GWI does a Sentech

Is Buffallobill goin to answer my Q?TION?
 
Wait, softcap? Where did you get that from?

I would appreciate some response from GWI, because I use around 5 to 18GB a month, depending on how many web seminaars I have to attend and how many products I have to download. I'm currently on the 128kbps service and I've been happy with it except for the dodgy service due to the weather.

I've already started looking for alternatives after receiving the email.
As a note to GWI, if you're going to send out communication to your subscribers, you might want to include ALL the info. I'm sure your krap pdf file is going to cost you a very large number of your subscribers!!!
 
Whipme said:
As a note to GWI, if you're going to send out communication to your subscribers, you might want to include ALL the info. I'm sure your krap pdf file is going to cost you a very large number of your subscribers!!!
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Good point, and noted... we're composing a follow up now...
 
Webbie

I'll second the thanks for replying. And yes, your letter could have been *far* better worded. I just don't like the Big Bang approach and the matter of fact take it or leave it tone. Marketing's about packaging and you did yourselves no favours.

If you are looking to build a business and bring it to profitability, you don't need to alienate your early adopters who may well have been partly responsible for some of your customer growth through recommendations. I personally signed up on the premise that there were no caps. I told your people at the time what I would be using and was assured this was okay. If you intend to change this (you correctly point out the one month contract), you would be better served to phase it in, while changing the package for new customers with immediate effect.

There's goodwill and reputation to think about and the pure numbers should only form part of the consideration. Pick 'n Pay's done pretty well with loss-leaders, for example. You can grow a business by attracting more (profitable) customers or maximising profit on existing customers. Our banks seem to prefer the second option. Sentech did, too, but they're generally incompetent, anyway.

Anyway, I look forward to the second letter.
 
So far, not a peep more out of GWI. No sign of that new letter they were drafting and certainly no reply to my mail to them of two weeks ago. In the meantime, P2P has come virtually come to a grinding halt. I'm going to have to play a bit to see if I can fix it again.
 
buffalobill said:
So far, not a peep more out of GWI. No sign of that new letter they were drafting and certainly no reply to my mail to them of two weeks ago. In the meantime, P2P has come virtually come to a grinding halt. I'm going to have to play a bit to see if I can fix it again.
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YIP no reply at all,
 
GWI capping

Yeah, got the same email. Well, just there you have to weigh up your options.

GWI : 3GB cap @ R350pm @ 128kbps @ R170 per additional gig.

ADSL: 3GB CAP + Telkom Line Rental + ADSL Line Rental @ 384kbps @ R70 per addition gig = R445pm incl VAT.

So, for an additional R95 you get 3 times the speed, additional bandwidth @ R71.82. Yes, I am also an Telkom apposer, but despirate times call for despirate measure. And if Telkom has become a better option, so be it.

The above mentioned ADSL offer was from XDSL by the way. I e-mailed GWI with this comparison some time ago but have not received any feedback.
 
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xcalibur said:
Yeah, got the same email. Well, just there you have to weight up your options.

GWI : 3GB cap @ R350pm @ 128kbps @ R170 per additional gig.

ADSL: 3GB CAP + Telkom Line Rental + ADSL Line Rental @ 384kbps @ R70 per addition gig = R445pm incl VAT.

So, for an additional R95 you get 3 times the speed, additional bandwidth @ R71.82. Yes, I am also an Telkom apposer, but despirate times call for despirate measure. And if Telkom has become a better option, so be it.

The above mentioned ADSL offer was from XDSL by the way.
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It's all great, however if you're in an area that has no phone lines, there the problem arises.....:D Like myself...hah..karma hates me.
 
True, one of my colleagues has been struggling for 7 months to get a phone line installed at their house, only to be told 3 days ago that the service request timed out and was cancelled by the system. Now she has to reapply. Shocking!!

Dont get me wrong, I am all for GWI, but prices are becoming more and more competative. There's a newish wireless company in Pretoria Silver Lakes area supplying CPE based Wireless connectivity @ 1024kbps (YES THATS RIGHT! 1MB!) @ R450pm, Uncapped. (At this stage still) They dont have coverage in my area, but as soon as they do im packin!! Check them out. www.n-it.co.za Click on VIEW HTML WEBSITE.
 
savage said:
R170/GB is insanely high IMHO...

