Please answer some questions..

[gripen]

Im looking at getting MyWireless 128k or 256k pretty soon. My queries are as follows:

1. I checked the web site for my area coverage (Hatfield,PTA) and it says Partial, Operational. What does this mean? Will I get coverage?
Does the site normally correlate with real results?

2. What would happen if I were to quit the contract (if I wanted to or couldnt afford to pay anymore)?

3. Given the shared service / contention ratios, can I still expect 15k/sec on 128 - 24/7 much like ISDN/dialup which is also shared?

4. If my signal was say, 15% would I still be able to use the service at good speed (ie. above 10k/sec for 128)? Other than ping times, is there an advantage to having good signal?

5. How low does the signal need to be for everything to work? Also, whats the highest possible signal you can practically get (is it 100%)?

6. Finally, can I ask Sentech to come and test for signal/service before I buy? Or do I buy the modem hoping that it works? What happens if you sign up and theres no signal? Refund?

Thanks! I would really like to get this soon but not before the above queries are seen to. If you can refer me to other forum topics thats 100% fine!

[ProAsm]

1. Partial means you should get it.
2. Dont know - phone and ask.
3. Yes.
4. Signals will work down to 5%. Once above 40% your pings will drop drastically - 50% = 50 ms ping.
5. Lowest = 5% | Highest depends on what you spend on a antenna etc.
6. Dont know Gauteng policy on this - phone and check.
Look through this forum there are many posts on your queries.

[Swifty]

Ok, I must be facing the tower through a hole, both neighbours only have minimal signal and our home is partial???

I assume this means I am on the edge or the map is not SOO accurate and I am really also only minimal?

PS. Why on earth are there no towers in Moreletapark?!? Dont the people there have big enough houses?

[gripen]

Okay, I have some more questions before I (probably) sign up.

A. In the T&C they speak of "call charges".. whats this about? Is this the final contract and thus, when do you sign the binding contract since I dont want them to start the debit order before I sign the contract.

B. Is it possible to share the service on a LAN? ie. will there be any problems like with Telkom ADSL?

C. If I sign up now will I need to have R500 + R70 + R650 available? Or will I pay the first R650 later on. Its a lot to pay before you get anything..

D. Can I choose to pay cash instead of Debit order and can I opt to collect my modem and pass on the R70? It doesnt seem to be an option on the application form..

E. What is the technical support like? Is it 24 hours?

F. What is a patch antenna?

G. What happens if my modem is stolen? From the T&C it would seem that I would be pretty screwed in that case.. Can you buy a replacement or something? (I mean its not my fault if its stolen surely)

H. What do you get for the extended warranty?

I. If I am in say, month 7 of my 24 months and I choose to upgrade from 128 to 256 then does this mean a new 24 months or I just need to see out the 24 months of the initial agreement?

Okay thats it. Sorry for all the questions but I want to be 100% sure. So far it looks like I will probably get MyWireless128.
I will phone Sentech later with these questions but I would prefer user experience/opinion rather than Sales and Marketing lingo. These are probably frequently asked questions so any answers should be beneficial to all new users.

Thanks for reading and answering the questions!

;-)

[ProAsm]

Sorry your questions are for the marketing and sales department.

A Patch antenna is a small extension antenna that plugs into the modem which will boost your signal.
There are several types ranging from R75 to R750
You can also get a Dish (see other posts) if you need very low pings etc.
Contact Fastcomm for patch antennae - http://www.fastcomm.co.za

[TrXtR]

a) They take off first debit order after credit clearance, that's after you sign the contract.

b) There's problems with myadsl ? Ive used it where it was shared on a lan. Their FAQ answers this.

c)... dont know

d) Probably not. They seem to be xenophobes. Debit order seems the only method that they offer on theire site.

e) Hehe, well, they might just be getting better. It's answered in theire FAQ though, 24hours.

f)It let's you receive better signal, kinda like a aerial for your tv, rather than the usual bunny ears. (I saw some older cellphones that also used patch antenna's, mostly for cars)

g) You can by a replacement as long as sentech approves the modem for theire network. You could put your modem on house insurance, else talk to them, they should give an option for insurance on the modem. But I dont think they do.

h) a longer waranty period ?

i) I dont know. But I would think it's just for the rest of the period of your initial contract.

hehe... I dont know ****, so if you believe anything I just said ... your screwed with me ;)

[AcidRaZor]

c) They only deduct the 70+500, then (depending when you actually got connected) they charge you a pro-rata for the rest of the month that will go off at the next bill run. In other words, if you join today, 5 days before the end of the month, they'll charge you for those 5 days PLUS the following month in advance (as it is usually paid in advance) at the end of this month.

g) The modem can be "bought" with an insurance package added on to it, thus you pay for your connect plus something like 12 rand per month for insurance on the modem. When (of let us say IF) the modem gets stolen or (not possible but likely) damaged by lighting or water damage caused by the roof blowing off your wittle house, they'll replace it. however, I'm not sure how long the waiting period for that will be seeing as I waited like YONKS just to get the blerrie thing.

