Neotel NeoConnect put to the test

hj2k_x said:
Even the average unknowledgable person on the street will know that this isn't even better than the Telkom garbage we have at the moment.:o
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Should we really compare them to Telkom? Since they're using wireless technology, maybe we should compare them to iBurst.

In that case, all they have to be able to do is get the account statements correct and not bill people for R3000 worth of missed back-payments. :p:D
 
I am also disappointed after Friday’s euphoria. The fact that they will be introducing a cap after a couple of months is cr@p. I believe that there is no contract involved and as long as you pay the monthly rental, the instrument is yours to use. The instrument remains the property of Neotel. Now I was going to cancel my Telkom line & port my number. Not any more. I will convert my Telkom line to prepaid and pay R120 per year as opposed to R111 per month (what the frack is that all about anyway – R120pa vs R111pm). That way I can get rid of the Neotel line if the service/cap is not acceptable. At least one wouldn’t be stuck in a long term contract. It will still be a good idea to read the T & C’s before signing up. So, JHB/PTA, go for it.

I find R499 steep as well, especially if it is going to be capped. In this current climate of interest rate, fuel price, electricity price, food price increases it sucks big time to sign up for a package that has so many flaws.

I’m not a gamer, so latency & pings doesn’t bother me much(yet).
 
I agree completely with you guys that eventually we should have unlimited access, however at this stage due to the limitations on the SAT3/SAFE cable I can understand the capping strategy on international bandwidth. There is only so much bandwidth available for us as a country and obviously the supply limitations increases the price of the bandwidth. Opposed to that we have no limitations on local bandwidth and at any time can we just lay additional cabling to increase the bandwidth needs. Therefore it is obvious that local bandwidth should practically be free compared to international bandwidth.

This is also the reason why I would like to be able to manage my local and international bandwidth on my own and not be forced to pay international bandwidth charges even if I am only using local bandwidth.

The local bandwidth that I use: All SA sites that are hosted in SA (granted lots are hosted int), news servers (it is possible to download the nzbs from an international site and then download them on our local news servers, although the speed is a problem occasionally), downloading media from Multichoice, gaming (FPS games have a tendency to consume several hundred megabyte of data in a single session), downloading patches from games.saix.net, receiving and sending email (this is easily ignored, but attachment emails also use up several hundred megs of data), VPN connection to work (high data volume), remote connection to home (high data volume, inverse of VPN). Those are just a list of stuff that I'd much rather pay R4/GB and not R40/GB for thank you very much. Just because you can't find a use for your local bandwidth does not mean that there is no use.

PS. I believe zoopy is not hosted in South Africa, so that completely nullifies the SA arguement as you might as well go to youtube then.
 
I can't say too much other wise some Neotel henchman will come and kill me but the USB device that Neotel are using probably won't be the only type of device.
There are "rumours" that RJ-45 and Wireless devices are also in the pipeline but I can't say any thing more.
 
Paul_S said:
I can't say too much other wise some Neotel henchman will come and kill me but the USB device that Neotel are using probably won't be the only type of device.
There are "rumours" that RJ-45 and Wireless devices are also in the pipeline but I can't say any thing more.
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So, Neotel should swap your device free of charge when an upgrade is available?
 
Wyzak said:
Just because you can't find a use for your local bandwidth does not mean that there is no use.
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I don't exactly have much desire to download a patch/demo/whatever from games.saix.net when I can get it from something like www.gamespot.com or the official site for a game. Why should we be forced to use local bandwidth when, guess what - the internet isn't landlocked to South Africa.
 
The reality is we have heaps of local bandwidth and very limited international bandwidth. Getting something from a local source makes a lot more sense. Nobody is forcing you to get it from locally, but if you want to pay R40/GB for the exact same thing you can get for R4/GB go ahead. But give those who would want to the opportunity to.
 
BTech said:
I'm so sick and tired of this place...look at this http://www.comcast.com/Corporate/Shop/ProductOverview.html
...and no cap
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Yep, $99 (AKA R760) for Cable TV, Uncapped Cable Internet at 12Mbps and phoneline with unlimited local and long-distance calls. I think it's safe to say that South Africa is still quite evidently in the technological dark ages. To think that I used to pay Telkom R1,200 each month for only one 3GB account and two 2GB accounts and a shaped 4Mbps line sickens me.
 
AntiThesis said:
...We've gone from having a complete monopoly controlling our telecoms and we've now got competition...

I'll take NeoTel up when they are available in my area because at the end of the day, they're still better than Telkom.
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Competition like we have between the Mobile providers? Then it's pointless.

Neotell isn't going to help "us", they've already said they don't want a price war, their product frankly sucks, it's slow, expensive and inferior. Anyone jumping over to Neotell just because it isn't Telkom is an idiot.

The only way I would even consider that R500 (dis)service that Neotell is testing would be if it was uncapped and didn't have all those archaic limits, otherwise I couldn't care less.

Since I've gotten my ADSL I've had 0 problems on the Telkom side, thankfully, but the price is insane.
 
Not many I don't think. Why, is everybody critical of Neotel automatically a Telkom employee now?
 
No, just wondering. I am disappointed with the offering myself. We'll have to see if it will improve at all.
 
rph72 said:
No, just wondering. I am disappointed with the offering myself. We'll have to see if it will improve at all.
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I'm sure it'll have to, both the technology and the offering itself. Only offering one package is pathetic in itself.
 
Syndyre said:
We may be small but we're relatively influential, I'm sure a lot of people on here have a lot of influence over the purchasing decisions of people around them.
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I've tried motivating people about the situation - the crowd I run with seem to be completely ignorant towards the matter and keep on getting "Closer" to Telscum... :o

rph72 said:
I am also disappointed after Friday’s euphoria. The fact that they will be introducing a cap after a couple of months is cr@p. I believe that there is no contract involved and as long as you pay the monthly rental, the instrument is yours to use. The instrument remains the property of Neotel. Now I was going to cancel my Telkom line & port my number. Not any more. I will convert my Telkom line to prepaid and pay R120 per year as opposed to R111 per month (what the frack is that all about anyway – R120pa vs R111pm). That way I can get rid of the Neotel line if the service/cap is not acceptable. At least one wouldn’t be stuck in a long term contract. It will still be a good idea to read the T & C’s before signing up. So, JHB/PTA, go for it.

I find R499 steep as well, especially if it is going to be capped. In this current climate of interest rate, fuel price, electricity price, food price increases it sucks big time to sign up for a package that has so many flaws.

I’m not a gamer, so latency & pings doesn’t bother me much(yet).
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Just be weary with the R120 p.a offering - don't think that you can gave ADSL on a prepaid line if I'm not mistaken...

rph72 said:
So, Neotel should swap your device free of charge when an upgrade is available?
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Lets just hope they don't (i)Burst that idea! :rolleyes:
The initial units cost them money, and to just throw free upgrades at the consumer, would leave me a bit dazed with confusion.
 
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Shake&Bake said:
Just be weary with the R120 p.a offering - don't think that you can gave ADSL on a prepaid line if I'm not mistaken...
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You can't but I think the idea is to keep your number separate from Neotel that way if they're cr@p its easy to change.
 
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