12 Mbps ADSL Upgrades Trialed

[Stuart]

MyBroadband earlier reported that Telkom is trialing an 8 Mbps ADSL service, with plans to upgrade current 4 Mbps subscribers in the next few months. 8 Mbps is however the minimum speed upgrade, and if subsequent DSL2+ trials prove successful speed upgrades of up to 12 Mbps are possible.

Telkom Wholesale’s Mike Vos recently explained that as part of the trials, which are conducted in Pretoria and Cape Town, the percentage of 4 Mbps subscribers which can sync at higher speeds without any service problems are recorded. The results so far have been very promising.

In Pretoria Central and Constantia Park – the two first trial areas – around 99% of 4 Mbps ADSL subscribers synced at 8 Mbps without any stability problems. These results were so encouraging that Telkom will now conduct similar tests at 10 Mbps and 12 Mbps and assess the upgrade success rate at these higher speeds.

If the success rate of the 10 Mbps or 12 Mbps also proves to be sufficiently high, Telkom said that it may decide to upgrade 4 Mbps ADSL subscribers to the higher speed profiles if their line quality is good enough. Uplink speeds will be in the region of 10% of the downlink speed - hence around 1 Mbps for a 10 Mbps ADSL service – but these speeds will also be dependent on line quality.

Vos explained that if a subscribers’ line quality is not good enough to support a stable 8 Mbps (or 12 Mbps in the case of higher speed upgrades) service, they will be assigned the highest possible speed where the connection is stable and will provide a good quality of service. This will happen in speed profile increments of 1 Mbps each (hence 7 Mbps, 6 Mbps, 5 Mbps etc).

Not all at once

Telkom however explained that not all 4 Mbps subscribers will be part of the first set of upgrades, which is set to take place in the next few months. Only ADSL subscribers who are served by suitable DSLAMs – which are connected to Telkom’s Metro Ethernet network and have the latest DSL2+ equipment – will be upgraded.

These restrictions may seem petty to some ADSL users, but Telkom explains that they want to be certain that the overall experience of their ‘highest speed’ broadband customers are what they expect. This means adequate backhaul bandwidth and the flexibility to quickly and affordably assign more bandwidth if needed, which Metro Ethernet makes possible (as opposed to ATM which does not provide the same flexibility and affordability).

Telkom plans to have 30% to 40% of DSLAMs, which are currently serving 4 Mbps ADSL subscribers, ready by March/April and are aiming to increase this figure to 60% by August/September.

Good news for current Telkom 4 Mbps ADSL subscribers is that the speed upgrade is likely to be free, and it will be an automatic upgrade without the need to contact Telkom.

3GB cap on 12mbps anyone?

[DarkStar]

What about the rest of us 384 and 512 users?

[DAE_JA_VOO]

I just came back from Korea, and I was saddened while I was there, about the DSL in SA. A few of the homes I stayed in payed the equivalent of about $20 a month, and got uncapped 100Mb lines.

[Sojourn]

I live in a DSL capable area (both my neighbors have dsl) yet I am struggling with Telkom for more than 18 months now to get connected.

So pardon my lack of excitement with this thread.

[Stuart]

No available ports or something like that?

[Sojourn]

Yea, that's what they've been feeding me.

[KALSTER]

What about the rest of us 384 and 512 users?

+1

What about all the little people like me?

[M1ke]

I'll say it once again, as has been pointed out thousands of times before.

South Africa doesn't need more speed, we need cheaper bandwidth.

[KALSTER]

South Africa doesn't need more speed, we need cheaper bandwidth.

How about both.

[DAE_JA_VOO]

South Africa doesn't need more speed, we need cheaper bandwidth.

How about both.

Yeah. There's NO reason why we should be using such ridiculously slow lines. There's also no reason why we should be capped at 3 or 5 GBs, or even 20 GBs.

[RuadRauFlessa]

South Africa doesn't need more speed, we need cheaper bandwidth.

How about both.

Yeah. There's NO reason why we should be using such ridiculously slow lines. There's also no reason why we should be capped at 3 or 5 GBs, or even 20 GBs.

I'm thinking more in the lines of faster switching speeds. Then we can actually use something like VoIP effectively. Or even play online games with a latency less than 100/200ms

[Sojourn]

Pointless if Telkom cannot get the initial requirements right like making ADSL available to all homes in Jhb and other big centra's residential areas. I am not even in a remote location in Jhb.

