IS Uncapped Express - Anyone actually know what to expect come month-end?

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StNick

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I've paged through the first ten pages here and can't seem to find any answers, so I'm creating a new thread. Apologies if this has been covered.

I'm a long-standing IS Express+ customer through Axxess. With these newly announced IS uncapped accounts, does anyone know what is going to happen to our Express accounts come month end? Axxess have been completely mum on the issue, and when asked for clarification, their response was, "Best to call IS." Amazing!

The way I see it, one of three things can happen:
1.) They cut me off and I have to sign up for a new account.
2.) They move me onto one of the new accounts without any communication on the matter. This is the most worrying move, since as far as I am concerned, none of the new accounts really fill the same purpose as my R999 account.
3.) IS keep existing Uncapped Express accounts and simply don't take any new signups.

Anyone got some info they can share?

Nick
 
You can guys will be able to stay on your current express accounts.
 
Ok, here's how the Axxess uncapped Express+ accounts will work from 1 Aug 2010 (info from Axxess website):

First the good news???:
Existing Express+ Customers will now save:
◦R100 less - 384kbps, R200 less - 512kbps & R300 less - 1024kbps :)
Existing Express Customers will be:
◦Automatically upgraded to Express+ at the same price effective August 1st

But, wait, there's more........

And, now for the BAD news:twisted::cry::mad::
NEW! After Hours User Policy - you have no idea how this warms the cockles of my heart :sick::
◦10 Day Rolling Window - If you're in Top 20% of IS users for this connection speed, you will be shaped
◦User Policy applies to After Hours (8PM - 8AM), Weekends & Public Holidays

So, in essence, IS/Axxess are giving with the one hand and taking away with the other:mad:

Regarding the so called "Top 20% of IS users" as well as the "shaping" thereof refered to above:- the exact definition of "Top 20%", exactly to what extent this after hours shaping will limit our download speeds, how it will be measured, as well as what type of facility will be put in place so as to allow users to check where and how close they are to this percentage, has still to be released to the public.

WTF???
So let me get this right:
"Massive international bandwidth growth
In early 2009 SAT-3/SAFE had a capacity of 120 Gbps, but this was ‘tripled’ to 340 Gbps in late 2009. This additional capacity on the SAT-3/SAFE upgrade is however only a drop in the bucket of the overall increase which can be expected with the new cable systems.
SEACOM has a design capacity of 1.27 Tbps of which 90 Gbps has been lit to date. EASSy (which whent online last week) will add a theoretical 1.4 Tbps to the mix while WACS will bring an additional 3.84 Tbps to the country".

By my calculations, between Sat-3/SAFE, SEACOM and EASSY we have plentsh bandwidth available, and assuming we are in a capitalist "free" market, competition between these suppliers of bandwidth should have resulted in an immediate reduction in prices.

So, what is going on with the SA bandwidth suppliers??? Are all of them colluding to screwing the user into the ground???? There HAS to be price fixing happening here.
How does "the more bandwidth we have available" to us in SA equate to more restrictions placed on us??? - and please, dont insult my intelligence and tell me that its early days still, etc, etc, etc. There is obviously something fishy going on.

I tell you one thing, I am getting sick and tired of the rules being changed so as to make us users worse off every time; the more bandwidth we have available, the more we get screwed!!!!
 
Last edited:
Just got the mail as well.

W T F.

Now there is absolutely NO viable uncapped account in South Africa.
 
The problem is not an international bandwidth shortage. The problem is Telkom IPC costs, which are just not coming down. The more we use, the more ISP's have to pay Telkom. Telkom have everyone by the short and curlies.

Ludicrously high ADSL rental. Criminal line rental. Extortionate IPC wholesale costs. It is Telkom's 'Triple Pay'.

Telkom are just loving the swing to uncapped. It is helping to them to stay afloat, despite flushing all our cash down their Nigerian Multilinks toilet.
 
Thank you im glad im not the only one complaining here, i mean really now they chrging us R899 for 15gigs!!!!!!!!!!!!!! for f sakes man please.!!!!

what the hell can one do its like they charging us R59.933333333333333333333333333333 per gig!!! & i thought this was uncapped... as of now its 5:55 am sunday morning & ive already done 7.71gigs!!! on the old uncapped express accounts...
 
top 10% * 10 days = 100%

ie, ALL users will hit the shaping, and after the 10th day, downloading as much as 1 ig could put you back in the top 10%

whoever the bright spark is at IS that came up with this must think its users are idiots.......
 
im going to wait and see the results next month. if unsatisfactory, ill try mweb (although been screwed by them once before) if still not happy, Im going back to Dial-up and BBS.
 
