Wow, looks like Winston is getting places! Even Mashable!
I have to sit with the same ridiculous company, Telkom, and their absolutely horrendous service and prices everyday! I applaud Winston for his bravery and fighting the good fight. :D
By the way, Telkom, is also one of the (if not the most expensive) telecoms providers in the world (in broadband).
The Extremist
· 2 months ago
If only somebody with a scientific clue designed the "experiment." Sadly the way it's being reported now is largely meaningless. A cost comparison of sending the data via Winston as opposed to TelkomADSL would have been much more useful.
Even so-called "first world" ADSL providers would have lost this race.
Peter Lehto
· 2 months ago
I hope telkom is listening to the rattle on the internet and step up their game. Seriously, for a country that wants to be modern telkom is really halting the process.
Pravesh
· 2 months ago
how to u proof? still amazing..
Name
· 2 months ago
Security... What about if Winston sells the information to the Chinese!!
Saffer
· 2 months ago
Haha! Telkom learned all their lousy service tricks from AT&T...
does this mean (first class) snail mail could be faster than ADSL too?
tereztaylor
· 2 months ago
Stan, Thank you for the mention!
Just a small correction, the company is called "The Unlimited". And we're a financial services company. And the main purpose of the event was to show that in order for South Africa to grow, we need to be pushing innovation and finding newer and better ways to do things. As you may know, the South African online community is about 10% of the population. There's a whole world out there that 90% don't know about, and if we can drive for just small changes, we can make quite a big difference.
(And The Unlimited are quite big fans of Mashable! Great work!)
Stan_Schroeder
· 2 months ago
Thanks, fixed.
timharper
· 2 months ago
HAHAHA, Winston is soon to be a world famous bird, classic. It may not be scientific (The Extremist) but it may bring some attention to the pathetic ADSL service in South Africa.
The Extremist
· 2 months ago
Maybe. But such reductio ad ridiculum irritates people like me that prefer sound logic to cheap shots, and teaching people about what's really happening rather than playing off public misconception.
That said, as much as I dislike Telkom I've received nothing but good service from them in Pretoria. Our biggest problem in South Africa when it comes to connectivity is not speed as much as it's cap and cost. It would be nice if Telkom would actually implement proper ADSL2 and 2+, though.
Shaquille Ray
· 2 months ago
WOW. I am so getting me one of those.
I wonder if pigeons are sold by apple? Ipigeons
Name
· 2 months ago
This is the stupidest article I have read all morning.
Twitte_r Skins
· 2 months ago
Carrier pigeons covered in treacle with there wings clipped would be quicker than my Sky Broadband.
Anonymous
· 2 months ago
Ha. But the point of the RFC is to implement a protocol, not to carry a memory stick with a lot of data. The protocol requires handshaking, so pigeons have to fly back and forth.
lv
· 2 months ago
no dude, south africa's intenet is just really slooooooow and most people are limited to a certain amount of data a month (average) 1G. i think even a snail could beat our internet. but great article and it's cool that ppl outside SA know about it. :)
RunningWolf
· 2 months ago
Maybe ur right about Memory Cars getting huge. But the fact remains. We have one Broadband provider in the whole of South Africa. And they're overpriced. A few years ago a person did a study which made news in the South African papers. If will cost someone cheaper to fly to Hong Kong, download 100 Gb of data there, and fly back then it would be download 100 Gb on ADSL in South Africa. We need competition in this country. And it will come if we can get rid of our Parastatal who is still living in the stone age!
Shadai
· 2 months ago
hi...i'm a student (16yrs) who uses ADSL atleast 4 hours a day and have been using it for a good few years now. I have had nothing but awesome service and my experience with TELKOM has been great. Maybe if you guys stop generalising and running TELKOM down you would get better service...its shocking how grown ups behave these days.
Stii
· 2 months ago
Let me guess. Either you work for Telkom or they gave you a bursary?
