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Domain: telkom.co.za
Stories and comments across the archive that link to telkom.co.za.
Comments · 15
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Re:stupid point to make
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Re:stupid point to make
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Re:Telmex in Mexico,..
The situation is far worse than most people know.
In actual fact it isn't possible to get 2Mb down/ 128k up broadband for $50 in SA. Telkom charge you TWICE for line rental, separate from the service provider fee. For the pricing check out these pages: Telkom line rental prices
and Telkom ISP site
For instance, for 2MB you pay R413,00 (US$57) for DSL line rental. On top of that you have to pay about R100,00 (US$14) analogue line rental (for the same copper line) since you also use the line for analogue voice line use. Then you have to pay the ISP fee. Which is ordered by the size of data cap you need per month. For a 3GB cap per month you pay R239,00 (US$33). But don't forget the fact that the traffic is also packet-shaped, which as far as I know is illegal in most European countries.
So that's a total of R752.00 (US$104) per month for a maximum of 3GB usage (total, down and up together) per month on a 2GB packet-shaped connection which only offers a minimum speed of 640kbps.
As a comparison it is possible to get a 24Mb connection with no packet-shaping or cap for 24,50 (about US$33) here in Finland which includes line rental and ISP fee with 0 installation cost.
Internet in SA sucks incredibly. Just my 2 cents. -
Re:Like the cricket, South Africa has you beat her
How come I can't find such a price (R18K) on http://www.telkom.co.za/ ?
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Re:Well at least they're not banned from Slashdot
Not that I'd know, having never been to South Africa, but if you trust the Telkom website, you're both either half right or half wrong, depending:
TelkomInternet powered by ADSL ~ Access options
TelkomInternet powered by ADSL provides both a shaped and unshaped service. Simply put, this means that we have built a service that will best meet your individual needs. For the general user the shaped service will fit most needs adequately.
* Shaped ~ In layman's terms, the shaped service prioritises keystroke activities - things you do while sitting in-front of your PC. So when you're surfing your favourite site, doing your banking online or checking you e-mail, this option will work best for you.
* For those of you that need to know more, read on. The shaped service distinguishes between the various protocols used over the Internet. The main priority is HTTP. At present, all international HTTP traffic is transparently cached for ADSL users. All international un-cached data is shaped. The following un-cached protocols are prioritised on the network: HTTP (in certain cases HTTP is not cached due to website incompatibilities), HTTPS, FTP, Mail (POP3, SMTP and IMAP), SSH and TELNET. Any protocol not mentioned above will receive a lower priority on the network. Unshaped ~ In layman's terms, whichever activity you are doing or leaving your PC to do, while not there, all available bandwidth will be used for this application or protocol.
* Unshaped ~This service will offer you unshaped international bandwidth and a higher data transfer rate. The unshaped service will not shape the un-cached protocols. All protocols will therefore share the available bandwidth equally. Similarly, local bandwidth will remain as is with no shaping implemented. Keeping this in mind, this service is typically designed for a niche market including, for example, your typical Forex Trader, specific gaming applications, secure work from home options and VPN's. All these applications can use unfamiliar protocols, which are not necessarily bandwidth intensive but require an unshaped service to work optimally. -
For once South Africa...
...is actually ahead of the US - Amazing!
PS - For the people who don't know what i am talking about, South Africa has a history of taking a very long time to deploy advances in telecoms - mostly due to our EVIL incumbent Telco, Telkom making sure they are able to rape the South African Internet population for all they are worth. Which means that typically our Internet connectivity options plainly suck. For some more information on how bad they suck, you can visit Hellkom or MyADSL.
However, we have actually had 3G technology over here for quite a couple of months already.
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For once South Africa...
...is actually ahead of the US - Amazing!
PS - For the people who don't know what i am talking about, South Africa has a history of taking a very long time to deploy advances in telecoms - mostly due to our EVIL incumbent Telco, Telkom making sure they are able to rape the South African Internet population for all they are worth. Which means that typically our Internet connectivity options plainly suck. For some more information on how bad they suck, you can visit Hellkom or MyADSL.
However, we have actually had 3G technology over here for quite a couple of months already.
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Connectivity is a bigger issue
Being from Africa (South Africa to be precise) I feel compelled to add some perspective. South Africa is considered to be the most advanced country on the continent and we have access to all Microsoft products.
There is a Microsoft regional office here that provides training and seminars. We even have a launch event scheduled for VS 2005. The point is we have most infrastrcuture in place.
The biggest problem that is holding us and other African countries back is internet connection speed and connectivity in general. Even here in technologically advanced South Africa ADSL is ridiculously expensive. Currently a 512k connection costs roughly the equivalent of $100/month plus the line is capped at 3GB.
Getting to online training sessions and even just MSDN is a major problem for most rural communities that still use modem connections since our main telecomunnications provider (Telkom) http://www.telkom.co.za/ also charges per minute for phone calls.
