BitCo Consumer Review

kianm said:
Interesting view and makes a lot of sense. I for one am a business customer of Bitco and since we signed up i really have not had to contact their support desk because the connection just works well for our office needs (except when we get throttled when downloading windows updates). So i do understand when you say the home users are more likely to make noise as compared to their corporate clients. However ditching the home indeed means their data pipes are underutilised after hours which is money lost for them. I'm sure if Bitco had the patience they would have made things work, just the same way ADSL ISPs make things work
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Even more interesting is the fact that Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 had no copy protection, enabling business users to load the OS at home (and take work home), or was it perhaps the home user who demanded the same ease of use that they experienced at home in the corporate workplace?
I worked for a financial institution playing in the consumer space in the late 80s and through the 90s, and the amount of illegal copies of Windows 95 in the organisation was embarrassing to say the least. When the BSA launched an audit at their flagship head office, they had to pay millions in licensing fees to avoid prosecution (and ditch their Solaris and OS/2 licenses in favour of a technically inferior product).
Originally, the lack of copy protection was seen as an oversight on Microsoft's behalf, in retrospect it was probably a very strategic and astute decision. There are many morals in the story, but for me, the one that stands out was that many of the best IT software companies at the time overlooked the power of the home user.
Software companies and ISPs may be vastly different businesses, but the financial director or IT manager of an organisation would probably think twice before cancelling an ISP who gives him a rock-solid (perhaps even discounted) home connection. Sure, it may be poor corporate governance, but that does not say that it does not happen.

ISPs who ignore the home user market do so at their own peril.
 
infscrtyrisk said:
Even more interesting is the fact that Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 had no copy protection, enabling business users to load the OS at home (and take work home), or was it perhaps the home user who demanded the same ease of use that they experienced at home in the corporate workplace?
I worked for a financial institution playing in the consumer space in the late 80s and through the 90s, and the amount of illegal copies of Windows 95 in the organisation was embarrassing to say the least. When the BSA launched an audit at their flagship head office, they had to pay millions in licensing fees to avoid prosecution (and ditch their Solaris and OS/2 licenses in favour of a technically inferior product).
Originally, the lack of copy protection was seen as an oversight on Microsoft's behalf, in retrospect it was probably a very strategic and astute decision. There are many morals in the story, but for me, the one that stands out was that many of the best IT software companies at the time overlooked the power of the home user.
Software companies and ISPs may be vastly different businesses, but the financial director or IT manager of an organisation would probably think twice before cancelling an ISP who gives him a rock-solid (perhaps even discounted) home connection. Sure, it may be poor corporate governance, but that does not say that it does not happen.

ISPs who ignore the home user market do so at their own peril.
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You guys should remember that Bitco has been for a number of years a Business ISP only. And they have been very successful. As of late they branched out to the Home users in order to grow their footprint. I think they never excepted such a huge uptake as there is a dire need for good quality internet in homes. They got flooded by orders. Their lead times changed from 4 weeks to 6 weeks indicating the demand they had. I suppose it reached a point where they had to decide to either keep on expanding at a rate they can't keep up with or halt the huge home based uptake and re-group first.

I'm sure the home offerings will be back but only once they have increased their network capacity. Just an educated guess.
 
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@Pitbull: I am too lazy to go back and read... Please enlighten me...

Has BitCo stopped selling to home users? Whats the all the fuss about ??
 
moosag said:
@Pitbull: I am too lazy to go back and read... Please enlighten me...

Has BitCo stopped selling to home users? Whats the all the fuss about ??
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Yep they stopped selling to home users. They will continue supporting the current home users though.
 
moosag said:
@Pitbull: I am too lazy to go back and read... Please enlighten me...

Has BitCo stopped selling to home users? Whats the all the fuss about ??
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Yea, they have stopped taking more orders for Home installations till further notice.
 
And I think it's a good idea. They were growing at too fast a rate. Just look at what happened to Afrihost. Huge respect to BitCo for doing this.
 
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Solitude said:
And I think it's a good idea. They were groing at too fast a rate. Just look at what happened to Afrihost. Huge respect to BitCo for doing this.
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Agree, I still get full speed no matter what time of day I test. Rather this than have backhaul bandwidth issues.
 
Thanks for the update chaps. Phew! I'll give BitCo kudo's for not being too greedy at the expense of new customers and degrading the network...

Will be interesting to see how the future pans out. I am very happy with my service. Please don't take it away :)
Also if you can provide FTTH services that would be gr8 ;)
 
Neo_X said:
Congrats bitco for winning the Fastest Broadband speeds:

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/broadband/141952-fastest-broadband-speeds-in-south-africa.html

can i have some of that for a few days please? :D
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Bitco's the only one there with actual fibre?

Never get anything else but 10mbps with speedtest when unshaped.

4763792530.png
 
Viashen said:
They should be a disclaimer to say that's only for one hour, after that you will only get half that speed LMAO
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Hi Viashen,

The FUP on our business products are very different to our home packages so a 1 hour FUP is not applicable & all services are fully symmetrical.

We have a special on our business Fibre for the month of October and we are offering 100Mbps Uncapped 1:1 for R8,999 or 200Mbps Uncapped 1:1 for R17,999 (Excluding VAT)

Mike
 
BitCo said:
Hi Viashen,

The FUP on our business products are very different to our home packages so a 1 hour FUP is not applicable & all services are fully symmetrical.

We have a special on our business Fibre for the month of October and we are offering 100Mbps Uncapped 1:1 for R8,999 or 200Mbps Uncapped 1:1 for R17,999 (Excluding VAT)

Mike
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If only I could afford R 9k a month for internet /drool
 
BitCo said:
Hi Viashen,

The FUP on our business products are very different to our home packages so a 1 hour FUP is not applicable & all services are fully symmetrical.

We have a special on our business Fibre for the month of October and we are offering 100Mbps Uncapped 1:1 for R8,999 or 200Mbps Uncapped 1:1 for R17,999 (Excluding VAT)

Mike
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Thanks Mike

Unfortunately i am not a Bitco customer anymore, wish you guys all the best :-)

Just because it did not suit me doesn't mean that some guys don't find it acceptable with the FUP etc

To me i couldn't handle the FUP and the whole less than half line speed thing but ya thats in the past now

Here is what i'm able to achieve now so i'm pretty happy :-)

Speed.jpg
 
Viashen said:
Thanks Mike

Unfortunately i am not a Bitco customer anymore, wish you guys all the best :-)

Just because it did not suit me doesn't mean that some guys don't find it acceptable with the FUP etc

To me i couldn't handle the FUP and the whole less than half line speed thing but ya thats in the past now

Here is what i'm able to achieve now so i'm pretty happy :-)

View attachment 309136
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Hi Viashen,

Cool & Enjoy!

I wont post mine cos it will be cheating :)

Mike
 
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