Positivity

[sevenworth]

I think that its time a thread is started where people can post all the good, positive things about Vodacom's service experience. And I know there is a lot to say. I'm sure I'm not the only one sick to death of all the ranting and raving about the never-ending woes of being subscribed to 3g. Is it such a burden? I'd like to give a little credit where it's due.

I have been subscribed to 3g for about 3 months. I have an Option Nozomi datacard which connects effortlessly on XP and Ubuntu 6.04. While it works faster on Linux, I have no real gripes with its operation in windows. It works on my desktop and my notebooks without many problems. In general, I don't regret for a second that I opted to go for 3g instead of Telkom ADSL (which I can't take with me when I go out).

Its an all-round good internet solution, and I'm happy with it.

Keep on improving it, Vodacom.

 

[rpm]

Hi Sevenworth

While I am not using Vodacom’s 3G/HSDPA as a primary connection (have ADSL in home office), it is definitely my connection of choice when leaving the home office. And that includes my office at work where our connectivity is pathetic They have great coverage and it is a life saver in boring conferences or departmental meetings…

 

[ic]

sevenworth, I hear you on the positivity aspect, and great that you're not experiencing drastic problems, but others do battle, and it's only natural that they will vent & rant about their experiences.

What I would like to avoid, in this forum, is the situation that arose in the iBurst forum, with a certain slimothy, that more or less insisted that everyone else must have a perfect iBurst experience just bcos his iBurst experience was perfect.

It's wireless and it's technology and not everyone is going to have the same experiences [all the time] compared to everyone else.

 

[sevenworth]

sevenworth, I hear you on the positivity aspect, and great that you're not experiencing drastic problems, but others do battle, and it's only natural that they will vent & rant about their experiences.

What I would like to avoid, in this forum, is the situation that arose in the iBurst forum, with a certain slimothy, that more or less insisted that everyone else must have a perfect iBurst experience just bcos his iBurst experience was perfect.

It's wireless and it's technology and not everyone is going to have the same experiences [all the time] compared to everyone else.

Granted. however, the motives for this thread are merely to serve as a breath of fresh air amongst the smog of Vodacom hate-speech (as such). Let those who experience better than morbid service tell about it here, and possibly attract more people to "a generally good service". Or at least, a way better option that telkom

Never any harm intended.

 

[HosstheBoss]

Sevenworth just wants to hear about the positive experiences with 3G, doubt he's trying to force others into saying 3g's great

Sometimes I recon the entire forum could do with a little positivity (myself included), nice one Sevenworth

 

[ic]

Granted. however, the motives for this thread are merely to serve as a breath of fresh air amongst the smog of Vodacom hate-speech (as such). Let those who experience better than morbid service tell about it here, and possibly attract more people to "a generally good service". Or at least, a way better option that telkom

Never any harm intended.

No problemo, I know you mean no harm, and it's a good idea for a thread and for the forum, but don't be too surprised if some forumites are more -ve than +ve .

 

[redarrow]

My vodacom cell number is a positive digit !

EDIT: Oops, I guess I meant to say "positive number" seeing as it consists of more than one digit

 

[vodacom3g]

sevenworth, as the recipient of all the 'negative' messages, I don't think it's going so bad actually.

People tend to only post when there is a problem but if you look at the number of posts and the topics vs. the subscriber base it's a very, very small %. So, most of the time, most of the people are happy.

There still is enough time for some banter and (with the exception with one or two 'regulars') there is no real Vodacom hate-speech going on.

I attribute this to the (mostly) professional level of the participants on this forum, who understand the complexities of the environment and also understand that we don't live in a perfect world.

Having said all the above, positive comments are always extremely welcome!

I use the 3G/HSDPA network in exactly the same way as everyone else and my experience is predominately positive, for sure I'd not stop using the service. And, BTW, I pay my R600 per month like anyone else....

 

[sevenworth]

And, BTW, I pay my R600 per month like anyone else....

never doubted that for a second... <looking up>or did I...?</looking up>

joking. i guess reading all GayTechies frustrated, pent-up posts are getting me down. i guess a bit of positive talk is all i needed... see, i'm a positive guy... i try to see the good in things... *sigh*

i guess i've spent a bit too much time in thread_killer...

<forlorn>i've had a long day</forlorn>

Hey but guess what..?!? My 3g is still connected and working!!!!

 

[ic]

Something that would grab my attention, is a thread where forumites share some of the more unusual uses of their 3G|HSDPA [perhaps even GPRS & EDGE] connections - like commercial systems that they've built to rely on a 3G|HSDPA connection...

I know v3g is an expert in home automation & management systems and can keep tabs on his house when away from home & freak his family out by turning stuff on & off & open doors etc .

 

[sevenworth]

Something that would grab my attention, is a thread where forumites share some of the more unusual uses of their 3G|HSDPA [perhaps even GPRS & EDGE] connections - like commercial systems that they've built to rely on a 3G|HSDPA connection...

