Major BroadBand Improvements

Looks like ICASA is finally doing something about the apalling state of broadband access in SA. More details are available on myADSL, but here are the highlights:

No more 3Gb cap. There will be a cap, still to be determined, but using local bandwidth will not count towards the it, and you will be able to top-up or pay per excess bandwidth used, rather than having to buy extra accounts.

No monthly access charges. Currently you pay an installation fee (once off), then monthly line rental and access fees. The plan is to scrap the access fee, so that you just pay for the monthly line rental (which is way cheaper than the access fees). But there will be a once-off initial access fee, so we'll just have to hope that it's a reasonable amount.

Other issues: contention ratios are to be made public, and there will be no port prioritization (i.e. no bandwidth shaping). They're also going to look at local loop unbundling, and allowing other network operators access to the international cable link.

Well, these are the recommendations - I'll believe it when I see it, but hopefully they'll be put into practice, and soon!