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Telkom subjected to scientific evaluation

By Business Day, 8 November 2005 08-11-2005.

 

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TELKOM’s ridiculously high telecoms charges are no secret. But whenever a comparison is made with other countries, Telkom has a puerile tantrum, saying it’s unfair. So The Insider decided to commission a little comparison.

The Insider’s personal propellerhead compared the time and costs to download 100GB of data over Telkom’s fastest ADSL offering (1Mbps) with the time and cost to fly to Hong Kong, visit an internet café, download 100GB of data at the fastest speed (1Gbps), and fly back.

 

Quite a challenge, eh? Here are the results: Telkom line speed > 1Mbps, download size > 100GB, estimated download time > 9,5 days ISP (34 x 3GB accounts @ R269) > R 9146,00, line rental (ADSL) > R680,00, line rental (residential voice) > R92,28. Total > R9918,28.

 

Hong Kong Line speed > 1Gbps, download size > 100GB, estimated download time > 13 min, flight (SAA) > R7942,00, internet café > R17,43 (HK20). Total > R7959,43

 

Difference: Hong Kong is cheaper by R1958,85. So, it’s cheaper and quicker to fly to Hong Kong to download 100GB of data. The propellerhead doesn’t have the time to work out where they converge, but he agrees, we’re being ripped off.

 

 

Inet-Bridge

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Scary stuff, even if you consider the 11.5 hour flight time. No doubt that we are getting the short end of the stick. I have to say though, that the flight cost quoted seems a bit low - more like R10,000 for a return to HK.

 

For more interesting / horror stats visit Hellkom.

Edited by perdix
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and I just want to download some pocket queries and some map data. :rolleyes:

 

having come from the US, I can say that Telkom is charging way to much. And the amount that it will cost the country in the long term with handicapping the population in IT while everyone else moves forward, that will be a far greater price that South Africa will have to pay.

 

The price in Guatemala was incredibly cheap. Seemed like every kid in town was going into internet cafes and playing games online. I don't see it here. Too much $$$.

 

Oh, and do you know about Nov. 1? They, Telkom in their infinate wisdom, decided to make broadband pay per gig. About R75 per gig. On top of the line rental and ADSL rental fees. This is crippling broadband technologies here! and my wallet.

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Seemed like every kid in town was going into internet cafes and playing games online. I don't see it here.

Well something positive then!!!

 

Kids should be outside caching not sitting in stuffy I-Cafe's gaming :anibad:

 

Apart from being ripped off financially by Telkom... their service leaves much to be desired... then again so do all our telecoms companies.... allround pretty shoddy delivery!

 

Just to get this thread onto geocaching related activities....so telkom/vodacom/mtn/cellc are strangling our efficient use of Google Earth in order to get aerial pics of our caches and TB movements :anitongue::anitongue:

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Hi,

 

I hope some of you IT techies out there can help me. I want to get a broadband connection for home use. I have rules out Telkom ASDL because of cost, as I will have to still pay ISP charges to my ISP on top of that.

 

There is a local wireless broadband service provider who has the following package that I am interested in:

 

Access satDSL Home 192 for R495/month, which sounds like very good value, because there is no additional ISP charges. Maximum speed is 192kbits/s or 24kBytes/s. There is no maximum data cap per month - which is a bonus.

 

They do not guarantee a min speed (neither does Telkom). Is this speed sufficient for Google.Earth and other broadband apps. I might want to try out online gaming, downloading previously impossible apps and files as well.

 

More info can be found at Aerosat.

 

Can I please have informed opinions / recomendations from fellow cachers? Does anybody use them / or affiliates at present?

 

Thanks

perdix

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I haven't tried google earth on 192 speed, but I would guess that it would work. I am using the 384 speed right now.

 

I have Telkom ADSL 384 for the home. I am paying R360 a month line rental and then R90 for the phone line rental. Would most likely have that in the house anyways since cell costs are a bit high. I then have a pay per gig ISP through WebAfrica that is costing me R75 per gig. I bought two gigs to start the month off and have only used about 400 megs so far of it. The nice thing about Webafrica is balance of the account carried over to the next month, like a cell phone, so I don't loss my purchase at the end of the month. So for Nov. it is costing me R600 about for ADSL. I am thinking though that I will not have to buy gigs in December since we will be away for holiday, so it cuts my costs down. A little. ;)

 

With regards to the sattelite option, I can't really say. I have heard good (not Telkom) and bad things (need line of sight, network failures). I would refer you to this site for info an all those types of things. MyADSL?

 

People in there know their stuff, even if they complain excessivly about broadband in SA.

 

my opinion, for what it's worth. Get Telkom 192 (that's the speed you want) with no contract and the self install kit (saves you R404 by plugging the cables in yourself) and buy a second hand modem from a computer shop (got mine for R400). Then when you see changes in the market, ie- Second Network operator, then you can switch over as you like. Never sign a contract with a monopoly though. :D

 

Once you have a constant internet connection in the house, you will really be able to enjoy what the internet is all about. Even if you have to pay out the a** for it at the present time.

 

Sheesh, that was long, hope it helps. :D

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You really don't need such a fast connection to use google earth, My brother and I use Sentech and have a 128kbit SHARED connection (which means it's usually less than that) at R500 per month, and we use google earth without any issues. I have even used it a few times on a dial up connection, so I don't think google earth will be a problem at all. Online games is another storey of course :D - there it all depends on the game you play. Also listening to live feeds/streams such as i-net radio, it makes a quite a big difference to have a connection above 256kbit. Not having a cap is great if you like me and sometimes download large amounts of stuff, even though I have now found out after a phone call from sentech that 13Gig exceeds there 10 Gig SOFT cap... apparently you get 3 warnings ;) hehe. - Charlie from QFC

Edited by QFC
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iBURST... bursts plenty if I take Brick's experience. Depends on where you are located and what kind of signal you are going to receive. I know 4 people that use the system and all have complained about loss of signal. I tested it at my house, reached on average 300k inside, although it bounced around between 40k and 360k. I stepped outside with my notebook and hit 500k straight away and it seemed fairly stable...although I was only out there for about 20 minutes. You can get a relay antenna.

 

I have run Google Earth over a normal 56k dialup and it worked fine... albeit a bit slow.

 

Works fine dialling up via mobile phone (GPRS) 115k as well.

 

Sentech kindly informed me that I MAY get signal on my property.... Picturing myself at the corner of my property on top of a 6m ladder trying to get a signal didn't grab me so never persued....although the technical person I spoke to at the same company informed me that he didn't use his own product but that of Telkom's. Guess it depends whether you will have a reliable signal on your property or not!

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Thanks for all your advice and inputs. I think since Sentech has not rolled out their system in the EC yet, I will investigate Aerosat a bit more. I did not know that you could get ADSL from Telkom without a contract, so this might still be an option - though I am against big monopolies as a rule and the current service I get from them is not great.

 

Aerosat does test the signal at your home before installing, so hopefully this will prevent the "lost signal" issue.

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