Best Internet Satellite Provider for SA ?

MidnightWizard

MidnightWizard

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Seeing as there is no top heading for Satellite Internet on MyBB
and
Following on from the latest multiple Undersea cable breaks and resulting slow / unusable Internet in SA

Does anyone have first hand experience of / with any of the Satellite Internet providers offering services in SA ?
Which company is offering the best plus most affordable service ?

Best meaning
Good KNOWLEDGEABLE and efficient service from initial request through to installation.
Long term optimum and trouble free operation of equipment as well as service.
Efficient and on time backup and problem solving.

Affordable meaning
Inline with Global market and industry norms
No extra agent / third party and hidden costs

Really appreciate advice and feedback from anyone using this technology or working in this area
 
MidnightWizard said:
Seeing as there is no top heading for Satellite Internet on MyBB
and
Following on from the latest multiple Undersea cable breaks and resulting slow / unusable Internet in SA

Does anyone have first hand experience of / with any of the Satellite Internet providers offering services in SA ?
Which company is offering the best plus most affordable service ?

Best meaning
Good KNOWLEDGEABLE and efficient service from initial request through to installation.
Long term optimum and trouble free operation of equipment as well as service.
Efficient and on time backup and problem solving.

Affordable meaning
Inline with Global market and industry norms
No extra agent / third party and hidden costs

Really appreciate advice and feedback from anyone using this technology or working in this area
Click to expand...
Sattelite is last last resort, bandwidth is very limited normally contended as well, unless you have very deep pockets. Latency introduces other issues with real-time services. So if you are on a 20000 hectare farm in the middle of nothing then you might get your email downloaded via sat. Sorry cannot recommend someone as they all sucked when I used it.
 
MidnightWizard said:
Following on from the latest multiple Undersea cable breaks and resulting slow / unusable Internet in SA
Click to expand...

There are much easier, faster & cheaper ways of getting around that problem than using satellite. Use a vpn.

Satellite sucks donkey balls anyways...
 
ponder said:
There are much easier, faster & cheaper ways of getting around that problem than using satellite. Use a vpn.

Satellite sucks donkey balls anyways...
Click to expand...
Only because just about every service provider in SA screwed up. The negative image that was created as a result is the single biggest hurdle.
 
ponder said:
There are much easier, faster & cheaper ways of getting around that problem than using satellite. Use a vpn.

Satellite sucks donkey balls anyways...
Click to expand...
VPN ALSO suffers when undersea cables break -- not so ?
 
Geoff.D said:
Only because just about every service provider in SA screwed up. The negative image that was created as a result is the single biggest hurdle.
Click to expand...
Talking about the current cable breaks ?
or
The Satellite Internet industry in SA ?
 
MidnightWizard said:
Talking about the current cable breaks ?
or
The Satellite Internet industry in SA ?
Click to expand...
The satellite internet industry.
Cable breaks are very difficult to combat and prevention is virtually impossible. Totally divers routing is the only way.
 
MidnightWizard said:
VPN ALSO suffers when undersea cables break -- not so ?
Click to expand...

There are multipe routes, not all are affected by the cable break. I'm with telkom and currently international is unusable but with using a vpn it's pretty much back to normal.
 
Geoff.D said:
Cable breaks are very difficult to combat and prevention is virtually impossible. Totally divers routing is the only way.
Click to expand...

Which is where a vpn can comes in handy.
 
Last edited:
Sattelite connectivity has improved a lot. You won't be able to do gaming and that is basically it. Close to all Sattelite internet providers are specialists in certain areas.

Yahclick serves general demand. Most consumer resellers here in SA is partnered with Yahclick. Then there is Avanti, V-SAT, Vox products, amongst others, but these mentioned are those who will serve your needs here within our borders.
 
Quick Internet search turned up a few that looked promising
Technology has moved on a lot in the last year ot two

VOX - Yahclick

and

Sandstream Telecoms

Both look like they use modern equipment and Satellite links ( Teleport outside SA )
Sandstream puts their prices on the website
 
Fulcrum29 said:
Sattelite connectivity has improved a lot. You won't be able to do gaming and that is basically it. Close to all Sattelite internet providers are specialists in certain areas.

