Here’s why your TelOne ADSL service has been very slow lately

L.S.M Kabweza Avatar

Over the past couple of days users of TelOne’s ADSL broadband service have complained that the internet’s been very slow, erratic and, in some cases no internet at all to speak of. We contacted TelOne to establish what the problem is and the company says they (well, their partner in Mozambique) suffered a service failure and they had to reroute internet traffic to some not so good routes.

The problem apparently started on Monday this week resulting in some users not having internet at all, and not getting any information from the company. One contact wrote to us “hey Techzim?…is it just this small town (Marondera)? or it’s something you are onto…we have no internet at all since nezuro (Telone)…any leads on this?

According to the TelOne response we got, the failure was in the TDM network in Mozambique. TelOne then had to reroute some traffic through a redundant path (a SEACOM one we’re told), and according to them, the speeds on this link are not as fast as the primary one. TelOne says however that service was restored yesterday (Tuesday) around 11AM.

TDM is the TelOne equivalent in Mozambique and provides the transit fibre network that Zimbabwean internet providers use to connect to undersea cable systems at Mozambique’s Maputo shores.

We took this opportunity to ask the company another query we get from people from time to time. Users of the service complain that cable failure aside, the ADSL service has generally slowed down in recent months. TelOne’s response is basically that they effected data caps and so you’re getting what you pay for.

In the company’s own words:

When ADSL was introduced users were enjoying higher speeds than the data cap they paid for. For example a user on basic was enjoying upload speeds of 512k and download speed of 2048k (Platinum Package) instead of upload speed of 64k and download speed of 256k. However, with the introduction of the current billing system introduced in October 2012 customers were limited to their data cap. The speeds now appear to be slow because Tel•One now enforces the Service Level Agreements that users signed up for.

10 comments

  1. Robert Ndlovu

    Interesting speeds havent changed much in Bulawayo.I suspect it has to do with the DSLAMS in Harare being choked up as more users come aboard.The DSLAMS are designed for a specific max number of users and from what I know the type of equipment they have there is archaic.

    1. Member

      yes, could be true.

    2. anthonysomerset

      you would have thought that with all the money they are now raking in with pre-pay billing on ADSL that actually works now that they would be upgrading the archaic infrastructure, but my guess is that wont happen until parts fail and they run out of equally ancient spares

  2. anthonysomerset

    Umax use SEACOM as there primary link generally and there are no speed issues with it for me, it sounds to me that Telone buy the smallest chunk of BW possible on SEACOM in order to “satisfy” the redundancy requirements and don’t increase it when there are issues with their other links and they are trying to palm that off as a SEACOM is slow and its there fault

  3. Gregory

    I use ADSL and mine started to have a problem since yesterday around 5 AM and I contacted the TelOne guys and they told me that there was a little problem they were going to resolve it and around 12 Noon in the i was up. i use this product for my IPTV i stream live shows and videos and i have not faced any challenges with the product. Keep the good work TelOne.

  4. stardust

    The problems referred to in your article are still there. The Tel One ADSL is coming on and off still in Gweru.

  5. tonton

    mine has been stuck at 30kbps for the basic package can someone tell me if this is the average speed for the basic package if this is not the case who do i call to complain..

  6. sikefula

    heheee,i get quoted by Techzim….One contact wrote to us “hey Techzim?…is it just this small town (Marondera)? or it’s something you are onto…we have no internet at all since nezuro (Telone)…any leads on this?”…priceless!

  7. keith Lowe

    We are on the Platinum ADSL packake from TelOne and it is extremely slow are there any valid reasons for this

  8. Simon Bere

    Zimbabwean companies, well not all of them, treat customers very rough. They have no business ethics and lack basic customer care and customer services. At a time when companies say the customer is key, it is interesting that TelOne has the audacity to say customers are getting what they paying for; meaning customers are paying for no internet connection? Who on earth is interested in having an internet services that goes on an off even if the person is a home user? We know customers who subscribed for higher speeds and still the problem is they are not getting what they are paying for and again there is no apology. People expect even higher speeds and not what TelOne is giving.

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