Anyone moved from Iburst to 3G

S

SwaziSeedless

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I have unfortunately got to the point where Iburst is no longer a useful business tool but has become a bit of a liabilty due to degraded service in the Centurion area.

I need to find an alternative as Iburst don't seem to be doing anything proactive to remedy the situation and quite frankly, I am not prepared to stick it out with them and throw money away on a service which has become sub standard.

My question therefore is, has anyone moved from Iburst to 3G and if they have, was it a better move?
I am seriously considering going the 3g route so any input will be appreciated.
 
Hi SS

I suggest you rent a Vodacom unit before purchasing, to verify the accesses in you’re area. I am in Cape Town’s CBD and have found several “dead spots” which is not the ideal.

However, the service is more consistent than iBurst, then again any internet access service in SA’s is more consistent than iBurst at present!

You could also expect to find much higher access speeds. I have not used Vodacom on a network setup, but for single use it seems to be a huge improvement.

Also be aware of the cost implications when moving to Vodacom! The best solution is still Telkom or if you are considering multiple users on a network use Internet Solutions as your ISP.

Regards

Michael
 
Thanks for the feedback Michael.

I would most definitely have preferred to go the Telkom route but I am unfortunately based in a Distribution Warehouse on a customers premises so they will not allow me to install any Telkom lines at all due to a rather restrictive I.T policy.

Iburst was a good way to circumvent this but they are effectively belly up as far as service goes so that leaves 3G as the only other option.

I mainly use the line for webmail from the company server and remote desktop for server maintenance and then obviously general browsing and downloading.

Was kinda keen to wait and see if Neotel would be offering a wireless solution where I am in the near future but as far as I can tell, they have not even started their trial yet and I dont have the patience to wait and see.
 
Yes, I agree that you first need to test 3G reception in your area, but also need to test with Vodacom & MTN.

I used MTN 3G, but only got 3 bars signal at home (Irene) and 1 bar at work (Rietvalleirand).

When I switched to Vodacom 3G, I get 5 bars (full signal) at home and 4 bars at work.

Best speed I've tested at home, was 1.6Mbps, but it's much faster than iBurst - I tested when downloading videos from YouTube, Apple & virus updates from AVG.

I wanted to sell my iBurst modem already, but iBurst is forcing me to stay on till end of June - one calendar month to them means that if I cancelled my iBurst account on 12 May, I must stay on till end of June.
 
That admission about Centurion explains a lot.
But it seems nothing is being done.

This bunch is hopeless, clueless, whatever.

What is the point of telling your customers how busy the Centurion site is - we know that already - just do something about it.:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:
 
Alternative options...

Your other options might be MWEB's WiFi Access, starting trails soon, search the forum for more info...

Also, another alternative service that is busy running trails up north is Goal.
 
Goal has been taking their time, that's only in certain suburbs of Pretoria, would that include Centrurion? I'm not very clued up about Centurions relation to JHB/PTA.

The WiMax might be a good option, we should be able to see how well it performs from the trials soon enough. Telkom is also their own WiMax service, which will probably be cheaper than MWebs offering, MWeb love charging inflated prices.
 
Ekhaatvensters said:
Goal has been taking their time, that's only in certain suburbs of Pretoria, would that include Centrurion? I'm not very clued up about Centurions relation to JHB/PTA.

The WiMax might be a good option, we should be able to see how well it performs from the trials soon enough. Telkom is also their own WiMax service, which will probably be cheaper than MWebs offering, MWeb love charging inflated prices.
Click to expand...

Centurion is half-way between Pretoria & Midrand/Johannesburg. It used to be called Verwoerdburgstad, but the name was changed in the 90s.

Lot of people from Pretoria move to Centurion, because it's a bit closer to Johannesburg & people from Johannesburg move here, cos the crime is a bit less & in some areas, like Irene, you've still got a dairy farm, etc.

It used to fall under Pretoria, but now it has become a city in it's own right.

Very cool place to live. :)
 
Thanks, ends up I did know most of that, just wondering how close it is to Pretoria wrt the Goal trials.

I guess it won't be in the trial period then, but they should expand there quickly after the launch. Not an option yet though..

O/T: It sounds cool, and a nice name change, where was the ANC in all that? Good to just have something neutral instead of one politically motivated name to the other.
 
Ekhaatvensters said:
Thanks, ends up I did know most of that, just wondering how close it is to Pretoria wrt the Goal trials.

I guess it won't be in the trial period then, but they should expand there quickly after the launch. Not an option yet though..

O/T: It sounds cool, and a nice name change, where was the ANC in all that? Good to just have something neutral instead of one politically motivated name to the other.
Click to expand...

There is still a Hendrik Verwoerd Drive in Centurion.
 
Thanks for the feedback again guys.

I have been struggling to connect for the last hour because the Centurion base station is so overloaded that I keep connecting to the Erasmus Park tower which is miles away from me.

This is really getting out of hand and at the rate these guys are advertising and signing on new clients, its only a matter of time before even their least busy base stations go the same way.

I am going to try and get a Vodacom 3G card from a mate to test for the day and if it works, it's bye bye Ibust - or buy buy 3G for that matter :)
 
In 3 Hours

That is as long as it took to go from iBurst's mediocre speed to stellar 3G speeds.
Be aware the 3Gmodem will always try and find the optimum connection speed ,depending on your mobility this can be from just connected to lightning fast.
Keep moving.
 
Icancelled Iburst around 2 months ago and got Vodacom 3G.

I have'nt tried gaming with the 3G but for browsing and downloading it's way better than waht Iburst was in the past 6 months. This is the Garsfontein area.

I used to work in Centurion (around Jean ave / N1) and I did have a bit of a reception problem, but I think it was the building I was in more than the coverage.

Downside ... I burnt my cap and had to bolt on addition data to avoid the high out of bundle tariffs.

So in my 2c worth of opinion, it is definately better.

J.
 
SwaziSeedless said:
Thanks for the feedback again guys.

I have been struggling to connect for the last hour because the Centurion base station is so overloaded that I keep connecting to the Erasmus Park tower which is miles away from me.

This is really getting out of hand and at the rate these guys are advertising and signing on new clients, its only a matter of time before even their least busy base stations go the same way.

I am going to try and get a Vodacom 3G card from a mate to test for the day and if it works, it's bye bye Ibust - or buy buy 3G for that matter :)
Click to expand...

Well with 3G running on the cell phone systems it would be the better option. More coverage ?. Go to vodacom.co.za under services go to coverage map and see if you are covered. Due to the higher speeds you do more browsing more downloads etc etc be very careful of your out of bundel costs you can go over and it cost you lots.Look at goggaconnect there out of bundle costs are very low compaired to Vodacom etc.
 
Does Gogga do HSDPA? I know the prices are meant to be the same now, but their site use to only advertise it as plain 3G, i.e. <384kb
 
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