South African uncapped ADSL options
So after MWEB announced it’s uncapped ADSL solutions, it seems like most of the Internet Service Providers (ISP) are jumping onto the band wagon and competing.
Let’s have a look at what each ISP offers:
MWEB – http://www.mweb.co.za/adsl/
- 384k uncapped – R219
- 512k uncapped – R299
- 4096k uncapped – R539
MWEB is a big player in the Internet market; they have a good infrastructure and I’m pretty certain their services will be great. I will be receiving an uncapped test account during the course of next week and will keep you updated. What I do know is that they do control speeds during office hours to prioritize email and browsing, which I feel is fair.
OpenWeb - http://www.openweb.co.za/uncapped/
- 384k uncapped – R219
- 512k uncapped – R299
- 4096k uncapped – R539
I have been a fan of OpenWeb since the moment they opened their doors to the ADSL world; I always found their support incredible and the owner is a really great guy. OpenWeb have partnered with MWEB to offer its clients uncapped ADSL, so the prices are exactly the same as MWEB. Once again, backboning off MWEB will need speed controls during office hours, sometimes.
@lantic (Vox) – http://www.lantic.net/
- 384k uncapped – R339
- 512k uncapped – R589
- 4096k uncapped – R889
The important thing here is to note that @lantic/Vox include the line rental costs in their monthly uncapped accounts.
AfriHost – http://www.afrihost.com/
- 384k uncapped – R197
- 512k uncapped – R297
- 4096k uncapped – R497
AfriHost CEO, Gian Visser, announced that AfriHost would be introducing their uncapped accounts any day now. He told reporters that they had been planning this for quite some time, but MWEB beat them to it. AfriHost has been an incredibly competitive company in the ADSL market, often offering the cheapest data bundles. It’ll be interesting to see what they come up with for their uncapped accounts.
DigiChili - link to packages
- 384k uncapped – R300
- 512k uncapped – R500
- 1024k uncapped – R1000
- 4096k uncapped – R3000
DigiChili burst onto the market a couple months back offering uncapped Internet. Unfortunately, every report I’ve heard since then has been negative and I think they will slowly slip out of the market based on their costs being more expensive and their offerings less attractive.
Gamco – link to packages
- 384k uncapped – R1071
- 512k uncapped – R1470
- 1024k uncapped – R2815
I don’t know too much about Gamco, but based on their prices for uncapped accounts, it looks like they aren’t going to be much of a threat.
Screamer – http://www.screamer.co.za/adsl.php
- 384k uncapped – R399
- 512k uncapped – R799
- 1024k uncapped – R1499
- 4096k uncapped – R2499
Screamer is another ISP that came into the game with uncapped options; I’ve heard more negative comments than positive ones, besides, they’ve been priced out the market though. Their prices do not include adsl line rental, this is to be paid directly and seperately to Telkom.
Axxess – http://www.axxess.co.za/uncapped.php
- 384k uncapped – R196
- 4096k uncapped – R496
Do you know of an ISP that’s jumping onto the band wagon and offering uncapped Internet? Please do leave a comment and let me know!
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Mar 21st, 2010 at 11:15 am
I wonder what the chances are of this bring down the 3G data prices? They also need a real shake up!
Mar 21st, 2010 at 11:32 am
I think we’ll start seeing a decline in 3G prices, as MTN comes more to the party; there’s been quite a lot of talk about Telkom and MTN lately, which I’m sure is going to rattle the market a bit. Cell C is also working on new infrastructure for 3G, which will also play a roll..
Mar 21st, 2010 at 12:44 pm
don’t forget, mweb also offer the adsl line rental and uncapped bundle.
384k – R349
512k – R599
4096k – R899
i can’t wait to see what afrihost will offer. i’ve been using them for a while now and their service and prices are awesome. i’m gonna stick with them because they are just awesome.
i have been offered a free uncapped at mweb for april so will see how that goes. i’m sure you have gotten that too?
Mar 21st, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Ye Geoff, I didn’t want to over complicate the post with home vs business solutions and bundled ones, we can use the comments for that; the article is aimed at home users really, that’s all.
Thanks though for putting the details in here though. Ye, I’m getting a solution from MWEB, but more on that later :)
Mar 21st, 2010 at 3:52 pm
For those of us that aren’t big geeks ;), what is the advantage of having 4096k versus 384k for example? I know the download speeds are obviously faster, but to what extent?
Mar 21st, 2010 at 4:08 pm
Sure,
On a 4096k line (4 mega bit), you can download up to around 400k/sec (an mp3 is about 6000k, so that’s 15 seconds for an mp3). Now, you don’t always get maximum speeds, but in comparison to a 384k line, which downloads at a maximum of say around 40k/sec, it’s essentially 10x slower for downloads. When it comes to downloads, this doesn’t only refer to downloading of mp3s and things, it refers to the speed in which browsing happens as well as downloading your email. So, essentially, if you’re not completely worried about speed, then going for uncapped 384k isn’t going to be the end of the world and it’s going to cost a lot less.
For someone who just uses ADSL for emails and surfing the web now and then, 384k would probably be just fine, but if you surf a lot, like watching youtube videos and don’t like hanging around, then I’d say go for 4096k; The 8 and 12 mega bit lines are on their way too :)
Mar 21st, 2010 at 5:38 pm
I really hope that Cybersmart comes to the party with uncapped ADSL.
Mar 21st, 2010 at 9:31 pm
Howdy.
I’ve done quite a bit of testing:
MWEB, 4096 Account.
HTTP, lightning.
Private International Trackers, max speeds.
FTP, max speeds.
Gaming, smoooooth.
Speed test are all good so far.
I have heard quite a few comments on throttling during business hours, I have not experienced this, though I do expect it will come into play when their network fills up.
