False advertising - Telkom on 5fm...

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Juice

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False advertising

I was listening to 5FM this morning and they are promoting a Ring Tone chart show sponsored by Telkom.

http://www.5fm.co.za/news_5fm_details.asp?id=3158

Now, Mark Gilman had a little blurb about HomeDSL (192) and he mentioned that the service was great for browsing, blogging, gaming and music downloads. We know that the last two are not generally true because of port shaping on the ports through which you generally play games and perform downloads and also because Telkom has on numerous occasions stated explicitly that ADSL is not intended for gamers and also that gamers and downloaders are branded, by Telkom, as abusers of the system.

I would like to lodge a complaint with the Advertising Standards organisation, as well as the Independant Broadcasting watchdog. Before I could do this, I need some hard facts to back up my claims that the statement that "HomeDSL 192 is great for browsing, blogging, gaming and music downloads" is patently false.

Can anyone help? Also, how would we go about organising a mass protest and numerous submissions?

Juice
 
blogging and browsing should be fine i think, but there is just NO way that gaming (especially on overseas servers) is great. its acceptable within our borders though, but the big games (the MMO's) are experiencing endless poop from Telkom.

Downloading? yes, ADSL is great for downloading, but not HomeDSL192-512 from Telkom. Unless you want to download all the game demos from games.saix.net. The problem is also the cap (which limits you horribly) and the shaping. Download what you want, until you get capped for ABUSING ADSL (which we all know was NEVER intended for gaming and downloads).
 
Juice said:
I was listening to 5FM this morning and they are promoting a Ring Tone chart show sponsored by Telkom.

http://www.5fm.co.za/news_5fm_details.asp?id=3158
Can anyone help? Also, how would we go about organising a mass protest and numerous submissions?

Juice
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The BCCSA can be found on http://www.bccsa.co.za. They have a standard form that one needs to fill out. Generally, for mass complaints, it is better that more than one letter gets sent. I.e. they're more likely to take action in the event of receiving many complaints about a specific advert. Remember: the code of conduct rules apply and should be used word for word where relevant in the letter.

Sidenote: The BCCSA works on a tribunal type system, i.e. complaints are taken to the tribunal (almost like a board) and decided there and then. The advert or information may be pulled, and in rare instances, the matter may be filed for evidence in court (e.g. usage of images of real people or companies in a derogatory or defamotory fashion).

Post what you're gonna send them in this thread, let us have a look and use that as a template for subsequent complaints.
 
Juice said:
Now, Mark Gilman had a little blurb about HomeDSL (192)
Click to expand...

Phone Gillman and tell him he is a Telkom lapdog biatch for spreading crap like that to the nation.
Either he is oblivious to the actual facts, or he couldnt care, as long as the revenue comes in.
It can be expected from the SABC though, just yesterday they had to apologise for not covering the boo'ing off stage of the Deputy President, and there seemingly total lack of interest in the 'oilgate' story as well.

In the words of Rhoda Kadalie 'Give us news, not propaganda.'
 
Sneeky said:
Phone Gillman ... oblivious to the actual facts, or he couldnt care, as long as the revenue comes in.
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Erm - it's not up to hm, the station management and PR decide on advertising. The spot/ad blurb/copy would have been written by Telkom PR people, i.e. the advertiser (in this case sponsor)
 
I have had many issues about Telkoms OBVIOUS false advertising campaigns, but each time i ask about it it amounts to nothing. I quote a relatively recent add that they placed in their bill:

Music, movies, fashion, interaction... everything in the universe... is coming at you as fast as you want it, through the internet which is powered by broadband. Are you ready for it?
Click to expand...

Anything you can imagine
Broadband is really fast internet access. Which means that the information you're looking for is yours at super fast speeds. HomeDSL is broadband access that comes in a variety of speeds where prices are tailored to suit your budget.
Click to expand...

Now fast internet access is SUPER AFFORDABLE. SAVE TIME - homework, shopping, banking can be done in record time. SAVE MONEY - no internet dial-up charges and a fixed monthly rate helps you stick to your budget. SAVE YOUR SANITY - no more frustration. Plus the whole family will have time to surf.
Click to expand...

With the internet anything is possible. It's vast knowledge, fast paced action and a total liberation of the mind. A spere of limitless possibilities, all founded on boundless connectivity. And Telkom has everything you need to become a player in this global phenomenon.
Click to expand...

