Telkom’s not-so-soft cap

Telkom announced on Friday that broadband subscribers to its Internet service provider will no longer be cut off when they reach their caps but will be “soft capped”. That means no access to YouTube or file-sharing services. By Craig Wilson.

Added by Craig Wilson on 7 January 2013.
Saved under News
Tags: ,

ethernet-640

Telkom Internet, Telkom’s Internet service provider, said on Friday that from 1 February users on its capped broadband products will be still be able to access international websites and services when they reach their data cap where previously they would be limited to browsing local websites.

However, customers should be warned that their connection speeds and the range of things they’ll be able to access will be extremely limited, the telecommunications operator says in response to questions from TechCentral.

“Of importance is that the soft cap is intended to be a more customer-friendly means of ensuring broadband access to essential Internet-based services after they have consumed their cap than the previous local-only data promotion.”

Customers will have their connections shaped to prioritise traffic such as e-mail, banking and browsing.

Although the throttled speeds will “satisfy broadband definitions”, they will be “significantly slower than entry-level ADSL line speeds”, Telkom says. Throttling may be increased or decreased in future based on feedback and “operational constraints”.

In addition to throttled speeds, consumers will not be able to use video streaming services like YouTube or peer-to-peer services at all once they have reached their monthly data cap.

This is to “ensure that the essential services are not impacted”, Telkom says.

Telkom Internet’s business customers are given priority for their applications during business hours, while residential customers will find their after-hours activity prioritised. It says this is in line with the practices of Internet service providers worldwide.  — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media

Share this article

  • Greg Mahlknecht

    a. “deprioritise high-bandwidth applications such as peer-to-peer file sharing and multimedia content streaming”

    b. “consumers will not be able to use video streaming services like YouTube or peer-to-peer services at all”

    Which one is it? a or b? “deprioritise ” and “no access” are very different.

  • http://twitter.com/craigwilson Craig Wilson

    Hi Greg,

    Thanks for pointing that out, you’re quite right. The first comment about “deprioritising” came from Telkom’s original statement on Friday. The company has since confirmed that streaming and peer-to-peer will be blocked. I’ve updated the story accordingly.

    Indeed, we’ll have to wait for the actual product to see exactly what “significantly slower” means.

  • http://www.InTheCube.co.za/ InTheCube.co.za

    Telkom’s “not-so-soft cap” is still better than a hard cap, and the pretty much useless local-only-bandwidth. Well done Telkom – these are promising signs.

  • Chris

    Telkom, no thanks not in a million years ever again. And for them to decide what I may and may not view and access, utter BS! Got Mtn lite, with a lower speed connection when I’ve used my 3 GIGs and couldnt be happier. Telkom, maybe look at MTN for a solution!

  • Lucian C

    The Telkom option is still too expensive. Bet a mobile option is cheaper

  • rudloo

    We just discovered that YouTube is not working being SoftCapped! You can browse videos but not watch them… Not Cool!!

  • http://twitter.com/Mr_Gigglesno1 John-rees Louw

    Chris you have totally missed the point mate – Think of it this way, you have 10 gig limit for the month from telkom but it only takes you 2 days to use the full 10 gigs – before you would have no access to the internet at all, message would always say Internet Explorer cannot load the requested page at the moment but now you can cap your limit in 2 days and then still have access to surf the web but just not to view vids in youtube you can still go on youtube site and browse your channel or other peoples but just not watch the vids, you can send your email as per normal where as in the past NO SUCH LUCK – SO BIG THUMBS UP FOR TELKOM, i pay R 999.00 for 10mb – 20mb line which includes rental for the landline from them – MTN same line would cost R 1800.00 excluding rental :)

  • http://twitter.com/Mr_Gigglesno1 John-rees Louw

    Better than not being able to access youtube at all mate :)

  • Chris

    I remember the bad old days of Telkom. I had the line and 2 gigs for the month.
    Somehow I always had to buy extra in the middle of the month with them. I
    switched over to Neotel and granted its 3 gig cap, but I’ve never had to buy
    extra during the month. (also much cheaper than Telkom, data and line rental,
    and I could choose my tel nr)

    On my
    laptop, I’m using MTN lite, R289 per month, with 3 gig full speed and lower I
    think 385 or somewhere there about. I use this constantly and download movies,
    songs e-books etc. the speed might not be the fastest, but sometime it downloads
    at much higher speeds than normal, In the past 6 months I’ve downloaded about
    200 Gig from this account and that at R289 per month? I think its a very good
    deal.

    Don’t
    be fooled by these poor attempts from Telkom. I’ll rather go to Neotel if there
    is coverage or for roaming you will struggle to find anything better than the
    MTN lite

  • Chris

    John-rees, why would you just want to browse Youtube, to read the comments on videos you cant see…?

Why TechCentral?

We know that as a prospective advertiser, you are spoilt for choice. Our job is to demonstrate why TechCentral delivers the best return for your advertising spend.

TechCentral is South Africa’s online technology news leader. We don’t say that lightly. We believe we produce the country’s best and most insightful online tech news aimed at industry professionals and those interested in the fast-changing world of technology.

We provide news, reviews and comment, without fear or favour, that is of direct relevance to our fast-expanding audience. Proportionately, we provide the largest local audience of all technology-focused online publishers.

We do not constantly regurgitate press releases to draw in search engine traffic — we believe websites that do so are doing their readers and advertisers a disservice. Nor do we sell “editorial features”, offer advertising “press offices” or rely on online bulletin-board forums of questionable value to advertisers to bolster our traffic.

TechCentral, which is edited and written by award-winning South African journalists, cares about delivering top-quality content to draw in the business and consumer readers that are of most interest to technology advertisers.

We’d like the opportunity to demonstrate the value of directing a portion of your advertising budget to TechCentral, whether your company is in the technology field or not. Numerous opportunities exist for companies interested in reaching our audience of key decision-makers in South Africa’s dynamic information and communications technology sector. We offer packages that will deliver among the best returns on investment available in the online technology news space.

For more information about advertising opportunities, and how your organisation can benefit by publicising itself on TechCentral, please call us on 011-792-0449 during office hours. Or send us an e-mail and ask for our latest rate card and brochure.