GO switches to new submarine cable

G, Mangion

Dec 25th 2008, 18:28

I Wonder how many of you who want a refund from go, are Really GO ' Big Family !!
Stop Moaning !
I Wish a Merry Chritmas and a Happy New Year, to all GO ( from Top to bottom ) they are the Best, In MALTA !
G. Mangion.

J. Mizzi

Dec 25th 2008, 14:54

@ S.Cassar

I don't give a damn about go's terms and conditions, I expect to get the service i am paying for. I pay for a 12Mbit connection and only get 7-8Mbit at best. (mind you go have changed all my internal telephone cables).

Now since i know that go will not offer any compensation, my pending bill i have with them is not going to be paid, and if they want they can open a court case against me over 23 Euros. I am sick and tired of the maltese mentality "ignore the people's complaints because we have no competition". So this is the only way i could justify go's action.

J.P. Attard

Dec 25th 2008, 12:52

@ TRW O'Neill

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is a form of DSL, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice telephone call.
The frequency that the ADSL uses are from 25.875kHz to 138kHz for the upload and from 138kHz to 1104kHz for the download
Because phone lines vary in quality and were not originally engineered with DSL in mind, it can generally only be used over short distances, typically less than 4km.

Ian Galea

Dec 25th 2008, 12:02

@ TRW O'Neill

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) is a form of DSL, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice telephone call. A splitter - or microfilter - allows a single telephone connection to be used for both ADSL service and voice calls at the same time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADSL

wishing you all a happy xmas

S.Cassar

Dec 25th 2008, 10:48

With all due respect to all those complaining and requesting a compensation..You should have read the terms and conditions clearly stated in the GO website before even signing the contract. The terms and conditions state the following:

"We shall not be liable for any direct or indirect loss of profit, goodwill, business or anticipated savings nor for any indirect or consequential loss or damage." (http://www.go.com.mt/Default.aspx?ID=17)

Please also note that during "downtime" i was able to work more than fine. Now that the cable has been restored a speedtest of my internet connection showed really good results. For all those changing their ISP next year i recommend that you check out their customer service first...the sure thing is Melita won't have cables to restore as they don't have one!!

TRW O'Neill

Dec 25th 2008, 10:27

With all you experts on line, what is the meaning of ADSL? i,e, what does ADSL stand for . please.

Oliver Cini

Dec 24th 2008, 19:06

I have a go connection and as far as i can tell my only had 10 hours down time ok maybe you tube and and other sites were blocked due to heavy traffic but the essential were working.
And to Mr James i am sorry for your site i wish t know which one it is so i will never use it it must be a very poor website which such a low upstream we have here in malta if you have a residential connection and if you have a business you only had suffered 45 minutes down time.
Besides that if you not a business but your still doing e-commerce on a residential connection then you should not be entailed to any penny since you do not have the proper connection for it.
And nearly all isp's have a dual connection now a days if your isp's doesn't have it then it's the isp fault not go. read the terms and conditions.
I have a commercial connection at my office and i only had 45 minutes which to be honest from 6.30 till 7.30 will not make you lose thousands

peter grech

Dec 24th 2008, 19:04

@Peter James
hahahaha. your so funny.

Kris Scicluna

Dec 24th 2008, 15:43

my connection is still very very slow, its not like it was before. its very sad that during this period we couldnt have a proper service, sites like youtube take forever to open. pity

Peter James

Dec 24th 2008, 14:19

I see most of these comments are probably made from GO haha.

Even it the refund is for 1cent i want it back. I will not allow any company to walk over me through to principle. If we owed GO money they would they first to complain and send letters requesting the funds for whatever amount.

I run many online websites and as a result of no connection I have loss thousands of euros.

I want a refund and compensation for loss of earnings by EU law they need to provide.

J. Mizzi

Dec 24th 2008, 13:36

Wait there Mr. Kay, I didn't see you mentioning the compensations.

Nothing to thank GO for, I still had ~5 days without internet service, and at the moment the connection is still horrible compared to its best.

Brian Busuttil

Dec 24th 2008, 13:33

well pl r moaning for the refund and compensations...

lets do some maths:
many of them pay 13euros per month for a 2mbps connection, 43c (euros) daily
GO internet was down from 18:00 till 13:00 (19/20 hours... )

merry christmas !

Kris Green

Dec 24th 2008, 11:32

Yay! Well done Go! I can veg out in front of the pc again.

