By Wimpie van Rensburg, Systems Engineer, Riverbed Technology

Have you ever upgraded your bandwidth, even though you knew it wasn’t going to solve your latency problems?

If you said yes, it’s okay. Everybody has done it and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Your intentions were good, and besides, it gave you a reprieve from all those user complaints. But then, after awhile, they started again, didn’t they?

And now you are right back where you started from, thinking about going back to bandwidth. Do you really think things will be different this time? Sure, there will be the honeymoon period, but eventually you will be right back where you started, broken promises and shattered dreams. I’m begging you, don’t do it, don’t go back to bandwidth!

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The SpaceStation, the digital media sales agency who represents GoMetro (read the review) announced that since its launch in October 2012, the platform has grown to just over 528 000 unique browsers in March 2013.

Data from the last 6 months also show that 43% of users spend more than 3 minutes on the service per session, showing great potential for engagement.

The Space Station CEO Gustav Goosen says that “We are all aware of the phenomenal growth of mobile internet access in South Africa. With this in mind we are particularly proud of GoMetro and the success they have had in providing a real service to commuters. These commuters made 1 561 811 queries for real time updates with a staggering 635 221 of those queries made in March alone.”

The platform is designed to provide Metrorail commuters with real-time information including train timetables, line announcements, updates and other key services.

GoMetro was carefully developed to work efficiently on any device with the sole prerequisite that the phone has an Internet connection. That being said an interesting trend has developed over the last 6 months. Over 80% of the users accessed GoMetro on Blackberrys while only 8% used Android, 6% Nokia, 1,5% Apple and the remaining used a Windows Phone.

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While 3D graphics in video games continues to advance, looking more realistic over time, the one element it seems that has not quite been perfected is that of water, with it not looking much like the real thing.

Well, that is all about to change with the development of a new fluid simulation algorithm called “Position Based Fluids” (PBD).

NVIDIA’s Miles Macklin and Matthias Müller-Fischer explain ”In fluid simulation, enforcing incompressibility is crucial for realism; it is also computationally expensive. (…) By formulating and solving a set of positional constraints that enforce constant density, our method allows similar incompressibility and convergence to modern smoothed particle hydrodynamic (SPH) solvers, but inherits the stability of the geometric, position based dynamics method, allowing large time steps suitable for real-time applications.”

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The Internet has dramatically changed the way we do business, engage with each other and obtain information.

While the infrastructure may not be as established in South Africa as in other parts of the world, things are certainly getting better as competition is heating up, but what is the true total cost of uncapped ADSL in South Africa? This is a question that personal finance management tool, moneysmart recently addressed.

In South Africa it is not possible to get uncapped ADSL Internet without installing and renting a normal telephone line, which is only available through Telkom. You also need to rent an ADSL line, which comes at an additional charge. Luckily, most ISP’s allow you to rent an ADSL line directly through them. So if you are planning to get uncapped ADSL, it’s a good idea to know the total costs associated with it.

In this article, written by Stefan De Klerk,  moneysmart looks at the total cost for the entry-level ADSL line speeds, 1Mbps and 2Mbps, with total costs including residential line rental (exchange connection), ADSL line from Telkom and an uncapped ADSL account.

Moneysmart  also compared costs if you bundle your ADSL line with your ISP, meaning you get your ADSL line from your ISP directly and not through Telkom.

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According to My Broadband, Internet service provider Web Africa has reduced the pricing of its uncapped ADSL since the company moved its traffic to Internet Solutions’ backbone.

Prices have been reduced by up to 32% with Telkom and MWeb having also recently offered lower uncapped ADSL pricing to customers.

Web Africa CEO, Tim Wyatt–Gunning says of the latest price cuts that “Internet Solutions has access to the most significant network of broadband hotspots in South Africa, and is busy extending this network along with other wireless technologies.”

Wyatt-Gunning also revealed that other Web Africa products will also receive further price cuts in the coming months.

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According to My Broadband, Telkom has recently announced that it will be reducing the costs of its uncapped ADSL offerings for both businesses and consumers.

Managing director of Telkom Consumer Services and Retail,  Manelisa Mavuso said of the offering that “Our focus remains on maintaining a quality experience whilst also exploring new and innovative ways to deliver even more value to our customers.”

Consumer ADSL prices will be cut by 35%, while businesses can benefit from a 40% reduction for the service, which has been improved and will continue to receive additional advanced features for improved business performance in the coming months.

The ADSL pricing for new and existing customers are as follows:

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In an official press release, MTN Business has announced that it and leading Internet service provider, Afrihost, have formed a ground-breaking strategic partnership that is set to leapfrog customer service by providing seamless converged solutions. Through the partnership, MTN Business will become second in the market in terms of IPC capacity and third in terms of physical connections. In turn, Afrihost will become more flexible in the design of products and services, and will also have more freedom over pricing and tailor-made solutions.

Says Zunaid Bulbulia, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Acting Chief Enterprise Business Officer of MTN SA: “We are confident that this collaboration will change the telecoms landscape, as two leaders in their respective markets have come together to fundamentally change the way in which DSL is offered. MTN Business is now able to provide a wholesale service and has put the power in Afrihost’s hands to be able to define their own product offering and service parameters. We are proud to be associated with a company that has proven over the years to be client-focused and innovative in their approach, not to mention having been voted best ISP for the second year in a row by consumers.”

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As part its ongoing 15th birthday celebration and in conjunction with the launch of a new range of ADSL products, Imaginet is giving away 10 000GB of unshaped ADSL bandwidth over the next month. “We had so much fun giving away iPads, smartphones and other cool swag that we decided to keep the celebration going,” explained Marketing Manager, Andrew Cuyler.

“We wouldn’t dream of giving away the cheap stuff, either,” stated co-owner, Darren Miller. “Imaginet is giving away 10 000 gigabytes of our best unshaped ADSL, great for gaming, downloads and streaming video. The South African broadband community has been very good to us over the years, so it’s our pleasure to give something back.”

Imaginet’s free ADSL gigabytes are truly free to all South Africans of legal age. No purchase, no contract and no billing details required.

Imaginet would also like to take this opportunity to announce the launch of its exciting new range of ADSL packages. For example, Imaginet’s new Per GB ADSL now delivers high-performance, unshaped bandwidth at very competitive prices and all top-ups are only R19.00 per GB.

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