt tool to manage bandwidth.
 
arf9999 said:
As I understand it, Telkom buys bandwidth from the SAT-3 And SAFE consortiums. Telkom ISP then pays telkom for that bandwidth as well as termination/connection fees at the point where they connect as part of an internet exchange.
Click to expand...
arf9999 said:
"Usage" is a blunt tool to manage bandwidth.
Click to expand...

Alright, but then it comes back to my original question - is the bandwidth that Telkom buys from the SAT-3 consortium a fixed amount for a fixed amount of bandwidth or is it variable?

The way I see it, Telkom would probably then be making a killing off of its users/subscribers (more than I had realised) and earning way more than a marginal profit from its broadband services if Telkom's paying for bandwidth and we're paying Telkom for the "right" to use it in 3GB (or whatever) intervals.

I don't think I'm explaining myself well :p

Garyvdh said:
I think Telkom is a major partner... they don't buy the bandwidth since they have a stake in the cable...

http://www.safe-sat3.co.za/
Click to expand...

So then we are pretty much being ripped off?
 
Wow dudes this is intresting
 
what i dont understand is why everyone has to pay for twice the bandwidth used on 1 process. you pay to upload a 1 gig to a friend and the friend pays for the 1 gig downloaded. so now they charging for 2 gigs actually.

Bandwidth is made of computer language that just gets replicated who ever recieves it. When u think about it they also charging you for something that is yours in the first place. If you send ur own photos to family. your cap starts to go down. even though those are yours.

You should only be paying for the line you use to get the things over, and not for what is going over.

Its a sin how this world is so greedy to do anything for money.
 
Lycanthrope said:
Ah, but what is "it" exactly - bandwidth or usage?

The reason I ask is because I've sort of been thinking... Broadband is basically just a somewhat intricate LAN, correct? As in, if I have two computers connected to a network, there is no limit to the amount of data I can transfer back and forth, however, there is a limit on the speed. Now, if I had 10 computers connected to a network and they all tried to grab huge files simultaneously, the speed impact will be felt by each computer.

The reason I asked is because "capping" doesn't entirely make sense to me if all we should be paying for is the access and speed (bandwidth) we want, not the "usage." I don't understand where restricted "usage" comes from or what it helps other than to force people to "use less."
Click to expand...

telkoms pretty much cut that lan in half and set up business there. charging you for whats going through even though the bandwidth did'nt even come from them. so how can he charge for bandwidth he never had in the first place, it came from your computer not his
 
they charge you the price they get from that overseas cable(appeareantly). even though you send something local and does'nt even touch that cable, so how can you pay for something you dont even use.
 
bandwidth in essence means the data throughput capacity of a connection, it is measured in what we would commonly refer to as the 'speed' of a line.

the whole capping thing and DATA limits are only there to make money.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X