HSPDA problem

[Dave A]

I find the service is "unstable" at times. Auto-disconnects, incomplete page requests...
Damn frustrating when it plays up.

But this morning international seemed pretty shaky for me via ADSL as well. So maybe problems upstream this time. It's been better this afternoon, though.

[duncan drennan]

iBurst has now released an ExpressCard version of their modem.

[Dave A]

I'm going to have to start paying attention to the options. My HSDPA contract is up for renewal in May.

Thanks, Duncan.

[Chatmaster]

I heard that iBurst has a big problem with disconnections. Does anyone have personal experience with iBurst?

[duncan drennan]

I use iBurst and the service has been pretty good. Sometimes I can go a whole month without disconnecting. Probably have to reconnect two to three times a month on average. I'm in a pretty strong signal area though, and I suspect there are not too many users on the tower I connect to. Download speeds are typically over 80kB/s (640kbps).

[Dave A]

My highspeed ADSL has dropped to a whopping 2kBps on average since yesterday morning. No-one (that would be Telkom) can tell me why as yet, despite the fact that I've harrased three departments so far.

They're experiencing exceptionally high call volumes. I wonder why?

[duncan drennan]

ADSL customers fortunate enough still to be online are complaining that their Internet connection speed has plummeted.

On Friday, Telkom lost a third of its international bandwidth when its submarine cable to Malaysia broke. Telekom Malaysia is working on the problem.

Then, on Monday, local cable theft left Telkom with only one international data line. This problem has been fixed.

“Our installation and repair crews are being messed around badly by Eskom’s power problems. T he electricity crisis is hurting our data service badly.�

Full story on MyBroadband

Going back to that comment on the international lines....

[Chatmaster]

I wonder if another fish trailer hooked one of the underwater cables again?

[Dave A]

If this is the main international cable, how come V3G is unaffected?

EDIT: And come to think of it, browsing local sites over ADSL is just as not-so-lekker too.

I smell smoke.

[duncan drennan]

I smell smoke.

Smells like it, doesn't it? There are two major lines out of SA (AFAIK). One is UUNET (which I know iBurst uses) and the other is SAIX (which Telkom uses....duh).

You might find that V3G uses UUNet, or possibly both, and the SAIX international connection are down at the moment (for whatever reason).

[Dave A]

It still shouldn't affect local browsing, I'd have thought.

If there was an "event" that brought Telkom ADSL to its knees, it was around 11.00 am yesterday (6 Feb 2008). It was a very sudden and very noticable drop in performance

But here's what I don't get...

I've developed a checklist of procedures and questions from previous occasions of trying to figure out speed issues. When I've finally got through (on no less than 3 occassions so far), there has been no talk of a known problem - in my area or anywhere else. In fact they've all gone "You're the only one in your area to report a problem" and "there isn't a general problem with the network."

EDIT: I recall now that v3g reported they'd brokered connections with both SAIX and UUNet a while ago. I'll say this for Vodacom - they don't do things in half measure.

[Dave A]

My home phone line problem was fixed on Sunday. However, I'm still getting daily reports that Telkom is yet to deal with my ADSL line problem.

I suppose I should be grateful for the prompt service on my home line - repaired only 3 days after reporting the fault.

A Telkom telephone line has been dead for five months, despite complaints having been logged with the telecoms company, Mitchell Krog, a West Rand resident said on Monday.

Khulani Qoma, Telkom media spokesperson told Sapa it was not always immediately clear what caused problems.

"We would be commenting in darkness. We need to find out why they advised the customer wrongly," said Qoma.

"At Telkom what we do [now] is we take the reference number of the faulty line and the relevant department will be able to find a way of helping" he said.
full story from IOL here