Feedback to Sentech on the 128 Mywireless service and speeds

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Robone

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I am going to list the status of the service as I see it.

1. Extremely fast downloads for the 1st 350-400KBs which is good for browsing and accessing web sites. Also good for confusing speed testing sites.
2. Download speeds then drop to about 4.2KB/sec thereafter which is less than the speed that I used to get with a dial up service. Locally this sometimes stays at about 14KB/sec. (Sentech should give us the 128 service that they contracted to do) I actually thought a few weeks ago that all the speeds had improved. Wrong. Fooled again
3. Good connection if you have an external antenna. i.e. no disconnections. If you don't have an external antenna and your signal strength is less than 12% then you stand a good chance of being disconnected quite often. (I personally do not have a problem with this as I have a dish antenna)
4. No hard cap on downloads. If you download permanently you should be able to reach 10GB which is there soft cap. (When I contracted for the service there were no limits on downloads)
5. High latency which is not suitable for playing games or trading. ( I expect better)
6. Packet loss below 4% on average

In summary, we have a good web browsing service.

The survey just completed by myadsl.co.za on speeds will give excellent results, but will show a distorted picture, which is assisting Sentech in promoting their service. I participated in this survey unfortunately.

All I can say to Sentech and everyone who reads this thread is that unless they improve their service, I will be ditching them at the 1st opportuniy I get.

What do I want.

Speeds as advertised, and not only for the 1st 400KB.
Lower latency

Actually I know I am wasting my time, because no Sentech staff or management read this, but I hope some of the potential clients do.
 
Spot on Robone
My Experience with MyWi in the Last few months have been the same as yours, but my intl speed limit is 8KB/s because I'm on the "256K" package.

I've cancelled my contract, Sentech's broken it. Now the question is whether their accounts department is competent enough to stop the debit order in synch with my service disconnection....
 
True to the stereotype of the South African Company, Sentech has no interest in business preservation, all they want to do is make a quick buck. There is no interest in having a service which clients rave about, or are more than happy in recommending the service to others. Just imagine if they has a 20Twenty type scenario, when the company almost went into liquidation, people will still supporting them, and them raving about the service. Everyone knows that Sentech are not aligned with their own contract, but instead hide behind all the clauses and "plays on words" which are in the contract. Makes you wonder when a company does not believe in theor own product.
 
The only way to really fight back at Sentech is to tell everyone you know that is interested, knows someone that is interested, or has any power over for example an IT department just how terrible their service is. I have probably cost sentech around 1000+ customers lost already simply by telling the truth about their service/demonstrating it - that's a loss of R 659 000 per month at least on my behalf.

It's such a pity they are so pathetic. 20twenty-style companies in the IT sector are definately needed!
 
i have already emailed winston smith and friends with similiar issues. Fact is they dont care until you threaten them legally or you start making a huge public commotion of some kind. The best would be to spray SENTECH SUCKS on his motor vehicle but preferably on his forehead.

The only solution Sentech have not tried to resolve their bandwidth issues is to fire Winston Smith because I think he has proven time and time again he is a clueless bumbling fool.
 
Vowthorn, Robone, Donovan...

The scary thing is that it looks like you are among the last of the users who are actually complaining. You must have a lot more patience than almost all others that were posting here about Sentech 3 months ago. Once your patience has reached an end and you too cancel ('cos in my opinion that is just a matter of time), Sentech will sit back and claim that the service is perfect as there is nobody complaining.

In October there were about 20 to 40 posts a day in this forum. Now the average is 3 or 4 a day, 'cos most of the users have just given up on MyWi.

-A
 
I was actually hoping that once you guys had gone, the service would improve :)

No seriously, I thought that with the competition, things would improve. Believe it or not, I still have hope, not much, but some. After forking out R1500 - R2000 for an antenna, I was prepared to give them some more time.

Maybe you are right...who knows.
 
Arf, ever scarier is when an organisation like ASASA takes months to rule on a serious complaint of false advertising by Sentech (not sure what the final verdict was or if there even has been a verdict), yet they take but a few weeks on a misleading advertising complaint against Telkom (and ruled against Telkom !) Why should Sentech bother to change or improve anything ? Unfortunately, they're my only 24/7 option currently, but then I'm only on a 12 month contract which ends in May :) Let's see what 2005 can offer us...
 
Well, let me be honest. I’ve listen to some of your complaints and I’ve also listen to some counter arguments against your complaints. I’ve decided to apply for Mywireless 128 a few days ago after comparing the cost of this service (and what I thought you are actually getting) with the cost of my old dial-up connection. At that stage I thought it would be worth it.