Digichilli and Screamer,
have tested both for a couple months,
Screamer is a nightmare, and not worth R15/m, let alone what they are asking for. Digichilli is alright if you can bare slow slow speeds, though there are numerous work arounds with ports for downloading etc, but again, not really worth the money.
I don’t see either of the two making it past the next few months.
My experience with Atlantic [not sure when they added the @] is close to awful as well, poor service and unreliable, the only way they could compete with MWEB would be to have drastically lower prices.
Afrihost on whole have been great, I jumped on their “per gb” special, and loved it, reliable with great service, so I expect their uncapped to be the same.
@Glen,
made a phonecall to them recently to inquire,
they won’t be coming to the table with any sort of offering. Time to change ships.
All I want to see is my love, Webafrica come to the table with something for me.
Mar 22nd, 2010 at 1:26 am
My sister switched to Afrihost and is loving the cheaper rates and excellent efficiency/support! You guys reckon they’d be the best for me to use when I come home to SA?
Also, does anyone know how much the line rental/month is from Teldoos, sorry — I meant ‘Telkom’?
Mar 22nd, 2010 at 1:35 am
afrihost is the cheapest per gig at the moment R29/GB and they have specials each month where you buy 1GB and get an extra GB for free or buy 5GB an get an extra 5GB for free. it is really sweet.
on the telkom line rental it would all depend on what line speed you need. currently the prices are (all including VAT):
telkom line rental – R131 (which you have to have)
384k adsl line rental – R152 or
512k adsl line rental – R326 or
4096k adsl line rental – R413
it all depends what you are going to do on the line. as discussed in a previous post, if you just going to browse and check email then 384k is enough for yourself.
Mar 22nd, 2010 at 1:42 am
@Geoffrey :) Thank you!! VERY helpful!
Um… dumb question probably, but one I have to ask anyway: as a writer, I need to email quite a lot of documents and high-res images regularly. Would the 384k still be enough?
:)
Mar 22nd, 2010 at 1:49 am
@lisa yeah that would be fine. my wife sends alot of quotes and images to people as well and it’s 100%.
but i’m sure in the next month or two we will see alot of competition regarding uncapped as well.
Mar 22nd, 2010 at 1:51 am
@Geoffrey – YIPEEEE!! Exciting times :) Thanks for the advice!
Mar 22nd, 2010 at 11:08 am
My problem with this, is that regardless of who you choose as your ISP you are still shackled to the likes of Telkom for your line rental.
I am a very happy Neotel customer, making use of their Neoflex Data 10gig package, and frankly, the service I’ve had from both Mweb and Telkom in the past means that regardless of them dropping their prices, I would never go back, because they will find *some* way to mess things up again.
I am glad however, that uncapped internet is finally a reality for most people, and I am really excited to see how Neotel adjusts their prices on their unlimited package (which includes a phone number and free minutes FYI), which they have had available since they started up. If Neotel introduce an uncapped data option to a market related price, then I will switch to that, and definitely not make use of anyone else.
They are fast, helpful, efficient and their bills are always accurate down to the last kilobyte.
Please note, I do not work for Neotel, nor do any of their marketing. This is an honest review of a genuinely happy client.
Mar 22nd, 2010 at 3:56 pm
So excellent to see so many South Africans concerned about this, it’s time for us to all experience what true broadband is like! Interesting to hear about Neotel, I don’t know too many users, but those that I do know have been happy with the services in general. I’m getting an MWEB account this week to do some testing and will report back with my findings on a regular basis.
Thanks for all the comments peeps!
Mar 22nd, 2010 at 7:35 pm
I have been using a 2gig 384km mweb account at home and a 10.5bgb 4096kb account at my office. On thursday I upgraded both accounts to the uncapped versions. Both sites performance boosted earlier this month when mweb informed me they are moving to their own network and off SAIX. And now to top it off I will never have to
snoop around to see if my employees are downloading movies or going on faceook. Unbelievable. My kids was happier than they where on xmas when I told them we have uncapped now. Thanks to Mweb’s support my company has been on the inernet for almost 9 years. I cant wait to see if the line rental prices will come down. and I am also hoping for cheaper 3G
Mar 22nd, 2010 at 8:25 pm
Hi
Also a complete ADSL geek – just researching what to get for home use.
It seems that with all these options, I won’t get anywhere if Telkom doesn’t support an ADSL service. Telkom’s comment: ” your exchange supports ADSL but due to infrastructure problems cannot offer an ADSL service”.
Where to then? Neotel in my area will be the same as dial up, and iBurst in my area is on 60%!
What to do?
Mar 23rd, 2010 at 8:37 pm
Not that I think this is to be taken too seriously, but since we’re talking service you might find this quite interesting: http://www.hellopeter.com/it-industry-league-comparison/11/
Mar 24th, 2010 at 2:28 am
Dito @Glen
Mar 25th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
So does anyone know if Telkom is going to come to the party?
Mar 25th, 2010 at 11:08 pm
@TheJman – I’m pretty sure they will, but at this point I’ve heard nothing of it.
Everyone, I’ve got a 4MB uncapped account from MWEB and over the next 8 weeks I’ll be blogging about my experiences; I’ve finished the first of the posts, you can take a read here – http://imod.co.za/index.php/2010/03/25/week-1-my-8-week-journey-with-mweb-uncapped-internet/
Mar 28th, 2010 at 12:07 am
I don’t know why But I find my self being a bit suspicious. Maybe because we’ve been given such raw and untruthful deals in the past.
My question, what about contention ratios. I believe that ISPs will just boost the contention ratios way way up, in order to stay within the same profit margins. Meaning eventually when all users have been migrated that your line speeds could drop drastically making it very frustrating to even take advantage of an uncapped line.
Mar 28th, 2010 at 12:10 am
Hi Robert,
I think the general concern is that in the beginning the lines will be fantastic, but the minute hundreds of people sign up, the speeds will naturally drop, unless they limit the pipes, but I doubt that’s going to happen, but let’s remain optimistic.
