Comtel Wireless Consumer Review

[lived666]

Just had Comtel install my wireless and so far very chuffed (just so happy to be off outdated capped moody 3g) though too soon and early to see whats what, early days but at the moment the positives:

1. Great LOS. One of the few wireless providers that have LOS in Midrand in my area.
2. FREE LOS testing without forcing or requiring a signed quote.
3. No Monthly contract required - you will have to pay though for the installation.
4. On time and great technicians, they test and come on the days and times specified.

I selected the 2mb uncapped unshaped service.
Still debating with myself if I should go for the 4mb uncapped shaped for about the same price.
Johannesburg:
Last Result:
Download Speed: 2064 kbps (258 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 375 kbps (46.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 29 ms
6/2/2014 1:45:06 PM
international:
Last Result:
Download Speed: 2048 kbps (256 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 366 kbps (45.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 190 ms
6/2/2014 1:46:17 PM

 

[noemfie]

What are the prices like ? , I could not find a breakdown of packages on their site

 

[lived666]

They have various, ex vat, no monthly contract:
Standard Access (shaped) Economy Uncapped 4Mb R795 FUP kicks in at 180gb
Standard Access (shaped) Economy Uncapped 8Mb R1289 FUP kicks in at 300gb

Standard Access (unshaped) Tempo Uncapped 2Mb R 737 FUP kicks in at 200gb, the 3Mb is R1350

They charge a fee of R2000 for the equipment and R500 for setup - the R2000 can be paid over 12 months if you prefer.

 

[lived666]

woah:wtf:
so called tech support to check on an issue and they can see everything, freaky.
they can see which ports are being used on the router and every connected device and their name- sheez even I wasn't aware I had so many devices and half my things aren't connected yet.

freaky, going to have to mask activity, imagine when they see how much time I spend on weird sites such as mybb....

 

[macedon]

So lived666 did you upgrade to 4mbps, as you mentioned that some time ago? How has the service been up to now?

I have contacted Comtel and they have been very helpful and professional, i asked them to send me speedtest snapshots to servers from Newyork, London, Seattle on a 8mbps Uncapped link, however they were all below 50% (< 3.5mbps) of the line speed , which for me is not really ideal as i get the same speeds on my 5mbps ADSL and they do advertise this as being better then ADSL... Apparently that is very normal to them to have 50% of line speed to international servers...

Please comment...

 

[rpdii]

So lived666 did you upgrade to 4mbps, as you mentioned that some time ago? How has the service been up to now?

I have contacted Comtel and they have been very helpful and professional, i asked them to send me speedtest snapshots to servers from Newyork, London, Seattle on a 8mbps Uncapped link, however they were all below 50% (< 3.5mbps) of the line speed , which for me is not really ideal as i get the same speeds on my 5mbps ADSL and they do advertise this as being better then ADSL... Apparently that is very normal to them to have 50% of line speed to international servers...

Please comment...

It's because they purchase percentage capacity for international access from their upstream provider. So for example, they'll have a 100MB fibre link, they opted to pay for example 50% international capacity, thus they now only have 50MB fibre link internationally and that gets passed on to all their subscribers.

 

[macedon]

Well that makes sense.... however i cannot understand how they can operate like that and charge so much per month for half the speeds of what is advertised... Plus on top of this they are shaping protocols, plus there is AUP attached to it...

So i guess not a good product for the money... R 1300 p/m

It's because they purchase percentage capacity for international access from their upstream provider. So for example, they'll have a 100MB fibre link, they opted to pay for example 50% international capacity, thus they now only have 50MB fibre link internationally and that gets passed on to all their subscribers.

 

[hondaboysa]

Just had Comtel install my wireless and so far very chuffed (just so happy to be off outdated capped moody 3g) though too soon and early to see whats what, early days but at the moment the positives:

1. Great LOS. One of the few wireless providers that have LOS in Midrand in my area.
2. FREE LOS testing without forcing or requiring a signed quote.
3. No Monthly contract required - you will have to pay though for the installation.
4. On time and great technicians, they test and come on the days and times specified.

I selected the 2mb uncapped unshaped service.
Still debating with myself if I should go for the 4mb uncapped shaped for about the same price.
Johannesburg:
Last Result:
Download Speed: 2064 kbps (258 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 375 kbps (46.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 29 ms
6/2/2014 1:45:06 PM
international:
Last Result:
Download Speed: 2048 kbps (256 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 366 kbps (45.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 190 ms
6/2/2014 1:46:17 PM

What do say about steaming?? Netflix??