Hope most of your questions were answered. Best to call the support desk and find the number for marketing at headoffice, then ask all your questions there. (Try and speak to Clinton or Tracy)

Cheers

[gripen]

Put it this way.. I have R620 in my account (Not Credit Card) and I will get in R1500+ at the end of march. Its a screwed up system where I work (as a student) I know..but anyway.. what would you suggest I do? I would like to signup. My income will settle from End March.

Does this mean I must wait until the end of March? I really dont want to do that as I need the connection quite urgently before then. Right now I just dont have the R570+R100+R650 available.

[Verbatim]

Someone I know didn't meet Sentech's credit requirements (gross/nett salary - mentioned somewhere here), so he was asked to pay a deposit of R3000 in addition to the R500 + R70. I assume his monthly payment will be reduced by 1/24 of the deposit.

[silversurfer]

i dont think u will get very far with the credit checks [}:)]

I think u need to atleast gross R10k per month.

btw make use of the search button on a forum, most if not all of ur questions could of been answered by urself, with a lil bit of self reading.

[gripen]

Thats unreasonable. Whatever happened to empowering and providing services to the lesser advantaged. R10k cuts out a large portion of the population.

I dont think they will have a problem with me committing to paying them R16000+ over the 24 months.

Whats the big deal with cancelling anyway, why not make it something like if you cancel with 24 months then you pay a R500 fine and thats it. That way they will be able to attract more customers and make more money overall at the end of the day.

[flashvc]

Many agree with this, but I think it's about recovering costs. With a contract they can guarentee the income, also, since you're paying off the modem, you must sign a contract. Which is why I'd like to see at the end of the 24 months, insted of renewing for another 24, that you can pay per month, and then cancel as you wish.

--

[martin]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by greedyflyza</i>
<br />Thats unreasonable. Whatever happened to empowering and providing services to the lesser advantaged. R10k cuts out a large portion of the population.

I dont think they will have a problem with me committing to paying them R16000+ over the 24 months.

Whats the big deal with cancelling anyway, why not make it something like if you cancel with 24 months then you pay a R500 fine and thats it. That way they will be able to attract more customers and make more money overall at the end of the day.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

greedyflyza, I think Sentech still have to prove that MyWireless will be a profitable and viable business venture and thus the 24 month contracts and salary requirements. They need a guaranteed source of income (and I guess it's good business sense).

In a perfect world, coverage will start increasing and costs will be lowered as time goes by, making the service more accessable to a wider range of people. Who knows, maybe cheaper packages will be introduced with lower speeds or higher contention ratios? Time will tell.

[gripen]

Okay sure. but say you are 'locked' in a 24 month contract and they reduce the 128k option to R500 - then what? Yes, I know, obviously it wont happen but in theory, you will still have to pay R650. This also applies if they raise the price. Correct me if I am wrong.

My point actually is that now I am a student and I would not get myWireless if I could not afford it. I have no house or car payments or even tax so I can afford to pay R650. Also I will be working next year (2nd 12 months of the 24) and then will easily afford it.

This paying off the modem story is silly. The modem should be paid off pretty quickly anyway but if you cancelled the contract and paid my "fine" then the can repossess the modem (if in full working order) and then use it for swop outs/demonstrations/testing/warranty replacements/reserve stock etc. They wont lose out.

The profitability and success of myWireless depends on a few critical factors. Marketing is important. Nobody knows about it. Also QoS. If they provide a good service they will make money. It is an excellent business model. For example, a lot of people will like the mobility aspect while others like the anti-Telkom aspect. If they marketed and provided a good service then they would make good money. So why the need to lock you into a 24 month contract so badly? Why not 12 months?
They should reward the early birds for taking the risk to signup to a largely unproven service with an uncertain future. I mean, did you know that if their licence is revoked, then you have to pay up what you owe them for the rest of the 24 months? Now thats unfair.. why punish the customer?

