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Telkom SmartBroadband Uncapped LTE impressions

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Telkom SmartBroadband Uncapped LTE

ADSL, is dead. These days, if you want to be able to download content at blisteringly quick speeds and maybe share a stream or two, then you’re going to need a new form of internet that is capable of handling high speeds on the down and the upload. ADSL doesn’t cut the mustard, due to limitations that make it useless for most uploading applications these days.

That’s not to say that ADSL is completely obsolete thanks to competitive prices in the market, but you want something better. And then there’s Telkom, with their current LTE uncapped deal which sounds too good to be true. Both Alessandro and Darryn hopped on it. Here’s what they thought about it.

Darryn

First off, here’s how the deal went down. Telkom offered Uncapped LTE on a 24 month contract. That included the necessary SIM card, a Huawei router, an outdoor Poynting antenna and installation. Supposedly, you’re able to get peak speeds of up to 100mb/s on the deal, if you’re in a decent enough area on the coverage map, with upload speeds that stretch from anywhere from 5mb/s through to 25 even.

Prices are currently sorted by a set of tiers, based on your area. The first 50 people in your zone get the contract for R599 a month, the next 50 for R699 a month and the final 50 for R799 a month. Not bad, for any household wanting to ditch a landline.

And I got, most of that. Once the telephonic contracts were sorted and the papers were signed, I got the fancy router and antenna. Here’s my current speed test from the time this post was written, of my wired, external antenna results:

Speedtest (2)

And using the router’s own paddle antennas, this is what I got:

Speedtest (1)

There’s a few caveats here of course. For starters, I’m in Port Elizabeth, which has just begun setting up a proper LTE network, when compared to the more advanced infrastructure of Johannesburg or Cape Town. I’m also at the edge of the coverage map apparently, with my neighbours terribly massive palm trees regularly disrupting my line of sight signal. Which is odd, considering how much better the signal usually is when I have the router’s antenna attached.

It’s also windier than the back bench at a bean-eating contest, and I’m already making plans to build a special bracket to raise my outdoor antenna higher for a better signal, and hopefully not get struck by lightning in the process. With the wind howling right now, my wired connection seems to have dropped dramatically from yesterday’s results, which were an easy 20 down and 5 up on the speed tests.

There’s also been a bone of contention with the Fair Use Policy that Telkom has, which measures in at 50gb. Realistically, this will only affect people who torrent the hell out of their connection. If you’re looking to watch YouTube in HD, sit down for a binge-session of Netflix or keep your games updated and download a few new ones, then relax. You’ve got nothing to worry about. I’ve personally done a ton of the above in excess of that FUP limit, with no throttling noticed at all. As I said, the FUP is most likely a deterrent for folks who get their entertainment from more illegal avenues.

But it’s a mostly stable connection so far, and I’m loving it. Downloads are now flying for me, usually around 6-8gb per hour. Considering that I was usuign a 4mb ADSL line previously, this is a massive jump for me so far. As for uploads, I’m living the streaming dream. Setting up a YouTube or Twitch stream has been easy, with most uploads being of a medium HD quality.

Of course, it is supposed to be better. And I’m looking forward to that day, especially when Telkom decides to properly help me, instead of making me wait half an hour to speak to an office drone who doesn’t actually know what he or she is doing. But for now, I’m pretty happy. I could be happier though.

Alessandro

Hailing from the same internet hell that Darryn did, I too was previously on a 4MB connection that suffered from all manners of attenuation issues. See there’s this thing where if you’re line is so far from an exchange that it’s just never stable – and it’s unsurprising that lines such as that never get moved. So with the promise of FTTH being a distant one on the horizon and seemingly nowhere else to turn, I took the plunge into Telkom’s Uncapped LTE.

And I seriously can’t go back now.

Just like Darryn I’m on the cusp of my coverage map, which means speeds close to that glorious 100MB/s mark are way out of reach. That said, my signal is mostly very good. On weekdays I’m able to maintain a steady speed of greater than 30MB/s down, and around 4MB/s up. On weekends that soars into 60 and 7 respectively, which doesn’t really make that much sense since there seem to be a whole eight other people in my area on the same LTE network.

It’s a facet of LTE that I’ve come to both like and loathe – it’s just unpredictable. One day you could be getting blazing fast speeds, while on another gloomy one you might wish you were back on a 10MB ADSL line. For the most part though it’s the former, and at the R599 I’m paying per month I can’t really complain.

I mean, would you with speeds like this?

LTE SpeedTest Sandy

Unfortunately, Pingtest.net no longer seems to have any local servers, so we can;t provide ping and jitter information – but it all seems to work just fine. The internet gets a fair bit of use in my household too, with concurrent Netflix and Hulu streams on the go at once (we kicked DSTV to the curb) and the odd game download happening in the background. There’s simply no issues with either at all, and I’m fairly happy that my fears around the Fair Use Policy have been set aside. Telkom promised that only Peer to Peer, NZB and Torrent traffic would be throttled, and they’ve certainly stuck to that. Xbox Live, PSN and Steam traffic is uncapped, as it says on the tin.

