Pretoria, 19 Aug 2014
Telkom today announced that its Internet service provider (ISP) will enforce its Fair Usage Policy (FUP) in the spirit of enhancing the Internet experience of all its users.
Telkom ISP has always had a FUP in place but has, till now, exercised much leniency in terms of enforcing the stipulations thereof. As a result, the usage of a few users has had a negative impact on the network and on the online experience of fellow users.
Arnold Van Huyssteen, Telkom's Acting Managing Executive for Product House said: "Delivering a high-quality broadband experience is becoming increasingly challenging as the trends towards bandwidth intensive applications become more apparent in the everyday lives and businesses of our customers.
"The contention for available network capacity is also growing and our customers are becoming increasingly concerned about fairness and equitable service and this has prompted us to carefully re-think our bandwidth management policies to the benefit of our entire customer base," continued Van Huyssteen.
Telkom's broadband network is a shared resource, used by all its broadband users. Since networks do not have unlimited capacity, the operator continuously monitors the network and adds capacity when appropriate. As such, it is critical for the Company's ISP to also innovate on a level that helps ensure that bandwidth is allocated fairly between all its users and applications.
"As an ISP we understand the need to do our part in containing any negative impact on the broadband eco-system as a whole. We will be taking action when certain trends are spotted that may have resulted in a poor customer experience for the average user on our network," explained Van Huyssteen.
Telkom is committed to making the best use of the ISP's resources in a fair and non-discriminatory way. The Company has taken steps to inform all its customers and prospective customers on the associated benefits and profiles of its existing ISP product range.
Additional information
Important information for Telkom ISP users:
1. SoftCap users are prioritised over Telkom's network, even over uncapped users.
2. Telkom has introduced a roll-over function for unused data, so all unused data purchased via credit card will now roll over to the next month of purchase.
3. Telkom Internet uncapped accounts are designed for either home or business use, and customers need to select the appropriate package designed for their access port speed and type of usage application. Choosing a home use product for business usage and vice-versa will result in sub-optimal Internet experience.
4. Telkom's Internet uncapped products are not capped in the ordinary course of business. However, Telkom reserves the right to apply restrictions on an uncapped account if the usage trend is determined to be affecting the user experience of all the others on Telkom's network.
5. Such restrictions may include, but are not limited to, throttling throughput speeds to an appropriate proportion of the actual port speed and/or shaping a bandwidth to limit the use of bandwidth intensive protocols and applications such as fast downloading, some online gaming and streaming video.
6. Examples of interface which may compromise Telkom's network performance and cause network congestion, include running excessive concurrent Internet sessions or accessing excessive bandwidth intensive protocols such as peer-to-peer. In this event Telkom reserves the right to terminate the uncapped account on which usage is continuously affecting network performance.
7. In order to assist users when Telkom's network performance is being impacted by their actions, the ISP will provide information, as is practically available, regarding usage status by way of a usage tracker tool. Users will be able to track their own usage also. Once usage is indicated as being dangerously high, Telkom reserves the right to suspend the relevant account or apply restrictions within 24 hours of users being notified. Users impacted in the aforementioned manner will only be returned to full service profile at the beginning of the next month.
8. All Telkom's Internet data limits is now SoftCapped, which means that once the monthly data cap is reached, service will not be cut-off. SoftCap keeps users connected, at no extra cost, so that users may continue to send and receive emails, browse the Internet, and stay in the social media loop, albeit at a reduced speed. Monthly data usage limit (cap) is the amount of data included in an Internet plan. Once this allocated data is depleted, users may select one of the following options:
Continue using the Internet at no extra cost but at a reduced speed.
Top-up using a credit card or using post-paid billing up to a predefined data limit which will be billed through the next month for the amount by which the cap was exceeded. Additional data may be purchased via the secure credit card purchase facility by logging into the Top-Up portal at https://secure.telkomsa.net/topup/.
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