Carrier Pigeon beats Telkom ADSL

I think ADSL connections all over the country seem to be very slow over the last week. My ADSL connection at my office usually wipes the floor with my wireless connection at home, but yet over the past few days its taken like over a minute just to open a thread on this forum.

Funny thing is the internet was down all over East London last Friday and I hear in some surrounding areas as well... It almost seems like that episode of South Park where the internet is sick :lol:
We all gonna have to move to Californi to find us some internet :p
 
I think ADSL connections all over the country seem to be very slow over the last week. My ADSL connection at my office usually wipes the floor with my wireless connection at home, but yet over the past few days its taken like over a minute just to open a thread on this forum.
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Yip, which is the reason i posted it here, just to let folk know that its not the forum itself.
 
What percentage of people in this country have access to ADSL AND who pays for it? Now the telecoms people have to spend billions to upgrade the capacity so that we can have fast internet. This cost has to come from somewhere and they are not going to do it as a public service. We are going to pay for it.
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What percentage people uses the Gautrain or other service between Pretoria and Johannesburg? (excluding private vehicles) Yet billions are spent on this project before any income is even generated.
 
Crispin you showoff;). One day in SA we'll have that. What about that undersea cable that landed a few months ago that is supposed to speed things up?
 
RiaanP said:
What percentage people uses the Gautrain or other service between Pretoria and Johannesburg? (excluding private vehicles) Yet billions are spent on this project before any income is even generated.
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Once again people are not comparing things equally. The gautrain was built to relieve EXISTING traffic pressure. That implies there is a need for it. What is the need for such fast internet apart from luxury? Hoe does a slower internet affect your day-to-day living?
 
mariusmeyer said:
my 384K line is enough. And if I wanted to hten I could always go for the 4MB line.
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I agree, when I had a 384k line I found it more than ample for my browsing needs, but if you are dealing with big downloads or playing online games then it is slow, but for browsing the net it was plenty fast enough for me.
 
mariusmeyer said:
Once again people are not comparing things equally. The gautrain was built to relieve EXISTING traffic pressure. That implies there is a need for it. What is the need for such fast internet apart from luxury? Hoe does a slower internet affect your day-to-day living?
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The same way you would wait longer to get to work by commuting other people would wait for downloads:whistling:Both is a waste of time:p
 
Tony said:
Crispin you showoff;). One day in SA we'll have that. What about that undersea cable that landed a few months ago that is supposed to speed things up?
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Shh, don't mention the under sea cable. Someone might go and steal it.:whistling:
 
The gautrain was built to relieve EXISTING traffic pressure. That implies there is a need for it.
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Yes and the way that a to enforce a need for the Gautrain, is to toll-gate all the Gauteng "free" ways, yes, all these roadworks and stuff-ups, narrow lanes, as soon as it is all opened and done with, up comes the camera toll-gates. Taxed per kilometre used. Now how is that for creating or enforcing a need for the Gautrain.

And the "free" ways becomes "pay" ways. Proposed at 50c a km, That is 45 bugs for me per day. Another 900-1000 per month out of my pocket. Excluding the parking fees close by terminals. Rather connect with METRO underground trains Soweto via JHB central to Tembisa. Same from Attridgeville via PTA central to Mammelodi. Give means of transport to the masses.

For 35Euro in Holland you get 200 channel TV, unlimited internet access and home telephone. Yes, that is for under R400, here for the equivalent I have to pay at least another R1000 extra. (And I'm capped).

Eskom, another example. How to ruin a country without nobody noticing. Do not build any power stations for 16 years. Preach from Parliament substantial national product growth rates. Try to get other "service providers" to enter and compete against Eskom. But they cannot make money or compete, as Eskom is cheap, they not spending anything on infrastructure. Now, it is the PEOPLE'S fault for using to much electricity? I mean, Eskom can see the need for power increases on their grids each year, they can see the private property and business and factory numbers being build. Now we must bail them out to built new power stations urgently with a requested 50% hike. After their directors board received millions in bonuses for running the company "successfully".

Take SABC. No more international sport except European soccer that they get cheap. No F1, No Rugby, repeats, repeats and more repeats. Stopping local Soapies and other productions. Trying to change their laws to allow Local sport to be broadcast as local content. That is cheap, stop at a local game, tape it with one camera man and use it. No need to pay any actors or production houses. And we must pay a television license because "it is the right thing to do".

At least one good thing from Telkom. They sold their part in Vodacom (with enormous kickbacks to certain individuals). The real reason. They are not allowed to compete with one of their own subsidiaries / partners. So Telkom cannot enter the cellphone market at all. Now they are competitors. Soon to come is a service from Telkom that is a home phone that works on the Cellphone grid. But it cannot travel or switch towers. So you can use one phone at home in Pretoria and at office in Sandton. Yeeeaaahhhh.. for what it is worth.

We are a first world country, run like a third world country.
Do not get me wrong, I love South Africa, but been to Europe and Japan, and know what we can get and what we are getting.

