Why I feel the Telkom Capping "feature" is illegal

[SirBruce]

Firstly, I'm not a lawyer, so please feel free to correct me.

South Africa is bound by the rule of Law, nobody, no company is
above the rule of law and no country can afford to have this
perception questioned.

In law, provision is made for systems of commerce, these systems
would also adhere to and be "under" the rule of law. When an invoice
is generated, it is the justification used to determine "dues" or
"obligations" owed until paid.

When my business pays R701.75 for an ADSL service, Telkom has an
"obligation" to render me that service. This is then taken
further in that I paid R701.75 for one calender month of service, lets
say 31days, which equals 44640 minuets of service that they are "obligated"
to provide.

The "feature" capping changes the above "obligation" in that Telkom no longer
has to provide the previously obligated service, they now have to provide a "finite resource"
namely your 3Gig limit.

So in South Africa, when you purchase ADSL, you do not purchase the ADSL service, you
purchase an amount of "units" which is measured in bytes. Telkom uses ADSL technology
to deliver you these bytes, accounting
for each byte that is delivered. Once all bytes or units have been delivered, all
obligations and agreements are concluded.

In all industry, you have the right to questions and collaborate the details of an invoice
(Your obligation), it is the itemized details that account and authenticate an invoice.
Without the provision of itemised usage of my 3Gig purchase, such invoices surely can't be legal ??

This argument highlights the problem in that we don't have ADSL in South Africa,
Telkom makes YOU PAY for an ADSL line that THEY use to deliver YOUR 3Gig,
once they have delivered the 3Gig, they suspend your ADSL service.

The claim that it's not suspended because local usage still works, is like saying
the world doesn't trade on the dollar!

 

[podo]

SirBruce,

Welcome to the forum. First off, please note that this should really have gone to the "3 GB Cap" forum secion, however, topic correctness aside:

The problem you'll run into trying to enforce this is intrinsic to the way Telkom sell the service.

The actual ADSL line itself does not give you any internet access, it's merely an ATM connection to their network, which allows your ADSL modem to establish an ethernet over ATM connection.

With your ethernet over ATM connection in hand, you still have no internet access, but you do have an ethernet networking connection to Telkom's entire network.

From here on, you establish a PPP (point to point protocol) connection to your ISP, which allows you to gain access to the internet. The PPP connection in this case is provided by PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet) technology.

Basically, your PPPoE client connects to a PPPoE server on Telkom's ethernet network. The PPPoE server uses a Radius AAA server to authenticate you as being a user of an ADSL enable ISP. Once this is done, a DHCP server assigns an IP address to your PPPoE interface and you are ready to go.

The problem here is that if you check the bill you will receive from Telkom at the end of the month, you will notice that the services are billed separately:

ADSL Line: R680 (or R800 for businesses lines)
TelkomInternet ProLog: R249 (or R269 if you took ProLog Plus)

Please note that these amounts may vary. Since Telkom actually seem to bill everything on a per second basis, you will be getting "pro-rata" billing, for instance, in a month with 31 days, you might pay the full R680 for the line, in a month with only 28 days, it will be closer to R650.

This illustrates the point though, as you are billed separately for the ADSL line and the internet access. You may even chose not to use TelkomInternet for internet access, you will then be billed separately by your ISP.

The 3GB cap is not tied to your actual ADSL line, it is tied to the internet access package you use. All service providers* must impose a cap, though from some ISPs you have the option of purchasing a higher cap, or, from DataPro, the option of purchasing an uncapped account, at significantly higher monthly rental when compared to capped accounts.

* - Exclude DataPro from this, they have a cross-subsidisation contract with Telkom which allow them to sell uncapped accounts.

Now, when your 3GB limit is hit, you also have the option of increasing your limit if your ISP is capable of this, or to buy an additional internet access account from the same or another ISP.

Here's where the loop hole rears its ugly head. Since you are free to purchase more internet access accounts from the same or another ISP and are free to use these, the ADSL line is still in service, regardless of the cap.

Basically, when paying Telkom for ADSL, you are paying them for the ethernet over ATM connection I mentioned above. This is a service since it is never down, regardless of the state of your internet connection itself.

Secondly, you are also buying internet access, with limited transfer volume, from either Telkom itself, through TelkomInternet, or from a third party ISP, as a finite resource.

If you are paying DataPro for your internet connection, you are in fact paying for a service, not a resource, because the DataPro account is not capped. For this privilege however, you will have to fork out at least R2000 per month for the line and the access.

Still, this leaves us in a position where we really can't mount much of a legal challenge to the present situation. Since DataPro have presented themselves and their cross-subsidisation program to the world, Telkom can also argue that an option for uncapped internet access via ADSL is available.

Getting back to the original point though, since we are paying separately for ADSL and internet access, and the actual ethernet over ATM connection provided by ADSL never goes down, unless there is a technical hitch, we really can't do much.

In other words, Telkom are charging you R680 per month for ethernet over ATM access via ADSL.

Then, TelkomInternet or your third party ISP are charging you R250+ pet month for internet access and your 3GB of transfer volume, which you receive via your ethernet over ATM connection.

We're stuck...

Willie Viljoen
Web Developer

Adaptive Web Development

 

[SirBruce]

Thanks for the information, however I disagree!

This is not about the cap, this is about the right to
question and collaborate an invoice. It involves a lot
more then the cap.

