Telkom says the media hype about dissatisfaction with asymmetrical digital subscriber line (ADSL) services is being driven by a few customers who are dissatisfied with the service.
Telkom product development executive Steven White says most of its nearly 10 000 customers have no problems with ADSL and in fact experience the real value that ADSL services bring.
Disgruntled users have been streaming to the Myadsl.co.za Web site that was launched two weeks ago to allow frustrated ADSL clients to share their miseries online through an ADSL users` forum. The biggest bugbear is the limit of 3GB a month, but Telkom says this complaint comes from those users for whom ADSL is not the ideal solution.
White says Telkom`s ADSL service offers premium Internet surfing (HTTP), e-mail (SMTP), and file transfer protocol applications. He says the service is targeted at small businesses and the higher end of the residential market, as these consumers have a moderate volume of Internet traffic and require an "always available" service.
White explains: "ADSL is a shared service, which means a greater number of subscribers results in slower Internet download speeds on the international link. That is why we carefully balance the number of users versus available bandwidth. It is also a key reason for capping."
He says the service is not designed to offer bandwidth-intensive communications such as those used by most of the people who have been most vocal in their complaints. White says the roll-out of ADSL in SA has proceeded smoothly, with the service now available in the main metropolitan areas.
Telkom says it has implemented a caching server to increase international Internet access performance as a direct result of feedback from users.
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