Feel free to reinsert your comment here without the cleverly disguised profanity. - The Rat

According to the Telkom tech I spoke to, they have optic-fiber to the exchange and copper from there to the homes. Dsl needs some converter at the exchange to make the transition from copper to fiber - and that is where the capacity ran out. Awesome Win! for their planning right there.

In 1st world residential development, a data/voip connection in homes fall under the same category as electricity and water - it is installed by default as a standard feature.

[Xiphan]

What about the rest of us 384 and 512 users?

Yeah, I was just thinking that as well? Why do they keep testing faster lines yet no one on the slower lines have been upgraded to the faster speeds like they originally said they were going to do? I'm still running 384k for over a year now, and the news of these speed upgrades came about long before I even got ADSL!

[StarPhoenix]

I'll say it once again, as has been pointed out thousands of times before.

South Africa doesn't need more speed, we need cheaper bandwidth.

I prefer not to leave my PC running for a day or longer to download a game demo.

I shall certainly consider upgrading to a 4Mb line once it becomes practical....that, and ensure
that I have 10-15Gb to play with on most months. *cough*Xbox demos *cough*

[fallen_angel]

I am a 4Mbps ADSL user and would welcome the higher broadband speeds... it would in turn mean that IF the upgrades are free as suggested all the lines downwards would also become cheaper in the end or even upgraded aswell as a step up thing... or so i hope at least. only concern i have is that the current 5 gig cap is going to fly out the window very fast so i guess i'll hold on to my extra 3 gig i have

[Xiphan]

My biggest issue is that they keep testing faster speeds but no one on slower lines have been upgraded to the faster speeds yet. They still offer 384k which was supposed to be done away with ages ago?

[Stuart]

I am a 4Mbps ADSL user and would welcome the higher broadband speeds... it would in turn mean that IF the upgrades are free as suggested all the lines downwards would also become cheaper in the end or even upgraded aswell as a step up thing... or so i hope at least.

That would seem logical, except it didn't really work like that when 1mbps users were bumped up to 4mbps.

[Stuart]

My biggest issue is that they keep testing faster speeds but no one on slower lines have been upgraded to the faster speeds yet. They still offer 384k which was supposed to be done away with ages ago?

It would be interesting to see what would happen if 384kbps users were bumped up to 512kbps. Would ISPs play ball and keep account costs at the 384kbps figure or would users suddenly be paying more to their ISP?

[SykomantiS]

My biggest issue is that they keep testing faster speeds but no one on slower lines have been upgraded to the faster speeds yet. They still offer 384k which was supposed to be done away with ages ago?

It would be interesting to see what would happen if 384kbps users were bumped up to 512kbps. Would ISPs play ball and keep account costs at the 384kbps figure or would users suddenly be paying more to their ISP?

Our 384 was bumped to 512 way back, just like they said. But we still had telkom isp then. We now, after the bump, switched to afrihost. come to think of it, I'll have to go check our account again

[StarPhoenix]

I signed up for a 384k line with Telkom Do Broadband and that is still what I have.

[SykomantiS]

Tough luck ey,

[DeathStrike]

Our 384 was bumped to 512 way back, just like they said. But we still had telkom isp then. We now, after the bump, switched to afrihost. come to think of it, I'll have to go check our account again

when did you sign up? i have had my 384k line for almost 2 years now. So please tell me when did you get this speed boost so i can complain to telkom. i love doing that.

Also. can you run speedtest and post pic for confirmation.. you know.. pics or it didn't happen.

[SykomantiS]

Uhm... Roughly a year ago? 18 months maybe? Roundabouts there somewhere. Like I said, I'll have to look at our account again. I *might* have overlooked the isp's connection speed... Anywhoo, I'll up the pics tonight.

[SykomantiS]

Interestingly enough, I did the test from pta to a durban server, from pta to a pta server reults in a ping of almost 190

[Xiphan]

I was thinking about this from a logical perspective and couldn't understand why Telkom doesn't think Logically. What is currently taking place is that people can get uncapped at 384k for a rather decent price. Which means that they will leave downloads running at every opportunity (trust me I know, I have it and I do it) which basically keeps servers busy and congested all the time, resulting in (I'm guessing) increased latency. Yet if everyone could download their stuff quicker they'd also get off the net quicker, possibly resulting in the net being less congested meaning Telkom could offer faster speeds to more people and thus not have to restrict who can have it by making it so expensive! Because I can honestly not understand what exactly they are charging me for by giving me a faster line?