I think to help with training and advance Africa a better option would be to help local telecommunication companies reduce costs so that internet connections can become cheaper. -
How has his push for open source made inroads ?Folks,
Mark has made quite a few efforts in the open source arena - most notably (in my opinion) in efforts at putting Linux classrooms down in township schools. See Schools' Linux Users Group that uses K12LTSP - a for-schools offshoot of the parent LTSP project, and chases Fedora. They have done around 70 schools so far - basically a big fat server, a 24 port switch, and a 20 client classroom.
Wizzy Digital Courier is piloting a low-cost internet access system in these schools, initially using overnight dialup using cheap rate phone calls, but enabled to use USB memory sticks to carry data using the UUCP protocol. This means that the price of connectivity can come down to zero, and is not dependent on a wireline telephone company pricing.
Disclaimer:I do wizzy, and I have mod points today so I can post anonymously. Tee Hee.
andyr@wizzy.com
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Dilemma for South African GovernmentWhen Telkom were given another five years of monopoly seven years ago, I thought it was too long. The Second network operator has been a long time coming, and is not here yet.
Telkom has the South african government as a majority shareholder.
In return for a promised rollout of connectivity to rural areas, Telkom were allowed a monopoly of provider interconnect, international connectivity, and wireless (wireless -across property boundaries or a road, not office 802.11B)
Naturally, this artificially inflates Telkom's value, and the anticipated return of a de-regulation stock sale.
To the Government's credit, and ICASA they have acted in the interests of the South African consumer and liberalised the environment before de-regulation.
Cheers, Andy!
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Re:Monopolies are not all badI totally disagree! Widespread rollout by monopolies will only allow them to gain control over the entire infrastructure. And this has happened just here in South Africa!
One telephone operator: Telkom and happyly charging the consumers exorbadent fees for connectivity. Monthly phone line rental: $10 per month, local phonecall: $0.10 per minute!!, mobile calls at $0.30 per minute!, ADSL: $100 per month with a 3 GIG cap.
They are making the cash and do not provide for the requirements of this developing company. One example is that because of this monopoly, bandwidth is expensive (+-$0.15 per MB), VoIP is illegal (by law) and service is poor!
We hate the monopoly, and believe that free market economoies are much more able to deliver what the consumer requires.
*vent*
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Wizzy Digital Courier - High latency networkFolks,
We have an Internet-content delivery system that works in a high-latency environment, to deliver mail and web content to South African schools.
The problem it is designed to overcome is the high cost of local telephone calls in a monopoly wireline provider regulatory environment.
We use cheap-rate overnight phone calls and a UUCP delivery system in conjunction with a local mailserver and wwwoffle web cache.
UUCP can also be used via a USB memory stick, similar to the DataMule (pdf) paper referenced on the website. Carrying the memory stick (the Courier) is identical to one UUCP hop.
The website gives more information.
Cheers, Andy!
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Yay! I live in cape town
Its about time something cool happened here!
By the way open source has in fact been here for a while,I dont have all the links on hand but
Contrary to what you may think cape town and SA in general has a thriving PC population and even frequent LAN games(100+ games in CT every month or so) despite fairly poor hardware support (I dont even know where to buy apple macs around here (no big loss))
Our local monopoly offers the following : outrageous installation (about R4000 or about $615) including modem and monthly fees (R1200 or about $185) and a ridiculous cap of 3 gigs per month
However most PC users arent even aware that there are alternatives to windows and I have yet to meet anyone who runs Linux at home! -
Yay! I live in cape town
Its about time something cool happened here!
By the way open source has in fact been here for a while,I dont have all the links on hand but
Contrary to what you may think cape town and SA in general has a thriving PC population and even frequent LAN games(100+ games in CT every month or so) despite fairly poor hardware support (I dont even know where to buy apple macs around here (no big loss))
Our local monopoly offers the following : outrageous installation (about R4000 or about $615) including modem and monthly fees (R1200 or about $185) and a ridiculous cap of 3 gigs per month
However most PC users arent even aware that there are alternatives to windows and I have yet to meet anyone who runs Linux at home! -
Re:Eurasian Phat Pipe?
big fat pipe going from western europe to east asia
You may want to check out SAT-3/WASC/SAFE, which is actually two cables: one goes from Europe, down the West Coast of Africa to South Africa; the second goes up from South Africa past Mauritius to Malaysia. [NB: Don't confuse this cable with Africa One, which was referenced in this Slashdot story a while back.]
Telkom and the international companies behind SAT-3/WASC/SAFE are pushing them as a fully wet (and therefore, presumably safe) backup route for FLAG (WIRED article). Now FLAG is pretty old (and only ~5 Gbps, last time I checked), but there are a few other cables traversing the same route (eg SEA-ME-WE 3 (or is it 5?),) which is right through the currently-unstable Middle East. Some people like to be assured of the stability of any links they may buy - backup [wet] links are one of the answers.
And hey, it's great for [South] African [Internet] bandwidth!
Just thought you'd like some background
-Al