iDSL put to the test
iBurst recently launched its iDSL service, aimed at the ADSL online gaming community.
For R99 per month, iBurst subscribers on the new iDSL package will get access to the iGame online gaming platform while all traffic to the iGame server will be free and will therefore not count towards a subscriber’s normal bandwidth cap.
Pricing for iBurst’s ADSL service starts at R19/month for an 80MB iDSL account. Other packages include a 1GB bundle at R49/month, a 5GB package for R245 per month and a 15GB bundle costing R585 per month.
Speedtest.net results
MyGaming editor Nic Simmonds tested the iDSL service, and the results are in line with other ADSL offerings in the market.
Five Speedtest.net tests were performed for each ADSL service using a 4 Mbps ADSL connection, and the average result for these tests are provided in the two tables below.
| Download Speeds | Cape Town | JHB | New York | London |
| iDSL | 3.43 Mbps | 3.62 Mbps | 3.33 Mbps | 3.84 Mbps |
| IS | 3.46 Mbps | 3.61 Mbps | 3.41 Mbps | 3.90 Mbps |
| SAIX | 3.44 Mbps | 3.52 Mbps | 3.11 Mbps | 3.72 Mbps |
| Latency | Cape Town | JHB | New York | London |
| iDSL | 80 ms | 105 ms | 645 ms | 447 ms |
| IS | 76 ms | 104 ms | 637 ms | 457 ms |
| SAIX | 75 ms | 103 ms | 741 ms | 731 ms |
Local gaming latency
Since the iDSL service is aimed at the online gaming community, MyGaming also tested the latency of the various ADSL services to the iBurst Gaming servers.
| IS | iDSL | SAIX | Webafrica Local | |
| iGame servers | 57 ms | 55 ms | 57 ms | 57 ms |
| SGS Servers | 57 ms | 62 ms | 57 ms | 59 ms |
“We recorded the average stable latencies of various ISP accounts on SGS and iGame servers. Our findings suggest that while iDSL is not much faster than other ISPs, its gaming speed is competitive. While gamers should not expect to see any significant decrease in latencies to local servers, they are likely to enjoy solid gaming performance,” said Simmonds.
“Combine this with bandwidth free gaming on the iGame servers for R100 per month, as well as an assortment of value added bonuses, and iDSL is a solid contender for the broadband solution of choice for gamers.”
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