Really, I am willing and able to be a satisfied and dedicated Sentech customer. If they dont want me then that would be stupid. I just want a decent net connection with no major (telkom-like) hassles. No call costs. Yes, R650 is cheaper than ADSL/Telkom etc but it still adds up over 24 months so it is a significant amount.

[Perdition]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by greedyflyza</i>
... I mean, did you know that if their licence is revoked, then you have to pay up what you owe them for the rest of the 24 months? Now thats unfair.. why punish the customer?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

They cannot enforce this as they would no longer be providing the service for which you are paying. Worst case scenario you would have to pay the remaining balance on the modem or return it.

[Ditch]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by greedyflyza</i>
<br />So why the need to lock you into a 24 month contract so badly? Why not 12 months?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

I think the main reason for the 2-year contract 'lock-in' is that, although the system will give fairly decent speeds within the first six months or so of business, once many people have joined towards mid/end 2004), the speeds are going to get a lot worse. Then there will be a lot of disgruntled customers (mainly all the people who fell for the "marketing hype" implying 'mega-broadband', who were naive enough to believe they'd get 'suuuuper-fast' download speeds in SA). Basically there are going to be quite a few disgruntled customers, and Sentech doesn't want them "jumping ship" at that point, hence the 2-year contract. If all the disgruntled customers suddenly jumped ship, Sentech would lose "critical mass" needed to afford growth to the "next phase" (e.g. investing in more overseas bandwidth).

Now don't get me wrong, I think MyWireless is probably still going to be good value for money, especially as compared to the alternatives (read "Telkom"), and I am definitely and seriously considering getting MyWireless myself. But one must just have realistic expectations - within 12 months or so, the download speeds we'll be seeing will VERY probably be close to modem speeds - maybe slightly faster, maybe slightly slower. (But even so, always-on is still a huge benefit! And still cheaper than Telkom ..)

The root of the problem is that South Africa JUST DOES NOT HAVE the international bandwidth to supply true consumer broadband. And until this changes (years from now), things ARE GOING TO SUCK, the providers CANNOT deliver on their own (deliberately vague) promises. The entire country has something like a total of 400 - 800 Mbps for retail clients, just do the math, that's REALLY LITTLE - we're not about to get true 'broadband', and it will be NOTHING like Europe, where consumer broadband easily gives Joe User download speeds of 200-300 KBps (and that's a capital B, i.e. *bytes*, and it's during the day - we can just forget about anything even remotely close to that). This situation won't change until someone drops a *serious* new fiber link under the ocean, and that would cost R1billion+, what company in SA can easily afford that? (Vodacom? Someone should give them the idea ..).

Sentech are apparently planning on setting up some new overseas satellite connections, which would help alleviate the congestion that is likely +/- 1 year from now. But I guess they blew a lot of capital on the licensing process, and now need to raise more capital to afford that. This will probably take at least a year, so I would expect this to be put in place only towards the middle or end of 2005 - and voila, there's your 2-year contract duration.

Of course, this is all speculation, but it's "educated guessing".

Given the lack of international bandwidth here in SA, I for one would be HAPPY if Sentech can provide me with "only" modem speeds for under R1K/month. This is just the sad reality here in SA, we don't have the "fat pipes" that they have in (and between) Europe and US. But whether MyWireless will become regularly better than or worse than modem speeds once many users have piled on, only Sentech knows. I just hope it doesn't get as bad as a certain other unnamed SAn ISP (whose name starts with an "M"). Anyway, that's the risk early adopters take.

[Perdition]

Er Ditch there already is a serious new fiber link under the ocean, it's called SAT-3. It is currently operating at 20Gb/s and will scale up to 120Gb/s with demand... so the excuse of "not enough internationl bandwidth" doesn't cut it anymore.

[Ditch]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Perdition</i>
<br />Er Ditch there already is a serious new fiber link under the ocean, it's called SAT-3. It is currently operating at 20Gb/s and will scale up to 120Gb/s with demand... so the excuse of "not enough internationl bandwidth" doesn't cut it anymore.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

I know about SAT-3 but as far as I know it is not being used for consumer Internet traffic. SAT-3 is shared by nearly 20 countries, cost &gt; $600million, and is supposed to 'last' us 25 years. I suspect that most of that bandwidth is being reserved for the growth of *voice* telecommunications in Africa in general (a rapidly growing sector coming up from approx zilch), not consumer broadband for the elite. The former is far more important for the development of African economies. Using Telkom's portion of that 120 Gbps to provide consumer broadband to a few hundred thousand South Africans NOW would kill most of the "room for growth" that's needed to carry African telephone comms for the next couple of decades (Africa will see MILLIONS of telephone lines being installed in the next 10-20 years.)

