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WWatt’s TechnologyWWatt’s TechnologyWatt’s TechnologySatisfied with speeds if you’re luckySouth Africa might seem tohave masses of bandwidthavailable to users who areprepared to pay for the right to usethis technology, and the picture inother countries is hardly any better. Infact, a new report released in Britainsays that consumer satisfaction withbroadband services is at an all-timelow.And it’s the broadband speeds thatare causing the greatest amount offrustration. More than 30% of the10 000 people surveyed in Britaincomplained about the service theyreceived from Internet ServiceProviders (ISPs).Consumer broadband speeds aretypically less than half the averageadvertised broadband speedsin Britain and, in my personalexperience the picture is identicalin South Africa – although in SouthAfrica the excuses seem to besomewhat more imaginative.According to MichaelPhillips, product director ofBroadbandchoices.co.uk the broadbandservice providers market theirofferings on the basis of speed butthe speeds do not live up to theclaims.He has called for service providersto advertise – and be adjudicatedon – the typical speeds achievedat a particular time of the day. Hesays that typical speeds are a moreaccurate reflection of what userscan expect when they sign a serviceagreement with an ISP.The predicament in South Africais virtually identical but the localscenario is complicated by the‘capped’ and ‘uncapped’ offerings.In Britain, all ISPs offer uncappedconnections but this is not the casein South Africa.As new bandwidth was releasedonto the local market more andmore ISPs started to offer uncappedbandwidth and the net effect wasthat certain ISPs were unable tosupply the necessary bandwidthfor uncapped access, resulting in asignificant performance loss.This has in part been overcomebut there is certainly no guaranteethat your 4096 line will be runningat that speed constantly, no matterwhat Telkom or any other ISP says.Moreover few service providers– or consumers for that matter –actually highlight the impact thatblended and unblended bandwidthcan have on performance. So ISPsalways can revert to the ‘blended’aspect of their service to explainperformance levels.Suffice to say that if a survey ofSouth African Internet users wereconducted, only about 30% of theusers would be likely to say theywere happy with the bandwidthspeeds provided. The balance wouldcertainly not be.Coincidentally, it’s exactly thesame number as the Ofcom reportrecorded for British Internet userswho were just as dissatisfied asSouth Africans.March 232011 23