It could be better at times though. Right now I’m currently engaged with Telkom’s customer service to try and remedy some issues I’m having with my external antennae, and that’s proving to be a nightmare in itself. See LTE isn’t like ADSL – when it goes down there’s really not much you can do about it. And being a new package and all, there seems to be confusion at Telkom itself as to how to deal with it. These issues are few and far between, but when they occur it’s hard to ignore them.

But it’s at those times I remember the woes of my now pitifully slow ADSL line and I simply can’t imagine going back. Being able to download more than 10GB per hour as opposed to less than 2GB in the same time has spoiled me for good, and I recommend this LTE package to whoever I can.

That said, there’s certainly room for improvement.

 

Last Updated: January 27, 2016

No Comments

  1. Ottokie

    January 27, 2016 at 13:09

    Have you two experienced any throttling after a certain amount of data used?

    Reply

    • The D

      January 27, 2016 at 13:15

      None so far. And I’ve used over 100gb so far.

      Reply

      • Loftus

        January 27, 2016 at 13:16

        In how much time ? with mweb i got the throttle as soon as i hit 100gb within 30 day period

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          January 27, 2016 at 13:17

          With Mweb you’re throttled irregardless. I learned that With Destiny

          Reply

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 13:18

            True, I jumped of the MWEB ship pretty fast

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 13:32

            MWEB throttles you after 3 websites

          • Loftus

            January 27, 2016 at 14:05

            Lazygamer and youtube and……throttled

          • Loftus

            January 27, 2016 at 14:04

            Still wanted to ask you do you need a psn to play Destiny ?

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:05

            No, you need to lose 30% of your brain cells though

            😛

          • Loftus

            January 27, 2016 at 14:06

            What about famewhore, war frame ? 😛 hahaha

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 14:06

          • Loftus

            January 27, 2016 at 14:09

            Come on Ottokie you cracked a smile with that one? hahahaha

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 14:10

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:11

            LOL

            I recently watched Genisys….interesting movie

          • Darren Peach

            January 27, 2016 at 14:23

            Have you watched a Arnie movie of late. What was wrong with humanity when he was so famous ?

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 14:26

            A catch phrase that went viral. And also the “Arnie voice”

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:20

            What movie is this, seems familiar, but not in a good way…

            [sudden realization of what movie it is]

            Well ugh, that awoke kak memories

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 14:20

            The facebook movie documentary thing

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 14:21

            i think

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:21

            Isn’t it new_spidey_2?

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 14:22

            Might be, I watch Anime much more than crap from Hollywood xD

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:23

            It shows, you pink bastard you

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 14:25

            Don’t lie, you get exited when all the enemies around you start glowing pink.

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:26

            It is quite funny when you see pink nova blasts

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 14:28

            I like the POOF!

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:09

            Don’t be surprised if your profile picture changes to a pile of poop in the near future

            Also, you need to be able to read and think a bit to play Warframe

          • Loftus

            January 27, 2016 at 14:10

            So that means we’ll be team mates! whhoohoooo!!!

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:12

            You’ve got the reading bit down….now only for the other one!

          • Loftus

            January 27, 2016 at 14:13

            i read, you think good team combo! now pass me the….. whatever needs passing in warfame.

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 14:14

            It’s like the handshake in game, we never once gotten it right, everyone is kept hanging xD

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:18

            Yes, I stood like an ass many a time, no one gets it

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 14:18

            You do the same to me xD

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:19

            Kak man, I’ve waved and did the handshake, only to have you say “I don’t have that one”

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 14:20

            After that I have added it to my emotes, and when I jump into one of your random missions you keep me hanging 😛

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:21

            When was this?

            Probably prior to me getting my own pew pew pew pew gavooooom guns?

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 14:22

            Most probably, have you gotten any of the new mod goodies

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:22

            Not yet. You?
            (I’ve done 2 of the spy missions already, my car battery died on me last night 19h00 and had to source another urgently)

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 14:24

            Well that sucks.

            And no, I have not yet had a chance to play the alert. And I am leaving my new flat screen TV in the box tonight and playing Warframe first 😛

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:26

            Nice, what did you get?

            I’ll be on after 8 or so, then we hit some alerts or even a sortie

            I head it is a sniper alert………

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 14:28

            No Sortie tonight. Only new mod gathering. Otherwise we are gonna be sorry when people start out damaging us because of shiny event only mods…

            *Sits in corner and weeps about missing Rifle puncture mod back in the day 🙁

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:28

            Ummmm, I have 2 of those….
            (afk now for a bit, will check your response after meeting)

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 14:30

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            January 27, 2016 at 14:42

            Just go join some random MR1 playing an Earth mission & make him feel bad. It’s what I do!

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 14:47

            Killing Vor in one klap for low MR players 😛

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            January 27, 2016 at 14:55

            Heh. The first event MD mission was me, 2 MR1s & a 12 – had 80% of the damage, 2nd one was me and 2 21s & another 20 – 50% damage. Like a boss. Ignis wrecks low level enemies like nobodies business haha.