I’ve been on an MWEB 4MB uncapped account since Thursday and have been enjoying it. My download speeds have peaked at various times and email/surfing has been very good. There have been 2 points where things pretty much died, but disconnecting from the LAN and reconnecting solved each time. I’ve also been enjoying constant streaming of radio stations, which is something I really enjoy and am now able to do it.
I’ve also spoken to people who are on AfriHost and they’re having very similiar experiences to me..
You signed up for one?
Mar 29th, 2010 at 5:49 pm
Silly question…but anyway…do you need to pay the R131 line rental to Telkom PLUS the R413 (eg. if you want the 4MB line). Also, if you already have one of the Closer calling plans, isn’t your line rental included in that?
Mar 29th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
@Ritz – Yes, you will need to pay the R131 line rental to Telkom regardless of package..
Mar 30th, 2010 at 1:43 pm
Chris, my kids play world of warcraft(international site) on our 384k telkom adsl. When they reach our 3 Gig limit halfway through the month they can’t connect anymore. My question, If I go over to the Mweb R219 uncapped, does this mean they can play the whole month without any problems with cap?
Mar 30th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
@Max – That’s correct, especially for a game like WoW, having an uncapped account would mean that they could play the whole month through and you’ll pay 1 bandwidth cost (R219) per month. Naturally you also need to pay for the line rental and the DSL line, but there’s are seperate entities.
Mar 30th, 2010 at 1:58 pm
You may find what with the throttling comes a certain amount of latency during business hours.
80% of the time [business hours] I can game perfectly, but sometimes it just isn’t smooth.
For gaming you really want clean unshaped bandwidth.
Mar 30th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
Rou Story Mills mentioned clean unshaped bandwidth for gaming.Do you think on WoW I will have a problem with latency on the Mweb uncapped bandwidth.
Mar 30th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
I think with kids, who should be at school during the day, will only really have a game in the evenings or on the weekend? Their will be throlling and such during office hours, but I presume your kids play for fun and not for full on clans? The level of gaming will determine the line requirements..
Mar 30th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
What’s your total cost per month for a 4MB line speed and uncapped data from eg MWEB? Is it :
Telkom-Line Rental R131
Telkom-Line Rental (4mb) R413
MWEB – ISP (uncapped data-4mbps) R899
—-
TOTAL 1443
Apologies-but I’m still not clear on the line rental costs….
Mar 30th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
@ritz, incorrect.
R131 – phoneline rental (telkom)
R413 – ADSL Line rental (telkom)
R539 – MWEB 4MB Uncapped
TOTAL: R1083
the R899 which you refer to would be the BUNDLE. (ADSL line rental and 4MB uncapped at mweb)
for that you need to move your ADSL line rental from telkom to mweb.
if you do that it would be:
R131 – phoneline rental (telkom)
R899 – ADSL line rental AND 4MB uncapped (mweb)
TOTAL= R1030
Mar 31st, 2010 at 1:37 pm
@Geoffrey – Thanks for coming in and correcting the costs breakdown!
Mar 31st, 2010 at 4:06 pm
Hey there,
Just thought I’d add that MyISP is now also offering uncapped ADSL for a pretty great price, it seems. I haven’t had any experience with them so don’t know how reliable the service is etc, however its nice to know of another alternative ;)
http://www.myisp.co.za/uncapped.htm
Amandla interwebs, haha!
Mar 31st, 2010 at 5:15 pm
yeah, here is a list of updated ones:
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/adsl/11935.html
plus a Q&A with Gian from Afrihost
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?223705-Official-Afrihost-Q-amp-A-Thread
Apr 2nd, 2010 at 12:54 pm
What I REALLY want to know is who provides one that is not throttled based on your usage. Afrihost has come out and said that they will throttle the 4mb accounts, but they didn’t mention the other ones. Does MWEB throttle you based on usage or do any other companies? This will make the difference for me, as now you are essentially paying for a larger cap. Not what UNCAPPED is meant to be.
Apr 6th, 2010 at 10:56 am
Hi there,
I joined Afrihost’s 10gb for R290pm about 2 months ago and recently switched to Mweb’s uncapped R219pm.
I started torrenting movies with the uncapped account, with low speeds (must be from file server side).
Mweb has disconnected once or twice but nothing a simple router reset wouldn’t fix.
I have found both services (mweb so far) to be quite good on 384kbps but Afrhost just seems to outperform mweb on overall speed. I get Dc’d from wow when I download a youtube movie as with afrihost this was not the case.
Regards
Amphi
Apr 6th, 2010 at 12:18 pm
I have been using Openweb now and I must say that I am extremely happy with them. I haven’t been discounted at all! Not even once! Not even a line drop in that time! I am really impressed. I was getting support from the CEO on a sunday in the middle of a long weekend! Now that is true customer support! Absolutely fantastic stuff from them. I wouldn’t go with Mweb even if I getting paid to use them!
Apr 6th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
BTW, Openweb are no longer using Mweb as a backbone. They are now using IS as their backbone :) OpenWeb FTW!
Apr 6th, 2010 at 12:48 pm
I would also like to know if Mweb throttle back if they detect a continuously downloading program like bittorrent.
Apr 8th, 2010 at 8:18 pm
Why is it so difficult for people to distinguish between Kb/s and KB/s? 8 bits to a Byte, people.
