Why go for iBurst?

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theonlymac

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I don't get it. Mtshali from iBurst said in today's paper he can't understand why people are prepared to wait weeks for fixed ADSL connections when they can go iBurst within a day. Maybe I'm missing something here, but I'm sorry. They are more expensive yet claim they're 62% cheaper than ADSL.

This is what they say on their website on the cost of a 192 fixed line ADSL frequent home use package(http://www.broadbandexpress.co.za/compare_frequent.htm)

the line rental (R180),
the ADSL service (R270) and
the ISP cost (R200)

Bull. I have the 3G package and it does not cost me even close to R650,00. I still need line rental even if I have iBurst so should not be part of the equation - and even then it is not the R180,00 they claim!

To cap it, I don't care if I receive data via satelite or line, as long as I can afford it.

Don't get me wrong - I hate Telkom. But I hate companies who walk the high moral ground even more. And according to me, iBurst is such a company.

I stand corrected.
 
They are wrong about the line rental, it is about R90 iirc. But you most certainly do not need it if you go for iBurst.

But they all seem expensive compared to Sentech MyWireless.

R499 and you get 10GB included
(This is a softcap, so when you reach 10GB, they phone you and ask you to slow down. They dont immediatly disconnect you. It is also not shaped, so you get full speed downloads when using P2P, etc)

Or R649 inc the modem

R50 per gig beats everything else out there. And that is the total cost. There are no other "rentals"

See http://www.nowire.co.za/products_sentech.html for a good reseller
They got me up and running within a couple of hours
 
Well I pay R499 for my adsl service. Not including the line rental as that was there before I got the dsl anyway.

I got the openweb package with the 2Gb international and 30 gigs local after capped. The package I got also includes Openbrowse, which means I can use my left over 30 gigs local to still browse international. i don't really care that much for speed, but from my tests its not really much slower than just normal international. This is on a 192k line and the openbrowse is 192k too.

None of the above mentioned packages beats mine, so I would definatly suggest what i got. I do how ever not know if it works with international games, like WOW or the likes. But I just browse anyway. :)
 
These threads are so last year. / yawn /

Their is obviously a market for iburst's services otherwise they would not still be around.
 
a) Not everyone has a phone line or needs/wants it, so line rental does count for quite a lot of people actually, especially if you are renting, like me

b) You can' t just compare iBurst and ADSL on face value. You have not considered mobility, soft cap, and speeds available to you.
 
bullfrog : For R499 you only get 2GB of international. After that you can only browse international. Doesn't sound that good to me. For the same price, you can get 10GB (Softcap) of international
 
Yes, the sentech is pretty good, its just the terrible things I have heard about it, and the fact that they dont even have coverage in my area.

Also the speeds ar epretty slow, imagine moving from Iburst to sentech which is higher latency (apparently, dependet on signal to a degree) and wont even REACH 128 most of the time, especially on international where it can be quite pathetic according to some speed test from the Sentech forum..

But the cap and shaping is great, I find it hard to believe they screweds up such a great system. They should have almost all broadband users in SA which their base stations can reach signed up to them if you look at their prices and service in general.
 
Looking at the latest post on the MyWi forum seems you lucky to get about half the advertised speed.

So 128/2 = 64.

Think i will stick to iBurst even if i want to do 10GB.
 
as you can see from my sig, using sentech. national speeds are fine, int browsing sucks, but downloads all round come through quite nice. I use openweb's unshaping proxy to get full speed browsing and downloads when int goes really bad.
 
But isnt Openwebs unshaping proxy international aswell? Or does it comwethrought o you as local?

That is quite pathetic htough, that you have to use a proxy just to surf internationla, Iburst hardly ever has those problems, i thikn their international uplink is much better. Probably much less congested than Sentechs, witht heir huge caps.

But I geuss it would have been quite a toss up between Iburst and Sentech if it had been available to me.. But i couldnt have lived with international going down or being worse than 128kb, so it would have been hard, maby hte 256kb package could have been okay.
 
i have no idea, just tested it one day and it worked. yes i know its pathetic, but, thats what i have to do for the amount of bandwidth i get.
 
Ekhaatvensters : My speeds are perfect for local and international and always have been. They haven't decreased at all. Maybe there was a problem with the tower that that person was connected to
 
hey jstrike, it looks like contention or something buggering up, over weekends and later @ night int speeds seem to pick up. this weekend i was surfing int without the proxy, but as soon as monday came, bam, int up to sh!te.
 
