BitCo vs Wan4U vs Bronberg WISP

J

jdl_groovy

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Hi all,

I am building a new house in Pretoria East (Equestria) and apparently there are no more telkom lines available... So no more uncapped ADSL for me ! Which is probably a good thing re oversubscription and copper theft.

I've narrowed down the wireless providers I have coverage for to these 3 :

- BitCo
- Wan4U
- Bronberg WISP

If anyone has any comments/experience with them that you would like to share ? (bad or good). NeoBroadband would've been my first choice, for price / data ratio, however there is no coverage.

Bitco is probably a non-starter though. I have an EXTREMELY strict HOA who went into fits of apoplexy when I mentioned I'd like to put another dish up. After a long call with a sales person, it appears that BitCo will only send out a technician to check LOS once you've already signed up for a contract. This means I cannot apply for permission to put the dish up BEFORE I sign a contract with them, as I do not know which wall/how high the dish must go. In the event that they do reject my application I would have to buy myself out of the contract for mega $$$$$ with nothing to show for it...

At least the Wan4U guy came out to do a quick LOS check for free.

Thanks a lot,
J
 
Wowfi did a free LOS for me as well. No coverage unfortunately. And they do have uncapped packages at reasonable prices
 
jdl_groovy said:
Hi all,

I am building a new house in Pretoria East (Equestria) and apparently there are no more telkom lines available... So no more uncapped ADSL for me ! Which is probably a good thing re oversubscription and copper theft.

I've narrowed down the wireless providers I have coverage for to these 3 :

- BitCo
- Wan4U
- Bronberg WISP

If anyone has any comments/experience with them that you would like to share ? (bad or good). NeoBroadband would've been my first choice, for price / data ratio, however there is no coverage.

Bitco is probably a non-starter though. I have an EXTREMELY strict HOA who went into fits of apoplexy when I mentioned I'd like to put another dish up. After a long call with a sales person, it appears that BitCo will only send out a technician to check LOS once you've already signed up for a contract. This means I cannot apply for permission to put the dish up BEFORE I sign a contract with them, as I do not know which wall/how high the dish must go. In the event that they do reject my application I would have to buy myself out of the contract for mega $$$$$ with nothing to show for it...

At least the Wan4U guy came out to do a quick LOS check for free.

Thanks a lot,
J
Click to expand...

That should sum it up nicely.

They desperate for business. In any event it's your choice but nothing beats Bitco. Sorry.
 
After a long call with a sales person, it appears that BitCo will only send out a technician to check LOS once you've already signed up for a contract.
Click to expand...

Surely can't be, plus the CPA is very much on the ball here when companies can charge, quotes are exempt and so will an LOS inspection. It is likely a Feasibility Assess Form prior an LOS inspection.
 
Fulcrum29 said:
Surely can't be, plus the CPA is very much on the ball here when companies can charge, quotes are exempt and so will an LOS inspection. It is likely a Feasibility Assess Form prior an LOS inspection.
Click to expand...

More like: You accept the subscription subject to LOS.
If LOS is confirmed they install same time. If not then the agreement is void.

Not a quote per sè, it's a contract subject to LOS confirmation.
 
BitCo is out. If I take a guesstimate of the general direction their tower as per the coverage map (they wont tell me where it is either. sigh.) I would need a telephone pole on top of my roof to have LOS past all the neighboring trees... and that would not fly with the HOA at all. Bronberg also has some obstructions and are a tad expensive for my needs.

So Wan4u it is then... I'll try to document the installation and experience for anyone else who is interested and post here. Will probably only be near the end of June.

J.
 
Update :

My internet with Wan4u has been in for 3 weeks now and I'm very happy. They only guarantee 1Mbps but with the "bursting" I've had pretty much 3Mbps 99% of the time during waking hours.

This done just now : http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/4450330975

Ping is good, kids have played online with no issues (Dota, LFD2, Minecraft etc). For work purposes Cisco VPN,Skype,Teamviewer,SSH etc all fine, upload:download ratio is nearly 1:1 so cant complain there either. I've taken the Night Surfer option, its uncapped from 9PM to 6AM (also the whole of Sat/Sun). After some Steam sale shopping this weekend I put on a late night queue and it did 29Gb overnight. Not so sure if that type of speed is a regular occurrence (or maybe it used local Steam server?) I don't torrent much so cant comment on throttling on P2P.

