MyWireless : Does height matter?

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Rhino</i>
<br />Does any1 know where the hell "bay of plenty" is???[^]
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north beach area around snake park if I remember right
 
Correct - Bay of Plenty is where Old Fort Road meets the Marine Parade.


<hr noshade size="1"><center>http://www.unrealza.co.za/proasm/mywireless.html</center>
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Rhino</i>
<br />Hi every1, I have just signed up for the 256k service, I get my modem on monday.
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Hmm .. I signed up on Friday for 128k, and they told me on the phone it would take 'ten working days' to get the modem etc. Why is yours so quick?
 
I dont know? They where very helpfull, I applied on the friday, following firday I got SMS to say modem was on its way! I think maybe there is not allot of ppl in Durban waiting....
 
they're running out of stock [:p]

yes, very happy with my firewall... best i've ever seen

you can even backtrace an attack to it's ISP and log a complaint to their abuse department [;)]
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Andromeda</i>
<br />So, ya all are getting excited about paying R1k plus for 512kbps. On top of that, a hugely overpriced modem, a "connection" fee and a 24month contract. This is supposed to be great service?

Frankly, if Sentech was interested in service, they'd drop the connection fee and the contract, price the service properly and offer decent speeds - maybe a 768kbps, 1.5Mbps selection. Afterall, they claim "up to 3Mbps" on their hompage (obviously they're too embarrassed to put the actual 512kbps on the first page one sees).

Sorry, as far as I am concerned, Sentech have missed a golden opportunity to lead South Africa a little closer to the digital age. Just like Telkom, they are offering an exhorbitantly priced inferior service, all the while taking consumers for a ride.

So, I'll just continue relaxing here, surfing on my 3Mbps Comcast connection. Did I mention it costs $55/mth (about R400 and you can get 1Mbps for $30 - about R210)
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Andromeda what are you trying to achieve? Any ghey ass wally living in a country with more miles of fibreoptics than roads can claim to rip us poor South Africans. The fact is that Sentech is trying to change the digital landscape here, when nobody else is (or can). We are making do with what is available, and whether its overpriced or under-performing by US or European standards, its still a step forward.
Im not saying we South Africans should settle for Sentech as is; but change is only going to happen if we get behind the companies trying to change things. The only way broadband will ever get cheap here is if companies can realise the economies of scale needed to pour on the bandwidth. The only way that will happen is if we get connected...boycotting because the bandwidth or price is worse than overseas will not help anything.

So why dont you get back to arguing over which Calvin Klein T-shirt is better or whatever it is that u broadband foreigners do.

** How can Telkom claim to "Touch Tomorrow" when it can barely touch yesterday?
Because they're a BIG, GREEDY, MONOPOLY intent on keeping South Africa in the stone age. **
 
...and empty the smelly trash [:(!]
 
Ah, guys, be nice, you'll have to make allowences for foreigners... they're obviously a bit too slow to understand the difference that an existing infrastructure and positive political environment can make to communications services...

:P
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">a country with more miles of fibreoptics than roads ... that Sentech is trying to change the digital landscape here, when nobody else is (or can). ...Im not saying we South Africans should settle for Sentech as is; but change is only going to happen if we get behind the companies trying to change things. ...So why dont you get back to arguing over which Calvin Klein T-shirt is better or whatever it is that u broadband foreigners do.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

To address your points:

1. My understanding is that possibly as much as three-quarters of the fibre in South is dark fibre (My source for this is Anthony Bizos who is a pioneer in the internet in South Africa due to his early stage involvement in Internet Solutions). This fibre belongs to many companies, including but not limited to Eskom, Transnet and of course Telkom. Of course, this fibre does not address the typical problems of "last mile" connectivity. Neither does the fibre infrastructure in the US or Europe. The argument that South Africa does not have an adequate fibre-optic infrastructure is a fallacy.

2. Sentech is allegedly trying to change the digital landscape. Or are they? They are extracting the consumer surplus and then some. This is the same tactic Telkom uses. Sentech, largely state-owned, is no different from Telkom. It operates in a highly regulated environment and benefits from the tight regulation. Many others have attempted to change the digital landscape by investing in start-up companies. They have all fallen foul of regulatory restrictions. The wireless drive in the US has been led by entrepreneurs, small start-ups like Boingo. Only recently has Verizon, the large telco, started fishing in the pond. South Africans have attempted to do this. Instead of facilitating the start up of small companies, the “heavies” like Sentech have benefited from regulation and crushed the entrepreneurial spirit.

3. I’m glad that you agree that we should not settle for Sentech. However, enabling them to entrench their mode of operation will do neither broadband nor South African consumers any good. They will continue to extract the full consumer surplus. Their pricing is unrealistic and places broadband out of the reach of many. Their two year contracts seeks to lock in subscribers and avoid any potential of competition. Had they opted to price the service reasonably, do you not think that they would have easily seen a five-fold increase in subscribers? Instead of facilitating the shift to broadband they are creating the perception that broadband is only for the wealthy. Instead of worshipping Sentech, we should be lobbying for regulatory change.

