Crystal Web ADSL performance feedback thread Part 3...

[Lydon]

Well that's a major let down. Last week's email seriously overhyped this, in my opinion. Getting 40 people to sign up with Crystal Web (specifically) isn't my idea of "really not onerous at all." Crystal Web isn't the cheapest ISP, after all, so convincing people to sign up will be a little more difficult than normal. I guess if you live in a suburb that isn't remotely on the fibre radar, you might feel more inclined to become a part-time sales person, but alas that doesn't interest me at all. Thankfully Openserve will be coming our way within the next few months...

 

[patrick123]

Hopefully Primrose, Germiston qualifies.

 

[Crystal Web Management]

I don't think PE qualifies:



Such a shame. I would have done my best to sign up my area of Walmer. Mostly wealthy residents who shouldn't mind the cost, especially now that Telkom has ditched their plans to bring FTTH to our half of the suburb.

PE is on the list, but not ready just yet.

 

[Ho3n3r]

Basically it comes down to what I mentioned a week or 2 ago. It's up to the end users to do the marketing and spreading the word. I'm not sure why more people aren't complaining about this backwards way of marketing.

 

[Crystal Web Management]

Last week's mailer:

So stay tuned next week as there will be a number of incredible product announcements coming your way. There has never been a better time to be a Crystal Web customer.

So to summarise:
More data.
Free data.
Cheaper data.
Upgraded data
Lower contentions
Upgrades for all customers to lightspeed broadband
Mobile data with no Out-Of-Bundle Shark (Paul and I originally started oobshark.co.za)
VOIP (at incredible rates. Oh, did I mention we're giving some of this away?)
DSL Line Discounts and Free Upgrades

As mentioned in the email, this is not the only announcement coming your way.

Tough crowd though. We're really trying to bring something amazing in terms of price and performance but naturally, we don't have budget of billions of Rands to deploy nationally all at once.

 

[Phinix]

Well that's a major let down. Last week's email seriously overhyped this, in my opinion. Getting 40 people to sign up with Crystal Web (specifically) isn't my idea of "really not onerous at all." Crystal Web isn't the cheapest ISP, after all, so convincing people to sign up will be a little more difficult than normal. I guess if you live in a suburb that isn't remotely on the fibre radar, you might feel more inclined to become a part-time sales person, but alas that doesn't interest me at all. Thankfully Openserve will be coming our way within the next few months...

It's not even the issue of price, but more of trying to convince people who are not technically minded what the benefit is to them.

 

[Sinbad]

Well that's a major let down. Last week's email seriously overhyped this, in my opinion. Getting 40 people to sign up with Crystal Web (specifically) isn't my idea of "really not onerous at all." Crystal Web isn't the cheapest ISP, after all, so convincing people to sign up will be a little more difficult than normal. I guess if you live in a suburb that isn't remotely on the fibre radar, you might feel more inclined to become a part-time sales person, but alas that doesn't interest me at all. Thankfully Openserve will be coming our way within the next few months...

LOL

We had to get 1500 expressions of interest in our suburb before Vumatel would come in.

We got them in. The RA drove it. NOT vumatel.

 

[Ho3n3r]

As mentioned in the email, this is not the only announcement coming your way.

Tough crowd though. We're really trying to bring something amazing in terms of price and performance but naturally, we don't have budget of billions of Rands to deploy nationally all at once.

Oh it's a fantastic offering. The issue I have is needing to beg strangers I don't know, to sign up, in order to get the service. This isn't new, or strictly limited to Crystal Web, but it irks me nonetheless.

 

[Crystal Web Management]

I'm not sure why more people aren't complaining about this backwards way of marketing.

We truly are trying to bring this to more and more areas as quickly as possible, but doing so costs a significant amount of money. We also have our own build plans external of this, but if nobody really rallies an area, not any of the operators will deploy. You cannot deploy things that cost millions on a wait and hope principle. Due to us already having a fair density in most major metros, most areas already have a decent density and we also reimburse anyone who gets involved with free internet for life, in their house.

It's simply not feasible to expect a company like us to deploy this on a national, all-at-once scale. This is the best methodology to look at in terms of making it feasible for the most number of people and areas.

 

[Crystal Web Management]

@Crystal Web Management, the e-mail says at least 50 "people". Do you mean 50 homes? (places with a line/data connection)

Yes, 50 homes. The actual target is 40.

 

[Bryn]

I wasn't wrong.

Damn it you jinxed it man.

PE is on the list, but not ready just yet.

What are you waiting for? Is another company laying down the main fibre links or something?

Basically it comes down to what I mentioned a week or 2 ago. It's up to the end users to do the marketing and spreading the word. I'm not sure why more people aren't complaining about this backwards way of marketing.

I prefer that way of doing things, as it lets you jump the queue. There's no way of knowing where CW would otherwise start, and the process of collecting customers to warrant fibre expansion in an area would be tedious.

The reward for being a 'champion' is nice enough. Free 100Mbit will save you almost R20k per year.

 

[new_in_za2]

Tough crowd though.