Anyone know if Telkom has any plans to use it for Internet? I doubt it.

SAT-3 doesn't touch the US, btw, it links to Europe in Spain.

[Ditch]

Just for some perspective: 120 Gb/s isn't that much, if you've got even one decade of growth for a whole continent to think of. European consumer broadband can supply &gt; 200 KB/s. If you use the FULL SAT-3 to provide consumer broadband, it will be saturated before you hit 60,000 users. And whoops, that leaves no room on the line for telephone signals, so if you use half the line for ordinary voice comms, you're left with 30,000 possible users downloading at a time, on a continent that will have probably over 1 billion people in less than 20 years. SAT-3 can carry approx 5,000,000 telephone conversations.

[flashvc]

That's why satelite is still the best for broadband in Africa [:)]

--

[martin]

Not if you're a gamer though. Satellite = high latency.

[gripen]

Back to the issue of license revocation.. I know that they cant make you pay up BUT then why is it in the Terms and Conditions (Contract?) like all the other catch clauses..

Also, about the 30000-60000 users.. arent you forgetting about contention ratios? And the fact that if broadband is supplied then the initial uptake will generate capital that can contribute to purchasing more optical bandwidth.

With a contention of say 50:1 you can expand that 200KB/sec for 30000 users to almost 500000 users at 512Kb/sec. Now we dont even have 100000 users at that speed already so there should be no bandwidth problem at present.

I for one am happy to get a (slow) 128Kb always on connection to my home at reasonable cost (say R500 a month) so the myWireless option is sufficient for me and for most people. If you are going to stream DVDs then sure you will need megabroadband. Besides, apart from political influence this can be achieved thanks to breakthroughs by amongst others,Intel, that will revolutionise optical data transmission and reduce costs to a fraction of what they are today.

I would still like to know what is in the 24 month contract and for example, (in clear english) what happens if my 128k myWireless only gives speeds of 4KB/sec in month 15 or so.. then can I complain? I mean if nothing changed and I didnt move?

[Perdition]

Ditch, the SAT-3 is being used for consumer Internet traffic. All international ADSL traffic as well as Sentech's "up" pipe is on SAT-3. If this doesn't count as consumer traffic then I don't know what does [;)]

Adding to what greedyflyza has stated, contention ratios work on economies of scale i.e. the more bandwidth you have the higher you can push the contention ratio while still providing excellent speeds. It is VERY unlikely that if you have 60 000 users that all users will be downloading full speed 24/7. 120Gb/s could easily support millions of broadband users. By the time there are millions of broadband users in Africa there will more than likely be additional submarine cables.

Last point, it makes no difference that SAT-3 peers in Europe and not the US, traffic to the US is just routed via the UK. The UK has somewhere near 9 terabits of submarine bandwidth to the US and it is nowhere near being fully utilised. At worst this means there is a little extra latency on traffic to the US.

[Ditch]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by greedyflyza</i>
<br />
With a contention of say 50:1 you can expand that 200KB/sec for 30000 users to almost 500000 users at 512Kb/sec. Now we dont even have 100000 users at that speed already so there should be no bandwidth problem at present.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

That is just not good business sense. A 50:1 contention ratio on 200 KBps could stretch 30,000 users to maybe 1,500,000 users max. That is only 3.5% of South Africa's population, and less than 0.2% of Africa's population. Now while it is very unlikely that all 50 users will be downloading at once, it IS very likely that around 5 out of 50 users will be downloading at once (once things like P2P apps become popular here, more-over there is a BIG bandwidth demand from companies, who will again re-share connections internally between 10 and 100 people, meaning their portions will be mostly busy all day long; likewise houses, schools, flats, residences etc will share connections).