Installation was under an hour. Ubiquiti Nanobeam put just under roof of top floor so there was no need for additional earthing. Because we were building from new I had the electrician put in conduit for me to most rooms for CAT6. The wan4u installer had no problems drawing the cable through to my study, POE unit plugged into wall and the rest into my own switch.

The one thing I miss though is the ability to putz around on the router (in this case the dish) to set up my own portforward rules etc. They don't give you access to it all, and you'll probably have to pay for a fixed IP to be able to get that type of control. That being said I don't miss ADSL being down, oversubscribed, and completely unreliable... Ill have to see what effect stormy weather has once we get back into summer but so far so good.

J.
 
Pitbull said:
Difference of opinion then. I have never had better internet before.
Click to expand...

Cause were in South Africa. Bitco is by far the fastest connection I was able to get. Gaming just sucks on there.
 
Gezza said:
Cause were in South Africa. Bitco is by far the fastest connection I was able to get. Gaming just sucks on there.
Click to expand...

And I can appreciate people having issues while gaming on Bitco. Again, one area I have been lucky in. But yes with the hits and misses people have been getting with gaming. It's probably not worth the risk getting into a contract and you might be one of the people getting a miss.
 
Pitbull said:
And I can appreciate people having issues while gaming on Bitco. Again, one area I have been lucky in. But yes with the hits and misses people have been getting with gaming. It's probably not worth the risk getting into a contract and you might be one of the people getting a miss.
Click to expand...

I would've dearly liked to give BitCo a fair chance (because my coverage is so limited), but due to reasons stated above I couldn't do so. FYI, with Wan4U I have another month to still get out of the contract if I'm not happy with the service (2 month cancellation clause). If I do decide to do that I will post it here as well, but at this point its all good.
 
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Pitbull said:
That should sum it up nicely.

They desperate for business. In any event it's your choice but nothing beats Bitco. Sorry.
Click to expand...

Huh? Every WISP I've ever dealt with gives you a free LOS eval. Why the F do I need to sign a contract for that? Sounds retarded.
 
prOd said:
Huh? Every WISP I've ever dealt with gives you a free LOS eval. Why the F do I need to sign a contract for that? Sounds retarded.
Click to expand...

Then don't :confused:

It didn't bother me as the contract was subject to LOS. If it bothers you take it up with them it's their business policy and I assume they have a reason for it.
 
prOd said:
Yea, desperate to screw over people I suppose...;)
Click to expand...

How do they screw people over? If you don't have LOS, then you don't pay a damn thing and you don't get the service.

If you do, then they install and voila, you have internet?

If you don't approve of this, then move along.

They can't send people out to do LOS tests willy nilly if they aren't going to get then contract. It costs money.
 
jesus, you people sure get your tighty whities in a knot quickly ^^

Why don't you cheer up? It was a joke, hence the ;) face...
 
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Dood, thank you for the very detailed update. You rock.

It was the wiser move, in my opinion, to not go with Bitco. Among other issues, (they are mostly issues because of no response or no reply if escalated or evasive) I have found out that's my "uncapped" Internet connection is in fact very capped at 9GB per day! Not so fair usage!!

Tks again for the feedback. FYI I enquired about a "Business Uncapped" Bitco solution, back cannot bring myself to trust them.
 
prOd said:
jesus, you people sure get your tighty whities in a knot quickly ^^

Why don't you cheer up? It was a joke, hence the ;) face...
Click to expand...

;) doesn't always mean it's a joke.

OCD said:
Dood, thank you for the very detailed update. You rock.

It was the wiser move, in my opinion, to not go with Bitco. Among other issues, (they are mostly issues because of no response or no reply if escalated or evasive) I have found out that's my "uncapped" Internet connection is in fact very capped at 9GB per day! Not so fair usage!!

Tks again for the feedback. FYI I enquired about a "Business Uncapped" Bitco solution, back cannot bring myself to trust them.
Click to expand...

9GB a day is a lot :p Spread them downloads!
 
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