Telkom ADSL 4 Mbps: Do you get a full 4 Mbps?

If you have a 4mbps connection, do you get full line speed (420 KB/s +) on downloads?

  • I don't have a 4mbps line

    Votes: 39 19.2%
  • I have a 4mbps line, but it doesn't sync at 4mbps

    Votes: 36 17.7%
  • I have a 4mbps line that syncs at 4mbps, but don't get full line speed (420KB/s+)

    Votes: 42 20.7%
  • I have a 4mbps line that syncs at 4mbps, and I do get full line speed (420KB/s+)

    Votes: 86 42.4%

  • Total voters
    203
Can they tell us how many of us 600 000-odd ADSL subscribers can or will experience 8Mbps on request this year (or next)? They have ducked this issue.... their Metro Ethernet roll out is very limited.
 
Relatively speaking no one in SA really gets full 4mbps adsl, we are suppose to download at 512kb/s* but instead max out at around 420kb/s. So when the 8MB lines eventually show up in reality we expecting double our current speed at about 820-840kb/s instead of pulling at 1024kb/s*. In that case the loss is quite significant, but we are in SA after all right.

Most of us would just be happier getting higher speeds and not really that our line would be under performing.

*Calculations to get speeds in my reply is 4MB= 4096 /8 =512, same for 8MB
 
Can they tell us how many of us 600 000-odd ADSL subscribers can or will experience 8Mbps on request this year (or next)? They have ducked this issue.... their Metro Ethernet roll out is very limited.

On the current adsl profile ADSL_G.gmt or something like that not alot of us can support 8MBs since that is the threshold of the profile. However on ADSL2+ most of us would comfortably hit 10MB or 12MB line profiles
 
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On the current adsl profile ADSL_G.gmt or something like that not alot of us can support 8MBs since that is the threshold of the profile. However on ADSL2+ most of us would comfortably hit 10MB or 12MB line profiles

That is if it supported by your DSLAM...
 
I can't even stream 360p YouTube, but I can download at 3.5Mb/s. Why is that? How will 8Mb help if I can't get basic video streaming to work? When it's hosted locally it's very fast, but all the things that interest me are hosted overseas (except myBB, of course :p).
 
Can we get a poll for this: If you have a 4mbps connection, do you get full line speed (420 KB/s +) on downloads?

a - I don't have a 4mbps line
b - I have a 4mbps line, but it doesn't even sync at 4mbps
c - I have a a 4mbps line that syncs at 4mbps, but don't get full line speed (420KB/s+)
d - I have a a 4mbps line that syncs at 4mbps, and I do get full line speed (420KB/s+)
 
e - I have a a 4mbps line that syncs at 4mbps and I do get full line speed (420KB/s+), but some sites are slow
 
? Correct Speed ?

Relatively speaking no one in SA really gets full 4mbps adsl, we are suppose to download at 512kb/s* but instead max out at around 420kb/s. So when the 8MB lines eventually show up in reality we expecting double our current speed at about 820-840kb/s instead of pulling at 1024kb/s*. In that case the loss is quite significant, but we are in SA after all right.

Most of us would just be happier getting higher speeds and not really that our line would be under performing.

*Calculations to get speeds in my reply is 4MB= 4096 /8 =512, same for 8MB

According to http://www.dslzoneuk.net/calculator.php, a 4Mb/s line should get 467.53 KB/s download speed, MAX.
 
Telkom has network problems in certain areas... period, Bryanston and Randpark ridge areas are fine no problems at 4mb/s, go to the Rivonia or century city grids and you see how bad it can get.

Our comapny is on all of them at 4mb/s and the Century and Rivonia ones can easily drop to supplying on 1mb/s of bandwidth while still having low ping times. I had a Telkom techie confirm recently that for Rivonia, every DLU is well over capacity because they haven't implemented the fibre connections that were installed years ago.

D
 
my line syncs at 4mbps, on http downloads, depending on server from which i download, i usually get around 420KB/s. From astraweb, my download speeds are always between 420KB/s-460KB/s.
BUT, a few weeks ago, i was able to watch a youtube video without waiting for it to buffer, not anymore though, but that "may" be a problem on the youtube server side as gametrailers, zoopy and others stream without problems.
 
Relatively speaking no one in SA really gets full 4mbps adsl, we are suppose to download at 512kb/s* but instead max out at around 420kb/s. So when the 8MB lines eventually show up in reality we expecting double our current speed at about 820-840kb/s instead of pulling at 1024kb/s*. In that case the loss is quite significant, but we are in SA after all right.

Most of us would just be happier getting higher speeds and not really that our line would be under performing.

*Calculations to get speeds in my reply is 4MB= 4096 /8 =512, same for 8MB

You are forgetting that there are overheads involved in transporting TCP/IP packets, just your IP address takes up 48bits(6 Bytes)/packet and then another 48bits for the destination address, the ttl etc, each of these only take up a small amount but they do start adding up when transferring thousand of packets/sec. Then you also get overhead on the ATM transmission side of things. All in all the total loss is between 15-20% (4096/8=512-15%=435.2) (4096/8+512-20%=409.6) so if you're getting speeds above 410KB/s on a 4Mb line you're basically getting the full line speed.
 
Then you also get overhead on the ATM transmission side of things.
IP overhead represents less than 3% of overhead. ATM inefficiency causes most of ADSL's ineffeciency. What's annoying is that markets accept different products to be marketed using equal terms and unequal definitions. If ATM were 50% inefficient I'd love to see Telkom try market a 4 meg line as such when it only delivers 2 meg of IP bandwidth.
 
you will almost never get full speed since on 10:1 or is that 20:1 ratio
 
I'd love to see Telkom try market a 4 meg line as such when it only delivers 2 meg of IP bandwidth.

They never will!! They will insert a "best effort" clause in the fine print. So it will be a case of "up to 8Mbps" with 600kbps in the very little font underneath. (and yes it will be k and not K and the little k looks more impressive!!!!)
 
I get max 4mbps speeds all the time. My line even supports 8mbps if it gets implemented. So I'm happy.
 
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