Any Wondernet (used to be Seacom) clients on here?

8BitLife

8BitLife

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I'm looking to get fibre through Vumatel (as they are the only fibre provider in my area) and I have been doing some research as to which ISP I should use. My preferred option is actually Rocketnet as they have stellar reviews and their packages are well-priced. Except for the installation. On top of the R1725 that Vumatel charges for installation, Rocketnet charges another R1000 for activation. That would mean I will have to spend close to R3000 to get it up and running and that's a bit much for me.

So I kept on looking and I am now considering MacroLan which is owned by Seacom. Still have to pay the Vumatel fee but they don't charge an activation fee while still keeping the connection on a month-to-month basis. They also only charge R10/month more for the same uncapped 10/2 connection as Rocketnet.

The only issues are:

1. Rocketnet clearly states they do not have an FUP where MacroLan makes no mention of this. MacroLan does say it is unshaped, as does Rocketnet, and neither mentions anything about throttling.
2. Lots of reviews out there for Rocketnet, mostly good. Barely any reviews for MacroLan. Only about 4 reviews on HelloPeter, all negative, with the last one being in about July of last year. 12 reviews on Google reviews with 11 of them good and one bad.

So my question is, are there any MacroLan clients on here? Would you recommend them? Do they have an FUP? Have you ever been throttled?

Thanks in advance!
 
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You can pay that R1750 to Vumatel over 3 or 6 months, you can choose that option on the invoice they send you once you signed up.
But yes, that R1000 activation fee of theirs is crazy.... most others charge R500, and even free if it's 20/20 or 50/5

We do use Macrolan, but on a business package at one of our offices, still a wifi link till fibre is pulled in, no issues with that link except on days that the weather is crap, it's a 5Ghz link after all so will fall over with crap weather
 
My sister has a Macrolan account on Frogfoot. 20/20 but cannot not get past 15.5Mbps download - whereas the upload is 19.5 on international to London - Vodafone!!!!

Macrolan could not sort it out even tried Teamview but never bothered to do a site visit and they have a cheek to say "oh that's good speed".

Pulled the plug.

btw Kirstenhof area
 
MacroLan just got back to me. A few things:

1. They do not throttle.
2. They do not have an FUP
3. If you order through them directly, they will cover the Vumatel fee so starting costs will be R0.
 
avr-rulez said:
My sister has a Macrolan account on Frogfoot. 20/20 but cannot not get past 15.5Mbps download - whereas the upload is 19.5 on international to London - Vodafone!!!!

Macrolan could not sort it out even tried Teamview but never bothered to do a site visit and they have a cheek to say "oh that's good speed".

Pulled the plug.

btw Kirstenhof area
Click to expand...

Did your speeds improve with a new ISP?
 
8BitLife said:
MacroLan just got back to me. A few things:

1. They do not throttle.
2. They do not have an FUP
3. If you order through them directly, they will cover the Vumatel fee so starting costs will be R0.
Click to expand...

Did they tell you how much a month extra the "free install" cost on top of your bandwithd and what the "clawback" period is?
 
avr-rulez said:
Moving to a new house and still have to get setup with either Octotel or again Frogfoot.
Definately going with a different ISP - maybe Adept or AtomicAccess
Click to expand...

Ive just signed up with Adept on the octotel 200/25 package.
 
I've heard Atomic are good, though don't have experience my self with them.
 
Wasabee! said:
I've heard Atomic are good, though don't have experience my self with them.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the support! We are hoping to be on a Vumatel later this year, but no concrete time yet unfortunatey. We hope sooner rather than later.

We are also not in Gauteng yet - licenses....

Regarding shaping, throttling and caps, we don’t do any of those - the software isn’t installed on the network.
 
We have a 1Gbps dedicated link between our PROD and DR sites with Macrolan as well as two 100Mb business fibre lines. Uptime and performance has been perfect and support has been great whenever we've needed it.

Can't comment on FTTH though...
 
avr-rulez said:
Did they tell you how much a month extra the "free install" cost on top of your bandwithd and what the "clawback" period is?
Click to expand...

Spoke to them on the phone. No extra monthly costs will be added to recoup the free installation cost. No clawback period.
 
avr-rulez said:
Sweet
Could I please ask for a Single and Multi speedtest.net to London Vodafone?
Click to expand...
I am on VUMA Network with Wiru ISP on a 20/20 package.

I did a quick speedtest to London Vodofone UK via TeamViewer from my Home Media PC on 2.4GHz Wireless Home Network.
Results for Multi test:
1551350910791.png

And Result for Single Test:
1551351041214.png

And as a reference a local multi Test:
1551351282335.png

@avr-rulez Hope this helps

And @8BitLife Sorry for Hijacking your thread. To answer your question, MacroLAN is a month to month deal, you have nothing to loose, if they do not perform, vote with your wallet when the next deal from a competitor arrives.
 
I think the only issue with macrolan is that have only one transit provider, if you on their consumer retail package would you have access to their redundancy backup provider if their cable is down?
 

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dasdk said:
I think the only issue with macrolan is that have only one transit provider, if you on their consumer retail package would you have access to their redundancy backup provider if their cable is down?
Click to expand...
Well, spoke to them and they were adamant that there are no hidden fees if you choose to cancel your month-to-month subscription even if they gave you the free installation/activation deal. If the connection sucks, just move to another ISP. With your Vumatel connection already established, you would not have to worry about that R1725 installation fee when switching providers. Unless I have it wrong?
 
My experience with MacroLan(ML) so far in case anyone is interested:

Can't say I have many complaints regarding ML except for two things. Their signup process is a bit outdated. They don't have a signup form on their webpage like all other ISPs. You have to actually email ML and them you are interested. They will then email you a form which you need to fill in, print out, sign, scan, and mail back to them. Seems a bit unnecessary.

Secondly, they were good at getting back to me in the beginning. I sent enquiries to both Firestream and ML on the same day. ML came back to me within an hour whereas Firestream took a week. Once they had me signed up, though, it changed a bit. After I sent them the form, copy of my ID, and proof of residence, there was no confirmation that they received it or telling me what happens next. Sent an email the next day asking if they got my docs. That afternoon they got back to me saying they logged everything with Vumatel and once Vumatel confirmed an installation time with me, I need to get back to ML with the date and time to coordinate the router dropoff. That was Friday. Monday morning Vumatel called me to make an appointment (which I made for today, Friday, at 8:30AM.) Sent an email with details to ML, and again no confirmation that they received it. Sent another email on Wednesday morning (2 days later) asking for confirmation and an hour later someone calls me to confirm the date and asking whether I want the router dropped off at work or at home and when.

Otherwise no gripes with ML except for signup process and not always getting back to me.

My main gripe is actually with Vumatel. In the email they sent me on Monday morning confirming the installation time, they said their guys will also come round beforehand to do the splicing. Told the caretaker of the apartment building to keep an eye out for them and open the gate when they get here. Yet, once the guys installed the box in my apartment this morning, they told me Vumatel had still not been round to do the splicing. They promised me, though, that Vumatel will be round before 12. At 2 they were still not here and I called them to find out what's going on. They had the WHOLE WEEK to do it. They told me it would be escalated. Well, it's 6:15PM and it is still not done. Doubt they are going to do it over the weekend. Little annoyed with that.

But hopefully it will be up-and-running on Monday and I can give you some speed test results.
 
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