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            January 27, 2016 at 14:18

            Heh. I left someone hanging over the weekend. Was too busy mediating.

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 14:18

            *meditating

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:19

            *salivating

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            January 27, 2016 at 14:20

            Don’t care 😛

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:17

            The data core?
            The Kubrow?
            The schwing schwing scwhing?

          • Hammersteyn

            January 27, 2016 at 14:12

            yup.

          • Alessandro Barbosa

            January 27, 2016 at 14:22

            Oh yeah I wondered about this as well, mainly because some games (like Destiny) use P2P traffic. So technically under this LTE FUP it would be throttled after 50GB of usage, although I haven’t experienced any yet. Although there is zero way to monitor how much of that FUP cap you’ve used -_-

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 14:23

            I think after the fire was made under their butts last time, they fixed it to be normal traffic

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:23

            The FUP also applies to the FAP sites, so behave yourself

            xD

          • Hammersteyn

            January 27, 2016 at 14:39

            Maybe the LTE throttling isn’t as bad as with MWEB even if they do?

          • Alessandro Barbosa

            January 27, 2016 at 14:59

            Well to the point where I don’t notice it.

          • Darren Peach

            January 27, 2016 at 14:25

            Still playing it ?

          • Hammersteyn

            January 27, 2016 at 14:36

            Nope, not since October

        • Geoffrey Tim

          January 27, 2016 at 13:24

          Alessandro did 900GB in his first month.

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            January 27, 2016 at 13:24

            Can he at least share his porn?

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 13:24

            O.o

          • Loftus

            January 27, 2016 at 13:26

            Thnx boss

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 13:32

            Did he download the whole farm of vegetables???!!!???

          • Alessandro Barbosa

            January 27, 2016 at 13:59

            No jokes – Three Netflix streams and just constant game downloads. No throttling at all

          • Loftus

            January 27, 2016 at 14:04

            Trying to sway my little mind are you? 😛

          • Alessandro Barbosa

            January 27, 2016 at 14:21

            Just speaking the truth 🙂

        • RinceThis

          January 27, 2016 at 13:58

          100? It’s 70 in a 2mb line. I am moving from them because of it.

          Reply

      • Ottokie

        January 27, 2016 at 13:19

        That’s not bad. Only reason I asked is last year they stated in the fine print, that you have a 10GB softcap and get throttled after it’s reached.

        Reply

    • Cywizz

      January 27, 2016 at 13:37

      None…I have the product for about 5 months now (R599 deal). I have been streaming Netflix and Hulu over 2x tvs on HD and used over 1.4 TB over that period. Also use it for Xbox One and Steam downloads. Averaging 25 Mb/s BUT…here is the big downside with LTE….when it rains you are screwed and I had many a times when the download speed goes below 1m/s in bad weather…which is the time you want to watch something!!

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        January 27, 2016 at 13:39

        Hmm. It tends to rain a lot where I live.

        Reply

        • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

          January 27, 2016 at 13:39

          CAW

          Reply

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 13:39

            CA-CAW HEE HAA TOOKIE TOOKIE TOOKIE

          • Loftus

            January 27, 2016 at 13:41

            They closed that down in that small kus dorpie, no more CA-CAW HEE HAA TOOKIE TOOKIE TOOKIE

        • Ottokie

          January 27, 2016 at 13:40

          Luckily in Western Cape it never rains xD

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            January 27, 2016 at 13:42

            Must just pass you over and land on us then XD

        • Darren Peach

          January 27, 2016 at 14:00

          Rain is the enemy of wireless .

          Reply

          • Kromas untamed

            January 27, 2016 at 14:13

            Not Wifi. 5ghz handles fine in the rain. However lightning is a different story.

          • Darren Peach

            January 27, 2016 at 14:21

            I am so clueless when it comes to this sort of thing. Very refreshing to see it feature.

          • Kromas untamed

            January 27, 2016 at 14:24

            http://netgauge.ookla.com/share/377552557.png

            Thats with Tomb Raider pre-loading in the background and torrents running as well as me being teamviewered into my machine.

          • Darren Peach

            January 27, 2016 at 14:26

            Nothing to scoff at.

          • Kromas untamed

            January 27, 2016 at 14:28

            That being said I port shape my side to ensure certain things get priority.

            1:Gaming
            2:Voice
            3:Streaming
            4:Browsing
            5:Rest

            6:Torrents

    • Alessandro Barbosa

      January 27, 2016 at 13:55

      None at all. FUP strictly states that it’s just for P2P traffic – which I don’t use.

      Reply

      • VampyreSquirrel

        January 27, 2016 at 14:10

        But you have a PS4 and Xbone and Steam… isn’t that P2P? 😛

        Reply

        • Alessandro Barbosa

          January 27, 2016 at 14:23

          Nope, they don’t use P2P protocols for their downloads. Some online games use it, but not most.