Eswebio Cucciardi

Dec 24th 2008, 11:05

Were you given a refund when Melita rudely fixed a 3x3ft cable box on your new home facade?Were your Rai Channels abusively blocked during World Cup Matches&Formula 1 in order to pay their sports channel?Were your channels(like Chelsea/Man United TV&more ) taken out of your package and given any compensation?Did you ever get the promised refund on your analogue box in CASH?These are not earthquake accidents that no one has control on, but marketing strategies .I still agree with all of you that a small appreciation is to be shown to all Go Subs but we were treated severely in the past and compensation was not even included in some operators dictionary.The good final part of the story is,that Go will have 2 cables & hopefully what happened in the past will never be repeated.

Frans Gauci

Dec 24th 2008, 10:44

@ J Mallia

Switch to another operator. I am sure that after a few weeks you would return to GO admitting that they have the best services (ranging from telephony to tv locally)............................. Try it and accept the challenge.

E.Schembri

Dec 24th 2008, 10:28

@H Dempster

You are right, the people who are moaning because they missed out a few days of youtube should STOP moaning.

But I fully understand the online and web based companies that have lost thousands of Euro's and had their reputation damaged with foreign clients. Considering the latest financial crisis, the time could not have been worse for such an incident.

These people and their employee's have good reason to be upset.

E.Schembri

Dec 24th 2008, 10:18

@Tony Cosicate

Explain this to us...
With the number of Maltese broadband subscribers booming to 45,000 in the past 10yrs, why is it that almost all ISP's (except GO) have closed down? One would expect a boom in competition that reflects the markets needs.

The reason is that since the introduction of broadband, all other ISP's where forced into begging, with GO solely dictating the service level and prices, while eating away all the profits of other ISP's. THAT'S THE REASON NONE CAN CATCH UP!

Whilst I thank the GO engineers and contractor for their hard work and sleepless nights in speeding up the new cable installation, the government and GO management should be ashamed of themselves for allowing the Maltese broadband market to become so unhealthy that a single failure can cripple the Maltese IT infrastructure.

Now Tony Cosicater, go and tell the companies that have lost thousands of Euro's that they must take it with a pinch of salt!

Andrew Borg

Dec 24th 2008, 10:08

@ J.Mallia

So Go now is responsabile for earthquakes? NICE! No other Isp on earth can create earthquakes! May I remind you that it is named GO and not GOD :)

J.Mallia

Dec 24th 2008, 09:55

@ Tony Cosicater TeleComm Eng

Let's all be honest about this GO fiasco, the second in 4 months.

Vic Phillips

Dec 24th 2008, 08:44

So GO is now fully opeational as an ISP again. Does this mean they will now deliver all incoming mails from AOL subscribers a task which has been beyond them for some considerable time now!

H Dempster

Dec 24th 2008, 08:25

Come on Guys, stop moaning, Havnt we got back our internet, Cyber maniancs. GO have a very simple solution to compensate for the loss hours, that is just give us,users a few days service free of charge. They have done it before, so it should not constitute any problems.

Merry Xmas to all ............

Tony Cosicater TeleComm Eng

Dec 24th 2008, 08:11

As an expert in the sector who has lots of interest in the Maltese Telecommunications scene, I would say that Go is providing the Maltese public with the best service possible. Altough other companies try to catch up, they must improve a lot to do this. From what I read hear, I can clearly understand that these comments are made by people who are not accustomed to the Telecomms world. So please take most of these comments with a pinch of salt. Congratulations again to the GO employees and keep up your effort.

G Seychell

Dec 24th 2008, 08:07

@ James Muscat.

In these days of positve spirit, let us look at positive aspects.

WELL DONE Go.

P Debono

Dec 24th 2008, 07:53

I'd rather they stop all the blabber and start talking about compensating us, otherwise I'm sure Melita will welcome me with open arms!

David Micallef

Dec 24th 2008, 03:12

@Joseph Schembri

I am not an expert.. but from whom are you getting your connection? go? then speedtest must be done from the GO web and not from and outside web!

Sandro Zahra

Dec 24th 2008, 01:29

well done to all GO employees involved ...... for those who complain .... you do not have the minimum idea of the amount of work needed for this type of fault ..... and for those who are moaning for a refund, if you pay 30EUR/month (which means 1EUR/day) you should get a 5EUR refund!!! it is not even worth to calculate it!

r gatt

Dec 24th 2008, 00:07

Well done Go? Were you guys asleep for the past days? I believe the only well done goes to those providing contingencies to lessen the inconvenience caused to Go customers ... for the 2nd time in 4/5 months!!