5. In the US the argument is, contrary to your “informed” opinion, not about CK. Rather it is about how US consumers are subjected to pathetic 3Mbps broadband speeds. See, the US consumers are getting left behind by the Koreans with their 22Mbps and higher speeds. Imagine how silly that makes Sentech’s 128k – 512k offering look in Korea!

6. On the Calvin Klein and “ghey” comments: I’m amused to see that South Africans are still insulting of anyone that thinks differently. I guess it’s still the case that anyone that doesn’t agree with “volk en vaderland” is still a “veraaier”. Too bad you had to ruin the good points that you made with insults.
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by noone</i>
<br />dude, i invite you to stay there, i dont want your negative ass in south africa anyway, hope you lose your passport...
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What a mature reaction and insightful post.
 
Andromeda, I fail to see what you're trying to achieve here.

I've worked for one of those startup "illegal" wireless service providers. And fact is fact. BANDWIDTH IS DAMN EXPENSIVE IN SA.
We paid R120k per month for a 2.5mbit link into IS with only 1.5mbit intl access. And let's not talk about how expensive it is to link into JINX/CINX, which are the peering points for all major ISPs in SA.
Take those numbers, and try to justify a cheap broadband solution here.

We initially had the subscribers uncapped at full 802.11b speeds, but we couldn't afford to keep it that way, and eventually had to cap the users at 64k,128k,256k and 512k

In the end, the company couldn't keep head above water

--
 
Andromeda, I understand your point... however, there are a few 'extenuating circumstances'.

1) Sentech are building the wireless infrastructure as they go. They obviously need to recoup costs... therefore they cannot offer too much of a line at first. As their customer base builds, I'm sure they will expand on their offering.

2) Further on the above, they simply do not have the extant customer base to immediately jump into massive offerings for low prices. Remember that there are more people in some of the cities in the US than in all of South Africa. It's not quite a case of comparing apples with apples, is it?

3) Sentech is not largely state-owned. To the best of my knowledge, the state have a 30% share.

4) Sentech is a company. Their priority is to make a viable profit margin, so they can feed their employees... not to revolutionise the country. Show me any real company in the US who are actually trying to be revolutionary (and not as part of some marketing campaign), and I'll eat their portfolio without butter and salt ;)

5) Regulation aside, Sentech are actually creating a competitive market, not suppressing it. Their offering is the only real competition that Telkom has as far as broadband alternatives goes, and they're probably trying to get as established as possible as quickly as possible before someone bribes the legislators on Telkom's behalf to close the loophole.

6) For someone from the US (or even the UK... where are you, anyway?) to accuse a south african of being 'insulting of anyone that thinks differently.' has to be the most hypocritical statement I have ever seen.

Anyway, in summary (and I apologise if I repeated anyone else's points... this took me a while to write between work ;)... SA doesn't have the customers, the structure and the economy to offer better speeds at lower prices, at this time. As new tech and more supporters roll in, hopefully things will improve... but we need a starting point. Finally we have some competition... don't knock them cos they being careful.

(No I don't work for Sentech, Telkom or the SA Government) ;)
 
In the end, we can debate ideologies of broadband forever.
The cold facts are that we actually LIVE in this country, and you are speaking from a privileged position with no actual clue about what the environment is like on the ground here.
Why do you think this forum exists? Its because "lobbying" only gets so far in this country - ultimately the government will do its own thing about telecommunications, because it has bigger problems - problems like trying to feed the masses that are starving and provide jobs for them too.

We are not in a USA situtation where enough people actually care about broadband - maybe 25-30% (max) of the people in this country can afford a telephone line rental, never mind a computer.

Given all this, its intensely irritating when someone like yourself rocks up and disses the first signs we have had of an alternative in 10 years +.

I apologise if I was unduly aggressive, but seriously you have no clue about the REALITY of this country - a REALITY that cannot change fast because we don't have the money, enough employed, educated people, or the government for it.

Oh and that whole thing about this country being full of fibre optics missed a vital point - nobody but Hellkom can legally connect those fibre networks, and Hellkom wont do that since it will hurt their own networks...its called a monopoly - another reality of South Africa that most of the starving voter base dont care about right now...

** How can Telkom claim to "Touch Tomorrow" when it can barely touch yesterday?
Because they're a BIG, GREEDY, MONOPOLY intent on keeping South Africa in the stone age. **
 
Lol. Remember the good old days. Now Sentech have only a few thousand subscribers. iBurst and the Cell phone companies are big. I have ADSL and I am happy with it (could be cheaper but what can you do?)
 
pkid said:
Lol. Remember the good old days. Now Sentech have only a few thousand subscribers. iBurst and the Cell phone companies are big. I have ADSL and I am happy with it (could be cheaper but what can you do?)
Click to expand...
And so do 99% of the staff that were ever involved :D
 
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