What it costs to keep a router after the cancellation of FTTH packages

Daniel Puchert

Daniel Puchert

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R1,000 for a 3-year-old router — What ISPs charge for keeping routers after cancellation

Internet service providers (ISPs) in South Africa have different approaches for returning routers provided with fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) packages after cancellation and how much they charge customers who choose to keep these devices.

ISPs generally provide customers with a router at no extra charge that is free to use for as long as the customer retains their subscription.
 
I had a look at mine ( Vox ) . Their clawback is about the R2700 if you havent been with them a year. The router they give you for a 1gbit download is woefully inadequate and has issues with the latest firmware due to insufficient onboard memory as soon as you start enabling extra features.
The cost of their supplied router when I bought my service was under R700 dealer price

I went and replaced it with a much better specced router for what i needed in my home network
 
Not a bad price at all considering a 3-year old router that was in your possession and used by you only. I think it is a great investment and they could have doubled the price in fact.
 
Scam to charge you to return it. Just allow using your own router and not lock it down, looking at certain ISPs.
 
neoprema said:
I would not touch the free router. Its not free, its marked-up by 900% and its trash.
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9 times out of 10 when I help someone with what they think is a problem with their internet connection, the problem is with the crap ISP-supplied router they have, not with the actual connection itself. And then when I suggest buying a superior router they balk at the cost of it but they're happy to pay R1.5k a month for 500/250 line that they will never get the full use of because they're too cheap to buy a decent router.
 
I've always used the ISP router. I have them coming out of my ears from all the years of ISPs and have never had any issues. Never had to hand any back either as I stayed away from the "free to use" ones.
 
r00igev@@r said:
The routers supplied are dinky toys.

The best hardware is x86 appliances.
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Most consumer grade routers use processes that are obsolete for use in entry level smartphones and tablets.

There are more efficient architectures with hardware built specifically for networking. like the chips from Annapurna Labs.

But you will only find them in business or enterprise grade equipment.
 
r00igev@@r said:
The routers supplied are dinky toys.

The best hardware is x86 appliances.
Click to expand...

x86 appliances? With a crappy Realtek wifi pcie card?

Dual NIC x86 router between the ONT and a switch and then WAPs sure (and that's a minimum of 4 AC adaptors), But:
- Most people are looking for ONE device, at most 2 with an ONT. When they think "router" all they actually want is wifi range and speed, not routing speeds over cable 99% of the time.
- It's not power efficient for home use to keep an x86 PC running 24/7 instead of a 5 watt router.
- You can hardly expect your average homeowner to configure even something like PPPoE usernames (hence everything is now autoconfig or DHCP). So I do not expect them to be able to install let alone configure something simple like pfSense
 
bixt said:
x86 appliances? With a crappy Realtek wifi pcie card?

Dual NIC x86 router between the ONT and a switch and then WAPs sure (and that's a minimum of 4 AC adaptors), But:
- Most people are looking for ONE device, at most 2 with an ONT. When they think "router" all they actually want is wifi range and speed, not routing speeds over cable 99% of the time.
- It's not power efficient for home use to keep an x86 PC running 24/7 instead of a 5 watt router.
- You can hardly expect your average homeowner to configure even something like PPPoE usernames (hence everything is now autoconfig or DHCP). So I do not expect them to be able to install let alone configure something simple like pfSense
Click to expand...

When ADSL was the only game in town it was very rare that ISPs supplied any routers. ADSL users had to buy their own routers and configure the PPPOE details themselves.
 
Major Boredom said:
I had a look at mine ( Vox ) . Their clawback is about the R2700 if you havent been with them a year. The router they give you for a 1gbit download is woefully inadequate and has issues with the latest firmware due to insufficient onboard memory as soon as you start enabling extra features.
The cost of their supplied router when I bought my service was under R700 dealer price

I went and replaced it with a much better specced router for what i needed in my home network
Click to expand...
The clawback is more to do with the installation by the line supplier which charges the ISP for the connection and it is then passed on to the end user. Frogfoot usually involves a clawback of R1725 but Openserve is about R2785. These charges still apply when there is already an existing ONT on site and a new user takes out a new contract.
 
deweyzeph said:
When ADSL was the only game in town it was very rare that ISPs supplied any routers. ADSL users had to buy their own routers and configure the PPPOE details themselves.
Click to expand...

I never actually bought an ADSL Router until it had issues everytime I installed a line the Telkom techs just handed out Routers even when I used other ISPs back in the day
 
The router that RSAweb supplied was so crap (it was a 2012 model and could not pass more than 80 mbps). I bought my own, a TP-Link AX5400 that can manage 200 mbps with ease

They would not collect it, I had to take it back to their office in Sea Point
 
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