Apr 8th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
OCD Guy – Probably because half the people don’t spend 16 hours a day on a computer like us ;)
Apr 8th, 2010 at 10:02 pm
For those who are interested in all the options, I’ve just published my week 3 report of MWEB’s uncapped adsl accounts – http://imod.co.za/index.php/2010/04/08/week-3-my-8-week-journey-with-mweb-uncapped-internet/
Enjoy :)
Apr 11th, 2010 at 10:55 pm
Hi i recently cancelled with afrihost as i signed up before the mention of throttling. i download alot of updates as i have 4 pc’s at home which i update all my applications and operating system applications. i also download alot of my studying material. including tutorial videos etc. i was on a 384kb uncapped adsl deal with them and i got to just over 10gb and suddenly started getting heavily throttled and thus doiwnloading in bytes not even 1kb/s it was ridiculous. so i have cancelled and getting my refund as they only altered the terms and conditions after i signed up. they obviously were struggling to keep up with the demand and had to try cut their losses… pity they have lost so many subscribers due to this. it shud never have been called uncapped. on their site it says if u use over 7gb u shud go uncapped. the thing is i dont download 24/7 but i do download daily and i mean putting a threshold of 10gbs is just ridiculous. so im off to mweb as everyone seems pretty happy there.
Apr 11th, 2010 at 11:13 pm
@chris – Thanks for reporting back here, that’s what this place is all about, sharing is caring after all. Ye, give MWEB a try – I just signed into my account and checked the data usage: “You have used 33.26 GB so far this month. ” ~ that’s a lot of data and my net is still flying! Remember to use my links – click me – hehe, I would dig them to know that you came from here *smile*
Apr 12th, 2010 at 11:56 am
Just thought I’d add my 5c.
Called afrihost, offically they will throttle you from 60GB. Seems like they need to get their story straight.
Thanks for the great work!
X
Apr 12th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
@ix – Thanks for sharing the information; seems that they might be throttling before the 60GB from what others have said, interesting..
Apr 12th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
i’m on the trial mweb account still and so far it’s awesome just sometimes there are niggles where you losing international traffic but still have local traffic (this has happened the last 2 sundays and mondays)
i was going to move back to afrihost end of this month but not sure if that will be the case with the throttleing when you reach 60GB.
i’m thinking of moving to 512k line instead of 384k and i will definitely be doing over 60G and don’t want to be throttled.
i am still in 2 minds right now. will see a week before the end of the month :)
Apr 12th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Ye Geoffrey – I’m on 4mb uncapped MWEB and I’ve got almost no complaints :)
Apr 12th, 2010 at 2:07 pm
OK, so I want to get something straight, do uncapped work for a game like World of Warcraft, or do u need unshaped? As far as I know up and download speed needs to be fast do do “instances” in the game, else its a waste of time. And does that also mean u need the 4mb package?
Apr 12th, 2010 at 2:09 pm
@ Sunshine,
im getting 400-500msping in WOW on my 384k line with Mweb. works fine for me. obviously it would be ideal if i could get close to 0ms with a higher line speed.
Apr 12th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Update – Tradepage
Same rates as Afrihost, but they are technically challenged, so avoid them if you can. If you’re an existing member you might bully them into giving you a better rate, I have 2 clients that managed to “persued” Tradepage to upgrade their accounts to 512&4mbs respectfully.
Oh yes and soft cap at 10GB.
X
Apr 12th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Thanks for the further information @ix, really does help having one place with everything!
I have sent off some emails to friends who use other ISPs to get their opinions, because right now it sounds like MWEB is the only real option, although I’ve heard good things about AfriHost, I’m worried about their throttling. OpenWeb seems to be doing a good job too..
Apr 12th, 2010 at 5:55 pm
I am with OpenWeb and they are doing a great job! The sign up process took around a minute and I was off! No waiting, no hassles, and absolutely no problems to date! They have been simply fantastic. The CEO has answered my email during the weekend and overall they have been simply fantastic. The speeds I am getting are also lighting and I would highlly reccommend their uncapped packages!
I tried Mweb and they were HORRIBLE! Read here about my experience with Mweb:
http://www.cptawesome.co.za/2010/04/12/captain-awesomes-opinion-mweb-sucks/
I also looked at Afrihost but their thresholds persuaded me to stay away. Trust me I did A LOT of research before trying these guys.
Apr 15th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
Switched from Telkom to Mweb 4mb uncapped on the 26th march.Speed no problem up untill about the 30th March,then download speed dropped to less than 100KB regardless of the time of the day.I have been in constant contact with Mweb to try and resolve this matter and to date it is still(as they claim) with their technical department.Their first line of defence was that it was my Telkom line.I tested the line speed with both my additional Telkom and Afrihost accounts and recorded D/load speeds
of +400KB,even used one of their IT staff’s Mweb capped account and same story +400KB.
Not sure if they can resolve this issue and resorted to subscribe to a usenet account which gives me d/load speeds of not less than 350KB regardless of time of the day.
Nadeem T
Apr 23rd, 2010 at 5:37 pm
Just so that you guys know Afrihost uncapped Throttles you to extremely low speeds at 30GB. I’ve been told by some users that they have been throttled at 15GB which is rediculous. I was getting speeds of 38KBS at the start but now i’m getting maximum 6KBS
Apr 23rd, 2010 at 5:53 pm
my trial is up next week with mweb and with a holiday next week i signed up with uncapped adsl.
i went with mweb as from what people are saying about afrihost throttling you after 30G or whatever, mweb’s threshold seems MUCH higher and i did about 40G-50G on the trial so far this month and my speeds were still perfect.
10 minutes it took me to sign up and worked immediately (barring i have to fax through the papers on monday).
gonna do a report on my blog over the weekend of how i experienced mweb this month too.
Apr 24th, 2010 at 9:43 pm
I must admit, I’ve explored almost all (Will do OpenWeb next) the options and MWEB does come out on top for me. I’ve been blogging my journey each week, including one that will go up this evening! :)
Apr 24th, 2010 at 10:25 pm
Openweb 10/10
By far the best isp for me. I’ve finally settled down with them after isp jumping over the years.
Even if the prices are a few rands more with them, I still wudn’t mind considering that they have provided me with fast and efficient quality service.
Apr 24th, 2010 at 11:15 pm
@MCee – Are you on one of their uncapped accounts now?
