Internet connectivity in South Africa

[Snoopy_inc]

RKS...... my friend and fellow telkom hater.. you are not reading what i am saying.

I have been a dedicated myadsler for years now and hold alot of respect on the forums.(own status etc) --- not that it means much.... but i know alot about telecoms in this country to understand the workings.

[stephanfx]

thanks for the insight snoop, but still I will stick with someone who offers support over invoices Until then... we can just wait and see, even if it takes 5 years.

[Snoopy_inc]

Stephanfx don't get me wrong. My statement is on a assumptions that telkom will pull up their socks... if they don't then there isn't a reason to stay with them thats all

[RKS Computer Solutions]

Snoopy, I took your post on face value, which meant Telkom was great...

I respect your myadsl heritage and all but anything run by government showing brutal profits and no advances for the public is an absolute no-go for me...

As Stephan said, I'd rather go with a company that wants to support me than a company that screws up, tells me to just pay the invoice and then they will look at it... What the hell is up with that?

[Snoopy_inc]

RKS i agree with you wholeheartedly... i think i must try explain myself a bit more..... ill leave that for tomorrow its late and my eyes are sagging
Anyway post tomorrow some more on this.... maybe i can phrase it so that i dont speak gibberish :P

[Snoopy_inc]

here is something interesting for you to read about neotel :

Neotel has quietly ramped up the deployment of optical fibre routes in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban.

Neotel is quietly going about their business of expanding their network and signing up clients.

Quietly progressing

“A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes at Neotel since its entry into the market with wholesale international services last August,” the second national operator said.

Neotel currently carries international voice services for the mobile operators, and provides global Internet transit for major ISPs from its international POP in Johannesburg.

The company has grown to around 170 people, with offices in Cape Town and Durban in addition to its Head Office and National Operations Centre in Johannesburg.

“In acquiring Transtel Telecoms from Transnet, our reach is growing substantially, and we will have a presence at more than 100 places across the country, in addition to international VSAT capability,” Neotel said. The company’s initial focus will however remain on the major metros.

Leased line services launched

With their 10,000 km national network up and running, Neotel has launched its flexible leased line service to select customers.

Amongst these initial customers will be SITA, which recently awarded the contract for its national backbone to Neotel, citing value for money and bandwidth scalability as key to their decision. Neotel said that they have also received high bandwidth leased line orders from several other large customers.

“Delivered using Neotel's Next Generation SDH platform, Neotel's leased line service offers the flexibility of various SDH or Ethernet interfaces, and scalability from 2 to 155 Mbps, within or between major metros in South Africa,” the company said.

Neotel said that that their interfaces allow customers to select the bandwidth that best suits their requirements, rather than having to pay for the next largest bandwidth option. “It represents the first true network diversity available to operators and large enterprises in South Africa.”

Fiber backbone expansion

Neotel has been silently expanding their optical fibre routes in the four major metros namely Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban. The new deployment augments the 1300 km of fibre routes purchased from Transnet last year, and allows the second national operator to reach deeper into the key business districts of those cities.

“In lighting up these fibres, Neotel is creating the high bandwidth Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) that are needed to deliver basic transmission services and the broader set of next generation services for enterprises,” Neotel said.

Siemens (with Juniper), Cisco, Huawei, Spescom (with ECI), Tellumat, and Dimension Data have all announced major supply contracts with Neotel.

Neotel Enterprise Services

“Neotel's enterprise services will address the voice, data and Internet connectivity needs of enterprises, through a single, converged network that is already interconnected nationally to all the operators in South Africa, and globally via VSNL International to more than 400 operators,” the operator said.

In the Internet space, Neotel will peer with the major ISPs in South Africa, whilst delivering international traffic from VSNL International's Tier 1 network.

“With the latest generation of optical transmission and IP technology across both the national backbone and metropolitan networks, and with access to capacity globally, Neotel is well positioned to address the bandwidth limitations in the South African market. We are pursuing various options to address the need for affordable international bandwidth, both through SAT-3/SAFE and new submarine fibre systems,” Neotel concluded.

[duncan drennan]

The original story, as posted above, can be found on MyBroadband

[RKS Computer Solutions]

It's great to read an article about what Neotel is doing in the background... Thanx for the link Duncan...

[Snoopy_inc]

lol..... my bad did i miss putting the url in?... i guess i did. o well we all human

[Dave A]

As someone who travels a fair bit, there's one observation I'd like to make on connectivity in South Africa.

As a traveller, I get to use my Vodacom HSDPA service all over the place. And there is no doubt - It's way slower and you get far more dropped packets in KZN in comparison to Gauteng.

In my days with Sentech I found much the same thing. Speed and reliability was far better in Gauteng.

I do so wish that KZN would get a fair shake on this

Whilst staying in Tokai, Capetown, I was quite surprised to find that I could not get HSDPA connections - only GPRS and Edge, and I tried in 2 different locations in the area. Obviously coverage is pretty patchy in that neck of the woods (or should that be hills and mountains).

Anyhow, my main thrust: Gauteng definitely seems to get better attention in the internet scheme of things

[RKS Computer Solutions]

Gauteng, being the main business hub for the big corporates, is where the most money can be made upfront by the companies offering their services.. If you look at any coverage map for Vodacom/MTN/Sentech/IBurst their best service locales are located in Gauteng...

[Dave A]

On coverage I get it. On speed, frankly I don't. Arguably, there are probably more connections per tower in Gauteng compared to KZN. The hand brake seems to be in the pipe between Gauteng and KZN, or in the priority given to that pipe.

On more than one occasion Vodacom has been caught with a transparent cache setting between KZN and Gauteng that ensures stuff that is OK in Gauteng simply does not work in KZN. Not even-handed and not amused.

[RKS Computer Solutions]

Might be to keep the Gauteng "yuppies" happy... And in using the word "yuppie", I was there once upon a time...

[Snoopy_inc]

Well they are the HQ of SA atm.

this is slowly moving into a different direction though Dave.... don't be surprised if i say that Durban is going to become the new HQ of sa. Alot of businesses are moving their HQ to durban or CPT and away from JHB.

there are other plans atm to bring about new wireless infrastructure in Durban. so Dave... it will happen we just have to be patient as usual