          Reply

          • VampyreSquirrel

            January 27, 2016 at 14:26

            Thanks for answering the trollbait 😛

          • Alessandro Barbosa

            January 27, 2016 at 14:26

            XD

    • RinceThis

      January 27, 2016 at 13:58

      You mean other than from Gavin?

      Reply

  2. Original Heretic

    January 27, 2016 at 13:18

    Can anyone post a link to the coverage map? Wanna see where my area falls. I, too, like The D, am in PE, and I know that coverage here it generally rather poor.

    Reply

    • The D

      January 27, 2016 at 13:21

      • Original Heretic

        January 27, 2016 at 13:31

        Many thanks.

        Reply

      • Original Heretic

        January 27, 2016 at 13:45

        Excellent! Looks like I’m well within a coverage area. This is looking sweeter already.

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          January 27, 2016 at 13:47

          Same here…. Pondering the move over but you have to phone them or go to the shop, wait for the stuff set it up, phone them again for the settings……..ZZzzzZZZzzzZzzz

          Reply

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 13:51

            Te veel drama na my smaak

          • Original Heretic

            January 27, 2016 at 13:56

            I’d take a day or two of effort it means getting everything sorted out to my liking. All I currently have is a Cell C dongle. Getting this will mean not having to suffer through game updates.

          • Hammersteyn

            January 27, 2016 at 14:13

            Problem is I’m handicapped by laziness

        • VampyreSquirrel

          January 27, 2016 at 13:58

          Rather check your coverage here:

          http://www.telkom.co.za/today/unlimited-broadband/

          That’s the uncapped LTE coverage map… yes it’s different to the standard one.

          Reply

          • Original Heretic

            January 27, 2016 at 14:06

            Still good!

          • VampyreSquirrel

            January 27, 2016 at 14:09

            Lucky bugger

      • Ottokie

        January 27, 2016 at 13:46

        Hahaha had a look see on the map and the only area around here that has coverage is the rich bastards on the hill.

        They don’t need anything better in life, they are rich for F sake xD

        Reply

      • Mistake Not...

        January 27, 2016 at 13:51

        UUUUGGGHH!1!! Trying to load this friggen map at 360 kb/s.

        Reply

        • Ottokie

          January 27, 2016 at 13:52

          What you need is a Futurehood or LTE uncapped from Telkom! only 599 if you act now!

          Reply

          • Mistake Not...

            January 27, 2016 at 13:53

            WOW! Really? Lemme just check their website! Thanks!
            *internet spontaneously disconnects again

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 13:54

            You need to pause the llama torrents first

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 13:54

            Or limewire and edonkey

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 13:55

            LOL I forgot about limewire

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 13:56

            The mother of all virus collectors

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 13:59

            Home to trolls

  3. VampyreSquirrel

    January 27, 2016 at 13:23

    I have capped LTE (because I’m 20m out of range of the uncapped option) and I’ve tested it from two different places. (This is without the external, or the biscuit, antenna)

    Firstly was at my brother’s place in Roodepoort, there we are practically in LoS (Line of Sight) of two Telkom towers. I was averaging about 40Mbps down and 2Mbps up… with max speeds of 45Mbps down and 2 up… on 4 out of 5 bars of signal. (Side Note: My phone was getting about 60Mbps down and 20Mbps up on Vodacom LTE, but I’d only get about 23Mbps from the LTE router.)

    Secondly at my place in Randburg. I don’t go above 3 bars of signal but average about 25Mbps down and 1.5Mbps up.

    Reply

    • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

      January 27, 2016 at 13:39

      Shame, only 20m?

      Reply

      • VampyreSquirrel

        January 27, 2016 at 13:43

        According to their coverage map… yes.

        Nice thing with my LTE is I can take it wherever I go… these Uncapped deals are locked to a certain tower.

        Reply

        • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

          January 27, 2016 at 13:44

          Problem in my area, behind our house there used to be a nice far open space, and that has been populated by 300-500 houses, so most likely I’m NOT getting a good data rate

          Reply

          • VampyreSquirrel

            January 27, 2016 at 13:48

            Hahaha, I’d rather be on capped LTE than a uncapped 4meg DSL line that doesn’t go faster than 2.3Mbps.

          • Hammersteyn

            January 27, 2016 at 13:49

            Must be nice to have the in laws close by

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 13:51

            That exchange must be congested by now. Try and hint at Telkom to install more ports. I did that at our old home and they actually did it xD

  4. Hammersteyn

    January 27, 2016 at 13:24

    I’m staying away when it comes to Telkom because you have to phone them when somethings wrong and you have to hold the line for an hour or more sometimes listening to that shitty song over and over and over. Web Africa has given me nothing but excellent service on my 4MB line, plus it’s cheaper than LTE atm. Not much, but still.

    Reply

    • Darren Peach

      January 27, 2016 at 13:45

      Fibre is a must. I hope to see it within the next year or so.

