Questions about Sentech & NoWire

N

newb5000

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 22, 2005
Messages
285
Reaction score
0
Hi there,

I've been wanting to get rid of my 56k analog connection for years now and I think I've finally decided to go forth. I just have some questions before I make my final decision, if you don't mind me asking.

Firstly, I calculated that I currently pay the following per month (2005 pricelist):
Telkom line rental - R87.05
Telkom R8.55 (not R7 anymore!) Callmore plan - R58.55
ISP charges - R79.00
Phonebill - R400 (give or take, with disconnections & connecting during the day sometimes)

Total monthly cost: R624.60
I get around 4KB/s and it's not a 24hr connection

I considered ADSL and iBurst but I don't like the idea of being capped, especially with Skype around.
Did you know, it is cheaper to make a national call to a SA landline through Skype (at 62c/min) than it is to make a national phonecall through Telkom (at 89c/min) at peak time? Also, Skype to SA Cellular is R1.65/min, while Telkom to Cellular peak is R1.88/min.
http://www.skype.com/products/skypeout/rates/all_rates.html?currency=ZAR#listing-S
http://www.hellkom.co.za/info/increases.htm

Anyway, Sentech interests me because you pay R649.00/month for MyWireless 128k and it's a 24hr connection. Thus, effectively, for a 24 month contract, modem included, you pay per month:
( R649.00 * 24
+ R500.00 activation
+ R70.00 delivery )
/ 24
= R672.75
I know the activation fee and delivery are once off, I just worked them into the 24 months to see what I'll be paying per month all in all to switch over.
So, with a monthly cost of R672.75 I get a theoretical speed of (128kb/s / 8) 16KB/s, with a 24 hour connection (subject to a 24 month contract of course). That's R48.15 more expensive than my current connection, with much more to offer.

I hope all of my calculations are correct.

My questions are:

1. What's the difference between NoWire and Sentech? (Besides the option of a monthly contract and on-site testing that NoWire offers)

2. Sentech's contention ratio is 15:1 local and 30:1 international. In the worst case, 29 people are in the same pool as I am for intenational bandwidth. Sentech told me that the minimum download rate in that scenario is around 4 or 5KB/s. Can anyone confirm this? That it doesn't ever drop below 4KB/s for example?

3. Do you think that the MyWireless 128k package has sufficient bandwidth to support reliable phonecalls from Skype? What is the required bandwidth for Skype anyway ? (it says 33.6k minimum, but you can't have decent conversations with that)

4. Instead of signing a 24 month contract, should I rather wait for some new company / product to arrive within the next few months?

5. Is the MyWireless package truly 24hrs per day, or do you get disconnected often?


Thank you in advance for any help. It will be much appreciated.
 
Most of your questions have been answered all over the forum, but I'll try and summarize my thoughts on them. Remember, I am not a Mywireless subscriber and proud of it.


1.) no-wire is a re-seller. Thus the reason for the more personalised service offering.

2.) Your calcs seem to be on par. From what I've read, The speeds often drop below that.

3.) Not too sure, I think Skype doesn't work too well on MyWireless. Then again, even ADSL is now a no-go for Skype after Telkom implemented some changes.

4.) Here I can give my opinion.. DO NOT SIGN a 24-month contract. If there has been one good lesson learned on these forums, is that, to not sign any contract longer than 30-days. We should be seeing some new offerings from companies in the very near future, plus the contracts leave you with now recourse or guarantees on service levels.

5.) Some peeps get disconnected often, others not. Guess it depends on your setup/signal.

Personally, I would try out the service for 30 days at least before making up my mind.

Did you consider I-burst?

:)
 
Skype works VERY well on Mywireless... I use it almost every day of the week
to a number of countries. In fact it is one of the strength's of the MyWireless
product.... this compared to other technologies I've used!
 
There you go!! Skype is fine...

As I said, I wouldn't know, never used MyWireless before...

