Neotel network speed degradation update

I am seriously at the end of my tether here.

I live in Ferndale, Randburg, and the qulaity of my Neoflex 10GB connection is so poor that I have taken tou using my HSDPA modem fulltime.

For the past week I have been experiencing regular disconnects which make browsing a nightmare, and downloading anything of significant size virtually impossible.

Apart from the constant disconnects, the service has also been very slow and prone to massive lag spikes.
 
Update: Durbanville Neotel sucks at the moment (as in the past 5 min).

Ping times are terrible and speeds are slow. Any idea what causes these temporary glitches?
 
zerofocus said:
Would you mind posting your complaint so the rest of us can use it as a template?
Click to expand...

I'll be going in to a lot a detail so it won't really be template material but I'll post it once I get feedback from ISPA and the process of investigation has begun.
 
@neotel rep: It's been a really long time since you have posted updates. I take it all is going well and the entire network will be back to normal end of the month like you said previously? Ignoring my requests for updates won't do you any good. I will keep posting questions until I get an answer.
 
@ zerofocus:

I have responded to your questions in the various threads. A formal statement will be made on these forums in due course.
 
Hi there

My download speeds are good - 1.3 Mbps - but uploads are very slow...in the region of 10 Kbps to 30 Kbps... Any reason for this?
 
Hi rpm,

I will ask an engineer to look into this.
Please PM me your Neotel service number.
 
Hi there

#1 Where can I see my upload and download speeds, is this Neotel specific or can anyone use this to what service they getting.

#2 With telkom you get a package, speed and volume, with Neotel we basically getting one speed which seems to fluctuate and then different volumes, Anyone knoe or maybe neotel can comment, will there be different speed packages also available with more of a gauruatee of min throughput's up and down.

Comment: why in the world are we in SA still sold packages that got a volume tied to it, Should we not be getting with the program like the rest of the world and simply have a speed throughput based package, if you want to download more you buy/sign for a higher throughput package.

G
 
@georgelza

1) Go to http://speedtest.neotel.co.za/ or http://www.speedtest.net/ to find your speed. It is not Neotel specific, anyone can use these

2) Neotel uses "WIRELESS" technology. It is shared. Speeds cannot be guranteed. This happened with iBurst. It was very very very slow when it became popular, and it took them about 6 months to get enough bandwidth to each tower. Neotel is still new. Hopefully it will all be sorted out soon and people can max out their speeds once all upgrades are done.

On your comment: This is South Africa. We are pwnd ('scuse the pun :D) by monopolies. Telkom being one of them. They are trying everything they can to charge you as much as they can so you pay the most so they have the money. Its a fact. That's business. We are tied to it untill either they start to care about us (not likely) or some telecommunications operator big enough to take "them" on decides to sell throughput packages. Until then...

Update: :'(

Last Result:
Download Speed: 366 kbps (45.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 48 kbps (6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Ping 500ms
 
I feel your pain Agentrfr... :sick:

Last Result:
Download Speed: 453 kbps (56.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 74 kbps (9.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

Speeds have really degraded in the past two days for me + connectivity issues.

I think some of the issues from March have made their return again :(

b.
 
Unfortunately anything Wireless is not gauranteed. (not speed wize or latency wise).

As the Antenna's need to speak to one another (Weather or Signal quality plays a big role) *Signal Strength, Signal Quality*

You might have full signal Strength but if the quality is poor, the speeds will then also be poor. Obviously if different towers has other issues aswell, you might be connected with excellent signal strength and quality but if the tower can't give you throughput...aka congestion occurs (then you are sucking on a dead rock boet)


Thats why alot of people even though they HATE Telskum, they still go for their packages cause it gives a very constant speed.

Even though telkom gives 384K, 512K and upto 4mbit ADSL lines, they also say that their speed is not gauranteed and is a "best effort" service. But ADSL is still the fastest reliable internet out there. 95% of people get at least 90% speed out of their line. Meaning 384K line could give 48kb per second download rate, but most people experience around 40kb per second to 43kb per second constant.

4mbit (4096kbps) should be able to give 512Kb per second speeds, but most people only see speeds of around 430kb per second or at least 400kb per second average. **4mbit is super fast, your Cap usually lasts under a day. B'cause you can download at 1.4gig per hour +- **

My 2Cents
 
Last edited:
Internet heaven

Have left my joke Neotel for some UK broadband heaven.
Arrived a week ago for a 2 year assignment here in London.
When getting my apartment it got a 16 Mb line with no cap, it's flying - speed is unbeliaveble.
Phoned Sky broadband for account setup, login/pass ,and it took 2 minutes + the represantative was extremely friendly and seemed to know what she was talking about when throwing som tech questions.

Also tried to connect via my cell with 3G - same thing - flying. Usually gets 7.2 Mb connection and surfing is extremely fast.

We are so behind in SA - the rest of the world is speeding away from us at incredible speed.
 
Sigh. Africa could technically still be defined as a 3rd world country when you look at our telecommunications. Not cool. Steam (evil gaming company requiring always on connectivity to play their games) decided to put their African server in Zambia because cap is cheaper and faster, even though 90% of African Steam users are in South Africa. I mean WTF. Zambia??? Goes to show how much we lag behind ('scuse the pun).

Even the other day I was playing on a server in UK and I got a message suggesting I get a minimum of a 12meg line to keep pings low. You can't even buy that here. Fail...

Update:

Last Result:
Download Speed: 444 kbps (55.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 71 kbps (8.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
 
neoconnect lite = FAIL

Last Result:
Download Speed: 33 kbps (4.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 51 kbps (6.4 KB/sec transfer rate)
 
OK. Interesting development this morning. It died.

Seriously, no signal whatsoever. But, considering i did get an RSSI of 56 it means that the towers nearby are either being fixed, or on fire. Hopefully the first....

Towers 301-330 are dead. All of them. Right now I'm connecting to tower 300, which by my calculations is roughly 16km away. We shall soon see if everything is being fixed :D
 
Its now 12pm. Still no service... If your fixing it, please tell me so I can wait knowing its for a purpose :D
 
hmm, anyone know the tower locations, any way we can see where they are, Alberton Specific.

Any members here from the Alberton/Meyersdal/Brackenhurst area.
What gets me is there is no reason we have to have these sh$t service for local loops, local connectivity, I can understand why international traffic going out via subsea cables still needs to be shared/restricted but local. hmm ye not really new, and i know i am just blowing off steam...

Agentfrf, your down speed looks very similar to mine, your upload thought :(
which package you got, how far are you from tower, signal strength?

Thanks.
G
 
Thanks Agentfrf

Just tried speedtest.net also



G

agentrfr said:
@georgelza

1) Go to http://speedtest.neotel.co.za/ or http://www.speedtest.net/ to find your speed. It is not Neotel specific, anyone can use these

2) Neotel uses "WIRELESS" technology. It is shared. Speeds cannot be guranteed. This happened with iBurst. It was very very very slow when it became popular, and it took them about 6 months to get enough bandwidth to each tower. Neotel is still new. Hopefully it will all be sorted out soon and people can max out their speeds once all upgrades are done.

On your comment: This is South Africa. We are pwnd ('scuse the pun :D) by monopolies. Telkom being one of them. They are trying everything they can to charge you as much as they can so you pay the most so they have the money. Its a fact. That's business. We are tied to it untill either they start to care about us (not likely) or some telecommunications operator big enough to take "them" on decides to sell throughput packages. Until then...

Update: :'(

Last Result:
Download Speed: 366 kbps (45.8 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 48 kbps (6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Ping 500ms
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X