Re: Telkom marketing at it again?

On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 2:38 PM, William Francis Stucke
<[email protected]> wrote:
>   No one seems to have addressed the first error: -
>   > * What does kbps mean?
>   > Kilobytes per second.
>   No, it doesn't. It means kilobits per second. Bits, not bytes.
>   As to a realistic time: -
>   Assuming that you get the maximum possible theoretical performance out
>   of an ADSL line, which is typically around 87% [1] of its capacity, we
>   have:
>   Effective maximum line speed = 384 * 0.87 = 334 kbps = 334,000 bps (~=
>   42 kBps)
>   3 MB file = 3 * 1024 * 1024 * 8 = 25,165,824 bits
>   25,165,824 bits / 326,000 bps = 75 seconds.
>   That's "a little over one minute", if you're feeling generous.
>   Realistically, since one seldom achieves maximum theoretical
>   performance, you may well find that it takes several minutes to
>   download the file. While it's impossible in practice to predict the
>   actual speed on a contended consumer ADSL service, what you can say is
>   that it will never take _less_ than 75 seconds on a 384 kbps ADSL line.
>   More interesting, perhaps, is Telkom's assumption that one is
>   downloading MP3 music files. From where? Limewire for the typical
>   kiddie?
>   Note that both "1000" and "1024" are used in the sums above, in the
>   appropriate places, for speeds and sizes respectively.
>   [1] That arbitrary figure of 100 - 87 = 13% is what I remember from way
>   back when I actually did the sums - and the online tests to confirm -
>   the overhead taken up by the ATM framing, etc. Note that there is also
>   the IP framing overhead to take into account. ( 20 bytes per packet +
>   options, if any)
>   Cheers.
>   Kind regards,
>   William Stucke
>   ICASA Councillor
>   011-566-3009

 I have a slight question, I've had a 384k line for yonks, and it's
 okay. I have at stages out of frustration phoned the the helpdesk
 and spoken to I feel as frustrated helpdesk staff who tried to
 explain to me, there is no 1meg upgrade option on the home 384k
 "faster" lines, only up to 4meg.

 What bemuses me to no end though, is the telkom advertising,
 magically working youtube videos, and all sorts of slick broadband
 experiences in the blurbs, however, I can confirm, with proof,
 all  that does not work with the 384k option. So these adverts
 must refer to the 4meg lines, IOW there are no real options from
 telkom in terms of broadband, and their 3g coverage is not
 there yet.

 In reasonable use I do not see the need for 4 megs, so rest
 assured, even though it claims 384k as broadband,
 reality begs to differ, and to prove the point, use 3g on
 netbook and all that telkom advertises  works, except
 over their own line,  the 3g is 7.2 megs HSPA.

 I think if Telkom does not drop the nonsense soon, we all going
 to be moving over to 4g, and coppers days will be numbered
 except for connections that need cheap 20+megabit lines, or
 adverse conditions. According to my router, I have a line
 rate of  24472 kbps, and only have two options, 384k or 4meg
 clocked, this is over and above wifi's 802.1n effectiveness,
 and availability in the area. Wifi traditionally _starts_ at one
 meg, and when 4g (lte+) arrives well .. interesting times, doubt
 telkoms going to have anything interesting except maybe faster
 adsl, by the time everyone is happily idling over there 3g and
 4g connections.
 Lets not even start with Cell-C's marketing with their take on 4g.
 4G is lte+, and or IMT-Advanced, only somewhere at Cell-C's
 HQ's is there a powepoint presentation connecting HPSA+ as
 4g,  although many other networks have done exactly this,
 (T-Mobile for one), so looks like that power-point presentation
 maybe is not so new, I will how ever say that the speeds are
 impressive over HSPA+ from cape town, to strand, when I
 tested, so it might pay long term to have accurate advertising
 in terms of informing potential clients. It works, and is quick
 is far better than claiming absurd things like 4G meaning
 for great speeds.

 So no, maybe it is not just Telkom.

 Daniel

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