Speaking business: In terms of income per bytes-per-second provided to a user, ordinary voice telecomms (landlines) gives companies like Telkom a MUCH larger income than affordable consumer broadband. Assume the basic cost of landline rental to be R100/month, if Telkom could service (directly or indirectly) tens of millions of African households and businesses all over the continent, that would provide a monthly income in the range of several BILLIONS of rands in line rental alone - that doesn't even count the cost of calls! So that's &gt; R100/month for &lt; 6KB/s (negotiated) 'sometimes-on' connection. Now, affordable consumer broadband (less than R400/month according to international studies) for 1,500,000 well-off South Africans would provide a monthly income to Telkom of only R600,000,000, with no extra call costs, and I can guarantee the line will be totally saturated within 5 years. The broader African telecomms market is growing rapidly, and because Africa is currently so far behind (lowest average landlines per capita in the world by far), the current huge growth is mainly in the form of tens of millions of new landlines - probably 50 to 100 million new landlines in the next 20 years, and let's face it, that is MUCH better business than the SAn consumer broadband market, brings more income and won't saturate your pipe nearly as quickly (and it also happens to make more sense from a pure "African renaissance" perspective too - millions of landlines are far more important to Africa's growth than good pings to game servers for some rich kids). The co-owners of SAT-3 are going to make a LOT of money on licensing SAT-3 bandwidth to fixed-line voice telecomms providers all over Africa. They cannot generate nearly as much income from consumer broadband.

Let's be realistic, we'd all be doing the same thing if we owned Telkom, as much as you or I would like to see proper consumer broadband in SA, it doesn't make sense on SAT-3. And SAT-3 is shared by nearly 20 countries too, only one of which is Nigeria, which alone has a population nearly three times that of South Africa.

To just assume that "when the time comes, there will (magically) be a new undersea cable somewhere" is a bit silly, and certainly makes no business sense at all. If it were mine, I wouldn't go saturate my $620million 120 Gbps 25-year lifespan African connection within the first five years and then just "hope for the best" after that.

BTW, I don't think Sentech uses SAT-3 for tier-1 connection, as far as I know their backbone provider is Internet Solutions, which means satellite.

Africa *will* get more bandwidth, but the big companies will only invest it in "big-time" once the *demand* side reaches "critical mass" - in other words, they will only invest in it once Africa's economy grows larger / richer. And for this to happen, landlines must first come to places where they are scarce (i.e. most of Africa), they are still a more important basis for business development.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">
<br />
I for one am happy to get a (slow) 128Kb always on connection to my home at reasonable cost (say R500 a month) so the myWireless option is sufficient for me and for most people.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Yes, me too.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">
<br />
If you are going to stream DVDs then sure you will need megabroadband. Besides, apart from political influence this can be achieved thanks to breakthroughs by amongst others,Intel, that will revolutionise optical data transmission and reduce costs to a fraction of what they are today.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Sounds unlikely, could you provide some references? If you're talking about optical routers, the routing electronics limitations are not what limits SAT-3 to 120 Gbps.

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">
I would still like to know what is in the 24 month contract and for example, (in clear english) what happens if my 128k myWireless only gives speeds of 4KB/sec in month 15 or so.. then can I complain? I mean if nothing changed and I didnt move?
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

You could probably do nothing. I have the contract here with me, and it says: "9.3 Services are used at the customers own risk and Sentech makes no warranty and or guarantee that the Services will meet the customers requirements, be uninterrupted, complete, timely, secure or error free. Although advised that the customer is in a coverage area, there is no guarantee or warranty given against interference and or use of the goods." The "Service" is defined in terms that make no reference to bandwidth at all, just an indication that some two-way wireless communications with IP will take place.

Anyone else interpret the contract differently?

[Perdition]

Correct their backbone provider is Internet Solutions however this doesn't mean satellite. IS recently purchased 155mb/s of bandwidth on SAT-3. Sentech are definitely using it as international pings are in the region of 430ms which would be impossible if traffic went via satellite both ways.

[Ditch]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Perdition</i>
<br />Correct their backbone provider is Internet Solutions however this doesn't mean satellite. IS recently purchased 155mb/s of bandwidth on SAT-3. Sentech are definitely using it as international pings are in the region of 430ms which would be impossible if traffic went via satellite both ways.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
OK, I stand corrected. Yes, 430ms sounds a bit low for bi-directional satellite, yet sounds a bit high for bi-directional fiber traffic.

[AcidRaZor]

FYI, Sentech is not using their Satelite connections as of yet.

Note, Sentech has their own satelite infrastructure and won't use IS for that.

They're currently peering through IS only, I reckon when they start getting massive demand for bandwidth they'll switch over to their satelite connections.

Lets hope the gaming goes through the cable ;)

[gripen]

More questions...

What happens in the instance where I have looked on the web and my exact location says "Partial" signal strength and less than 50m away it says "Good" then when I order the modem and try set it up there is no signal (hypothetical). Assuming nothing can be done to get it working then will I get a 100% refund? Whats the procedure with this?