 

[rpdii]

Well that makes sense.... however i cannot understand how they can operate like that and charge so much per month for half the speeds of what is advertised... Plus on top of this they are shaping protocols, plus there is AUP attached to it...

So i guess not a good product for the money... R 1300 p/m

No will not seem so... Apologies haven't followed whole post, but aren't you in coverage of BitCo or Level-7 (Centurion Area) - they are really delivering a fantastic service - there's various posts in the forums about consumers ranting about them... Maybe shop a round... Sounds like a rip of at R 1 300 p/m? Who are the upstream provider? If you do a Speedtest.net ? Who is the ISP?

 

[macedon]

The ISP is Comtel...

Well i first approached Bitco however they couldnt find LOS at my location, but they promise to have a HiSite installed in the next (i dont know many months) at Northcliff Hill which will give me perfect LOS. So in the mean time i thought i should try others but either they offer good products and no LOS or there is LOS but product sucks and too expensive... What it seems with Comtel is that they offer 100% international speeds on low end packages 2mbps as per lived666 speed tests, but anything above that is just useles.

Also no ADSL in the area (apparently cable theft) but i think telkom doesnt want to upgrade an already overused exchange...

 

[lived666]

So lived666 did you upgrade to 4mbps, as you mentioned that some time ago? How has the service been up to now?

I have contacted Comtel and they have been very helpful and professional, i asked them to send me speedtest snapshots to servers from Newyork, London, Seattle on a 8mbps Uncapped link, however they were all below 50% (< 3.5mbps) of the line speed , which for me is not really ideal as i get the same speeds on my 5mbps ADSL and they do advertise this as being better then ADSL... Apparently that is very normal to them to have 50% of line speed to international servers...

Please comment...

Early days still, haven't had it for even a week yet.

Started on and still on the 2mb unshaped line, every speed test shows just around 2mb, be it local or international but as soon as there is streaming or downloading then that drops.I find the actual download speed to be quite slow.
At the moment I am connected, both kids have their phones connected to the wifi and my daughter is also on with her pc and son is streaming youtube, this is the speedtest result:

Last Result:
Download Speed: 2050 kbps (256.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 356 kbps (44.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 187 ms
6/5/2014 8:20:21 PM

The main reason I needed the line is because the xbox one is heavy on internet use - nearly every game requires a 10gb+ download. As mentioned I find the download speed quite slow, but they could also be the international servers for the games, but it can take a good few hours to finish a download, downloads have been way under the 2mbs, not even around 0.5mb.

Re streaming that looks to be working quite well, Hulu works great, I can stream on one pc while a download is
happening on another.

At any given time I can have around 5 - 6 devices connected and its taking the load for general surfing, youtube streaming etc, but if I was into downloading series and stuff then no.

I had one down time - happend around 11pm, not sure when it came back on but working the next morning.

Re Bitco as someone else mentioned, tried, no LOS. at least with comtel I will get to own the equipment and not tied into a contract and its better and a lot cheaper than 3g.

Edit oh yeh also got a voip number (not from comtel) which is quite clear better than neotel

 

[lived666]

The ISP is Comtel...

Well i first approached Bitco however they couldnt find LOS at my location, but they promise to have a HiSite installed in the next (i dont know many months) at Northcliff Hill which will give me perfect LOS. So in the mean time i thought i should try others but either they offer good products and no LOS or there is LOS but product sucks and too expensive... What it seems with Comtel is that they offer 100% international speeds on low end packages 2mbps as per lived666 speed tests, but anything above that is just useles.

Also no ADSL in the area (apparently cable theft) but i think telkom doesnt want to upgrade an already overused exchange...

You welcome to pop in over the weekend and test the line and play on the xbox if thats your thing and stream and decide.
Unless you scared of dogs, my dogs are scary:twisted:

Edit: added a download to the same setup above and this is how the connection drops speed:
Last Result:
Download Speed: 1121 kbps (140.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 157 kbps (19.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Latency: 254 ms
6/5/2014 9:05:26 PM

anyhow download still going, looks like its going to take around just under an hour for 720mb, I think that is about what is to be expected from a 2mb line? current speed while download is going
Download Speed: 1309 kbps (163.6 KB/sec transfer rate)