Most ISPs are arround the 80-120 mark per GB from what I've seen...
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Things sure changed since I had ADSL last. Before we moved we had a 192 KBPS connection at 3 Gigabytes, and 199 per gigabyte extra cap from Mweb, things sure move in the right direction. But I will not be satisfied until this cap issue is entirely removed and people receive the internet with it's full intent.

The internet cannot be fully appreciated when one is limited to a certain amount of data.
 
Exactly. R170 almost puts you in the 3G, HSDPA etc. arena. To charge that for normal fixed wireless setups are insane. Thats almost a 3 : 1 cost ratio compared to Telkom. And remember, im no more mobile with my GWI installation than with a ADSL line, so they cant claim that for being the "conveniency" factor.
 
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xcalibur said:
Exactly. R170 almost puts you in the 3G, HSDPA etc. arena. To charge that for normal fixed wireless setups are insane. Thats almost a 3 : 1 cost ratio compared to Telkom. And remember, im no more mobile with my GWI installation than with a ADSL line, so they cant claim that for being the "conveniency" factor.
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Add to this the fact that there are significant technological constraints with wireless - packet loss and packet ordering - which rules out decent online multimedia and gaming (I'm into Second Life, or at least I would be). Also torrents are a problem because most wireless ISPs don't allocate you an IP address when you log in). History question: Could anyone get Azureus to work with GWI?

If you don't have fixed wires, then wireless is your only option but you must expect that depending on your needs, there are tradeoffs. If you do have the choice and there is so little difference between wireless and ADSL, then I certainly would go ADSL. In fact I probably will although the speed difference just means I'll reach my cap sooner.:mad:

PLUS: There's a significant 3:1 difference between my logs and the figures GWI gave me yesterday when someone called to say I was over my 3Gb cap.
 
Hi all,

We're not strictly enforcing the capping policy yet, but are calling those who greatly exceed their cap at this stage, and slowing down their connection. This will soon become an automated system with automatic email warning alerts.

If you are monitoring your own usage at this stage, please ensure you take upload traffic into account, as this is included in your consumption figures.

I also just want to toss this info in for a more accurate comparison:

Our topup pricing may change from the initial R170 for 1Gb to around R120, to be confirmed.

These are current service prices inc VAT:

Telkom 384 + XDSL 3Gb = R453.62 (excluding phone line)
Telkom 384 + Telkom All Access 3Gb = R484.00 (excluding phone line)

XDSL 1Gb topup = R63 / 6.3c per Mb
Telkom 1Gb topup = R79 / 7.9c per Mb
3G/HSDPA 1Gb topup = R289 / 28.9c per Mb
iBurst - varying prices from around 30c - 45c per Mb

GWI 1Gb @ R170 = 17c per Mb
GWI 1Gb @ R120 = 12c per Mb

Compared to 3G/HSDPA: 1.7-2.4 x cheaper
Compared to Telkom: 1.5-2.1 x more
Compared to XDSL: 1.9-2.6 x more

Performance:

As has been mentioned here more a few times, if latency & responsiveness is your main criteria (ie gaming) you should not be using any wireless technology.

Although on fixed wireless you will most likely have a satisfactory experience most of the time, consistent performance cannot be guaranteed due to the nature of radio wave propogation. This is compounded in mobile wireless technologies.
 
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Good day Mr. Webintact, any hint on when can we expect the fully implementation of cap and usage checking facility? Are we only getting automated email alerts when we hit certain treshold rathen than like other broadband users that we can access some webpage to check? And I am expecting that there will also be an online order topup/payment system?
So softcap won't be an option anymore? And for november are we getting hardcapped on our package or still getting the 3 extra gig?
 
haha, when i got GWI i was asked if i can use it for gaming, they told me it would identical to saix performance and ping.


never happened of course.
 
bboy said:
haha, when i got GWI i was asked if i can use it for gaming, they told me it would identical to saix performance and ping.

never happened of course.
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Depending on the question, this may have been the right answer... but anyway, the fact remains that latency sensitive games will suffer on any wireless service/technology.
 
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