I have tried asking Zuku for clarification on a number of items in this policy. No response.


On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 6:58 PM, John Gitau <jgitau@gmail.com> wrote:
http://zuku.co.ke/triple-play/fair-usage-policy.html is not clear for me. Like how much you can download before triggering the FUP. lets have a look at some parts of it and highlight /embolden areas that just don't make me happy:

Zuku residential always-on, (1) unlimited, flat rate fibre-optic cable broadband Internet access is one of the fastest in the market and the most affordable. Always-on means that your computer can remain connected to the Internet at all times and there is no limit to the connection time for the duration of your subscription.

You can subscribe one of three Internet bandwidth options – 1Mbps, 8Mbps or 20Mbps. The bandwidth speed quoted in Tariff Guide and on your bill is the (2)downstream local bandwidth between Zuku datacentres located in Kenya and the Customer’s site. Unlike with many broadband services, ZUKU’S LOCAL BANDWIDTH IS NOT SHARED OR CONTENDED. You are able to enjoy the maximum speeds at the quoted Internet bandwidth to download content that is hosted at Zuku datacentres and we do not limit the amount of data, or the speed at which you download (4)any content between the Zuku datacentres in Kenya and Customer’s Site. For example, if one person at the Customer’s Site is watching a (3)YouTube video, it will stream down to that person at the maximum speed of your connection i.e. 1Mbps, 8Mbps or 20Mbps (because YouTube is localized at Zuku datacentres in Kenya). However, if 4 household members at the Customer’s Site watch different YouTube videos at the same time, each will get 0.25Mbps, 2Mbps and 5Mbps respectively for subscriptions of 1Mbps, 8Mbps or 20Mbps (5)Internet access component of Zuku Triple-play service. Therefore, the (6)higher the Internet speed subscribed to, the better the experience for each user sharing a single Internet connection at the Customer’s Site.

That they can't guarantee capacity to anywhere beyond their network is normal. And I think anyone selling unlimited internet deserves the bashing going their way. The moment frames/packets/labels hit their edge be it at kixp or international edge including their links to Mombasa where the main gateways and depending on their configuration peering is, quite a number of things could get out of hand. We know this no worries. We do however expect them to make responsible choices on their bandwidth acquisitions on our behalf.

Even internally a server lets say a dns server will affect your perceived capacity. this could be a database server too. Heck an overloaded asic on a switch or just bad design have been known to affect so called 'local service'.

According to ZUKU's FUP, you don't buy (1|8|20)Mbps internet access, you pay for that capacity to their data centers. Beyond that you are on your own. What is not defined is at what point a 1Mbps customer gets throttled down to the 30kbps or whatever the speed may be vs lets say an 8Mbps (remember this should not affect local service) I doubt that very much since most ISP's have aggregation/choke points but I am not arguing, just stating that I doubt the validity of that statement. I would also expect the 8Mbps to get not 30Kbps throttle but maybe (30*8)Kbps since he pays more for the pipe anyway. This is not clear to me and in fact that 30Kbps we are talking about is just conjecture (I used the fgure stated on an earlier email_). It also means the ''Guidelines for Selection the Most Appropriate Package1' '' describing estimate speeds you can get are not really internet but -> content to their data centers.

And I agree if a lot more content and caching were done in their data centers then life would be awesome. But life sucks because you dont create content apart from such emails:-). And I'm still on their service because try as I may they are better than quite a number of ISP's that are able to get service to my place to even make me think of switching (I have two connections). It ends up working out for me.

so obviously maybe just maybe they would be better off not trying to explain things. Nobody expects magic internet speeds anyway until you promise them.

JGitau

On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 5:50 PM, Brian Ngure <brian@pixie.co.ke> wrote:

I'm on 8. Average speedtest is 0.02 to 0.2mbps. Sometimes it is good, but that is once in a blue moon. Then I get maybe 1mbps.

On 11 Sep 2012 17:45, "Mark Mwangi" <mwangy@gmail.com> wrote:

@brian are you also on the 8mbps? have you ever hit that speed on international sites or speedtest?

On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 4:04 PM, Brian Ngure <brian@pixie.co.ke> wrote:
Zuku's fair use policy is so vague and trying to get answers from them about it is like trying to get blood out of a stone.


On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 4:01 PM, Mark Mwangi <mwangy@gmail.com> wrote:
They have a fair use policy which stipulates the advertised speed is only to their local data centers and international bandwith is shared.  http://zuku.co.ke/triple-play/fair-usage-policy.html  assume the bigger the package the higher the throttling cap. So if I sign up for the 8mps I will/should get higher than 30kBps when throttled.  


On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 3:55 PM, John Gitau <jgitau@gmail.com> wrote:
Then an upgrade won't help you. 

And technically if on your contract never said anything about throttling speeds, that is not offering the Internet by definition:-). 

But no one seems to get this argument so I just let it be. An upgrade won't help unless they offer you more than 30kbps, which would make it the bandwidth you actually pay for not a 1mbps. 

Last time I checked zuku has no fair use policy like safaricom who has theirs defined for customers.

Gitau
Sent from my iPad

On 11 Sep 2012, at 12:46, Mark Mwangi <mwangy@gmail.com> wrote:

@benjamin am on the 1mbps package and they keep throttling me after a while to 30kBps. Will upgrade next month. 


On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 12:25 PM, amanya <whynnot@gmail.com> wrote:

as John Gitau rightly points out, all this info is only partially useful if the location of need/use is not given

On Sep 11, 2012 12:20 PM, "Mark Mwangi" <mwangy@gmail.com> wrote:
@benjamin what package are you on?

On Tue, Sep 11, 2012 at 12:09 PM, Benjamin <anangwe@gmail.com> wrote:
Zuku .for me pushing awesome speeds 7.35 mbps and we watch XYZ from our phones

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