Slow ADSL? Telkom says why

Maybe it is for many people, but for anyone with technical knowledge Telkom congestion is the most frustrating because there is nothing you can do about it.
 
I've had personal experience and I can tell you trying to get capacity upgrades from Telkom is an absolutely hellish experience. Their time frames are long, they easily exceed their own times, I have tried to contact Alfonso often and he has NEVER responded or replied and I could go on much longer. The only redeeming feature (if there is one) is there are a few staff at Telkom who genuinely try to expedite things, which is commendable given what an uphill battle it is
 
Bolox Telkom you are one of my ISP's and it's ridiculous I can't get faster than 3.4Mbps in Faerie Glen!!!
Get the foundation right then you'll find the future will be more stable.
 
“I would be very happy to give anybody that applies for IPC capacity as quickly as possible,” he said, adding that ISPs are welcome to give him a call if there are any problems in this regard.
Click to expand...
Mr Samuels

Thank you for the kind offer. We do understand that there are major constraints in Telkom's ability to serve the market - some of which are of Telkom's own making (for example your company's recalcitrance with respect to facilities leasing, particularly of the local loop), but many are simply a product of nobody with sufficiently deep pockets stepping up to the plate. Naturally we will be taking you up on the offer to field calls concerning problems in IPC acquisition and as soon as there are problems in this regard our directors (particularly the MD and I) will be in contact.
At this point though it is the pricing - and moreover the direction of pricing going forward which should be of concern to everybody. Whilst we respectfully disagree with ISPs who have taken the stance that Telkom's increase of line access speeds, which is effectively a price reduction, is anticompetitive and a form of margin squeeze, we cannot but remind you that in an era of growing data demands it is absolutely vital to make access to the only truly deep penetrating national network in South Africa available to ordinary consumers. This is only accomplished through lower costs to all ISPs - including Telkom Internet within your group -of access to the network through the IPC products, MPLS, bitstream or any other exciting initiatives that Telkom on a wholesale basis to ALL providers.

Kind Regards
Paul Hjul
Director at Crystal Web and Passionate Consumer.
 
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@blamejan

Will it be possible to find out exactly what are these 8 potential points of congestion?

Secondly, Samuels said there are 8 potential points of congestion that might affect an ADSL subscriber’s Internet experience.
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Well at least he has admitted to the congestion problem .

"He hinted that the ongoing roll-out of Telkom’s next-generation network will have a beneficial impact on exchange-related congestion issues, and that they have a number of “exciting initiatives” on the cards for Telkom Wholesale."

IMHO the problems with congestion should be sorted out as a matter of priority .
Those problem areas should have been first for next-generation network .
 
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MickeyD said:
@blamejan

Will it be possible to find out exactly what are these 8 potential points of congestion?
Click to expand...

Probably something like... 1) LAN (Customer) 2) ADSL DSLAM (Telkom) 3) Upstream Network/ESR/ATM or whatever (Telkom) 4) IPConnect (Telkom&ISP) 5) ISP's Network/Switching/Routers etc (ISP) 6) ISP's Bandwidth Provider (One or more bandwidth providers/peering exchanges depending on destination) 7) Third party ISP providing onward connectivity & Third party hosting facility etc. 8) Application/Service provider providing the actual service ie. Skype/Facebook/Joes Pet Hamster Photo Site.

Probably oversimplified but it's easy to get a minimum of 8.
 
I am with Telkom ADSL and Telkom ISP and the internet is almost unusable. 0,3 download speed and 0,01 upload tested. That is if you care to wait a minute for Speedtest to open. I call BS
 
Between the lines

An interesting admission here, between the lines:
firstly, no IPC order backlog at Telkom.
“I would be very happy to give anybody that applies for IPC capacity as quickly as possible
Click to expand...
A couple of points from this:
  1. There are no ongoing upgrades right now: this is because they take forever to do.
  2. No timeframe is given for upgrades
  3. There is a claim of no preconditions for IPC access beyond making application
  4. The speaker is not involved in the giving of IPC capacity
  5. If he was involved in IPC capacity, it would make him happy. I guess he wants to be a techie again.
  6. A timeous delivery would be a cause for great happiness: either he is very happy at all times, or timeous delivery is unusual
  7. What about downgrades? Surely it is possible to downgrade as well as upgrade? Is there some kind of lock in contract that you get forced into?
This reminds me of Star Trek, where they upgrade their shields and nothing visibly happens, except that they last a few seconds longer. The real world is not quite like that.
 
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Congestion is definitely a problem. I have downloads scheduled on my 4Mbps line and easily get the full capacity in off-peak hours.

But during the evenings, my line speed drops to 1.5Mbps and is often unbearably slow.
 
cfilorux said:
An interesting admission here, between the lines:

A couple of points from this:
  1. There are no ongoing upgrades right now: this is because they take forever to do.
    ...
...
Click to expand...

“I would be very happy to give anybody that applies for IPC capacity as quickly as possible,” he said, adding that ISPs are welcome to give him a call if there are any problems in this regard.
Click to expand...

But then MyBB conveniently links this story at the bottom: Afrihost ADSL capacity increase delay
Was this ever resolved? My experience is not.

Afripeople?
 
So what does it mean when all 3 of my ISP accounts (WebAfrica, Afrihost and OpenWeb) run at the same slow speed (about 2 mbps out of the stated 6 mbps)?
Are all 3 of the ISPs to blame?
 
Is this guy a comedian?
I would elaborate on the congestion problems that I have had to deal with for years in two parts of the country but it will just get me worked up for nothing.

RPM please could you get some explanations from ISPs for a counter argument.
 
Well, telkom is my ISP as well, so my complaint for the last 19 months is still falling on deaf ears...
 
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