The Extremist
· 2 months ago
I can't speak for Shadai but I'm definitely neither of the above and have also received nothing but good service from Telkom in my 3-4 years with them.
To copypasta myself from another comment above: "That said, as much as I dislike Telkom I've received nothing but good service from them in Pretoria. Our biggest problem in South Africa when it comes to connectivity is not speed as much as it's cap and cost. It would be nice if Telkom would actually implement proper ADSL2 and 2+, though."
Stii
· 2 months ago
Dude, you two can count yourselves very lucky. I've had my business gone down for WEEKS due to incompetent technicians not being able to fix a problem. WEEKS! All response they gave was pretty much the same response as the one they gave on this issue. Nothing. Is that acceptable? You try and run an internet based business without internet and we'll talk again. It aggravates me that they simply don't care. Why should they? You don't have any other options anyway!
The Extremist
· 2 months ago
Hrm... I can't see to reply to your latest reply, Stii. Remind me *not* to use Disqus on my blog. Unless it's just PEBKAC on my part?
Anyway, now that you mention it, while I've received excellent residential service from Telkom I have yet to receive adequate business service from them. I don't own my own company (yet) but I was deeply involved in the administration and relocation of my employer's ADSL and you're lucky if you receive service within the same week you log the call.
They always promise to call but it always ends up with technicians rocking up on your premises unannounced, which means you're unprepared for them (or in meetings, or whatever).
brandaman7
· 2 months ago
If someone in South Africa would just drink some alien fuel and become genetically altered then maybe they could utilize the technology from district 9, and create a faster internet service.
sirvan
· 2 months ago
it depends on the area i think...
Ben Lang
· 2 months ago
Thats hilarious, great article.. who would have though
Erik
· 2 months ago
I wouldn't think internet would be useful at all if it takes, what, 50 hours (in this case) to load?
DGentry
· 2 months ago
The saying used to be that "nothing can beat the aggregate bandwidth of a station wagon full of backup tapes." Nowadays I guess it should be a Prius full of SD cards.
All Comments
I have to sit with the same ridiculous company, Telkom, and their absolutely horrendous service and prices everyday! I applaud Winston for his bravery and fighting the good fight. :D
By the way, Telkom, is also one of the (if not the most expensive) telecoms providers in the world (in broadband).
Even so-called "first world" ADSL providers would have lost this race.
still amazing..
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/08/2...
Just a small correction, the company is called "The Unlimited". And we're a financial services company. And the main purpose of the event was to show that in order for South Africa to grow, we need to be pushing innovation and finding newer and better ways to do things. As you may know, the South African online community is about 10% of the population. There's a whole world out there that 90% don't know about, and if we can drive for just small changes, we can make quite a big difference.
(And The Unlimited are quite big fans of Mashable! Great work!)
It may not be scientific (The Extremist) but it may bring some attention to the pathetic ADSL service in South Africa.
That said, as much as I dislike Telkom I've received nothing but good service from them in Pretoria. Our biggest problem in South Africa when it comes to connectivity is not speed as much as it's cap and cost. It would be nice if Telkom would actually implement proper ADSL2 and 2+, though.
I wonder if pigeons are sold by apple? Ipigeons
but great article and it's cool that ppl outside SA know about it. :)
To copypasta myself from another comment above: "That said, as much as I dislike Telkom I've received nothing but good service from them in Pretoria. Our biggest problem in South Africa when it comes to connectivity is not speed as much as it's cap and cost. It would be nice if Telkom would actually implement proper ADSL2 and 2+, though."
Anyway, now that you mention it, while I've received excellent residential service from Telkom I have yet to receive adequate business service from them. I don't own my own company (yet) but I was deeply involved in the administration and relocation of my employer's ADSL and you're lucky if you receive service within the same week you log the call.
They always promise to call but it always ends up with technicians rocking up on your premises unannounced, which means you're unprepared for them (or in meetings, or whatever).
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