Neotel bandwidth monitor here soon
| Rudolph Muller | January 20, 2010 | No comments |
Rudolph Muller
Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...
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Neotel says that bandwidth usage monitor will be rolled out in the next few weeks
Neotel has confirmed that a data usage monitor system will be available to its NeoFlex and NeoConnect wireless broadband customers in the first quarter of 2010.
In December MyBroadband reported that a bandwidth usage monitor was in its Beta testing phase and would be release in 2010, Neotel could not however commit to a definite date of release at the time.
Neotel Chief Technology Officer Dr. Angus Hay has now revealed that “Neotel’s data usage notification tool is in final phase of testing, and will be released within the first quarter of 2010”.
A common complaint amongst Neotel customers, since the company launched their wireless broadband services in 2008, has been the absence of a tool/system informing users when their monthly bandwidth cap has been used. Such a service is common place amongst South African internet service providers (ISPs) and other operators.
A bandwidth monitoring tool will allow Neotel customers to be notified when their bandwidth usage is nearing their package cap, giving them the option to reduce data use or go out-of-bundle.
Hay added that “the tool will be available for all customers who utilize data” and will notify customers “in the form of an email message”. Users will also have a measure of control over this process, choosing the frequency of the notifications, “i.e. daily, weekly, bi-monthly, or upon exceeding their in-bundle data”.
In addition to this Neotel is currently “developing and implementing a more advanced billing system and customer self-service portal, which will give customers the ability to view their data usage via the web, as well as add and remove additional value-added features and services”. Information as to when these services will be rolled out has not yet been released.
The release of a bandwidth monitoring tool should come as welcome news to Neotel data customers on NeoFlex and NeoConnect packages. Currently the operator applies a policy of ‘soft capping’ its data subscribers. This means that subscribers are free to continue using the service after their cap is reached; additional bandwidth is charged at a cost of 8c per MB (R80 per GB).
Neotel bandwidth usage monitor – comments and views
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