Free ADSL speed upgrades from Telkom

Saint_Dee said:
This is great. I wonder though (complete ADSL noob :o), if one were to get an upgrade (a paid one) prior to the free upgrade, would you still be eligible for an upgrade to a higher tier? For example, I upgrade from 1 to 2Mbps, would I be eligible for an upgrade to a 4Mbps line?

What are the specifics?
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Thats exactly what would happen. You aren't actually subscribing to specific speeds per say, in terms of Telkom line/package you're either on "Fast Broadband", "Faster Broadband" or "Fastest Broadband". SO if you are currently on "Fast Broadband" which is a 1mb line, and upgrade right now to the "Faster Broadband" which would mean 2mb line. Then when these current upgrades happen, you'll be bumped up to a 4mb line, but you'd still be on the "Faster Broadband" package. If that makes sense.

S1ght said:
I went from Mweb 4meg uncapped to the Afrihost Capped bundle. Am still trying to find that sweet spot of how much cap I use during a month but has definitely been better in terms of general responsiveness and no shaping etc :) I think it also worked out cheaper for like a 100gig+10meg line vs 4meg uncapped which was a win in my books.
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Ja I think its the way to go. Since mweb throttling, even though I haven't been throttled, I'd rather just go to Afrihosts capped product. Full line speed all the time, no questions asked.
 
eventually all the big exchanges will be offering 10mb.....where I live the exchange is 10mb capable, but they not offering it yet as it was still in trial. However with the MSANS roll outs and the reduction in amount of copper length to the houses it will eventually go everywhere. Only from MSAN to house will be copper...rest is all fibre.

MSAN btw is the new streetboxes...and as I understand it (speak under correction) they aim to have no more than 400m between any house and the nearest MSAN...

So eventually we should see some really good increases in lines speeds and latency.
 
Great news if I can't get 10 megs hopefully I will pay the same as the 2 megs current price.

On another note I was wondering why there was a guy at our box and other Telkom vehicles around plus cables being laid in Hilton
 
Mouks said:
OMG! Ek kan amper my lag nie hou nie :D
So how does Netflix do on a 2Meg line"whistling:
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Last time I checked the quality on a 2mbit was very watchable but it won't blow your socks off. Don't expect HD quality. Luckily you can get a free trial to first check if you are happy with the service.
 
Mouks said:
OMG! Ek kan amper my lag nie hou nie :D
So how does Netflix do on a 2Meg line"whistling:
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Ja, I got netflix when I was on a 2mb line and it was very watchable, pretty much normal SD tv. I now have a 4mb line, and its not that different. I barely ever get HD. I have heard a reason for that is that it streams from California, and when I do a speedtest to California I get about 1.8Mb...so sounds plausible?
 
Wenzdayz said:
oh nice, so my 2mb line will be a 4mb line from 11/11/13. Awesomeness
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Just a reminder to everyone: Telkom specifically mentions "Burst speeds" of up to xx line speed. Its not a permanent increase.

“This will provide customers the ability to burst to potentially higher speeds subject to network conditions.”

So if your exchange is not overloaded and you're within a certain usage profile, you'll be allowed to effectively double your line speed. Telkom doesn't say if this is also for local sites or international as well.

Saint_Dee said:
This is great. I wonder though (complete ADSL noob :o), if one were to get an upgrade (a paid one) prior to the free upgrade, would you still be eligible for an upgrade to a higher tier? For example, I upgrade from 1 to 2Mbps, would I be eligible for an upgrade to a 4Mbps line?
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When Telkom was still upgrading all the line speeds, 384Kb users upgraded to 1Mb speeds before they were switched to 2Mb profiles for free, so its possible.

I wonder how their network is going to handle all of this and if there's going to be contextual switching depending on the protocol, i.e. torrents won't receive boosts unlike Twitch streams.
 
markface said:
Ja, I got netflix when I was on a 2mb line and it was very watchable, pretty much normal SD tv. I now have a 4mb line, and its not that different. I barely ever get HD. I have heard a reason for that is that it streams from California, and when I do a speedtest to California I get about 1.8Mb...so sounds plausible?
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I'm probably toeing the line of going off topic but what you say here is very interesting. I get HD quality on Netflix about half the time while my line tests at a very stable 3.8 - 3.9 mbit/s (pings are always between 230ms - 235ms) using MyBB's test for international. It really is a very stable connection. So there must be other issues at play with Netflix quality other than my line.
How and where do you test to California specifically? I'd love to compare results.
 
Mister 44 said:
I'm probably toeing the line of going off topic but what you say here is very interesting. I get HD quality on Netflix about half the time while my line tests at a very stable 3.8 - 3.9 mbit/s (pings are always between 230ms - 235ms) using MyBB's test for international. It really is a very stable connection. So there must be other issues at play with Netflix quality other than my line.
How and where do you test to California specifically? I'd love to compare results.
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Are you on a 4mb line? I use my Xbox to stream netflix, and first subscribed when I was on a 2mb line. I was stoked with the way it worked at 2mb, and netflix quality was the only reason I upgraded to a 4mb line. I was pretty underwhelmed with the performance when I upgraded, for double the speed it looked virtually exactly the same.

When I do speedtests I dont use myBB's tester, but www.speedtest.net . Then select a Californian server.
When I do an EU speedtest to France for example, I get a stable 3.4Mb, its the same for local speedtests but obviously the ping are way better. California, 1.8MB, 340ms ping. I'll post some pings later when I'm back home from work and we can compare. Also I'm using Unotelly for the DNS vibes.