@Scott – That’s exactly my opinion! How are your upload/download speeds?
Apr 29th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Web Africa are fighting back, here’s the latest:
Data only packages come in three flavors: R199 for 15 GB of ADSL data, R299 for 25 GB of data and R499 for a 50 GB account. This equates to R13, R12 and R10 per GB respectively.
Web Africa’s bundled offerings are even more aggressively priced, with a DSL384 access and 15 GB data bundle priced at R299. A DSL 4 Mbps access and 25 GB data bundle costs R599 while a DSL 4 Mbps access service and 50 GB of data is priced at R799 per month.
That’s R499 for 50GB of data!
May 2nd, 2010 at 1:48 pm
Is telkom the only place you can get an ADSL line and is ADSL the only uncapped internet?
May 2nd, 2010 at 1:57 pm
@cleaven
you need a phoneline (telkom)
then you also need an ADSL line which you can get from not only telkom, but mweb and cybersmart. i’m not sure if there are any other ISPs out there that can do that.
ADSL comes in uncapped or capped….meaning uncapped you get unlimted bandwidth (as much GB as you want). capped is where you pay say R29 for 1GB. when you reach your 1GB cap you won’t have internet, you will have to buy more cap.
May 2nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Ye,
The phone line comes from Telkom, but you can get your ADSL line from MWEB, CyberSmart, Axxess and a bunch of other places. The beauty with getting your ADSL from another service provider is that they often have nice bundled specials..
May 2nd, 2010 at 6:22 pm
Does openweb offer bundles? Can i have this uncapped internet on two pc’s in my house with this one cable? thanx for the help guys
May 2nd, 2010 at 7:28 pm
unfortunately openweb does not offer bundles.
yes, you can have the 2 pcs use the ADSL at the same time as long as they are both connected to your ADSL router with network cables.
May 3rd, 2010 at 12:28 am
Ye, I got 4 computers here, eached plugged into the router and they’re all online via the MWEB uncapped solution :)
May 9th, 2010 at 11:31 pm
Has anyone looked at latencies between different ISPs? Which one rates best in terms of latency for uncapped packages? big pings means many deaths in games such as MW2 etc
Any thoughts?
May 13th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Am I the only one who is happy with Telkom? (apart from the ridiculous charge per extra gig ).My total 4096 5g account including line,ISP,DSL and calls comes to around R920 pm. The line only drops occasionally and their support has been good when I needed it, even phoning me back when the queue was too long to wait.
I will rather wait to see what they offer later, than switch to another ISP and perhaps suffer like I did when ABSA sold out to @lantic.
May 13th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
@ Ian
I was upgraded to a 4 Meg line and never got the download speeds I was suppose to get,and the ADSL kept kicking me out every hour or so.Telkom techie then downgraded me to a 1Meg line and all is stable. BUT I’m fighting with them to tell me why I can’t run 4 Meg.They just keep telling me that 1 Meg 2Meg and 4 Meg are in the same category. But they don’t seem to grasp that there is a difference in the speed of these so called same category lines. And you must still pay the same price.
May 18th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Hi, we are AfriHost uncapped 4096kb customers with one account at the office and one at home. We have lately experienced extremely soggy traffic, has anyone else a good reference test for the different providers?
May 23rd, 2010 at 1:51 am
Consumers need to know what they are buying. If you purchase an adsl line and bandwidth from anywhere e.g. Mweb on a 384kbps line and 384kbps bandwidth capped, uncapped, shaped or unshaped which unshaped is a few kbps slower the consumers think that the speed is at 384kbps. I have been one of those consumers as explained by Mweb that the upload rate is at 192kbps and that when I download any data I will receive it as 385kbps. I have called many Mweb agents explain the same lies and from what I know now they do not know what they sell. Explained 8 bits make 1kb which means if you take a 385kbps line and data bandwidth of your choice your download is 8 times slower than the 384kbps advertised. if you download 100mb on line speed and bandwidth 384kbps you have to divide 384kbps by 8 which you will get the actual download speed (transfer rate). You will have to divide the 100mb by the transfer rate to get the time it will take you to download it. 1024kbps = 1 mb 100mb = 102400 385kbps / 8 = 48.125 your transfer rate. If you divide 102400 by 48.125 you will get the download time which will take you 21 – 25 minutes that’s if your transfer rate is stable and we know that is not the case. Now I downloaded 166mb with my 385kbps uncapped shaped account with Mweb and it took me 57 minutes. The man in the street thinks that if he is downloading 166mb = 1669984kb he will receive it at 385kbps and if that were true he would receive it within 5 minutes. Don’t be fooled by high numbers in speeds. When the prices come down and it will as we have been ripped off on prices over the years in this country for far too long. Take a 4096 4mb or 8192 8mb line and bandwidth capped, uncapped, shaped or unshaped as 4096 4mb will download at 512kbps and the 8192 will download at 1mbps. If not then we still being ripped off. Whichever speed you choose divide the kbps e.g 385kbps divided by 8 = 48.125 that is the actual download speed which takes forever. Now imagine downloading a movie as Mweb advertises. Lol if the movie is 800mb by the time that downloads you can go to the movie store hire it go to the shop for goodies and groceries come home watch it take it back come home and your download might just be complete.
May 23rd, 2010 at 2:17 am
damn, and here i was wondering why the 48.125K speeds I’m getting are less than 56k modems! :|
May 23rd, 2010 at 9:09 pm
@Nazeen – That’s a really great breakdown and incredibly valuable to those who don’t really understand the whole behind all of this. Thank you so much for taking the time to share this information, I appreciate it and hope that you stick around on iMod :)
May 26th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
@ Nazeen
[q]
I have called many Mweb agents explain the same lies and from what I know now they do not know what they sell. Explained 8 bits make 1kb which means if you take a 385kbps line and data bandwidth of your choice your download is 8 times slower than the 384kbps advertised.