Look up some synonymns for boundless. Damn, i hate these people.
 
guys do think gaming is good for anyone else in the world

if a usa player wants to play on a server in europe you think his ping will be under 300?

local is always fast. just because someone has a 8meg line doesnt mean his ping will be great when gaming on another country's server

and you would be wrong to lodge a complaint because adsl 192 is great for everything
 
Thanks for the replies. I'm still a little short on the facts. Specifically, if Telkom says that ADSL is great for gaming and downloads, I need to prove that it is not. With facts. Merely saying that it is common knowledge is not enough. Saying that in my experience as a user, is not enough. It would be really, really useful if someone has a documented instance where Telkom or their representatives have explicitly stated that ADSL is NOT intended for gaming or downloading of media. I know Telkom have used this line of defense several times, but I need to be able to reference a credible, printed source as part of my complaint.

Anyone?

Juice
 
how fast do think data can travel from here is lets say london is under 100ms?

gaming overseas is bad for anyone with any provider

and at the moment i have been getting 25kbs ave on edonkey for 2 days now so i dont know whats changed but im happy edonkey is finally workin again, now i can complete my porn collection
 
killadoob said:
guys do think gaming is good for anyone else in the world

if a usa player wants to play on a server in europe you think his ping will be under 300?

local is always fast. just because someone has a 8meg line doesnt mean his ping will be great when gaming on another country's server

and you would be wrong to lodge a complaint because adsl 192 is great for everything
Click to expand...

No. ADSL is shaped. Shaping impacts my ability to play a game because it introduces incapacitating latency and intermittent latency spikes. (Ping is not latency.)

Furthermore, their advertisement mentions gaming. Not LOCAL gaming. It implies that I should be able to play any game I like and that ADSL would be great for it. Whether I play Hearts on Yahoo, Counter-Strike on SAIX or World of Warcraft is of no importance whatsoever.

Juice
 
Juice
You can do all the stuff that Telkom claim you can do with ADSL, they are not lying as such, they are just warping the truth a bit.
Yes you can download movies, clips, mp3 etc. Yes you can play games and local is lekker, they even provide a free gaming service, SGS.
What they dont tell you though is that with the current pricing structure and bandwidth cap limits, you can do all of the above, but at a very limited rate per month. Sure you can buy more bandwidth, but the point is not to spend more on communication than on your bond or vehicle HP payments.
Telkom think that bandwidth is oil or fuel and charge accordingly.
Telkom, depending on who's asking, will say sure you can use ADSL for gaming, but in the next breath will say that you can only game for an hour or 2 a week. Funny chaps these Telkom muppets, Vapi being example number 1.
VOIP is wonderfull, just that on my ADSL 512 connection I am almost convinced that Skype is limited somehow, even streaming Radio5 or Highveld is very choppy.
Streaming, also one of telkoms claims, but if you do the math it wont take a lot of streaming to eat into your 3 gig std cap (which ICASA even found is patheticaly to low).
So, download a few updates (be it gaming or software stuff like linux), some mp3's and do a bit of streaming, then meander off to play BF2 (that eats like 30-50meg an hour i guess) and before you can say Hellkom, your ass is capped.
Telkom say that most of their subscribers dont even reach the 3 gig cap and that is more than likely totaly true, but they are missing the point completely.
What is the purpose of a 512 connection if you cannot use it the way its intended to be used, as they do elsewhere in the world. Telkom need to be informed that the internet goes a bit further than email and browsing, which when confronted they always fall back on as the main reasons why they rolled out dsl in the first place, always on connection for browsing and email, gimme a break.
My 128K isdn connection gave me better speeds uploading and downloading from my own webspace which I have overseas because of the shaping. I dont even try and upload anything during the day anymore, it just times out, after 2200 it starts to come right. So much for always on if you can only use it when the vampires come out to play eh. Reason why I host my stuff overseas, I can host big files, and get 10gigs Traffic allowed PER DAY!!!!! and it cheaper than almost any trivial package offered in SA, directly Telkoms doing.
Sorry, i forgot what you asked again, I went on a little rant:D
 
5fm advert

I heard a Telkom advert this morning on 5fm...

In it they claimed that adsl was for gaming, along with many other things... someone must try get hold of it... was on the Gillman show...
 
I also heard a telskom ad on 5 - about the top 20 ringtones or something?

sat in silence for a few minutes at the lameness.
 
Celemasiko said:
Its really annoying to listen to this Telscum crap and lies. I am sick and tired off it.
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It reminds me of the Bible - remember the scene where Adam and Eve were standing by the tree deciding what to make for dinner, and the snake popped out from between the leaves and offered the poisoned apple?
 
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