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        January 27, 2016 at 13:45

        I’m better off with LTE. Will maybe see fibre in 3016

        Reply

        • Darren Peach

          January 27, 2016 at 13:47

          Well, In Futurama they do have heads in glass jars…… Maybe all is not lost.

          Reply

    • Loftus

      January 27, 2016 at 13:51

      4mb/uncapped ?

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        January 27, 2016 at 13:53

        Yeah, through WebAfrica

        Reply

        • Loftus

          January 27, 2016 at 13:53

          Thnx checking them out now

          Reply

          • BakedBagel

            January 27, 2016 at 13:55

            uncapped is really a hit or miss on most networks.
            Dont use alot of data and you will be A okay. If you go crazy you will be throttled.

            I have a capped account 180gigs during the day. 1TB at night. (Could have been dropped to the standard 480gig) So i download everything between 12am and 6 am.

            Uninterrupted speeds and connections constantly. 10/10 WA

          • Ottokie

            January 27, 2016 at 13:57

            I also jumped from Uncapped to Capped. The difference in speed and reliability is huge

          • BakedBagel

            January 27, 2016 at 13:58

            Its massive. So big that i actually only consider capped accounts now when speaking to friends and family.

            One month of heavy downloading on uncapped leaves you with a really trash speed

          • Loftus

            January 27, 2016 at 14:02

            cool thnx

    • RinceThis

      January 27, 2016 at 14:00

      Yeah, I’m moving to them next month. You on the 100g, open cap 12-6am deal?

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        January 27, 2016 at 14:12

        Not sure….. should probably check

        Reply

  5. The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

    January 27, 2016 at 13:31

    Uncapped?

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      January 27, 2016 at 13:32

      Yes, did you read the article?
      *runs*

      Reply

      • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

        January 27, 2016 at 13:33

        I did, it just seems too good to be true to be honest :/

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          January 27, 2016 at 13:33

          LIES
          *runs different direction*

          Reply

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 13:34

            I’m entering you in the comrades this year, you keep on running away

          • Hammersteyn

            January 27, 2016 at 13:36

            I’m avoiding the banhammer

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 13:38

            *THWACK*
            Got you

        • Loftus

          January 27, 2016 at 13:33

          Everyone is now researching the hell out of this

          Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        January 27, 2016 at 13:33

        Didn’t even have to, it’s right there in the heading. :/

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          January 27, 2016 at 13:33

          LOL this is true

          Reply

  6. Milesh Bhana

    January 27, 2016 at 13:31

    so many PE peeples
    *high 5!

    Reply

  7. Darren Peach

    January 27, 2016 at 13:34

    Welcome. LTE is pretty good for COD and not much else ( consoles ) be it the lack of dedicated servers locally for other games, I just don’t know. What I will say about Telkom is they still haven’t managed to add me to the official LTE network. I asked about a year ago. Still, what I get in terms of speed is better than a poke in the eye. Would love to see a article on the wonders of fibre in the elite areas that are lucky enough to have it.

    Reply

    • Loftus

      January 27, 2016 at 13:38

      My wife thinks i am joking when we look at new place (family is expanding) i ask how is the internet speeds at the place the estate agent wants you show us, and the fiber connections is cropping up in weird places

      Reply

      • Darren Peach

        January 27, 2016 at 13:41

        I seriously contemplated selling my house to move into a fibre neighborhood. But, Maybe a tad much. I am going down the petition route.

        Reply

    • Aries

      January 27, 2016 at 13:58

      My uncle has 100mb fiber, he keeps going on about how he would never use anything other way to go on the internet, though he pays R1899 for 200gig cap and if that runs out it R200 for 50gigs

      Reply

      • Darren Peach

        January 27, 2016 at 13:59

        Can your uncle adopt me ?

        Reply

        • Aries

          January 27, 2016 at 14:03

          I laughed at his 200gig cap, but then he laughed at my 4mb download

          Reply

          • Darren Peach

            January 27, 2016 at 14:10

            I have a 10 gig cap……………

          • Aries

            January 27, 2016 at 16:15

            oops, but that price for fiber is too much

  8. Loftus

    January 27, 2016 at 13:35

    Alessandro & Darryn is this a official endorsement of telkom lte uncapped?

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      January 27, 2016 at 13:39

      Gavin thought he’d choose two suckers to try it out seeing how it’s Telkom? For once Telkom came through

      Reply

      • Loftus

        January 27, 2016 at 13:43

        Trying out telkom with your employees is a very cruel russian roulette to play. Glad it worked out for them

        Reply

    • The D

      January 27, 2016 at 13:45

      Not official. We’re paying for it, and some of the chaps in the other local communities asked for our two cents on it. It’s like people want to hear or thoughts or something. So weird.

      Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        January 27, 2016 at 13:46

        That IS weird 😛

        Reply

      • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

        January 27, 2016 at 13:46

        Welcome, to the twilight zone

        Reply

      • Loftus

        January 27, 2016 at 13:50

        If you weren’t paying for it and gave “your views” on it i would have seen it as a fluff piece.