I know v3g is an expert in home automation & management systems and can keep tabs on his house when away from home & freak his family out by turning stuff on & off & open doors etc .

I've been planning for a while to get hold of a few ip cameras for my home. was wondering what kind of bandwidth these things use, so was going to start with one and see how it goes... will definately let you know how it pans out. as far as automation goes, i work in the industry, and I can't imagine why it wouldnt work. obviously you'd have the usual reliability problems from time to time though.

 

[Syndyre]

I've been planning for a while to get hold of a few ip cameras for my home. was wondering what kind of bandwidth these things use, so was going to start with one and see how it goes... will definately let you know how it pans out. as far as automation goes, i work in the industry, and I can't imagine why it wouldnt work. obviously you'd have the usual reliability problems from time to time though.

Not sure if Vodacom offers something similar but when I was at a shopping centre over the weekend MTN were promoting an IP camera on contract that connected directly to their cell network and was accessible from any other phone. Seemed like quite a good idea for the mass market.

 

[Syndyre]

Hi Sevenworth

While I am not using Vodacom’s 3G/HSDPA as a primary connection (have ADSL in home office), it is definitely my connection of choice when leaving the home office. And that includes my office at work where our connectivity is pathetic They have great coverage and it is a life saver in boring conferences or departmental meetings…

Aren't you on TENET? Connectivity's pretty good off it here.

 

[vodacom3g]

I've been planning for a while to get hold of a few ip cameras for my home. was wondering what kind of bandwidth these things use, so was going to start with one and see how it goes... will definately let you know how it pans out. as far as automation goes, i work in the industry, and I can't imagine why it wouldnt work. obviously you'd have the usual reliability problems from time to time though.

IP Cam bandwidth would depend on the codec you're using times the resolution.

I stream mjpeg, mpeg4, 3gpp and real-one over 3G and EDGE and even over GPRS! On a Nokia Symbian phone, you can actually watch TV at 20Kb/s!

With HSDPA, I open up 4 concurrent video streams without a problem, but it becomes expensive. Especially if you're out of the country and you roam

But the ability to watch, in real-time, what's going on in your home, from anywhere in the world, is very powerful.

Reliability of Home Management is inversely proportional to the Windows installed base.

PM me your contact details and I'll send you some info.

 

[Syndyre]

Anyway, in line with the thread topic, was nice that when I was roaming in Europe I could get data at R10/mb off Vodafone partner networks instead of what seems to be the usual R80-100. R10 isn't cheap sure but not bad considering you're roaming overseas and if you use it mainly for email.

Also never really had any major problems connecting to Vodacom, surprising some of the places you can get 3G now too! For me the other advantage of cell connectivity is that if one network goes down I can change sims and be on another one pretty much instantly, don't really have that option with ADSL. Voda doesn't seem to go down at all, for me anyway, but maybe I'm lucky.

 

[sevenworth]

Not sure if Vodacom offers something similar but when I was at a shopping centre over the weekend MTN were promoting an IP camera on contract that connected directly to their cell network and was accessible from any other phone. Seemed like quite a good idea for the mass market.

sounds like a good idea, but i want to be able to access the cams from the web, don't wanna be "cell-bound" as such...

 

[sevenworth]

IP Cam bandwidth would depend on the codec you're using times the resolution.

I stream mjpeg, mpeg4, 3gpp and real-one over 3G and EDGE and even over GPRS! On a Nokia Symbian phone, you can actually watch TV at 20Kb/s!

With HSDPA, I open up 4 concurrent video streams without a problem, but it becomes expensive. Especially if you're out of the country and you roam

But the ability to watch, in real-time, what's going on in your home, from anywhere in the world, is very powerful.

Reliability of Home Management is inversely proportional to the Windows installed base.

PM me your contact details and I'll send you some info.

How does the "unrestricted apn" situation affect this kind of setup? Is this kind of thing not one of the incoming connections that the network won't allow? I have been waiting to be able to remotely control my home pc over 3g via dyndns.org (when will i be able to). Does accessing an ip camera through the connection work on the same principle?

Surely if you have an automated system running off a pc at home, connected with 3g, you'd be able to manipulate any and all of the controls by remote desktop connection if the connection was allowed?

 

[Syndyre]

sounds like a good idea, but i want to be able to access the cams from the web, don't wanna be "cell-bound" as such...

I know, anyway probably not really worth it at the price they were asking, about R180/mth on a 24 month contract, but might be good for less technically inclined people that couldn't tell you what an IP camera or apn is and want something that "just works".

 

[sevenworth]

I know, anyway probably not really worth it at the price they were asking, about R180/mth on a 24 month contract, but might be good for less technically inclined people that couldn't tell you what an IP camera or apn is and want something that "just works".

damb... R180 bucks a month... does it make coffee?

 

[Syndyre]

damb... R180 bucks a month... does it make coffee?

No, but it does include a whole 40 megs data transfer if I remember correctly.