My ADSL speed came down to about 2.6mbps from a usual 5.3mbps, over the past few weeks along with latency errors and a few other unexplained problems.
So the isp logs a fault for me.
Usually Telkom takes takes about 4 days to get around to dealing with their faults in this area. This time a very impressive 4 hours, but being impressed was short lived.

Nicholas from Telkom phones in, and in a take it or leave it type voice and attitude tells me:

  • That there is nothing they can do about this speed issue as the current contention ratio is set at 100:1 up from the agreed 20:1, and we must just suck it up. Its not his fault that there are so many extra users on these days.
  • He also informed that they were well within the spec for 4mbps-10mbps service which is actually 1.6mbps.
  • He further informed me that if I wanted faster speeds I could try the cellular networks and their huge prices. What sort of service did I expect at the cheap rates I pay.
  • He also informed me that Telkom had not made a profit for the past few years and was unlikely to be spending anything to fix this issue or make our lives any different.
  • International standards were not their concern. Basically this is Africa - get used to it.
  • Bottom line is that there was nothing he could do about it, and I got the impression that even if he could do something he was not going to do anything anyway.


Is anyone surprised that Telkom is battling?
Is there anyone that wants to remain with Telkom or go with 8ta?:

For some strange reason my speed was back up to 5.2mbps last night -go figure?