I don't buy my Internet from Telkom, I buy it from a seperate
ISP and my ISP does not cap me. My ISP has explained to me that
Telkom capps the ADSL lines, regardless of how much I pay my
ISP.

Once capped I have to buy another user account FROM TELKOM, not my
ISP.

The ADSL service only works while Telkom is servicing their obligation
to deliver 3Gigs and then it is suspended. My ISP wants to let me
continue, however Telkom says no.

Once I've purchased another 3Gig account, the line becomes active (router reset with new acount info) and they then continue their
obligation of providing onther 3Gig, after which they suspend the
service.

 

[podo]

I feel I should clarify here.

Telkom does not cap the ADSL lines, they cap individual internet accounts. Your ISP may simply not have a contract with Telkom that allows them to sell you more bandwidth.

In the contract all ISPs must sign before being allowed to provide internet access via ADSL, they agree to terms in which they are prohibited from selling more than 3GB per account, unless they negotiate a separate settlement with Telkom.

Remember, all internet over ADSL accounts are connected to Telkom. The ISPs are actually "virtual ISPs" that sell accounts using Telkom's infrastructure.

Some ISPs have managed to negotiate with Telkom to allow them to offer better packages. M-Web, for instance, can sell you additional bandwidth up to 9GB.

DataPro is an exception to these cases, as they use Telkom's ethernet over ATM network to tunnel PPPoE connections, which actually provide internet access through their own infrastructure. Thus, DataPro users are not allocated IP addresses on Telkom's IP network, but on DataPro's IP network, where no capping exists.

The assertion that Telkom caps the lines, however, is incorrect. You are free to transmit as much ethernet frames as you please over the ADSL line itself. It is merely internet traffic which is limited.

If you absolutely can not function within the constraints of the cap, as is the case with most businesses, I strongly recommend you cancel your internet access account with your current ISP and contact DataPro.

Details are at http://www.datapro.co.za/

Please note, I am not currently, nor have I been in the past, affiliated with DataPro in any way. My recommendations are based purely on my assesment of their service.

Willie Viljoen
Web Developer

Adaptive Web Development

 

[SirBruce]

Willie,

...and then there was light

Yes, the cold hard truth is that ALL internet in South Africa comes
from Telkom. When you buy ADSL in South Africa, it doesn't matter who
you buy it from, they are simply resellers for Telkom, like golden
products!

So, that only leaves the larger of the problem, how does a country
under law, allow invoices that can not be questioned, collaborated
or confirmed.

They say you used all your 3Gig, you say you did not, how is such a
matter addressed. Surely South Africa does not support such crazy
systems of trade. Telkom land line, GSM cell phones, Spar shops etc etc, all have to provide (at request) an itemised invoice.

 

[dikbek]

Telkom's adsl service is offered as 'best effort' service without guarantee. So if you accept this condition, they can give you whatever THEY want to. Of course you could always delete this clause from any contract you sign with them, replace it with a clause guaranteeing a level of service and if they accept it you would have a case.

 

[podo]

Well, I'm sure it would be possible, but you would have to consider the logistical implications of itemising every single packet you transmit and receive for the month. []

Sadly, there's not much to do about this. Many ISPs in South Africa and overseas sell internet access or server hosting with limited traffic volume. Getting them to account for where that traffic went is nearly impossible, since they would have to keep logs that are generally larger than the volume of traffic transmitted.

As far all internet being from Telkom, that's not entirely accurate, however, all internet over ADSL (except DataPro) in South Africa, is Telkom, so when moving between ISPs, you'll just pay less or more for the same bad service, in some cases, with a higher upper limit or some other fringe benifit...

There are still alternatives to Telkom though. The most popular (if you are in a covered area) is Sentech's MyWireless solution. Don't expect much bandwidth or customer service though, they have been getting terrible reviews from everyone.

Another option is to buy an ATM leased line (Telkom call it "DigiNet") to an ISP of your choice. IS, UUNet and DataPro all have their own backbone networks. All they buy from Telkom is international bandwidth on SAT3/WASC/SAFE. Many smaller ISPs also connect to these backbones and resell bandwidth with value added services.

That is very expensive though. For 512kbps of bandwidth and such a line, you'll probably end up paying close to R50 000 per month.

The Sentech VSTAR (internet-over-VSAT) option is also available. It provides dedicated bandwidth with excellent international routing, but is just as expensive as the "DigiNet" option.

On the whole, if permanent access with 512kbps of bandwidth is what you need, the DataPro ADSL offering is the best solution I can think of. At around R2000 per month, it's a much better deal than R50 000 per month for the same throughput on "DigiNet" or VSTAR.

Willie Viljoen
Web Developer

Adaptive Web Development

 

[SirBruce]

Willie, you're a wealth of information, thanks.

I'm not sure about adsl in other countries. A few of my
mates in Wembly(london), Amsterdam and Frankfurt definitly don't
have caps and they only pay about R400.

Well I'll go and visit ICASA.

Do you know anybody who is sharp on satalite technology? How
do they justify making it all illegal?.....althoug these days it
seems nobody hs to justify anything!

They say bend, we say how far!!!

 

[podo]

Satellite internet isn't illegal anymore. It's just not legal for anybody except Telkom and Sentech []

Both of them can offer bi-directional satellite internet access, but sadly, both chose to do it at unreasonable prices, so it's not really an option unless you want to spend large amount of money on internet access.

Willie Viljoen
Web Developer

Adaptive Web Development