        Thank you kindly for your honest opinion on it. Also you could claim compensation for it, work expense or sum muck like that from sars. hahaha

        Reply

        • The D

          January 27, 2016 at 14:00

          Hahahahahaha, like that will ever happen. And now I’ve made myself sad.

          Reply

  9. Darren Peach

    January 27, 2016 at 13:38

    Oh Yeah…… Happy new Year folks.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      January 27, 2016 at 13:40

      Same to you bud!

      Reply

    • Geoffrey Tim

      January 27, 2016 at 13:49

      And to you!

      Reply

    • miaau

      January 27, 2016 at 14:15

      Yeah, Happy New Year!

      Is this any time to come back to us? Hope you had a great offline break!

      Reply

      • Darren Peach

        January 27, 2016 at 14:17

        I was watching the test series.

        Reply

    • Spathi

      January 27, 2016 at 14:23

      Seeing as we only receive your post now, maybe it’s time to upgrade your 56kb/s connection to Uncapped LTE 😛

      Reply

      • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

        January 27, 2016 at 14:24

        HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

        Reply

      • Darren Peach

        January 27, 2016 at 14:32

        Looking for donations to bribe telkom to put fibre in my hood.

        Reply

  10. BakedBagel

    January 27, 2016 at 13:47

    Just wanna say that i have a 4mb dsl and can watch twitch streams at high with almost no lag. But GG trying to do anything else. at all. Like literally anything else gets ripped

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      January 27, 2016 at 13:48

      Yeah, I’m bust downloading The Division BETA. Hopefully it’s finished before the BETA ends

      Reply

      • BakedBagel

        January 27, 2016 at 13:49

        L M F A O

        Reply

      • Hammersteyn

        January 27, 2016 at 13:49

        *busy

        Reply

        • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

          January 27, 2016 at 13:52

          BUSTED

          Reply

          • Loftus

            January 27, 2016 at 14:00

            Trevor Noah ~ “steek hom baby you gonna learn” hahaha

      • Ottokie

        January 27, 2016 at 13:50

        Started mine this morning as well, so that I can be ready when the servers start failing one after the other Friday 😛

        Reply

        • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

          January 27, 2016 at 13:52

          I’m not even bothering

          Reply

          • BakedBagel

            January 27, 2016 at 13:53

            This is The Grand Admiral Chief Prime
            Be like The Grand Admiral Chief Prime
            The Grand Admiral Chief Prime is smart

      • BakedBagel

        January 27, 2016 at 13:52

        I actually demand this comment be a contender for comment of the week. Fuck it. Comment of 2016

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          January 27, 2016 at 13:52

          XD Very gracious of you

          Reply

      • Darren Peach

        January 27, 2016 at 14:15

        Lucky you

        Reply

  11. Frost

    January 27, 2016 at 13:48

    How was your experience with online gaming? I had 8ta back in the day and I couldn’t even play Hearthstone, even though I had a 7mb/s download speed. iBurst did better with its 1mb line…

    Reply

    • Darren Peach

      January 27, 2016 at 13:51

      3G ?

      Reply

      • Frost

        January 27, 2016 at 13:54

        Honestly can’t remember. Probably.
        Still, it’s telkom, so I struggle to trust.

        Reply

        • Darren Peach

          January 27, 2016 at 13:57

          Yep. 3G in my area is super bad. I bought a 4G modem, twice, one got stolen, and it worked wonders.

          Reply

    • Alessandro Barbosa

      January 27, 2016 at 13:58

      Pings are a touch higher than ADSL, but certainly still good for online. If you’re into extremely competitive online gaming, a rooted line is better,

      Reply

      • Darren Peach

        January 27, 2016 at 14:04

        Dedicated servers make all the difference.

        Reply

        • Alessandro Barbosa

          January 27, 2016 at 14:20

          Of course. But I’m talking about the experience without them. And in those cases LTE is worse than ADSL, but not but much at all

          Reply

          • Darren Peach

            January 27, 2016 at 14:28

            Agreed.

  12. Darren Peach

    January 27, 2016 at 13:50

    Anyone else heard of this new internet using the noise of yor tv ?

    Reply

    • Kromas untamed

      January 27, 2016 at 13:53

      Are you talking about white space networks?

      Still in it’s testing phase right now and SA has issues with it since ICASA does not want to deal out spectrum.

      Reply

      • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

        January 27, 2016 at 13:54

        Sounds very racist

        Reply

      • Darren Peach

        January 27, 2016 at 13:56

        I think that’s it. Suprise suprise. Elon Musk wants to send a few hundred or thousand satellites into space for free wifi….. or something.

        Reply

        • Kromas untamed

          January 27, 2016 at 14:04

          Google actually wants to use white space in Africa right now and wants to use South Africa as its test bed. However they are actively being blocked by ICASA and the SABC because of the spectrum usage and potential dangers to regular tv channels ( Who actually still has a tv antenna anyways?). The tech is solid and it sits at a spectrum of about 470MHz. This means that it can safely go up to about 7km through walls/trees/shacks etc and still give a really decent speed/latency. It is also based on the same tech as wifi (802.11af ). Expect 40Mbs if it eventually comes around.