[/q]
Nothing is slower than advertised.
Imagine someone is selling rope at R10 for 1000mm.
You spend R10 and get 1m of rope, but are terribly dissatisfied as it is 1000 times less than was offered.
But in fact 1m = 1000mm
Just so 384 kbps = 48 kBps
Notice the b vs B
One is bits the other is bytes.
You do have the correct factor though. Divide by 8 to get your speed in bytes and multiply by 8 to get it in bits.
May 26th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
@LivaN
What you are saying is true – but wouldn’t you agree that the ISP’s are taking advantage of the naivety of the general public by advertising the speed in kilobits instead of kiloBytes?
May 26th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
@Ritz
Yes, I agree. They are definitely taking advantage.
I can still remember, as a child, the dissapointmet when I go my first adsl line and the speeds were no where near as fast as was expected.
May 26th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
@Ritz – I have to agree with you that the information being put out by a lot of the ISPs is sneaky and that people aren’t entirely sure what they’re getting. I get emails every single day from readers asking why things are slow when they’d been promised must faster. It’s unfortunate and the main problem is that a trial and error approach is actually required to get the best solution..
May 26th, 2010 at 5:22 pm
@LivaN don’t forget the 13% overhead on data transmission!
if all ISPs advertise, instead of 384kb, 512kb or 4096kb, to advertise it as 48kB, 64kB or 512kB for example you will still get the same speeds, it’s the same thing! the issues comes in where people moan about line speeds. it all depends on your location, the telkom exchange, network data transmissions and network congestion and also the shaping that the ISP can inforce. there are alot of aspects to take into account.
then one can say that all ISPS around the world are not informing their clients correctly. it is not just in South Africa. in America, the UK you get 10mbps at your house, it is not a true 10mbps but it is in fact, 1250kBps
Same can be said for your computer network cards, your switches, routers, etc.
It is not false advertising. because in fact 384kbps does actually equal 48kBps.
it is just that the terminology and conversion between bits and bytes is a bit confusing for the average joe who does not know these things.
i just hate it when people accuse ISPS everywhere that they say they are not getting 4MB when they download things.
May 28th, 2010 at 8:46 am
besides 8bits in 1Byte I can assure you that the download speeds have deteriorated on most of the ISP’s, MWEB included.
In my opinion since “uncapped” started selling all sorts of problems have cropped up with regards to internet speed.
Then also the Seacom problems, forcing traffic to be rerouted via SAT3, too much congestion, heightened latency up too 800ms to UK.. and not to mention local TelkomSA line problems in and around Cape Town CBD, which is still continuing.
It has been a bad past 4 weeks in any case… let’s hope next month works better.
May 28th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
[q]
It has been a bad past 4 weeks in any case… let’s hope next month works better.
[/q]
Bad for who? Currently my ISP is “reconfiguring” their packages, and as a side effect my 384kbps line is getting an average speed of 350kBps – 400kBps.
Does that mean I have a 4 mpbs uncapped line? ;)
Jun 5th, 2010 at 10:31 am
I am not an IT pro, but I’m convinced that my internet speed is slowed down over weekends. I live in Cape Town. The speedtest show considerable slower speed, between .9 to 1.5 whereas during the week it tests 1.5 to 3.2. The pingtest varies between A-B.
Question: Can it be possible that the service provider is slowing the speed down over weekends?
Jun 6th, 2010 at 10:25 am
@Roy – That’s odd though because you’d expect it to be slower during the week and not during the weekend. On the flipside, the weekend is when everyone has time to muck around online, downloading and so forth, which would then result in the ISP getting slightly bogged down..
Jun 6th, 2010 at 9:22 pm
Chris – where did you get these from? Not currently on their website?
“Web Africa are fighting back, here’s the latest:
Data only packages come in three flavors: R199 for 15 GB of ADSL data, R299 for 25 GB of data and R499 for a 50 GB account. This equates to R13, R12 and R10 per GB respectively.
Web Africa’s bundled offerings are even more aggressively priced, with a DSL384 access and 15 GB data bundle priced at R299. A DSL 4 Mbps access and 25 GB data bundle costs R599 while a DSL 4 Mbps access service and 50 GB of data is priced at R799 per month.
That’s R499 for 50GB of data!”
Jun 7th, 2010 at 10:16 am
I would stay well away from Cybersmart. They have been changing their products willy nilly without notifying their customers.
Also not much uncapped usage for their 4096 customers – 2am to 5am uncapped??? Come on Cybersmart!!
Jun 7th, 2010 at 12:15 pm
I have just read this comment from http://www.thebroadbandbible.co.za/
“UPDATE, 25 May 2010: MWEB has decided to severely shape not only torrents
(understandable), but regular HTTP download sites such as Rapidshare, Hotfile, Filefactory and others. Download speeds are maximum 30-40KB/s during the day, with some let-up during evenings. Browsing is usable, but for downloading it would be frustrating for most. It is fair to say that MWEB’s Uncapped should be rebranded ‘Uncapped browsing’, as uncapped downloading clearly isn’t what these accounts were intended for. No need to have a 512k or 4Mbps line with these accounts if you intend to download – a 384K would be just fine.” Is this TRUE?
Jun 16th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
Hello Guys and Gals
I want to enquire something… Currently I have telkom DO3 package and I am really happy with telkom service. You do get there ocassional loss connection now and again. I have heard that MWEB is giving away uncapped ADSL as well. Has there been anybody that has moved from telkom to mweb? can you please give a brief history and your experience and is it worth the change or not..
Jun 17th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
I took up the Afrihost offering and the line speeds are so unstable and slow that it is unworkable. Would definaltey not reccomend using them for business. The lines are so slow that you can hardly open websites. I can not even run a speed test @ speedtest.net – awful!
Jun 17th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
Hello Guys and Gals
I could not wait any longer and i decided to take the MWEB uncapped package..(4096 line)for R539 per month..
