Seacom outage update from CEO Mark Simpson

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Seacom outage update

Seacom CEO Mark Simpson says that the cut cables will be repaired in the coming week, but that they are encountering challenges with restoration services
 
Hmm it may be worthwhile getting some prepaid bandwidth from Afrihost. Too bad it expires end of month.
 
amazes me that in this day and age we are held to ransom by a single flimsy cable laid on the sea bed. it sort of works now but very patchy. at least seacom is communicating with us and not keeping is in the dark
 
Pooky said:
Hmm it may be worthwhile getting some prepaid bandwidth from Afrihost. Too bad it expires end of month.
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You must have read wrong. Mine says 23 march 2014.

And it's just R24 p/g unlike R69 p/g for Webafrica...
Expiry: 2014-03-23
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Blind Faith said:
You must have read wrong. Mine says 23 march 2014.

And it's just R24 p/g unlike R69 p/g for Webafrica...
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I'm wanting to go for the 3 for one topup:

Your TopUp will expire on : 2013-03-31 23:59:59.
If you are making use of the ADSL Topup Buy 1 Get 3 topup data is only valid until the end of the current month
If you require data that will last for 12 months please select a normal data topup.
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As long as its working by Sunday, so come Monday I can get my weekly TV series fix :twisted:

I just hope they nail the damn ship that cut out some of the countries internet :mad: and give the affected ISP's a slightly reduced rate for the month ;)
 
I'm so glad I switched from mweb to Telkom last month. I've been using the net without a worry in the world.

I can understand why we suffered through this downtime when Seacom ISP's were so much cheaper, but now that Telkom is cheaper (or as cheap), just as fast and waaaay more reliable... I dont understand why people dont switch.

You know the saying... gotta get it while the gettings good.
 
Rands said:
amazes me that in this day and age we are held to ransom by a single flimsy cable laid on the sea bed. it sort of works now but very patchy. at least seacom is communicating with us and not keeping is in the dark
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It costs countries a lot when cables are cut. There have been a number of cases between here and the East. The problem isn't with the cable providers but lack of respect for maritime laws in the region.
 
inferno said:
I'm so glad I switched from mweb to Telkom last month. I've been using the net without a worry in the world.

I can understand why we suffered through this downtime when Seacom ISP's were so much cheaper, but now that Telkom is cheaper (or as cheap), just as fast and waaaay more reliable... I dont understand why people dont switch.

You know the saying... gotta get it while the gettings good.
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I think many people, would as a matter of principle, try to use a different ISP. Anything but Telkom. They've been shafting us for years, they deserve to go.
 
inferno said:
I'm so glad I switched from mweb to Telkom last month. I've been using the net without a worry in the world.

I can understand why we suffered through this downtime when Seacom ISP's were so much cheaper, but now that Telkom is cheaper (or as cheap), just as fast and waaaay more reliable... I dont understand why people dont switch.

You know the saying... gotta get it while the gettings good.
Click to expand...

+1
I just wish my latency was lower on TI.
There is a 50 -70ms difference between TI and my backup account, in favour of the backup account. I would love to have the 170 - 185ms latency ito gaming, but as for the rest, my TI is bulletproof atm and has been for this month.
 
inferno said:
I'm so glad I switched from mweb to Telkom last month. I've been using the net without a worry in the world.

I can understand why we suffered through this downtime when Seacom ISP's were so much cheaper, but now that Telkom is cheaper (or as cheap), just as fast and waaaay more reliable... I dont understand why people dont switch.

You know the saying... gotta get it while the gettings good.
Click to expand...

It's tempting but unless they don't throttle (and people can confirm it over a period of time with relatively heavy use) I wont be switching any time soon
 
inferno said:
I'm so glad I switched from mweb to Telkom last month. I've been using the net without a worry in the world.

I can understand why we suffered through this downtime when Seacom ISP's were so much cheaper, but now that Telkom is cheaper (or as cheap), just as fast and waaaay more reliable... I dont understand why people dont switch.

You know the saying... gotta get it while the gettings good.
Click to expand...

umm...because Telkom represents everything that is wrong with broadband in SA? Why voluntarily give money to the same government shareholder that already taxes you to intentionally restrict progress through anti-competitive practices?
 
FYI Afrihost uncapped bundles just R1 prorata till end of the month.
 
I've was one of the first to get a uncapped Mweb account when they shook up the market, and stayed with them due to excellent service. But this free Afrihost account is Blazing. I have to admit - Seriously thinking of moving over.
How are they when it comes to downloading and streaming?
 
Title of this article is misleading... (not the statement itself)

Seacom CEO Mark Simpson says that the cut cables will be repaired in the coming week, but that they are encountering challenges with restoration services
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Read more carefully what was said in his statement, "In the coming week *OR TWO*". Though I'll be REAL surprised if it happens in that kinda time frame. Keep in mind the process of repairing a sub-sea fiber:

a.) A Cable ship has to sail to the affected point, and there aren't that many of these ships, no guarantee there is one really close by.
b.) They have to pull the cable up at the break point, both sides
c.) They have to clean up the break segment, then splice in a joining piece
d.) They have to test it all works and then drop the cable to the bottom again
e.) They have to normalize the power on the cable system

Also, keep in mind that break is, as far as I know, in Egyptian territorial waters, that means getting permissions to actually sail in there and do this work as well as far as I know (open to correction on this point).

Cable repairs are also pretty weather dependent. If the weather is bad in that area, they gotta wait till it clear before they can do the job.

If they get it done within a week, well, I'll be pretty damn happy, but realistically? Two weeks minimum, and potentially a lot longer (the fault that occurred in the gulf of Aden took 4 weeks iirc)
 
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Having only used hem since the outage, on Friday during office hours torrents were downloading at about 400-450kb/s on 4Mbit uncapped bundle. Currently it's unshaped. Streaming I have mixed results. Youtube is ok, though I thought it was a bit better at web africa(IS). Yahoo Music video streaming is unstreamable. However that might be because there network status reports reduced throughput on international services due to problems in EASSy. http://www.afrihost.com/site/network_status
But try it for yourself for R1. If you sign up today and cancel before 25th for can trail it until the 31st.
 
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