          Still it would be a really really cheap and easy option to get running as you would simply tap into broadcast towers.

          Reply

          • Mistake Not...

            January 27, 2016 at 14:06

            What are you doing? Since when does South Africa care about ‘numbers’ and ‘statistics’? We need to protect those watching 7de Laan with rabbit ear antennas

          • Hammersteyn

            January 27, 2016 at 14:06

            Those people are dead, they just don’t know it yet….

          • Darren Peach

            January 27, 2016 at 15:07

            I used to watch Isidingo………… right after I left home up until I got Mnet and then Dstv.

          • Hammersteyn

            January 27, 2016 at 14:06

            SABC should use it, then they can finally charge more and have a valid reason for paying a TV license instead of calling on an archaic law from the 1900s

          • Kromas untamed

            January 27, 2016 at 14:07

            White space all over the world are actively being blocked by broadcasting companies that have not yet embraced the future.

          • Darren Peach

            January 27, 2016 at 14:07

            Why would they resist ? The are going digital and they could easily ask for a small license fee.

          • Kromas untamed

            January 27, 2016 at 14:08

            Same reason Eskom never upgraded/built power stations. Too much hassle. 😛

  13. Kromas untamed

    January 27, 2016 at 13:52

    I have been a staunch supporter of 802.11 based internet systems and honestly I can’t see myself ever going back to anything else. Every single online game plays smooth and my latency to Mweb servers sits at 7-12 ms. Mobile internet would suck for me.

    Reply

    • miaau

      January 27, 2016 at 14:13

      802.11? Which technology do you use?

      Reply

  14. The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

    January 27, 2016 at 14:03

    The WHOLE of Lagz community is probably on Telkom site now, blerrie things is slow as a f@#$ed duck

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      January 27, 2016 at 14:03

      Well, it is Telkom

      Reply

      • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

        January 27, 2016 at 14:04

        My ADSL is with them, and I’m not having any issues.

        Also, when it finally updated, it shows that my area is not covered.

        So that settles that then

        Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          January 27, 2016 at 14:07

          Mine is 😛

          Reply

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:10

            CA-CAW

        • miaau

          January 27, 2016 at 14:11

          Yeah, mine neither, but they say I got 3g? I wonder if it is worth it, even trying it out.

          Having major ADSL line problems now.

          Reply

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:12

            I have telkom 3g signal at home, but cancelling that end of this month (tablet contract for the mrs and daughter)

          • miaau

            January 27, 2016 at 14:14

            Can I stream two Netflix / Youtube and download a game from steam / Xbox Live? I assume the response time is good enough for streaming?

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:17

            Possibly

  15. Darren Peach

    January 27, 2016 at 14:13

    We need quantum entanglement networks………

    Reply

    • Kromas untamed

      January 27, 2016 at 14:20

      Before that we need the Normandy and Commander Shepard as well as holographic interface pads.

      Reply

      • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

        January 27, 2016 at 14:22

        ^This

        I could see myself using an omni-tool

        Reply

        • Kromas untamed

          January 27, 2016 at 14:26

          I could see myself dating A-sexual blue aliens that wear very little. 😛

          My inner Captain Kirk just came out.

          Reply

          • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

            January 27, 2016 at 14:28

            I can get….behind that….

            xD

      • Darren Peach

        January 27, 2016 at 14:29

        It’s a thing. They have done it with a single atom.

        Reply

        • Kromas untamed

          January 27, 2016 at 14:32

          Oh I know it exists. But it would be pointless unless we had the other things with it. 🙂

          Reply

  16. Milesh Bhana

    January 27, 2016 at 14:26

    mine has been workign pretty well so far.

    Average between 18Mbps and 35Mbps.
    Torrent downloads are about half of whatever speedtest.net shows me.(which is still pretty damn quick)

    I got the external antenna installed, but that actually didn’t make much of a difference. There’s are some big trees between me and the tower (so despite being around 500m away, i can’t go much higher).

    Those trees are mine, so i guess i could chop them.

    As i’ve said before, my only issue is getting Unotelly working nicely on my consoles (works fine on PC)

    Reply

    • Alessandro Barbosa

      January 27, 2016 at 14:28

      I found Unotelly to work fine on my PS4, but it flat out refuses on Xbox One. Seems the Xbox uses IP6 addresses when it can, and the Huawei router spits those out (without a way to turn them off). So yeah, the DNS settings auto correct on the Xbox 🙁

      Reply

      • Darren Peach

        January 27, 2016 at 14:43

        What Nat type are you getting on your PS4 ? Open ?

        Reply

        • The D

          January 27, 2016 at 14:55

          I know that I get open NAT on both PS4 and Xbox One.

          Reply

          • Darren Peach

            January 27, 2016 at 15:03

            You are lucky. Open is the best.