I done 4 speed test on both of them and this is the rusult
MWEB download speed 1.10 mbps
MWEB upload speed
Jun 17th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
Hello Guys and Gals
I could not wait any longer and i decided to take the MWEB uncapped package..(4096 line)for R539 per month..
I done 4 speed test on both of them and this is the rusult
MWEB download speed 1.10 mbps average
MWEB upload speed 0.38 mbps average
ping 76 average
Telkom DO 3 package
download speed 3.42 average
upload speed 0.43 average
ping 21 average
So this uncapped options is just a huge gimmick and a money making scheme..
Jun 17th, 2010 at 4:59 pm
Hi @Pullice – I’m not sure about them giving away accounts. Moving ISPs can be quite seamless, all you really need to do is cancel your bandwidth from Telkom and get an account from MWEB, you would still pay Telkom for your line and adsl line rental though. I moved from Telkom to MWEB’s uncapped and had no problems..
@Jano – Darn, that’s annoying. I haven’t tried AfriHost, only MWEB.
Jun 17th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
@Pullice – I presume you tested during office hours? That in mind, the speeds are slower during the day, try running speedtests again this evening and see what you get..
Jun 17th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Hi chris…
speed test dont lie!!!!
Jun 17th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Don’t lie about what?
Jun 17th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
I ment to say speed test wont lie.
@ Chris..chris, is your speed the same with mweb?
Jun 17th, 2010 at 5:35 pm
Guys and Gals
I have contacted MWEB technical support and one of the technician said that because of uncapped package my internet would be slower, I explained to him that “slighlty” slower is acceptable but not by half and less. Telkom was 3.42 download average speedand MWEB was 1.10 download average speed on the same line.
Eventually with some arguement and verbal exchances they gave me another server connection (NOT SURE WHATS IT CALLED) and my speed test shows the same download speed as telkom, in fact slighly faster now..lol
My advice to you for those who take MWEB uncapped before cancelling your previous service provider make sure you do download tests and ask as many questions as possible
Thanks
Jun 24th, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Hi chris i need advice on uncapped internet
for around 500pm for line rental nd adsl for uncapped who should i go with ? openweb ? or mweb ?
i play online alot nd skype nd downlaod game updates (which are rather big latly) nd email nd facebook so what would u suggest ?
ps my dad wont spend much so ur advice would be much appreciated
Jun 24th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
@GEE – Do you have an ADSL line installed already? Do you have a phoneline installed already? That’s the first step. From there you need to look at line speeds and see which one fits into budget best – perhaps you should start on a slower one first and upgrade. The uncapped lines aren’t the best for gaming from what I’ve heard. I used MWEB for 2 months and enjoyed the experience with literally no issues, but I don’t game though and it’s gaming that requires stability. OpenWeb I will never say anything negative about, I’ve been a loyal customer of theirs since the first day they opened and have never been let down. Also look at AfriHost, they have a 2-for-1 special that is also brilliant, but it’s not uncapped, so there are no restrictions..
Jun 25th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
iv read about AfriHost which people arnt very happy with so i wouldnt really go towards them. and yes i have an adsl line and adsl i have 384K 3gig from telkom and was looking towards uncapped because i download alot and the game updates are getting pretty huge now days and parents well they moan because they think im going to finish the 3gig so thats why i was looking at uncapped to just be able to be free nd play nd everythng i was looking at openweb and DiaMatrix for uncapped i am at the moment trying to convince my dad to go for openweb since telkom doesnt have uncapped at the moment. i was thinking of say 512K uncapped from them. oh yes nd ahm as for the adsl line is it possible to hav the adsl line go through the isp u with instead of telkom because i hear that if u choose a isp and they go through telkom its not a good idea because they will give u hassles like disconnecting u and so forth.
Jun 25th, 2010 at 7:30 pm
@gee
Please write in English and save this strange language for texting.
I like to understand what I read!!
Jun 30th, 2010 at 1:02 am
First time here. Brilliant idea. Helpful comments. I am currently using Cybersmart. I quite like them. They had uncapped on weekends, but about a month (and a downgrade fee) later they stopped it. They said people were downloading too much. I don’t see the point of uncapped then. Someone else mentioned them and I agree. They jump around with offers too much. For capped they are great, but it is not that much cheaper than uncapped, so I need to migrate to another ISP. It seems high data speeds and big cap limits (or uncapped) is a choice people on a budget need to make. High speed/ 3Gig or 384kb/ uncapped. I would prefer the uncapped, but if the speed gets reduced during office hours or after a set “cap” is reached, it makes my choice even harder. In a nutshell…. is MWEB 512kb/s uncapped worth it if you use torrents, webcams, Youtube and regular constant browsing???
Jun 30th, 2010 at 5:58 pm
Hi guys, thanks for all the input. I am one of those newly returned South Africans from London where most of the internet options was dirt cheap and seemless.
I have been looking at all the options mentioned above been MWEB, Openweb, Afrihost, Axxess, etc. but must admit am still confused on what to take.
My first question:
Does anyone use Neotel in Cape Town? I have read some bad reviews saying they are more focused on corporates at the moment, but was considering them as have always heard terrible things about Telkom service – which is important for me.
If ADSL is still the way to go, could anyone throw some advise my way of what you would take if you were budgeting +-R500/m. I dont need internet during the day and only require it for browsing, emails, Skype and the occasional online PS3 gaming.
Please let me know if you think uncapped is necessary for my usage or should I look at a 3G unshaped bundle? Also, not sure what speeds I could get for that price, so open to any suggestions.
Thanks
Jul 1st, 2010 at 8:55 am
May I add or suggest a site? do a review on lando.co.za Even with the ISP’s now charging for connection speed rather than data usage ( kinda bringing us back to the days of Dialup in a way ) our costs are still FAR more expensive than that of the international community.