It is Go who should be saying thank you to the customers who remained loyal to the company after these 2 'mishaps' (to say the least).

Peter James

Dec 23rd 2008, 23:58

The Internet is better but no way near back to its full capacity.

Let now talk about refunds or compensation. If I receive no refund from GO I will definitely change my ISP after the holidays.

At the ridiculously high prices we pay for the service I can’t believe they didn’t have a back up from day one of launching broadband. This is what they get for cutting corners and costs.

In regard to the customer support i'm still waiting for GO to contact me with an apology. Surely they should send out batch emails to customers explaining the situation instead of us having to find out the problem via the media.

John Farrugia

Dec 23rd 2008, 23:46

@ r Cauchi

What are you on about mate? Mine is working perfectly!

Graham Crocker

Dec 23rd 2008, 22:50

All those who are thanking Go, are not all workers, but rather people who have enough knowledge in the area to understand what is going on.

I know what happened was not an easy thing, and Go could have easily gotten away with restoring internet to us after 2 weeks ( they were 2 weeks away from laying the second cable).

The second cable, was layed before its estimates, which probably means many people were working around the clock during Xmas period.

James Sultana, you obviously have no idea what is going on, your lack of empathy shows your lack of understanding. Whatever Maybe if you read the terms and agreements or maybe if you remembered the speed just of a year ago you'd shut up.
I also hate, people talking crap about I.T, thinking that because they can use a Mouse, they're Computer Genius's.

Whole continents were cut off from the internet, and you expect Go to shower you with gifts?
Some people, should just stick to Watching "Dejjem tieghak Becky" .

STEPHEN FLORIAN

Dec 23rd 2008, 22:21

The new cable in the direction of Mazara del Vallo leaving Malta from St. Paul's Bay, as shown in the picture roughly tends to cross through the territorry of a huge underwater system of volcanoes referred to recently as Empedoclea, out of which Graham Island (or Fernandea) had surfaced from the bottom of the sea in the 1830's and then vanised once more into the depths. How close is this new cable to this zone and if in the affermative, have any precautions been taken ?

E.Schembri

Dec 23rd 2008, 22:07

Thank you my foot!
Rather than investing is millions in 21% shares of some Greek company called Forthnet (that no Maltese client cares about) last year, it should have invested in the vital secondary cable when it had the chance, not when Malta is brought to its knees twice in 4 months. It seems GO is not made for you, but for its share holders. Shame!

But this is what you get from a company that is allowed to dominate the market and kill off competition with the blessing of the government. That is why they say competition is healthy!

And to add insult to injury, GO demanded Melita cable to concede 500Mb of its bandwidth purchased from Vodafone in the name of national interest without guaranteeing a reciprocal favour! Unbelievable, GO has the cheek to speak about national interest when it has botched us up twice over!

Shame yet again!

John Lane

Dec 23rd 2008, 22:02

@ Joseph Schembri

Thanks for the link to speedtest.net. What I found for Maltese download speeds are:
Datastream 3142 kb/s; Melita 2589 kb/s and Vodafone 2113 kb/s. The upload speeds
were: Datastream 338 kb/s; Melita 314 kb/s and Vodafone 460 kb/s. (Just using three
services out of several more.)

By way of comparison, my residential connection here in Buffalo, New York, shows
9819 kb/s download and 957 kb/s upload.

Jesmond Marshall

Dec 23rd 2008, 21:55

I was one of the many people that complained, but I have to say well done to the Go workers,on the other hand I would have really appreciated (and I am not expecting an apology) at least an email from Go to explain what was happening.

S. Camilleri

Dec 23rd 2008, 21:53

@David A.
Well soon as I got the news I downloaded 245Mb in 50 minutes. Not bad for a 'not yet commissioned' cable. I suggest you take it out with your isp,... presumably Melita if you have 10Mb :-)

r cauchi

Dec 23rd 2008, 21:22

the internet service is not even close to be fully active again, even though go customer care just informed me that it will be in the next few days.

Peter Sultana

Dec 23rd 2008, 21:13

Wrong website James Sultana, this is not a go customer care service. Useless to ask questions here. Also please, stop working maths that does not make any sense especially on a news website.