Now I rumbled enough on this subject, my blood pressure is up there and I cannot type fast enough. So for me this is the end of my opinions.
 
mariusmeyer said:
No. I just dont like it when people compare two totally different things.

What percentage of people in this country have access to ADSL AND who pays for it? Now the telecoms people have to spend billions to upgrade the capacity so that we can have fast internet. This cost has to come from somewhere and they are not going to do it as a public service. We are going to pay for it.

So that billions will be split between the few people in this country who does have access to ADSL and thus making it even more expensive. Until our country actually make use of the benefits of fast internet I do not see reason why we would want it so fast. How often do you download big files (big meaning 100s of megs)? Apart from the illegally downloaded movies and series and music?

If all the supermarkets and other types of stores support online ordering and delivery etc then I would say yes we need faster bandwitdh. But for now my 384K line is enough. And if I wanted to hten I could always go for the 4MB line.
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I for one would like faster internet access, and not to be capped.
And no, it's not for illegal download for movies or music.
Do you know that you can actually rent movies over the net? But for us it will just be impossible and expensive!

And also - playing online games with a 384 line is just to slow!!
Yes I've gone to a 4MB line - but only to be informed later on that Telkom does not actually support or guarantee a line speed of 4MB. I had some connections problems with my 4 MB line - they had to reduce my line speed to 1 MB.

Yes there are cost implications in upgrading the infrastructure - but did you see the profit that Telkom made in the past?
 
Very funny article :lol::lol:

Also very interesting comments from everyone. Here's my 2C (and I definitely have not, will not work for telkom) but having major clients in the telecomms arena has given me a lot of insight.

South Africans in generally are not aware of the infrastructure required to run high speed internet services and the cost involved. To get the same speeds will take time and cost more in the beginning (then we moan again ! not realizing that they also have shareholders to report to, have to recover capital investments etc). The fact that we are still behind is not because of bad planning , as with eskom, but more a cost issue.

Not even MTN or Vodacom can support their datacard speeds. If you want better speed be prepared to pay ie I use a 4GB coneection and dont actually get that (just had a look at the router and and the mo just over 2 up and 4 down) this does however cost me a lot more than a 348 connection.

As for the pigeon, very stupid but smart, marketing ploy. What they forgot to mention is all the other pigeons stayed at home that day :)
 
I just ditched a 4 meg line and went back to 512k, the local exchange wasn't that happy with the speed and the only time it truly worked was when the rugby was on. still have the 5 gig cap though....
 
Marius - I agree with you - I too am happy at this stage with my 384kbps ADSL line. BUT, that is only because I have 7.2 mbps HSDPA on my cell-phone (when I use my cell-phone as modem), and I have a company 7.2mbps Vodafone dongle on my work 3G account....

BUT, there is one thing I have against your way of thinking - if everyone in South Africa is/was just happy with the way this is/was, then there would be NO progression in South Africa.
South Africans are world renowned to be HUGE procrastinators. They don't do much about nothing.
So - if everyone though about ONE thing in life like you are thinking of your ADSL, then NOTHING good will ever happy in this country.

I take my hat off for Vodacom - they are the company with the MOST "firsts" in the WORLD!
They have pushed the cell-phone network, as we know it now. Previously world-wide, the cell-phone networks was a HUGE mess.

I was in The Netherlands during the time of the "big cell-phone revolution". And that was only in 1999/2000. At that time, there was only ONE cell-phone ISP/provider - KPN. Then - in about 2 years, 12 more companies opened their doors, and cell-phones became SUPER CHEAP, with HUGE stability, and coverage ALL over the world!

I am trying to say - if people in South Africa don't fight for progression, we (as the people of South Africa, and as a country) stagnates. Meaning we go BACK to the dark ages....
The companies mentioned here above are all great examples of exactly this!

This "marketing ploy" is something that made a HUGE AMOUNT of people THINK again about where South Africa stands, w.r.t progress.....

Does ANYONE on this forum, who read this, want to be part of progression? Or regression? (stagnation)?
 
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Lets just face it. The major companies in this country are run by either overly greedy or dumb people. Possibly both. We will get to decent speeds when their pockets are lined thick enough just dont hold your breath. The uk had uncapped 4meg lines for under 30 pounds six years ago when i was there. You will never convince me that after all this time we aren't even there yet because there isn't enough of a market. That is horse do do.
 
Raven said:
Yes I've gone to a 4MB line - but only to be informed later on that Telkom does not actually support or guarantee a line speed of 4MB. I had some connections problems with my 4 MB line - they had to reduce my line speed to 1 MB.

Yes there are cost implications in upgrading the infrastructure - but did you see the profit that Telkom made in the past?
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I cant complain - I'm getting 4mb up or down most of the time. The capping system pisses me off though.
 
I left UK 2 years ago and had a 10 meg uncapped line. In the time I've been back nothing has really happened on the tech side. I used to work for the company previously mentioned as a sub-contractor and have a rough idea of what they make a minute, not to mention the kick back from suppliers of premium sms services associated with facebook / twitter based in europe , Gentlemen check your bill's. You could be buying a lot more fish.
 
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