Yahclick serves general demand. Most consumer resellers here in SA is partnered with Yahclick. Then there is Avanti, V-SAT, Vox products, amongst others, but these mentioned are those who will serve your needs here within our borders.
Click to expand...
OK
Thanks
Who would you recommend for an Agricultural operation in the Central Karoo ...
Copper is dead / Mobile Tower is dead ( after load shedding ) / Fibre has not yet arrived ( perhaps never will )
 
MidnightWizard said:
OK
Thanks
Who would you recommend for an Agricultural operation in the Central Karoo ...
Copper is dead / Mobile Tower is dead ( after load shedding ) / Fibre has not yet arrived ( perhaps never will )
Click to expand...

In my opinion, contact Yahclick directly and ask them to be put in touch with a service partner most optimal to your location which will either be BCS or Vox pending on who they put you in touch with. They need to do an assessment of your needs, location, etc.

Otherwise, get in touch with Vox directly to hear their recommendations as they also have their Avanti product available.

For voice, there is no issue with satellite services. Expect pricing to come down sometime.

Also, make it clear as an interim solution until a better alternative service is made available at your location in question.
 
Fulcrum29 said:
In my opinion, contact Yahclick directly and ask them to be put in touch with a service partner most optimal to your location which will either be BCS or Vox pending on who they put you in touch with. They need to do an assessment of your needs, location, etc.

Otherwise, get in touch with Vox directly to hear their recommendations as they also have their Avanti product available.

For voice, there is no issue with satellite services. Expect pricing to come down sometime.

Also, make it clear as an interim solution until a better alternative service is made available at your location in question.
Click to expand...
Great advice -- thanks
 
Had a mail from a Sandstream Satellite tech: they have a service called Jola Home Connect Flat which is 15 Mbps uncapped (but in reality it is in fact a 100GB package. From 100-120 GB the speed drops to 3/1 Mbps and then at cap to 128/128 Kbps.) Costs: R3939, which is pretty high considering that watching some moviews will get you past the 100 GB mark easy.

According to my present Internet provider, the 2 Internet sea cables should be fixed at the end of Februari.
 
Satellite in SA in general: (received from Sandstream Tech)

There are two options over SA.
H2 or H4 satellite.
- H2 satellite uses the Hughes hardware and lands in the UK, the H4 satellite uses the Newtec system and lands in Nairobi.
- The H4 is a newer satellite and can offer higher speeds, but is positioned far West over the Atlantic, so has a low elevation angle over SA. Some clients will find their view of the satellite blocked by buildings or tress.

With regards to speed and data, H2 has one proper uncapped service (R10 272 per month) H4 has only capped packages. They are all shared hub services, with a max speed, and due to network congestion they can drop to 50% of max. (2:1 contention)

I have running a system on H2 15/2 Mbps for a year, and the average actual speeds are 8.5-14 Mbps download and 1.3-1.8 Mbps upload.

There is the option of standard Ku-Band landing in SA, Slower speeds but, uncapped/unlimited with CIR-constant minimum guaranteed speed based on the contention ratio. Direct fiber connection to Terraco.
 
FVDL said:
Had a mail from a Sandstream Satellite tech: they have a service called Jola Home Connect Flat which is 15 Mbps uncapped (but in reality it is in fact a 100GB package. From 100-120 GB the speed drops to 3/1 Mbps and then at cap to 128/128 Kbps.) Costs: R3939, which is pretty high considering that watching some moviews will get you past the 100 GB mark easy.

According to my present Internet provider, the 2 Internet sea cables should be fixed at the end of Februari.
Click to expand...

VSAT technologies are NOT optimal for data streaming and latency-sensitive applications unless you are prepared to pay dearly. That is why there are satellite broadcasting services -----
 
Geoff.D said:
VSAT technologies are NOT optimal for data streaming and latency-sensitive applications unless you are prepared to pay dearly. That is why there are satellite broadcasting services -----
Click to expand...

I know. But I work in IT for an overseas customer and my internet speed regularly drops to 0.13 Mbps, making VPN login impossible due to time-outs. I don't want to risk my contract, so I have been looking at solutions that do not depend on dodgy cables. Admittedly its expensive yes, so that's holding me back and the fact that my provider hooked me up with the SEACOM line this morning, which still seems to be doing Ok, although probably everyone will flock to it now.
 
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