Put together a line transfer info pack and made it mostly ISP neutral for everyone else to use:
TELKOM LINE TRANSFERS
OK, let's clarify line transfers a bit.
Downtime:
There is no expected downtime if your ISP does its job right. So far Telkom ISP are the only ISP to have had delays and made the process more complicated than it needs to be, as they have implemented a paper-based cancellation form, and these just take them forever to process. It's not difficult necessarily. It just takes longer to get done, but once in their queue, it should release into the holding pool, um, soon. I'm not sure they have a set date and time as it appears very random at the moment. The line will only go down if it remains in the holding pool for more than 2 weeks. If your line remains in the holding pool for 4 weeks, it will be cancelled*. Your line may sync at 2Mbps while in the holding pool - this is normal. If it is grabbed quickly by the new ISP (<1 day) this shouldn't happen. Your ISP should resync it back up, but I cannot talk for other ISPs and their processes.
ISP to ISP transfer is dirt simple and fast, except at the moment when Telkom Internet have been involved. It is rather slow with them. It can take up to a week in our experience just for them to load the paperwork correctly. Um, TI, it's 1 damn paper form - get off your arses and speed it up, and get that form digitised.
*We've so far have 2 customers whose line went, well, missing. Literally - but it's 2 out of thousands, so the risk is far less than it was before. Both lines were recovered and no lines were cancelled.
Notications
You should receive a notification from your ISP on the day that the line is successfully moved into the holding pool by your previous ISP.
What you do from here is dependent on how your ISP processes on their end, but at Crystal Web we have a button that you click to manually inform us that the line is in the holding pool (this allows for early migrations which happen)
Your ISP then processes the move from holding pool into the ISP wholesaler's billing, andf resync takes place from 2Mbps where applicable back to normal provisioning speed or speed the line was migrated at (i.e you can upgrade on actual order with Crystal Web)
Moving back to the holding pool is required in order to switch ISPs - it is recommended to move your line to your data provider. More on that later*
Follow your ISP's instructions to cancel your line services with them and ensure that it is submitted with sufficient days to spare for cancellation notices. Crystal Web and Afrihost offer same-month cancellations, while other ISPs differ between 30 days from notice date (VOX), or calendar month's notice (Webafrica).
Once in the holding pool, follow the normal process for a migrate as in para 1 above
Should I leave my line with Telkom vs my ISP?
No. You should certainly move your line management and control to your ISP to allow for better insight, support, and flexibility from a single provider.
Telkom has split its divisions and businesses into their own units and legl entities. Telkom Retail ISP now acts as the sole Telkom ISP over Openserve but is completely separate (Previously Telkom Wholesale). Telkom Retail ISP is absolutely no different to all other ISPs when it comes to managing lines, with all faults, orders, regrades, provisioning and escalations happening on Openserve no matter who the ISP is.
This means that Telkom Retail ISP offers no benefit over other ISPs in the line management space like it did before, and all ISPs including Telkom ISP, operate with Openserve for processing, purchasing, changes and cancellations
Your ISP may be able to offer you a discount on your bundled line and data account. Please talk to your ISP to discuss pricing options or visit your ISP's website to look for bundles. Please note that at Crystal Web we allow you to add a line to any data package order, and therefore we allow for all bundling options in any configuration, at a flat monthly rental fee, paid by your ISP to Openserve.
Telkom lines are available in the following best effort download speed settings: 1Mbps, 2Mbps, 4Mbps, 8Mbps, 10Mbps, 20Mbs(ADSL2+/VDSL), 40Mbps (VDSL Only), 100Mbps (Fibre FTTH Only)**
**Telkom offers data lines on a best effort sync basis, meaning your line will auto-sync/provision at a speed nearest to the advertised product purchased, depending on various factors including distance from your house to the Telkom exchange that your line connects to (shorter distance is better), and the quality of the copper line itself that connects to that exchange (expressed as a signal to noise ratio [SNR] which is also impacted by distance to the exchange, because the longer the line, the more noise will be present for the same signal amount). Fibre lines are more resilient to distance and noise issues and are typically not subjected to such interference.
Upgrades are entirely dependent on line quality, port availability at the exchange, and the infrastructure deployed to your exchange. Not all sites support the same speeds. To identify your Telkom technology availability, as well as maximum available speeds, please consult the Telkom Coverage Map -
http://www.telkom.co.za/coverage/ we suggest checking monthly to monitor for upgrades to your area
We've been advised that the process may take up to 10 days. The reason that this has not been updated in ClientZone is that this is a temporary delay and hopefully the process will return to the regular 48 hour window in the near future. Please feel free to drop me a PM with your account details if you find that your upgrade is taking even longer and I'll do my best to follow up! 
