WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

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KALSTER
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WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

Post by KALSTER »

WebAfrica has launched their home uncapped accounts and they look mighty enticing!

At MWEB currently I pay R588 for a 1Mbps line and uncapped account, while WebAfrica charges only R489 for the same package!

Their fair usage policy is a bit different though. Every day between 6AM and 12AM you have a maximum download limit before being deprioritised. Also, there is a weekly limit for downloads during those times, after which you also get deprioritised. You get restored to normal prioritisation after the relevant periods are up.

They are running the home uncapped lines at their Silver bandwidth priority profile, which is their lowest level. Still, it looks very attractive!

Has anyone gone over to them yet? As it stands now, I will most probably move over to them before the month is up.

Well done WA! :thumbleft:

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Last edited by KALSTER on 16 Nov 2011, 12:04, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

Post by StarPhoenix »

Nah.....my WA Titan Level 1 special is still good enough. 15Gb + FreeZone at 4mbps, with a free upgrade to 10mbps as soon as Telkom finished setting up Metro Ethernet is not something I am going to relinquish in a hurry.
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Re: WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

Post by D3PART3D »

:D

An extra game, book or pizza every month. This makes me happy.

Mweb will want a month's notice first, though.
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Re: WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

Post by DeathStrike »

have you guys read the FUP (Fair Usage Policy)?

According to some people on OTHER FORUMS:
But what draconian FUP! I may not download 800MB in 6 hours or I will be shaped to death on a 1MB line?? And the most expensive 4MB uncapped product?
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Re: WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

Post by Stuart »

Ja, the FUP put me off immediately.
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Re: WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

Post by KALSTER »

But what draconian FUP! I may not download 800MB in 6 hours or I will be shaped to death on a 1MB line??
"Shaped to death" is a bit harsh, no? As far as I can tell, the throttling is only for the remainder of that 6 hours. Is that really so bad? Remind me how much MWEB throttles during the day?


And to quote WA: "REMEMBER, this ONLY occurs when we do not have available capacity on our network." and "Remember, these windows ONLY refer to usage between 7am and 12am.". Really, I think that is fair!
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Re: WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

Post by DeathStrike »

KALSTER wrote: Remind me how much MWEB throttles during the day?
No idea but i know that i am able to get about 40 - 50 GBs of data every month on my 384k line from mweb.

Can you honestly tell me that WA is going to let me get that?

800 MB in 6 hours is for 1MB line i don't even want to look at what it is for a 384 line.
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Re: WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

Post by KALSTER »

800 MB in 6 hours is for 1MB line i don't even want to look at what it is for a 384 line.
That's for 6 hours out of 24 and only if they run out of capacity. MWEB throttles throughout the day.

I'll give it a try and report back.

Also, why not fork out R140 extra p/m and get the 1Mbps account from WA? :wink:
Last edited by KALSTER on 18 Nov 2011, 00:07, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

Post by Anakha56 »

I will gladly wait and see what your results are but for me I am happy with my uncapped, unshaped account from Mweb. Granted its 384k line speed but its unshaped so I am happy :).
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Re: WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

Post by KALSTER »

unshaped
Just checked their site again and saw this. Have they always said it is unshaped?
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Re: WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

Post by Anakha56 »

No they have two different uncapped products. One aimed at the normal user and one aimed at power users as it were. I use the unshaped for gaming and Steam. Just leave Steam downloading all day and night at full line speed is awesome :P.
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Re: WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

Post by D3PART3D »

If you use more than a certain amount of Gigs in a 6 hour period
:?

A certain amount of gigs... or 800mb? No thanks then. I wonder if Steam downloads contribute to that amount since WA has their own server.
Anakha56 wrote:I use the unshaped for gaming and Steam. Just leave Steam downloading all day and night at full line speed is awesome :P.
I get full line speed for Steam all day and night and acceptable gaming pings, at least on the mweb friendly servers. Oh, and a 1mbps line, all for the same price. :P Is unshaped better for international ping or something?
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Re: WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

Post by Stuart »

D3PART3D wrote: I wonder if Steam downloads contribute to that amount since WA has their own server.
Culled from SystemShock thread:

Xiphan wrote: the short chat I had with a sales rep that went a little something like this:
[3:56 PM] Julian has joined the room
[3:56 PM] abigail has joined the room
[3:56 PM] abigail:hi there
[3:57 PM] abigail:the free zone does not apply
[3:58 PM] Julian:So playing games on WA servers and downloading Steam updates will contribute towards my total download amount?
[3:58 PM] abigail:yes we do not recommend the uncapped package for gaming
[3:59 PM] Julian:Thanks, I'll stick with MWEB then. Have a nice day.
[3:59 PM] Julian has left the room
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Re: WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

Post by D3PART3D »

Well, that's unpleasant.
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Re: WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

Post by WAJeff »

Morning folks :)

Hope that I can clear some of the queries that have been posted up here.
First off, give our Feedback thread a read to fully understand the AUP - it's not bad, and comparing to our competitors, we've opted for a completely transparent AUP.
In light of our Uncapped launch, we'd appreciate users who have signed up for the Uncapped products to post up their feedback, good or bad.