Thanks

ray pace

Dec 23rd 2008, 21:01

Great news from GO and thanks. Let's all hope we now get the bandwidthand speed we are paying for.

Mario Cutajar

Dec 23rd 2008, 20:49

Congratulations to GO engineers and workmen, who switched on to the second cable in record time! Personally though my internet connection is still slow, compared to the speed I had before the cable was cut.

Gilbert Debattista

Dec 23rd 2008, 20:42

@James Sultana

You are right in saying that the 2.5GB (the article says 'GB' therefore gigabyte ... gigabit is Gb) is shared amont all ADSL subscribers however appreciate the fact that not everyone is downloading at the same rate, if at all, even when you are connected. This means that this badwidth is enough to provide a fast broadband connection for all users, even if they are all connected at the same time.

For example if you are just browsing or viewing a web page, you only download the data for that page (eg. this page is just 9.2 Kb + images/animations) and no more data is downloaded while reading it. This gives the opportunity for other users to use the unused bandwidth while yours is idle.

Additionally the higher-priced / higher bandwidth packages only guarantee that local access (services hosted in Malta) can reach their respective speeds. As for international bandwidth, it is shared proportionally.

Would like a comment from someone more knowledgeable on this area though, maybe even from Go or Voda/Melita.

Joseph Schembri

Dec 23rd 2008, 20:40

Subscribers check what you are paying for here: http://www.speedtest.net/
The bandwidth available is way too low for what we are paying so I don't know what GO are going on about.

Andrew Borg

Dec 23rd 2008, 20:39

Thank you GO!

Jean-Pierre Aquilina

Dec 23rd 2008, 20:37

@James Sultana:

"So, if these 2.5Gbit/second are to be shared between around 20,000 internet users, it means that they have a bandwidth share of ..... 125 kilobits per second !!!"

The calculation assumes that all 20,000 subscribers use the Internet actively (eg downloading music, films, etc) simultanaeously. This is rarely the case in practice.

A Coppini

Dec 23rd 2008, 20:37

@ James Sultana

That kind of contention ratio is normal in the broadband world. Without wanting to justify GO, 2.5Gbit capacity spread over 2 links sounds reasonable. An increase in raw bandwidth on the MaltaSicily fibre will probably not have any significant effect on the actual throughput, since the bottleneck will then be at Telecom Italia's or Interoute's end.

David Micallef

Dec 23rd 2008, 20:33

gr8 job GO :) - Well Done!!

David A

Dec 23rd 2008, 20:32

it's still crap - my supposed 10 megabit conection has taken 2 yes 2 hours to download 97.6MB....now thats poor....never mind the "well done GO" comments - this should never have happened in the first place as they should have had back up from the start

A Coppini

Dec 23rd 2008, 20:31

Have to say well done to all those involved.... Bringing online a new upstream cable and provider is not something which should be done with haste and under the pressure of 100,000 screaming subscribers, but GO's team managed to do it well and do it fast...

Well done.

James Musat

Dec 23rd 2008, 20:15

Im sure that these comments come from workers at GO...

Pathetic.......

We are waiting for a formal apology and refund!!!

James Sultana

Dec 23rd 2008, 20:10

A total IP bandwidth throughput of 2.5GB ????? IS this 2.5Gigabyte, or 2.5 GigaBIT (the usual bandwidth measure) WOW !!! So let`s see .... we have people paying for 6MBit/second, some paying for 4Mbit and many paying for 2Mbit.

This means that the 2.5Gbit/second is barely enough to sustain 1250 users at 2Mbit/s !! Of, course, the speed is calculated for "local connection", but if I can reach my ISP at 2MBit, and he can reach the outside world at 2.5Gbit, then I should be able to theoritically consume the full 2Mbit, even if shared for various sites.

So, if these 2.5Gbit/second are to be shared between around 20,000 internet users, it means that they have a bandwidth share of ..... 125 kilobits per second !!!

Hence the big question : what is all the fuss about paying more to have a better bandwidth ?? And why pay for a bandwidth with reaches the ISP at 2Mbit/second when on average he can barely give me 7% of it as true internet service ??

Simon Agius Muscat

Dec 23rd 2008, 20:09

Well done GO, I can now enjoy my Internet to the full.
These few these without internet have helped me become more patient.
Once again,
THANK YOU GO

Brian Busuttil

Dec 23rd 2008, 20:05

well done GO!

David Bugeja

Dec 23rd 2008, 19:52

WELL DONE all GO Employees who worked on this project!!!!