I think most people are just tired of vague and 100% unobtainable fibre announcements. I live in a decent place in Pretoria, and I'm betting that if I get fibre, it's because I've moved to a different country.

In the meanwhile, most, if not all, of your customers would be very, very happy to receive the preannounced midnight-till-18 'free' data. At least I'm certainly looking forward to it. Actually, **** everything else, bring me just this one and I'll be more than happy.

 

[Ho3n3r]

We truly are trying to bring this to more and more areas as quickly as possible, but doing so costs a significant amount of money. We also have our own build plans external of this, but if nobody really rallies an area, not any of the operators will deploy. You cannot deploy things that cost millions on a wait and hope principle. Due to us already having a fair density in most major metros, most areas already have a decent density and we also reimburse anyone who gets involved with free internet for life, in their house.

It's simply not feasible to expect a company like us to deploy this on a national, all-at-once scale. This is the best methodology to look at in terms of making it feasible for the most number of people and areas.

My point was actually not to say that you have to deploy it and hope people sign up. But I have never in my life seen ads in our area for fibre. Nobody knows about it. Why am I supposed to be the one spreading the word?

I bet you if you put ads/flyers up in my area, you'll have 200 sign-ups within a week.

Just as you don't have the capacity to put it up before having sign-ups, I don't have the capacity to market it to people I don't know - and this is why I'm a programmer, I don't like to beg people for stuff.

Again, I never said you need to put it up before getting your sign-up quota, that's(getting X amount of people to sign up first - make it 1000 again, for all I care) not an unreasonable request. The onus should be on the industry leaders to create awareness and knowledge to the layman - not on other prospective users. I don't get how this is even justified.

I hope this clarifies my stance.

 

[Phinix]

Yes, 50 homes. The actual target is 40.

I figured.

So in the mail it says "We simply say that once 40 people in a particular density target have signed up with us over DSL, we’ll upgrade feasible sites to XtremeTTH." So what if there are already 40+ CW customers in the area, does this auto qualify the area, or do we then need to get those existing customers to say they want fibre?

And do you know if Noordhoek/Sunnydale/Sunvalley is part of the roll-out?

I only ask as Noordhoek itself is smaller then 5KM squared, so the 5KM squared would in fact cover two other neighbouring areas as well.

 

[Ho3n3r]

Damn it you jinxed it man.



What are you waiting for? Is another company laying down the main fibre links or something?



I prefer that way of doing things, as it lets you jump the queue. There's no way of knowing where CW would otherwise start, and the process of collecting customers to warrant fibre expansion in an area would be tedious.

The reward for being a 'champion' is nice enough. Free 100Mbit will save you almost R20k per year.

I just wanna be an end user. I don't mind paying for it. As said above, I don't have the capacity or personality to become a 'champion' for this.

 

[maxum]

We truly are trying to bring this to more and more areas as quickly as possible, but doing so costs a significant amount of money. We also have our own build plans external of this, but if nobody really rallies an area, not any of the operators will deploy. You cannot deploy things that cost millions on a wait and hope principle. Due to us already having a fair density in most major metros, most areas already have a decent density and we also reimburse anyone who gets involved with free internet for life, in their house.

It's simply not feasible to expect a company like us to deploy this on a national, all-at-once scale. This is the best methodology to look at in terms of making it feasible for the most number of people and areas.

I don't think Ho3n3r is questioning the feasibility of your plans in terms of what it means for all your customers/potential customers.
He's saying that for him, this isn't great news.
It's his opinion.
My opinion? I didn't like the idea of singing up neighbors/strangers when Cybersmart released this, still don't.
But that's just me.

 

[Obi1]

To me logically people were just hoping to see either an announcement on the free data or reduced prices / higher caps. To release something that is aimed at a tiny percentage of people who are able to access fibre and the expect people not to jump ship to other ISP before the 19th when you can no longer cancel your services is a joke. Rather just be upfront and say nothing of importance will be announced till next week / month and let people switch to another ISP, instead a carrot gets dangled in the hope that for another month you will pay a higher rate for bandwidth that every other major ISP is offering cheaper. Come CW get it together, I like your service but from the announcement till now its just been bad/overhyped PR.

 

[faniebraai]

Well, if free internet isn't incentive enough than nothing is.

I'm interested in being the champion for my area, just need to see all the brochures and stuffs and then figure out a way to sell sell sell!!!

 

[Archer]

Yo, a lot of dumb coming out in this thread

 

[Bryn]

I just wanna be an end user. I don't mind paying for it. As said above, I don't have the capacity or personality to become a 'champion' for this.

I don't think Ho3n3r is questioning the feasibility of your plans in terms of what it means for all your customers/potential customers.
He's saying that for him, this isn't great news.
It's his opinion.
My opinion? I didn't like the idea of singing up neighbors/strangers when Cybersmart released this, still don't.
But that's just me.

Which is why I like this system. Those of us who are determined will get their areas to the top of the queue and get fibre faster.

A simple flyer system does seem practical though. Just target suburbs one by one with flyers about the situation. Responses could be pretty good.