Cell C FTTH via Vumatel

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Vega

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Hey all

Finally my hood is nearing its end and going live with FTTH.
Was researching some FTTH packages.

For now the Cell-C seems quite a good deal 100/100 uncapped with the installation, router and connection fee included for R1499. The catch is that you will have to stay with them for 12 months to "pay off" the free bits they included.

My question is: Anybody here using Cell C FTTH? How is there overall service and network stability?
Also, any other recommendations for a similar type package? I want the 100mb upload/download to possibly help with lower intentional gaming latencies.
Does anybody know which router cell-C provides with this package?

Additionally, what routers are recommended for fibre? Will 1Gbps make a significant drop in pings and latencies?

Thanks
 
Last edited:
Vega said:
Hey all

Finally my hood is nearing its end and going live with FTTH.
Was researching some FTTH packages.

For now the Cell-C seems quite a good deal 100/100 uncapped with the installation, router and connection fee included for R1499. The catch is that you will have to stay with them for 12 months to "pay off" the free bits they included.

My question is: Anybody here using Cell C FTTH? How is there overall service and network stability?
Also, any other recommendations for a similar type package? I want the 100mb upload/download to possibly help with lower intentional gaming latencies.
Does anybody know which router cell-C provides with this package?

Additionally, what routers are recommended for fibre? Will 1Gbps make a significant drop in pings and latencies?

Thanks
Click to expand...
So latency will improve by about 20ms compared to a decent ADSL circuit, so 160ms to UK so long as CellC is using some WACS for better latency to UK.
 
Vega said:
Thanks @PBCool... was hoping for a better improvement. But oh well...
Click to expand...

The major thing with fibre is obviously reliability and consistency, all forms of internet connectivity on offer (ADSL, WISP etc) use the undersea cables just the same as a fibre ISP. The difference is the last mile being the volatile bit, fibre resolves that issue (speaking on behalf of non IPC based networks)
 
Vega said:
Hey all

Finally my hood is nearing its end and going live with FTTH.
Was researching some FTTH packages.

For now the Cell-C seems quite a good deal 100/100 uncapped with the installation, router and connection fee included for R1499. The catch is that you will have to stay with them for 12 months to "pay off" the free bits they included.

My question is: Anybody here using Cell C FTTH? How is there overall service and network stability?
Also, any other recommendations for a similar type package? I want the 100mb upload/download to possibly help with lower intentional gaming latencies.
Does anybody know which router cell-C provides with this package?

Additionally, what routers are recommended for fibre? Will 1Gbps make a significant drop in pings and latencies?

Thanks
Click to expand...

Other question is about support. I was also considering cell c but might go cool ideas - smaller company where I would expect customer service to be better than a big MNO.
 
Shellyb1 said:
Other question is about support. I was also considering cell c but might go cool ideas - smaller company where I would expect customer service to be better than a big MNO.
Click to expand...
Also why we offer true month to month, if you're not happy you can leave anytime.
 
Sinbad said:
Consider crystal web as well.
Click to expand...

Not so sure about them. After the leak of their customer database, my details among them, I almost fell for their email about their upstream provider being at fault.
However, I distinctly remember one of their staff being able to access my password for their site in plain text (i.e. he/she didn't pw reset, simply copy & pasted my pw in text, into the customer support chat window)

Personally this is what I hate about South Africa. I LOVED the support from Crystal web because they have a vested interest in keeping my business and their support was A+ grade.
But they are vulnerable in smaller ways like the above, depending on bigger corporate infrastructure who do not have a vested interest in your safety or satisfaction.

WebAfrica, MWEB etc are all "Big" players and have a large enough customer base to neglect customer support because the cushion is large enough to not feel it when someone quits them for someone else.

CellC however is a little bit of a mystery to me and I am tempted by their Fibre data packages. They seem to be the only Cellular provider that has woken up to the fact that they're now fast becoming just another ISP... but with a national celltower grid to back them up.
(Yes MTN and Vodacom have FTTH but they're still thinking small (locking you to use their closed network) and have not realized that their customers have outgrown their "data" packages)
The downside is a) huawei modem and b) their cellular network has not been adapted to match it's fibre brother.
CellC would have been a day 1 sign up if the LTE data package matched the Fibre one like for like... no question about it as it would make an excellent backup connection when needed.

All my hopefuls also don't even appear here:
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/fibre/169171-the-fastest-fibre-isps-in-south-africa.html

So I'm still stuck on deciding who to go with.
 
I have nothing against CW customer support nor my experience when using the bandwidth they resold to me.
They offered everything I needed.

It was the fact that they could retrieve my password in plain text and paste it back to me in chat.
(i.e. ordinary everyday employees had access to my password. Thank goodness I class that kind of password as high risk and it's completely separated from anything to do with any other accounts)
Then email me about it when it was leaked saying it was their provider. But still the ambiguity between experience and email makes my skin crawl.

I may however take Cool Idea's up on the offer. If only the jump from 50/50 to 100/100 wasn't so huge >.<
 
DMNknight said:
I have nothing against CW customer support nor my experience when using the bandwidth they resold to me.
They offered everything I needed.

It was the fact that they could retrieve my password in plain text and paste it back to me in chat.
(i.e. ordinary everyday employees had access to my password. Thank goodness I class that kind of password as high risk and it's completely separated from anything to do with any other accounts)
Then email me about it when it was leaked saying it was their provider. But still the ambiguity between experience and email makes my skin crawl.

I may however take Cool Idea's up on the offer. If only the jump from 50/50 to 100/100 wasn't so huge >.<
Click to expand...
Realistically what is the need for 100Mbps?
 
PBCool said:
Realistically what is the need for 100Mbps?
Click to expand...

Realistically, I can't imagine much right now.
Steam updates + cellphone wifi usage (facebook & embedded videos) + UHD TV streaming ? That could hit 50Mb.
2 UHD's may start to push the limits of 50Mb? and there's no in between jump.

Realistically this would only also be needed during the evenings as the rest of the time it will be fairly light usage I would think.

I just like to know there's room to grow without selling body parts/family ;)
 
DMNknight said:
Realistically, I can't imagine much right now.
Steam updates + cellphone wifi usage (facebook & embedded videos) + UHD TV streaming ? That could hit 50Mb.
2 UHD's may start to push the limits of 50Mb? and there's no in between jump.

Realistically this would only also be needed during the evenings as the rest of the time it will be fairly light usage I would think.

I just like to know there's room to grow without selling body parts/family ;)
Click to expand...
So 50Mbps would more than likely have no issue with that kind of need to be honest.
 
PBCool said:
Realistically what is the need for 100Mbps?
Click to expand...

What kind of techie are you?!

100Mb = NEEEEEED :D

If you want to do 4k streaming onto two devices, you'll hit the limit of a 50mb line. So for now, probably not a big deal, but streaming and tech is moving really fast...
 
Yeah and as soon as line fees come down as that comes into play it will be feasible for each home :).
 
PBCool said:
Yeah and as soon as line fees come down as that comes into play it will be feasible for each home :).
Click to expand...

Yeah I don't see vumatel dropping the rates they charge ISPs any time soon. Their build costs are massive... And that's the bulk of the cost to the end-user.
 
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