What is the average length of time between order and approval and between approval and delivery. ie. If I fill out the web application form, how long until I get online?

I have seen talk about PPPoE. Is this only with the Ethernet cable option? also, how does the OS (say XP) see the modem, is it like a normal dialup modem or is it like a router/LAN adapter (like ISDN)?

And thus, when people speaking of "getting disconnected" in the forum.. what does this mean? Does it automatically reconnect and thus can your downloads finish if you are downloading? Is it similar to a dialup modem connect/disconnect scenario? Or does it not affect normal use? (is this when IP addresses are reassigned)

What does it cost to "book" a static IP so that your PC always has the same public IP address?

Thanks again.

[Sliver]

I can try and answer these. As far as the connection in windows XP, the modem has it's own seperate dialer, it can be set to automaticaly reconnect if disconnected and it seems to work fairly well.

As to the problem with having no signal, i asked a help desk person at sentech the same question, apparantly if you bring it to their attention within 7 days of reciveing the modem (could be 14 days, not quite sure) they will send a techie out to your house to investigate. If the modem and the packiging is all there i understood that a full refund would be given. Don't take my word for this, rather phone the help desk and confirm this information before applying, i'd hate for to apply and try this and they tell you to get stuffed !

[gripen]

Thanks. Any idea about the other questions?

So, to XP does it look like a normal modem then? Which would probably mean that every time you disconnect/reconnect you get a new IP address...

BTW did you have any hassles when signing up?

[Ditch]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Sliver</i>
<br />
As to the problem with having no signal, i asked a help desk person at sentech the same question, apparantly if you bring it to their attention within 7 days of reciveing the modem (could be 14 days, not quite sure) they will send a techie out to your house to investigate. If the modem and the packiging is all there i understood that a full refund would be given. Don't take my word for this, rather phone the help desk and confirm this information before applying, i'd hate for to apply and try this and they tell you to get stuffed !
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

I just called the help desk to confirm, they said that if you cannot a signal within 14 days on your stand, then you're "more than welcome" to cancel the contract, but you will lose the R570 (R500 + R70 delivery) initial fee. They also said it takes "10 working days" after submitting the contract until you get the equipment. For the contract, you need to also submit copy of ID, proof of income, and proof of residence.

[gripen]

Thats not really fair. You lose R570. You paid the money and what did you get? I can understand the (exorbitant) R70 but the R500? What is that for anyway? to create a username and password? And then they can just delete it if you never manage to login anyway.

Does anyone have a copy of the infamous contract? Or do you sign and NDA.. wouldnt be surprised.. considering that they dont refund you fully if you dont get what they said you would..

Okay since they are a tad unreasonable, isnt it only fair then to expect them to send technician to check if I can indeed receive the service before expecting me to pay R570 for nothing?

[jacauc]

Greedyflyza: You mentioned that you live in hatfield PTA. I also live in hatfield (and i happen to have a "GOOD" signal).

Would you be interested in sharing a 256K line with a wireless hotspot (i.e. if we live close enough to each other)?

Let me know where you live, and i'll determine if this could be a viable option (i'm on the corner of Duncan and South)

[AcidRaZor]

you cheap bastards!

[jacauc]

What? ....it's perfectly legal, and greedyflyza mentioned that he might have problems getting Credit from Sentech, as he has a student salary. I'm willing to help the guy out and now i'm a cheap samaritan? geez!

[gripen]

Not a bad idea. I may be a tad too far. Burnett Street near Virgin Active.

I would like 128K at least so if we could somehow split it it may work.

Strangely I have thought of doing this with a friend nearby but how do you split 256 = 128 + 128 while keeping LAN speeds in the Mbps?

If I dont get credit etc then thats what I will do so I will keep you posted!

Thanks for the offer.

So your signal is good. Thats good news :[:D]

[jacauc]

Well, if you're interested let me know by sending me mail, and we can discuss the rest away from the forum (as we'll be exchanging some personal information that we don't want everybody on the forum to have access to)

In the meantime, i will see if i can find a way to set up such a big hotspot (with special antennas and the works).

Should we decide that this is a viable option, i will set up a linux server using squid proxy to do the bandwith throttling. The concept comes down to having 128Kb (out of the 256K) guaranteed, and the other 128K can be "burst" into when i'm not online. The hotspot will be a 11Mbps or maybe 54Mbps LAN, with your PC just connecting directly to the Linux Gateway Server.

drop me a mail and we can discuss the rest....

P.S. To other forum members: i will post a topic on this forum if we do this and it works.