I'd also like to take the time to clarify a few things, I hope this FAQ will help things out a bit

Why do you have an AUP?
Purely to keep things in line. We also pride ourselves in having an extremely transparent AUP, something that our competitors have not been able to provide in in the past.

If I reach my threshold can I still use the account?
Most definitely, yes. Depending on our network load at the time, we might not even de-prioritise your account that much. During testing, the accounts did not see a de-prioritisation once. At a worst case scenario, you'll have 50% availablilty on our account during office hours and as soon as our network load decreases (usually after 22:30) we'll lift this. Download Plus hours also do not contribute to your threshold - so its flood gates open :)

Where do I sign up and see more information?
You can look at the following:
  • Product and ordering page
For ease of use, our AUP can also be viewed in this thread.
Acceptable Use Policy

Our AUP is in place to protect users who aren’t abusing their uncapped accounts from those who are. It’s there to make sure abusers of our service do not receive the same quality uncapped service as those who stick to the rules. It’s clear, simple and fair. If you stick to it, you’ll get the most out of your Home Uncapped ADSL.

Why would your speeds decrease?
First, we will NEVER deprioritise users if we have spare capacity on our network, unlike other ISPs. In addition to this, you will only get slower speeds IF you don’t play by the rules. Even if your service is deprioritised, browsing remains awesome. Here’s how we determine who to deprioritise and when:

We use a 2 tiered rolling window system between 6am and 12am to ensure our network is optimised to keep your account running smoothly.
  • If you use more than a certain amount of Gigs in a 6 hour period, then your service will be deprioritised until those 6 hours are up. Your ADSL account will then be restored to normal priority.
  • Similarly, if you use more than a certain amount of Gigs in 7 day period, then your service will be deprioritised until that 7 day period is up. Your ADSL account will then be restored to normal priority.
Remember, these windows ONLY refer to usage between 6am and 12am.

Here’s where it gets interesting! All usage during Download Plus hours, that’s between 12am and 6am does NOT contribute to your overall usage. That’s right, you can completely max out your account between these hours, and it will NOT count towards your 6 hour and 7 day rolling windows. It’s a free for all! This is when you can really get the most out of downloads and updates.

For more details on our AUP, see our Knowledge Base article.
More questions and answers will be added as the thread goes along :)
I'll have a chat with our Sales guys, I can personally recommend that yes, you can use our Uncapped products for gaming. These accounts sit on a Silver priority, giving Gaming a High priority.

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Out of my personal capacity as a WA staff member, as well as in an official capacity - these accounts are awesome. I've mentioned many, many times before online that the thresholds are not to be seen as limitations but rather as guidelines. Let me explain.

You have xGB's to use - if you reach your threshold and even go over it, if our network isn't running at capacity we won't impose any de-prioritisation. Also, we'll first drop (not shape or throttle, but slightly drop) the heavier used protocols. p2p comes to mind.
During testing of these accounts, and since the launch - a few customers have gone far over their thresholds and havn't seen a drop in anything.
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Re: WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

Post by Stuart »

KALSTER wrote:That's for 6 hours out of 24 and only if they run out of capacity. MWEB throttles throughout the day.
WebAfrica already throttles certain protocols to death even on their capped accounts. For example, I just quickly opened NewsBin and started to download some stuff over usenet as a trial, using my WA Titan account and it's absolutely dead (and has been for the last 30 minutes). That is on a capped account. Can you really imagine the uncapped being any more generous?
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Re: WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

Post by KALSTER »

Stuart wrote:
KALSTER wrote:That's for 6 hours out of 24 and only if they run out of capacity. MWEB throttles throughout the day.
WebAfrica already throttles certain protocols to death even on their capped accounts. For example, I just quickly opened NewsBin and started to download some stuff over usenet as a trial, using my WA Titan account and it's absolutely dead (and has been for the last 30 minutes). That is on a capped account. Can you really imagine the uncapped being any more generous?
Usenet is always choppy. Have you tried it with another account?
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Re: WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

Post by WAJeff »

Stuart wrote:
KALSTER wrote:That's for 6 hours out of 24 and only if they run out of capacity. MWEB throttles throughout the day.
WebAfrica already throttles certain protocols to death even on their capped accounts. For example, I just quickly opened NewsBin and started to download some stuff over usenet as a trial, using my WA Titan account and it's absolutely dead (and has been for the last 30 minutes). That is on a capped account. Can you really imagine the uncapped being any more generous?
What Usenet server are you using?
I know we've recently had some issues on news.wa.co.za - other than that, we won't shape it into the ground. It'll still work.
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Re: WebAfrica enters the home Uncapped ADSL market!

Post by Stuart »

KALSTER wrote:Usenet is always choppy. Have you tried it with another account?
Runs fine on an Afrihost prepaid account. But I obviously can't run anything there for too long.
WAJeff wrote: What Usenet server are you using?
I know we've recently had some issues on news.wa.co.za - other than that, we won't shape it into the ground. It'll still work.
I'm using the Giganews server.
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