I think cause they launched the cheap basic uncapped their usage is more now and the only way to reduce that is to cut the biggest users. And by the look of the axxess website the top 10 downloaders are just short of 1TB. So i think IS is cutting the accounts that use the most but pays less.
 
cavedog said:
I think cause they launched the cheap basic uncapped their usage is more now and the only way to reduce that is to cut the biggest users. And by the look of the axxess website the top 10 downloaders are just short of 1TB. So i think IS is cutting the accounts that use the most but pays less.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but let's face it, the only reason anyone would buy the express account is to download non-stop during off-peak hours and run up hundreds of gigs. If you can't do that any more, there is absolutely no other reason to have the account.
 
Gatecrasher said:
Yeah, but let's face it, the only reason anyone would buy the express account is to download non-stop during off-peak hours and run up hundreds of gigs. If you can't do that any more, there is absolutely no other reason to have the account.
Click to expand...

Yeah, quite right. Everybody that wants to have unlimited unshaped downloads, after-hours, looked at this Axxxess+ accounts as the one have. Now we have this thing called shaping making its way into these accounts as well.

The questions that really need to be answered are:

1) How will we know what the 20% level limit is? How honest will IS be with this 20% thingy? How do we know they are not shaping the top 80%, i.e. if or whenever it suits them. What I'm getting at is that we as the users will never see the actual percentage being 'shaped'. All of us might end up being shaped after the first 10 days!
2) Over what period is this 20% level calculated, i.e. 1-day, 10-day or calender month.
3) Will accounts still get throttled during the 8am-8pm period during the week? If so, then...
4) What makes this account, at nearly double the cost of other uncapped shaped accounts, worth the extra money?

I'm sorry but I use to see some value in this account. Just feeling a little disappointed at the moment.

Hope Axxess can clarify some of these questions.
 
UnDeR±tAkEr said:
Yeah, quite right. Everybody that wants to have unlimited unshaped downloads, after-hours, looked at this Axxxess+ accounts as the one have. Now we have this thing called shaping making its way into these accounts as well.

The questions that really need to be answered are:

1) How will we know what the 20% level limit is? How honest will IS be with this 20% thingy? How do we know they are not shaping the top 80%, i.e. if or whenever it suits them. What I'm getting at is that we as the users will never see the actual percentage being 'shaped'. All of us might end up being shaped after the first 10 days!
2) Over what period is this 20% level calculated, i.e. 1-day, 10-day or calender month.
3) Will accounts still get throttled during the 8am-8pm period during the week? If so, then...
4) What makes this account, at nearly double the cost of other uncapped shaped accounts, worth the extra money?

I'm sorry but I use to see some value in this account. Just feeling a little disappointed at the moment.

Hope Axxess can clarify some of these questions.
Click to expand...

I think Axxess are on our side with this one. That is why they stopped the launch of the "Big Daddy" plans that we told about in the emails. I had a chat with one of their guys the other day and they are just as fed up with IS as we are at this stage. I was told that they are looking at other options - moving from IS maybe. But that was a month or so ago. Only time will tell...... They (Axxess) are just resellers of IS products anyway. Who would they move over to - MWEB. That will be a sorry day....... :(
 
UnDeR±tAkEr said:
Yeah, quite right. Everybody that wants to have unlimited unshaped downloads, after-hours, looked at this Axxxess+ accounts as the one have. Now we have this thing called shaping making its way into these accounts as well.

The questions that really need to be answered are:

1) How will we know what the 20% level limit is? How honest will IS be with this 20% thingy? How do we know they are not shaping the top 80%, i.e. if or whenever it suits them. What I'm getting at is that we as the users will never see the actual percentage being 'shaped'. All of us might end up being shaped after the first 10 days!
2) Over what period is this 20% level calculated, i.e. 1-day, 10-day or calender month.
3) Will accounts still get throttled during the 8am-8pm period during the week? If so, then...
4) What makes this account, at nearly double the cost of other uncapped shaped accounts, worth the extra money?

I'm sorry but I use to see some value in this account. Just feeling a little disappointed at the moment.

Hope Axxess can clarify some of these questions.
Click to expand...

I spoke to the marketing manager this morning regarding these term changes, apparently IS will be giving them figures business end today regarding the 20% region. Axxess have also stated they will want to implement an sms notification letting you know if you are reaching the region. It will most likely be throttling across the broad of time frames. They stated they are not happy with this, but like most resellers their hands are tied. With regards to what makes this account better, well from my perspective. I am not one of those people who are going to pull about 800gig a month. This month i've done about 150+- so far, and its stuff i want. In all fairness i think this implementation is not bad at all. The latency i have had for gaming on this account far surpasses mweb. Also my speeds are still constant if im not throttled in the day. And at night when i want something i will get it at the full speed not quarter of my line speed. But i guess we will just see how things pan out.
 
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