Why does Telkom need 72 hours to upgrade line speed?

Foxhound5366

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The back story: I used to have a 4Mbps capped ADSL line (an installer came out to set it up), then changed that to a 2Mbps uncapped line ... which happened pretty much immediately (nobody had to come out for it). Now I've changed back to 4Mbps but kept the uncapped part, and yet I've been told that the change will take up to 72 hours.

Does anybody here know why that is?

I really have no clue about how the back-end works on Telkom's side, but I'm guessing that it's not necessary for an installer to come out to me (or a box nearby me) because I *had* already been receiving 4Mbps and they'd downgraded that remotely to 2Mbps. What is involved on Telkom's side that they're advising a 72 hour wait?

Speculation: I've read here that a lot of people experience immediate upgrades (two hours later and mine still isn't showing any change in speed yet), as soon as the router re-syncs. My guess is that Telkom's 72 hour story is just a cautionary one, in case they *do* need to send a technician out to make physical changes.

Or am I wrong? Does a line upgrade (even a nominal speed change in a case like mine) still require some physical change on Telkom's side?
 
Hi,

I was on the phone with Telkom on a Saturday... for around 30mins.... during that time I changed ISP accounts, updated a few things... including moving from 4mb to 10mb...

I'm sure it didnt take more than a few hours for it to enable itself - and for my speed to go up to 8mb speed...

Then on the Monday morning - I asked TelkomZA a question and he made a change and I was on full 10mb speed.

But all of this was < 72hrs
 
@F5366 = in your case it should be an immediate upgrade as all DSLAMs are at least 4Mbps enabled.

If you were moving to >4Mbps then it would depend on which type of DSLAM you are linked to back at the exchange. If you were linked to an old DSLAM, a techie would have to do some physical work to move your port to another DSLAM/IMAX or even MSAN/ISAM that can offer >4Mbps services.
 
@F5366 = in your case it should be an immediate upgrade as all DSLAMs are at least 4Mbps enabled.

Thanks for that Mickey, but we're now at 4 hours+ and I'm still definitely on 2Mbps. I know that not only by checking with Speedtest, but also through this: http://www2.telkom.co.za/checkadsl/check.htm.

When I go there and enter my phone number, it still registers 'Your current service speed' as 2Mbps. I know from my last upgrade experience it also took 24 hours or so for the upgrade to actually be recorded, so I'm guessing the same here ... I just don't know *why*.

Any other thoughts?
 
That checker means nothing.

Check your modem settings to see the correct speed settings.

View attachment 179065

Just did, it shows this:
Downstream Line Rate (Kbps): 2048
Upstream Line Rate (Kbps): 509

Guess it hasn't re-synced yet? I have tried re-starting it three times with no luck, should I phone Telkom back at this stage?
 
Just did, it shows this:
Downstream Line Rate (Kbps): 2048
Upstream Line Rate (Kbps): 509

Guess it hasn't re-synced yet? I have tried re-starting it three times with no luck, should I phone Telkom back at this stage?
Yes, phone again!!

Be careful not to reset it too much as they could be trying to adjust it from their side as well.
 
Yes, phone again!!

Be careful not to reset it too much as they could be trying to adjust it from their side as well.

16 minutes of hold music later, Telkom's friendly technical assistant informed me that they were unable to make the change on their side, all line upgrades had to be performed by a second tier of assistants. That's the cause of the delay. He confirmed that on his side my line speed was still reflecting as 2Mbps, and he even went and phoned the Client Sales Division who confirmed that I could expect the line speed to be upgraded either later today or only tomorrow (hence the 72 hour disclaimer).

I guess what we're seeing here is Telkom trying to address the front-line staff incorrectly upgrading line speeds (or illegally???), so they've restricted it to a smaller back-room team to address all the requests which are essentially just logged as tickets.

Now who's going to place a bet on the size of that 'team'? One guy? Two? *shakes head* So inefficient!
 
Update: Now at the end of business on the third day after ordering my Telkom line speed upgrade, and it still hasn't materialised. I guess yesterday being a public holiday really played havoc with the '72 hour' promise.

A friendly Telkom representative informed me this morning stating that he could see the application was still in progress (what progress? All it needs is for somebody to tick a box!), but that he'd escalate it to his network to resolve it faster. That made a lot of difference *sighs*

I was really hoping for a weekend of buffering-free streaming, but no such luck.

Side-note: I've read that some ADSL providers allow customers to change their own line speed through a self-service portal. If that's the case, it'd be a SERIOUS win to avoid moments like these.
 
I'm assuming you eventually got your speed upgraded :D I too am now waiting for the 72-hour upgrade to 10MB. Been 2 days so far. Was also hoping to try out some buffer-free streaming this weekend, but I guess that isn't going to happen, unless it changes over tomorrow.
 
i went from 2 mb to 10mb in 1hour,just went into Telkom shop,she typed in a few things,checked my ID and told me it should be upped in the next hour or so,went home took me bout 20mins,restarted router and was on 10mb
 
I'm assuming you eventually got your speed upgraded :D I too am now waiting for the 72-hour upgrade to 10MB. Been 2 days so far. Was also hoping to try out some buffer-free streaming this weekend, but I guess that isn't going to happen, unless it changes over tomorrow.
it is buffer free,it's amazing and beautiful :p ..

1080p is a breeze on youtube ,trying to get netflix or hulu to test it out
 
I'm assuming you eventually got your speed upgraded :D I too am now waiting for the 72-hour upgrade to 10MB. Been 2 days so far. Was also hoping to try out some buffer-free streaming this weekend, but I guess that isn't going to happen, unless it changes over tomorrow.

Haha, yeah I came right in the end (after e-mailing Telkom I had more luck than with the call centre), but 4Mbps wasn't all that. I might just have been cursed by all the recent infrastructure upgrades Telkom has been performing, but I've had more than my fair share of streaming movies ruined by buffering to convince me to jump ship.

I'm now into my cancellation month with Telkom, shifting to 10Mbps capped with WebAfrica. Good luck to us both.
 
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