The true cost of Telkom ADSL

S

stuartgunter

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Location
Durban, SA
We all know that Telkom has ridiculously high telecoms charges – that’s no secret. But whenever a comparison is made to other countries, Telkom has a tantrum like a child stating that it’s unfair to compare South Africa to other countries. I decided to do a little comparison to show how expensive it really is… so here’s the results of the investigation.

I compared the time and costs involved in downloading 100GB of data over Telkom’s fastest ADSL offering (1Mbps) with the time and costs involved in flying to Hong Kong, visiting an Internet café, downloading 100GB of data at their fastest speed (1Gbps), and flying back.

Yep… that’s quite a challenge! And here are the details:

Telkom
Line speed = 1Mbps
Download Size = 100GB
Estimated Download Time = 9.5 days

ISP (34 x 3GB accounts @ R269) = R 9,146.00
Line Rental (ADSL) = R 680.00
Line Rental (Residential Voice) = R 92.28
TOTAL = R 9,918.28


Hong Kong
Line speed = 1Gbps
Download Size = 100GB
Estimated Download Time = 13 minutes

Flight (SAA) = R 7,942.00
Internet Café (average cost @ HKD20) = R 17.43
TOTAL = R 7,959.43


Difference: Hong Kong is cheaper by R 1,958.85

So to sum up… it’s cheaper and quicker to fly to Hong Kong if you want to download 100GB of data! I haven’t got the time to work out where the two converge, but it just shows how badly we’re being ripped off!


NOTE... if any of my points here are wrong, please correct me. I think they're fairly accurate though.
 
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Using your data, another direct comparison is that 100GB costs about R60 (realistically 10MB/sec and thus, 3 hours at about R20 per hour in the cafe)

So..
HK: approx R2 per GB
ZA: approx R70 per GB

Never mind the time difference..

Imagine food was 35 times more expensive here than there

in fact, the BMI (big mac index) gives the following:
HK:$1.54
ZA:$2.10

Broadband ratio: 35:1
Food ratio: 1.4 : 1
 
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well in the states I had cable broadband. I think it ran around 2.5gig/s through the tv line into the house. Cost me US$45 a month. Unshaped and unlimited bandwidth for the entire month. when the service went down for whatever reason, they would credit my account for the lost time (ie:went down for two days so they gave me a few bucks back on my bill as a credit!).

Here, line rental - R90
ADLS 384 - R360 or something
2 gig prepaid - R150
R600 +/- = about US$95/month

brother has DSL through phone there, pays US$25/month, 2gig/s unshaped/no limit on bandwidth.

Expensive, yes. How long can I last at these prices? wife is putting pressure, not sure. :(
 
vespax said:
well in the states I had cable broadband. I think it ran around 2.5gig/s through the tv line into the house...

...brother has DSL through phone there, pays US$25/month, 2gig/s unshaped/no limit on bandwidth.
Click to expand...

u sure bout that 2gig/s DSL and 2.5gig/s Cable???

AFAIK ADSL's max speed is 24Mbps with ADSL2+ and VDSL's max is 50Mbps.

2gig/s is faster than a 7200rpm harddrive and ur standard gigabit LAN!!!!
 
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So who needs 100GB of data? I'll fly over to Hong Kong for you :D
 
no I am not sure about that. Still learning about all this junk since it never concerned me before moving here. (isn't that the point though, it shouldn't concern you really)

I just remember a friend saying that his DSL had doubled in speed (Verizon Home DSL) and no increase in price. Same thing my bro has. Point is, he said it was now faster at home than on his office T1 connection.

I am not a huge techie, so don't hold me to the numbers. Internet should be fast, cheap and reliable though. Public service like water and electricity. my 2 cents.
 
vespax said:
...Public service like water and electricity.
Click to expand...

Well considering that there are still areas with no running water or electricity, I think it would be in the country's best interest to sort that out first surely? :D
 
So to sum up… it’s cheaper and quicker to fly to Hong Kong if you want to download 100GB of data! I haven’t got the time to work out where the two converge, but it just shows how badly we’re being ripped off!
Click to expand...

This is a really brilliant comparison! Not sure if all the numbers are entirely accurate, but I love the approach and the result is probably more or less correct!
 
LOL :D One of the best posts I have seen lately. Haha
 
Phh. You have to remember should you decide to download 100gb of data, getting 34x 3gb accounts isnt exactly the most practical approach. Uncapped ADSL will probably be more effective and only cost you an estimate of R3k. Thats like saying i want a 400gb hard drive but i prefer to buy 10x 40gb hdd's and pay more.
 
@jabalsad

I think stuartgunter was comparing Telkom's offerings. The uncapped accounts are not available from Telkom.

@stuartgunter

Could you post a link to the provider for 1Gbps? I thought HKs fastest provider was 100Mbps. I'm not saying you are wrong, I may have missed a news article and I would like to catch up.

Peace.
 
BlobNow said:
you didn't include hotel fees, airport taxes, food, etc ... but I agree it's way too close ...
Click to expand...

You wouldn't require hotel fees or food seeing as you'd only be downloading for 13 minutes and thenm hop back on the plane to SA, so if you're ok with airplane food you should be fine :p

I'm not sure but isn't airport taxes included in your fair?

/me shrugs
 
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