MWEB Uncapped ADSL and bandwidth shaping
MWEB launched their affordable uncapped ADSL services in March, sparking something of a revolution in the local broadband market.
Numerous Internet Service Providers (ISPs) followed MWEB’s example, and MTN is also set to launch their first uncapped broadband offering next month.
While uncapped broadband services were widely welcomed by the local broadband community, strict fair-use policies, speed throttling and heavy-handed shaping policies drew sharp criticism from subscribers.
The latest ISP to come under fire for supposed excessive shaping is MWEB. According to some subscribers their torrent and news server speeds deteriorated significantly recently. They blame excessive shaping for these changes.
MWEB explains
MWEB explains that there has been no increase in shaping. “No we are not shaping more at all. To the contrary we are allocating more bandwidth all the time to P2P and other non priority traffic. As a matter of fact the more bandwidth that is allocated the more it is used. So, although challenging to keep up, we are adding capacity all the time,” says MWEB CEO Rudi Jansen.
Jansen adds that they are taking all complaints very seriously and points out that MWEB monitors the comments on the MyBroadband forums and in the call centre regularly. “I do not quite agree that the complaints have increased. Over the last two weeks there has been a marked decrease in the complaints,” says Jansen.
SEACOM issues create challenges
SEACOM’s recent problems haven’t helped MWEB. “This weekend was not good as a result of a Seacom outage on one of the links. We have now restored the service and will ensure that this specific outage does not appear again,” said Jansen.
“One does have to bear in mind with the continuous build we are busy with at the moment to keep on catering for demand, things will break from time to time. That said, we do not want to have any breaks in the system, and are working hard to minimise this,” he said.
Jansen further said that they try to respond to all complaints, but that it can be challenging, especially when network problems creep in.
Unfair or unwarranted complaints
According to Jansen some of MWEB’s critics may have ulterior motives. “There is one specific complainer that refuses to contact us directly despite a number of attempts by a number of people within MWEB. I think he is someone from the opposition that cannot keep up with MWEB. The more we try and contact him via the forums the more he complains. Now how does one deal with someone intent to sow discord?” asks Jansen.
“We have also found a number of the most vocal complainants to have a number of users behind a single line wanting to use P2P. Our product was not designed for this and in those cases P2P will be slow. We therefore urge users and businesses to choose the correct product for their use. If they do this they will get the best possible service out there,” Jansen said.
There has also been some speculation that the DStv on demand service has caused Peer to Peer services to slow down, but Jansen said that he can assure users that they have allocated more bandwidth to P2P since the launch of DStv catch-up, and that has not affected the P2P services.
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