I have heard that other devices can stream better than my Xbox though...especially Apple TV, WDTV and that kind of thing. But I haven't tried those. I'll try on my PC tonight and see if thats better. Maybe its just my Xbox?
 
Wesley said:
Just a reminder to everyone: Telkom specifically mentions "Burst speeds" of up to xx line speed. Its not a permanent increase.
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But crucially it does mean that the sync speed will be pushed up and thats what matters. So unless you're on a congested exchange or you data package can't cope...you will actually be getting a proper increase...not just burst. The burst is probably just Telkom covers their arse in case the network doesn't cope.

Bit concerned though about the data package...it would likely mean I need to pay more esp since its an uncapped package.
 
"congested exchange" is no fun so just hope with this increase in speed your exchange does not get congested since it takes forever for telkom to admit there is a problem like that.
Went from 10meg line back to a 4meg line just because of this and still my line is shit.
And telkom tech is like nope I don't see what your talking about 600ms pings is your ISP fault.
 
Tank said:
Question what are isps gonna do?
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I know what Mweb is going to do! Throttle and Throttle some more! Hopefully they will upgrade me to 2Mb/s and remove this crap ~70Gb soft cap.

- - - Updated - - -

It's ~90 Gb's net so slow atm cant even edit a post properly. . .
 
Let's be honest here guys, these speed upgrades sound very nice and all, but the network couldn't even handle the last batch of speed upgrades last year. In areas where internet used to be flawless, there are now serious exchange congestion issues because the infrastructure can't handle the new load. I've been struggling with exchange congestion in my area since the start of the year and I still haven't been able to get Telkom to do anything about it. They simply insist there's nothing wrong.

This is Telkom ripping the pond out from under the duck again. They should rather be spending their resources on upgrading their network and doing things to decrease the insanely high cost of ADSL in SA.
 
markface said:
Are you on a 4mb line? I use my Xbox to stream netflix, and first subscribed when I was on a 2mb line. I was stoked with the way it worked at 2mb, and netflix quality was the only reason I upgraded to a 4mb line. I was pretty underwhelmed with the performance when I upgraded, for double the speed it looked virtually exactly the same.

When I do speedtests I dont use myBB's tester, but www.speedtest.net . Then select a Californian server.
When I do an EU speedtest to France for example, I get a stable 3.4Mb, its the same for local speedtests but obviously the ping are way better. California, 1.8MB, 340ms ping. I'll post some pings later when I'm back home from work and we can compare. Also I'm using Unotelly for the DNS vibes.

I have heard that other devices can stream better than my Xbox though...especially Apple TV, WDTV and that kind of thing. But I haven't tried those. I'll try on my PC tonight and see if thats better. Maybe its just my Xbox?
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Yes, I am on a 4mb line, capped bundle with Afrihost and streaming through a WDTV.
I just did a speed test to Los Angeles and my ping is 402 which is much worse (230+- to Europe with MyBB). Speed is down also but not ridiculous. I get 3.8 - 3.9 mb/s to Europe (on MyBB) and I got 3.48 to LA.

Did also test to Paris and got a 248 ping with 3.99 speed (best I ever got, btw. I think like speedtest.net :D).
I'm in a pretty small town with very low contention ratios, my you, which I think plays a big role overall. Downside is that we probably won't be getting 10mb/s any time soon.
 
These speed upgrades are really nice, and I applaud Telkom. My Exchange is not congested yet, hopefully it will stay like that :D

I'm now thinking, although these increases sound nice, it isn't much of a "free" upgrade since Telkom increased its pricing this August and they increased pricing last year some time (can't remember when). It seems Telkom loses profit at A, and makes up some of what it lost at B.

Either way, I don't wanna bitch about this.....So I will just shut up and wait for the upgrade :D
 
Tank said:
Question what are isps gonna do?
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Indeed. I've got a feeling that most will play ball. e.g. Boosting you from 2mb to 4mb isn't exactly going to double capacity for viewing series & what not. Even at 2mb @ HD...the limiting factor in your life is likely time anyway.

Crzwaco said:
And telkom tech is like nope I don't see what your talking about 600ms pings is your ISP fault.
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And thats why I let my parents roll on my TI account. I like having a TI account. It allows me to tell Telkom consultants this>>>.

Clive Woofer said:
Let's be honest here guys, these speed upgrades sound very nice and all, but the network couldn't even handle the last batch of speed upgrades last year. In areas where internet used to be flawless, there are now serious exchange congestion issues because the infrastructure can't handle the new load. I've been struggling with exchange congestion in my area since the start of the year and I still haven't been able to get Telkom to do anything about it. They simply insist there's nothing wrong.

This is Telkom ripping the pond out from under the duck again. They should rather be spending their resources on upgrading their network and doing things to decrease the insanely high cost of ADSL in SA.
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nah bru. I tend towards the negative side too, but you seriously need to reconsider that. Yes it could have been better, but even the pros over at mybb were caught off guard by this announcement. So colour me happy. Sure it'll hit some people negatively with congestion and what not. But this is a step forward.
 
If it doesn't cause more problems, it is a step forward. Otherwise it's just causing more trouble than it's worth. I'm not being negative, just being realistic. I'm as happy as the next guy that I'll be upgraded to a 4mb line free of charge, but if it comes at the cost my network performance degrading then that free upgrade isn't going to do me much good.
 
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