        • Alessandro Barbosa

          January 27, 2016 at 15:00

          On PS4 it works it types, so I get Type 2 (which is standard). Get Open on Xbox One

          Reply

          • Darren Peach

            January 27, 2016 at 15:03

            I also get type 2. Dang it.

      • Cywizz

        January 27, 2016 at 15:25

        Only Netflix works fine via UnoTelly on the Xbox one. It is Hulu that will work for one or two episodes and then the dreaded “Only US” crap message appears. You are right with the DNS using IPv6 as the Telkom Huawei router does not allow you to set a DNS and I suspect the Hulu app on xbox does some sort of double check which is annoying. Fortunately I have a few appleTVs that works fine.

        Reply

        • Gavin Mannion

          January 27, 2016 at 15:35

          I used Hulu on my Xbox One for months with no issues using Unotelly.

          Reply

          • Cywizz

            January 27, 2016 at 15:46

            I think its got to do with using the combination of the Telkom Huawei router and the Xbox One. You can’t set a DNS on the router…and for some reason, the Primary DNS you set on the xbox, reverts back to some local address received from the router. But hey…I could be wrong

      • Milesh Bhana

        January 28, 2016 at 10:25

        Have you tried static routing (there’s a guide on the Unotelly site.) My crappy router doesn’t have that option.

        Reply

  17. Gavin Mannion

    January 27, 2016 at 15:06

    I’m not in an LTE area but I am 40m away from a FTTH connection… wait that’s worse isn’t it.

    Reply

    • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

      January 27, 2016 at 15:43

      xD

      Reply

  18. chimera_85

    January 27, 2016 at 16:19

    Unfortunately I don’t have the uncapped option in my area, so I pay R699 for 50GB anytime and 50GB between 12 and 7AM

    Reply

  19. Michael Howard

    January 27, 2016 at 19:51

    Alessandro I would like to understand your antenna issues, if I can help at all?

    Reply

  20. Lardus-For the Emperor!

    January 28, 2016 at 07:07

    Applied for this in December already. Got the “successful bid” email, then…Nothing. Now I go to the website and see that the available spots in my area has gone back up from 149 to 150!!!

    Reply

  21. Peter French

    January 28, 2016 at 07:15

    “steady speed of greater than 30MB/s down, and around 4MB/s up.” – surely you mean Mb/s ? On another note – I have the package too although I’m not in an official coverage area. I have Line of Sight to the base station a couple of KM away though. With the external antennae I’m able to get 70Mb/s down and around 4.5Mb/s up. I can do around 20GB an hour and have not felt an ounce of shaping – that said I don’t torrent so I won’t be shaped (although I will admit I was sceptical about this – I’m glad it proved to be true) . This is an amazing offer. I run multiple VOIP calls (smooth as can be) while downloading and no issues. Another stress test I put on was streaming a 4K Netflix stream to my TV, and 3 HD streams to my phone and laptop’s – no glitches or caching, just pure speed! Telkom really nailed itj here

    Reply

  22. HvR

    January 28, 2016 at 08:15

    Seems Darryn do not know how to mount and point an antenna. *shakes head*

    Telkom LTE capped is our office backup, we get get solid 50Mbps down 20 to 25Mbps up which gets halfed in bad weather. No external antennas. So it seems Telkom might be limiting upstream for uncapped packages.

    On mounting antennas:
    Get as high as possible.
    Ensure proper grounding.
    Poynting antenna is a directed antenna so must point in the direct connection.
    Ensure your cable is properly connected (especially the shielding) at both the antenna and the connector going to the router.

    Reply

    • Peter French

      January 28, 2016 at 08:18

      I get the same upload speed on my Uncapped sim, my prepaid SIM card and my Integrated Digital Wallet SIM with Telkom…

      Reply

      • HvR

        January 28, 2016 at 08:21

        Then it is probably site related, just checked back on the spec LTE upload should be 50% of download.

        Reply

        • Peter French

          January 28, 2016 at 09:09

          Yeah it is because I am so far away from the site. But even when I was closer, I had the same – my highest upload speed was 9Mbps . That’s not 100% correct. TD-LTE upload speeds are set by the provider at a ratio of the download speed. The B315 router (which I have) has the following specs for TD-LTE (The technology which Telkom is using – band 40 to be specific) and reads as follows: DD DL 112 Mbps, 10 Mbps UL .

          Reply

    • Gavin Mannion

      January 28, 2016 at 08:18

      In Darryn’s defense it was Telkom who installed the antenna… but he probably doesn’t either 😛

      Reply

      • HvR

        January 28, 2016 at 08:21

        Aaa that explains it, it is probably something new to Telkom techs who is only used to pulling wire

        Reply

    • Geoffrey Tim

      January 29, 2016 at 15:31

      I think the guy who mounted the antenna was as high as possible. 🙂

      Reply

  23. HairyEwok

    January 28, 2016 at 10:34

    Ok can I ask how’s the connection to international servers and local servers on games. It’s all nice and dandy if you have blistering fast download speeds but when you play Rocket League you teleport from the one goal to the next.

    Reply

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