What needs to happen is guys like Neotel and the like should stick it to telkom and the others and give offers in line with the rest of the world.
Jul 1st, 2010 at 1:24 pm
I know this is mostly for home users but after a disastrous experience with Datapro (if you want details I’ll provide them) we moved one of our clients across to Mweb Business Uncapped. Its R2000/month, but thats true uncapped/unshaped. Speedtest.net reveals that we’re getting a solid 3.8mbps which is within tolerance. Initially there was a problem with noise on the line sevearly limiting bandwidth (1mbps). Mweb facilitated with telkom to have this cleared within a day or 2 of it being reported. Needless to say, compared to the joke that is Datapro, I was/am very impressed! Currently we’re sitting on around 200GB of usage with no sign of throttling in sight:-)
x
Jul 18th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
I have mweb uncaped 384k shaped.. i sometimes reach 50k download speeds!!! adn there is no throtle so far the most i downloaded is 48g a month though but the speeds isnt to bad some times i get slow speeds but thats probly because im shaped, and my friend has afrihost, haha it is throtled for uncap not shure how much cap he used. but he get like 10k when he is throtled lol
Jul 18th, 2010 at 9:00 pm
oh and neotel is wireless so if weather is bad the speed is bad, although i like their service they are friendly…
Jul 22nd, 2010 at 4:34 am
Hi guys, thanx 4 ur posts, i dnt have adsl an i would like 2 get on that wagon, i have recently started playing cod online via 3g but as u know dat expensive an i get high pings sometimes, i wana get me uncapd but i must start from scratch, i just have one silly question 4 now, i dnt have a fone line and i hear neotel is wireless, does that mean i dnt need a fone line 2 my house?
Jul 26th, 2010 at 9:47 am
The only problem with Neotel is that they only do Wireless. Thats something they really should concentrate on – expanding to lines. From what I’ve heard, there service is great in every way.
I have an Mweb 4096kpbs uncapped line at work and at home, and it works beautifully. The service from MWeb is great too. If I ever need any help, they sort it out for me right there and then over the phone.
What you need to do is have Telkom lay your line (Whichever you choose 384/512/4096) and dont take a package from them. Have them JUST INSTALL THE LINE. Then, phone Mweb and have them put you on a package. My package costs me R899 a month. and thats all inclusive, line rentals and package! Perfect!
Jul 26th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Julian
With all due respect, the Mweb site specifically says that the Telkom phone line is NOT included, just the ADSL portion. That adds another R120 odd to the account.
Jul 26th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
What @Ian says is correct..
It’s important to always look at what the ISPs offer, they aren’t hidden costs per say, but they aren’t always put right in your face.
Jul 28th, 2010 at 11:46 pm
Strangely enough – even though I have had multiple disputes with Cybersmart, they still seem to have the best offering for a 4MB line!
Still no uncapped package – but their top service offering (R799 a month, inclusive of line rental – 2am to 5am free + 15GB a month) leaves me with an average of 60 – 70GB downloaded a month – with me using the free 2am to 5am slot…
No other ISP has a similar offering for the same price…unless I am not aware of it…
Max speed I have seen – from well seeded Torrents – is around 200kb a sec.
PC and PS3 gaming – smooth!
HTTP traffic – quick (youtube on demand – limited buffering required!)
Jul 29th, 2010 at 8:22 am
Neelesh, isat offer uncapped 4mbps line for R870. It’s a little more than what you pay, but there is no cap. Not sure how it holds for gaming though.
Aug 9th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Does Telkom offer uncapped is my main question?
Aug 9th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
No @Kovan, they don’t.
Aug 16th, 2010 at 9:53 pm
“Unfortunately, every report I’ve heard since then has been negative and I think they will slowly slip out of the market based on their costs being more expensive and their offerings less attractive.”
- I find this funny. Yes there was a month or so of slow going, but otherwise I’m sitting with an uncapped 4mbps line on digichilli while paying for the spicy package. They are the best isp ever
Aug 17th, 2010 at 5:27 am
Anyone know when Telkom is going to roll out the increased speed package?
Is there anyway to check? I have been to their site but the availability checker just says my exchange is ADSL capable.
My speeds are still the same as last week.
Aug 17th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
@Ian – Must admit, several of my friends who use Telkom as their ISP have said that their speeds are a lot faster. Are you certain that your line speed is up?
Aug 17th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
I’m on 3.49 megabits,on test,so according to Telkom’s press release,I should qualify for the increased speed,being a 4096 line.
Aug 18th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
ISat offer 4096k line at R371 incl VAT. This is much more cost effective than anyone else. Does anyone have specific feedback on this offering?
Aug 19th, 2010 at 10:58 am
@ Ian
I actually phoned telkom yesterday about just that. They said it will happen in stages.
Firstly those who’s exchange can handle it will get the upgrade initialy, but depending on your area you may still wait a while. Remember, they’ll probably do all the business areas in the major cities first (joburg, capetown, etc).
You’re best bet to get an actual time frame is to phone the telkom adsl department and ask them directly.
Aug 29th, 2010 at 4:06 pm
geez..this thread really helps..hope everyone always keeps posting here..iv’e been looking around for a while, and really find this extremely helpful. I have had a 384kb 2GB line with telkom and then moved to webafrica when i saw the difference in pricing. I dont know much when it comes to (the pricing of internet and other ISP’s) as i work for an australian ISP and it’s damn ridiculous if compared to the speeds and prices we get over here. I mean where i work we offer up to 24mbps and 1TB a month for only about $100. when are going to get something similar??
anyways basically i cancelled my internet as i was just fed up with my constant disconnections and slow speeds.I just really dont see the point in paying R500 a month and then still have to fight and struggle with your ISP or telkom. I am looking for something reliable now tho..from what i can see from these threads alot of people have there opinions, so im still clueless and where i should head for the best pricing and stability