Wired vs wireless
Arthur Goldstuck, MD of research firm World Wide Worx says wired connections are hard to beat.
“Wired is still far superior due to consistent throughput. Though ADSL does not achieve its promised speeds, its consistency of speed means that you have better throughput than with a wireless connection that performs at double the speed one moment and half the speed the next,” he says.
“This means that streamed services, in particular Voice over IP (VoIP), are severely compromised by the poor consistency of throughput of the wireless services. ADSL is the only broadband service that allows good quality VoIP.”
VoIP, using the Internet protocol that makes data transfer possible, is taking off globally, and is being used to provide on network calls to other subscribers at a fixed monthly rate. Off-net calls are charged extra, but the appeal of a fixed fee is seeing subscribers in broadband rich countries flock in their droves to VoIP services such as Verizon in the US.
Goldstuck says: “On a basic 1GB capacity package, the cost [of ADSL] is similar to that of 3G, while offering far better consistency of performance.
“Value for money depends on how much money you are willing to spend. On a limited budget, the best bet is iBurst’s R49/month option. However, if you have poor reception, this may be no better than dial-up. If you have good reception, chances are your usage will quickly exceed the package. Sentech’s R99/month package is also good budget value, if you have decent reception. Both include a modem.”
In terms of value for money, MyBroadband founder Rudolph Muller says: “It really depends on what you want to do with the service. For higher monthly fixed usage (3GB and more per month) ADSL is the best value for money. Stable, high speeds — on 4Mbit/s — and lower cost per gigabyte for higher usage.”
He says the best broadband option for fixed broadband is the 4Mbit/s ADSL offering. “It gives the highest possible speeds and the ISP price (per gigabyte) is the same, independent of the speed of the service. The difference in price between the 384512Kbit/s and 4Mbit/s ADSL access portion has also shrunk significantly over the past year or two.”
He recommends high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) from Vodacom or MTN as the mobile broadband. “Great coverage, high speed, excellent mobility,” he says about them. Wired always seems to top the way users and analysts rate as the best broadband service.
“For a fixed location, ADSL cannot be beaten,” Goldstuck says.
“However, if you are regularly out of the office, and find that a mobile solution meets your needs best, right now MTN 3G is superior to any of the other options. However, this may be temporary, as it is probably related to the fact that Vodacom has marketed its 3G service so heavily that its network is heavily congested by its huge number of users. In main business centres, my Vodacom 3G card sometimes becomes unusable. My MTN card keeps flying — but bear in mind the inconsistent throughput.”
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