Have ISPs forgotten rural areas?

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PHP_Ninja

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Here's the thing: Most rural areas here are stuck on GPRS/EDGE. 3G came along, then HSPA, then came HSPA+, and now LTE but some people are still left browsing the net at 96kbps, this sucks!


(I should say though that Vodacom is the only exception here since it is the only one that has HSPA coverage here, though the data bundle prices are relatively steep)
 
PHP_Ninja said:
Here's the thing: Most rural areas here are stuck on GPRS/EDGE. 3G came along, then HSPA, then came HSPA+, and now LTE but some people are still left browsing the net at 96kbps, this sucks!


(I should say though that Vodacom is the only exception here since it is the only one that has HSPA coverage here, though the data bundle prices are relatively steep)
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Not much incentive for networks to invest in rural areas. It's not likely many wealthy customers can be found there, and regardless, there just aren't many people in general. Which means far fewer paying customers.
 
This is the niche where the WISPs do very well. Have you tried to find a wireless service provider in your area?
 
This is not only a South African problem... you will find it in most countries around the world, including the "industry leaders".
 
The answer is an unmitigated and resoundingly large YES!

I realise that roll out for new services has to be in high density areas but come on you have to provide service for people who are traveling etc. I drove for 3 hours yesterday along a well used road (high density farming, with loads of trucks servicing the farms) and at least half the journey was out of service range - no phone signal at all. If I had a breakdown I couldn't even call for help. Totally ridiculous in this day and age.
 
MickeyD said:
This is not only a South African problem... you will find it in most countries around the world, including the "industry leaders".
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Very true, rural areas in the UK have the same complaint and their definition of "rural" is a far cry from ours.
 
MickZA said:
Very true, rural areas in the UK have the same complaint and their definition of "rural" is a far cry from ours.
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There are some epic rural broadband networks in the UK though. You just have to be lucky enough to be in their coverage area.
 
ambo said:
This is the niche where the WISPs do very well. Have you tried to find a wireless service provider in your area?
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+1, out here, WISPS is almost the only option for some.

Zoomzoom said:
The answer is an unmitigated and resoundingly large YES!

<snip>
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No! They haven't forgotten rural areas. They however do remember where they make the most money and rural areas is just an bottomless pit at most.
 
bottomless pit at most
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Bottomless pit of what?

You drive up to the tallest mountain or koppie in the area plant your flag, set up the equipment and that is it.

The problem isn't cost, the problem you need a band capable of reaching the area you want to service the biggest issue in my area, and surrounding towns, thick walls (3 bricks thick) and corrugated roofs, means almost zero signal.

That said neither vodacom or cellc have 3G here they are still on edge, telkom piggyback's off MTN network so rather pointless for them to setup their own equipment. 10mbits isn't bad.
ADSL simply won't happen here, even thought telkom spend a small fortune upgrading the local towns in my area with fiber, we still can't get ADSL, I can see the telkom exchange sipping my morning coffee as it happens to be in my back yard.
 
wizardofid said:
Bottomless pit of what?

You drive up to the tallest mountain or koppie in the area plant your flag, set up the equipment and that is it.

The problem isn't cost, the problem you need a band capable of reaching the area you want to service the biggest issue in my area, and surrounding towns, thick walls (3 bricks thick) and corrugated roofs, means almost zero signal.

That said neither vodacom or cellc have 3G here they are still on edge, telkom piggyback's off MTN network so rather pointless for them to setup their own equipment. 10mbits isn't bad.
ADSL simply won't happen here, even thought telkom spend a small fortune upgrading the local towns in my area with fiber, we still can't get ADSL, I can see the telkom exchange sipping my morning coffee as it happens to be in my back yard.
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Power?
Backhaul?
 
The Voice said:
This.

It's not just the providers that have forgotten about rural areas - the government has, too. Get them running water and electricity, THEN get them on Twitter.
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You are seriously out of whack, when it comes to rural areas, it's a joke, our infrastructure is better then most.The tower is fed directly from the Eskom grid, so even if there is maintenance done, we might not have power but the tower is always on as it by passes the substation entirely.

Secondly theft is a none issue in most rural areas, consider that most towers have been place on mountains or koppies, for example one tower in our area is about 1.8km up a treacherous koppie slope of about 80 degrees simple not worth the effort, there is another located on elands berg here also 2km odd up, which is just as impractical to try and rob, Aasvoëlberg 2 208m in zastron, same applies to smithfield, and quite a few towns in this area have their towers up where it is impractical to try and plunder.

Secondly there aren't any scrap dealers here, so pointless plundering some thing you can't sell quickly without having to drive 150km to find the closest scrap yard, rural towers in most instances are probably the safest around in most instances.

Assumption is the mother of all %%$$#% as they say, rural doesn't mean we have long drops and live in mud huts, go hunting for our food, stupid ass townies and their assumptions.

The fact that we are a town with less then 1700 people, we have running water(boreholes do run dry especially in this drought we do have a dam with a water filtering plant which is maintained weekly by bloemwater), electricity( because of the grid being above ground we do get frequent outages due to thunder storms but we never got any load shedding) and working sewerage, and other services like any other town, while we don't have the normal entertainment venues and large shopping malls we are pretty much the same as every one else albeit isolated.We even have better RPD housing developments here compared to large cities or towns.

So yeah whatever like I said about assumptions....
 
PHP_Ninja said:
Here's the thing: Most rural areas here are stuck on GPRS/EDGE. 3G came along, then HSPA, then came HSPA+, and now LTE but some people are still left browsing the net at 96kbps, this sucks!


(I should say though that Vodacom is the only exception here since it is the only one that has HSPA coverage here, though the data bundle prices are relatively steep)
Click to expand...

I got myself an FNB sim which works on Cell C, and I found it roams on Vodacom 3G - I am in a rural area. The price of data is a bit better than buying direct from Vodacom...
 
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