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theonlymac said:
I don't get it. Mtshali from iBurst said in today's paper he can't understand why people are prepared to wait weeks for fixed ADSL connections when they can go iBurst within a day. Maybe I'm missing something here, but I'm sorry. They are more expensive yet claim they're 62% cheaper than ADSL.

Don't get me wrong - I hate Telkom. But I hate companies who walk the high moral ground even more. And according to me, iBurst is such a company.

I stand corrected.
Click to expand...

the entire subject cn be debted for years.
It is sad that in SA the wireless/mobile ISPs are competeting almost head on with fixed line. That is fairly unique in the international broadband arena.

The "facts" on the site http://www.broadbandexpress.co.za/compare_frequent.htm are a little "fudged" I believe it is a very bad comparision.

It's not easy to compare ADSL and I-Burst. do you compare ADSL 1024 with Iburst? do you take into account the different ISPs you can go through with ADSL. do you compare latency, hard / soft caps.

I think you have to compare it on what you require it for. and where you are.

Mtshali from iBurst said "....can't understand why people are prepared to wait weeks for fixed ADSL" he's wrong it takes months.... I'm just about to tick over the year mark, because Telkom's new fibre can only support dial up.
 
Mtshali from iBurst said "....can't understand why people are prepared to wait weeks for fixed ADSL" he's wrong it takes months.... I'm just about to tick over the year mark, because Telkom's new fibre can only support dial up.
Click to expand...
I agree with this - and besides should your adsl line goes pear-shaped, you'll also wait long for the techie to come and fix it. I am not prepared to wait for months for my line, only to hear that "it's not supported" or "my line's too bad" or "we don't have enough ports".

Should an iBurst tower goes down, then there'll be hundreds of people calling.

Your single ADSL line which just went down does not consitute an emergeny on Telkom's part anyway. But a big ISP phoning in to complain WILL get some reaction.

Besides, lightning strikes getting to your PC is ruled out as long as you're not using an external antenna... :D which makes it ideal for surfing in a thunderstorm... :D Try doing this with an ADSL modem, and you risk getting hit by lightning...
 
Thanks 4 all the replies. I'm not knocking iBurst as such. Yes, there are advantages to having iBurst and I accept them, but if Telkom can be knocked for being too expensive, why not iBurst? Are their offerings more acceptable compared to and just because we are nailed by Telkom? Refer cellphone charges - Vodacom, for example, make millions - to the extent that they can afford to sponsor a Pretoria golf club to the tune of R20 million! Just shows how much money they make.

In any event, I might have it wrong altogether. Point is a 3GB iBurst is going to cost me ^679 - R809 per month depending on the contract, and slightly less without a modem. That's a lot of money methinks regardless of the fact that I can now connect during slow traffic on the Ben Schoeman.

Well Daveog, this discussion might be "so late year yawn" but arguing that them still being around proves there is a market for them is beyond the point. Telkom is also still around.....

It would be interesting to see how many iBurst accounts are paid for by or through a company.
 
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theonlymac said:
Thanks 4 all the replies. I'm not knocking iBurst as such. Yes, there are advantages to having iBurst and I accept them, but if Telkom can be knocked for being too expensive, why not iBurst? Are their offerings more acceptable compared to and just because we are nailed by Telkom? Refer cellphone charges - Vodacom, for example, make millions - to the extent that they can afford to sponsor a Pretoria golf club to the tune of R20 million! Just shows how much money they make.

In any event, I might have it wrong altogether. Point is a 3GB iBurst is going to cost me ^679 - R809 per month depending on the contract, and slightly less without a modem. That's a lot of money methinks regardless of the fact that I can now connect during slow traffic on the Ben Schoeman.

Well Daveog, this discussion might be "so late year yawn" but arguing that them still being around proves there is a market for them is beyond the point. Telkom is also still around.....

It would be interesting to see how many iBurst accounts are paid for by or through a company.
Click to expand...

No, 3 gig costs R599 or R699 with the modem on contract.. but otherwise ja.
 
theonlymac said:
Thanks 4 all the replies. I'm not knocking iBurst as such. Yes, there are advantages to having iBurst and I accept them, but if Telkom can be knocked for being too expensive, why not iBurst? Are their offerings more acceptable compared to and just because we are nailed by Telkom?
Click to expand...

I-Burst's offering is much more in line with moblie service providers internationally if you sit them next to their fixed line counterpart.
eg. almost the same price and same speeds if not faster then fixed line.

So the question. can we continue to knock Telkom and not I-Burst?
answer: yes. because I-Burst still rely on Telkoms Leased line to move their traffic from basestation to datacenter and from datacenter to datacenter.
That is where Telkom Charges so much and so the likes of I-Burst have to charge the earth for their service too.
 
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