Unfortunately I now have to report that I am very disappointed with what I am getting in return for what I am spending on this. My dl speeds are now ± a third of what it used to be and surely this is not what they currently are advertising. Below are some test results from the web pages which they have requested from me

• http://www.sentech.co.za/speedtest/display_speed.php = download speed is: 3.35 MBps
• http://www.beelinebandwidthtest.com = 2K/s
• http://www.bandwidthplace.com = 18.5 kilobits per second

I am currently however optimistic in that the poor dl speeds will be resolve in the near future. If not, well you will have my vote…….

If any of you however know of any other tweaks (or settings that needs adjusting), I would really appreciate it. Any info which you can provide which will assist me, would also be highly appreciated, please

Other info if required

Physical Address = Bluff, Durban
Base Station Number = 12
Signal Strength Percentage = 13%
Frequency = 253 000 khz
RSCP = -94dBM
ISCP = -98dBM
Email = [email protected]

Hopefully all our problems (& dl speeds) would be resolve in the near future


Yours truly,

Chico
 
Chico said:
• http://www.sentech.co.za/speedtest/display_speed.php = download speed is: 3.35 MBps
Click to expand...
If only!!! :) This HUGE (3.35 MegaBytes per second) speed indicated is probably due to a cached page in your browser. If you clear your cache, the Sentech speed test should give you the maximum speed that you can expect locally. ...i.e about 14kBps (kiloBytes per second)
 
Last edited:
Chico said:
I am currently however optimistic in that the poor dl speeds will be resolve in the near future. If not...
Click to expand...

Soon your spirit will also be crushed like many before. If you check the archives of this forum you will find many similar statements from members who are no longer subscribers. In fact I think only one of the moderators of this forum still has MyWi (Greedy are you still out there?).

Chico said:
If any of you however know of any other tweaks (or settings that needs adjusting), I would really appreciate it. Any info which you can provide which will assist me, would also be highly appreciated, please
Click to expand...

Best adjustment is the physical placement of modem in cardboard recepticle, connection to Sentech call centre using voice protocol over a standard PSTN device, and a negotiated high speed termination of service. ;)
 
Arf999, you were correct on that one. I’ve clear all my temp files and run the test again with the following results

Your download speed is: 9.61 KBps, or 76.86 Kbps The test took 217.75 seconds to complete

I’ve wondered why there was such a huge difference between Sentech’s testing page & the other two.
 
Seriously though, under 10kBps LOCALLY to a Sentech server is pretty sh1te even for Sentech. Call the call centre and log a ticket (this is your only weapon against Sentech should you wish to cancel at a later date), update it daily if speeds do not improve. (And from personal experience, I don't expect them to)
 
arf9999 said:
Vowthorn, Robone, Donovan...

The scary thing is that it looks like you are among the last of the users who are actually complaining. You must have a lot more patience than almost all others that were posting here about Sentech 3 months ago. Once your patience has reached an end and you too cancel ('cos in my opinion that is just a matter of time), Sentech will sit back and claim that the service is perfect as there is nobody complaining.

In October there were about 20 to 40 posts a day in this forum. Now the average is 3 or 4 a day, 'cos most of the users have just given up on MyWi.

-A
Click to expand...

But it was also at that time that Sentech hate was boiling over with memebers getting an email from someone here and then we had the infamous CUG... I am with Donavan on this... there is always hope and if I am the last one complaining then so be it... but the nice thing is as long as Myadsl exists and new users come on board like Chico they will realise they are not alone and besides... reading the feedback posts on RPM's request it seems everyone is unhappy with the weird capping thats happening now...

Soon I am sure Sentech will start getting a renewed wave of anger.

I think this forum is the best weapon against Sentech cuz they read it and so do many others and word of mouth travels.

I still get people who come to my house who see my modem and ask:What is that? And I say Sentech... and then they like ahhh and have they improved? So the message is out there.
 
Guys, just cancel.

There's nothing that will make Sentech improve, quite simply because they are completely incompetent and always have been.

I really don't believe anymore that this company is making huge profit, I don't see how they could be with so many users leaving them.

The technology has proven to be at best, only 80% reliable, the "broadband" idea has been dropped in favour of aggressive capping and the market they are aiming at is not your IT guy, your internet enthusiast or your online gamer.

Like iBurst, they are aiming for Joe Soap with his email and solitaire.
 
I have just decided to cancel

I have just contacted and they told me that I must send a fax to 011 215 7373.

Is that all. Or is there something else I have to do.
 
But if you do cancel now, don’t you have to fork up 75% of your original contract until your contracting period expired. Furthermore, what happens in the case where you didn’t purchase the modem in advance, thus the price of your modem is part of your monthly instalments?

Just a question, where else can you get 24/7 connection in this country with no other additional (hidden) cost at R650, 00 per month?

In any case I’ve logged a ticket due to the lack of speed as advised by arf9999.
 
Local dl currently @ 3.7 Kb/sec via Mass downloader & International dl 0.51KB/sec via Mirc. With the only other prog open, this specific browser…
 
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