Internet Service Provider

This is a question for which I probably already know the answer, which would be "NO", but I must ask anyway, as I'm at my wit's end!

I currently have a 384Kb/s DSL line from the ONLY telecomms company in South Africa (Telkom), and I get my uncapped connection from another company (which happens to be a subsidiary of Telkom). I should be averaging 35KB/s download speeds, although I have seen my DSL line give be as high as 50KB/s.

The problem I have is that from Mondays - Fridays, my service provider throttles back the available bandwidth for all subscribers (regardless of line speed provided by Telkom), and I average about 5KB/s downloads. Saturdays and Sundays I get full speed.

So the question I'm having is this: Even if the physical DSL line is provided by Telkom, is it at all possible for me to use a service provider from another country for my actual internet connection?

Like I said, the answer would probably be NO, but I have to ask, because I'm at my wits end here, and the only "competition" to Telkom that may have given better service (NeoTel), is 70% owned by Telkom. Go figure...

No sorry. It is a physical connection (phone line). You have to go through a local phone provider. You might look into satellite internet and what speeds they provide, at what cost.

satellite internet in south africa - Google Search

A Guy

A Guy said:

No sorry. It is a physical connection (phone line). You have to go through a local phone provider. You might look into satellite internet and what speeds they provide, at what cost.

satellite internet in south africa - Google Search

A Guy

Thought so. (Although I already have a physical ADSL/Phone line - can't I get a username and password for my DSL Router from somewhere outside South Africa?)

And I have considered using wireless or satellite, but they purchase several 4096kb/s connections from Telkom (that's right - EVERY provider here goes through Telkom in some fashion, even the wireless guys), and then share/sublet those connections between 20 people each, thus giving each user only 204.8kbps, which is already slower than what I have.

And having Telkom upgrade my line from 384kb/s to 4096kb/s to overcome the down-throttling from my ISP is not an option right now...