Just wondering if all users find Skype to be working on MyWireless?
 
louisp... it's like everything... some people are quick to compalin about Skype...
but don't make the necessary effort to configure it correctly, let alone
use a proper headset etc. etc.
Try and read as many myadsl posts as possible, bearing in mind that
you can't take all posters seriously :)
Understand that each product has limitations: MyWireless is a good
product, but not for someone who intends to be a heavy downloader.
iBurst ... well read the posts and see for yourself.... it's still having serious
teething problems.
Broadband still has a long way to go here in SA... and don't for one minute
believe otherwise!!!!!
 
On that note, maybe you can sommer help...

I've been skyping over ISDN 64K with a friend 64K ISDN also, and it works very well. The avg bandwidth taken by Skype was in the region of 2kB/s (up and down combined).

BUT (everyone has got a butt), when we invite a third person into conference the bandwidth goes up to 4kB/s, the quality is erratic and we get disconnects all the time.

All 3 ppl are on 64K ISDN, all 3 on Imaginet.

I've also seen that if someone has got "excess" bandwidth then it is fine again. Ie. Once we connected 2 ppl on 64K ISDN and one with ADSL and then we were flying again.

Have you encountered the same, or maybe have a solution?

:)
 
Take a look at my speeds. I've been running tests every 30min for the past few days. Trying to get realistic stats

Skype to skype is pretty good. SkypeOut to any SA number totally sucks. Person on the phone couldnt hear any thing. I've tried a few times. SkypeOut to the UK is pretty good
 
louisp, I have never had a conversation with a 3rd person, so cannot comment.
I do however often have conversations lasting well over an hour....and don't so
much as loose a syllable!!
 
Just to answer the question regarding Sentech and NoWire. NoWire as mentioned is a reseller for Sentech. NoWire has a number of partner companies which visit the customer and get them connected. So 95% of the time, you are going to have a MUCH better time going via a person than via a Sentech switchboard. At least there is someone to call if things are not working properly. Costs are also SLIGHTLY cheaper (eg no delivery fee although depending on which package is taken there may be signal testing fee). NoWire also offers a month by month contract as well. JustConnect is one of NoWire's partner companies. Hope that clears that up a bit...
 
I used one of the Nowire partner companies. Got charged R250 excl call out fee when the Nowire guys told me there would be no call out fee.

Also, the sentech modem is now R3000 on special (R500 discount). Nowire is selling the modem at R3300 (only R200 off)
 
Just checked your results JayT.

Got reminded how bad MyWireless' latencies are.

700ms?

That won't cut it for me
 
Whats even more pathetic is how my speeds jump from 19 - 214kbps and I havent been downloading large files. Ave of 148kbps (last 24 hours). Which is crappy for a 256 package.

But with my tcpIQ now running every 30min, I'll be able to show accurate stats in a week or 2 time. My upload "Speed vs time(Month)" has already changed a lot since Ive been doing the 48 tests a day. Once or twice a day just doesnt cut it.

Great, I see the last few results havent even made it to the stats server. Time to shut it down and do a manual check
 
newb5000 said:
2. Sentech's contention ratio is 15:1 local and 30:1 international. In the worst case, 29 people are in the same pool as I am for intenational bandwidth. Sentech told me that the minimum download rate in that scenario is around 4 or 5KB/s. Can anyone confirm this? That it doesn't ever drop below 4KB/s for example?
Click to expand...
Sentech lies. That's the *average* international download speed for MW 128. Consider getting 400Mb in 24 hours for a medium size file download. And I've had it going under 1KB/s which is when I pause and restart. Local downloads are good, though, round about 15Kb/s.

I agree that you shouldn't even *think* about locking yourself into a 12 or 24 month contract. Take it month by month because new offerings are coming onto the scene. Even then, wait a bit and check out the reliability (MW was good to start with then went downhill, iBurst appears to be in the same position).

Bandwidth limitations aside, I've been generally satisfied with MW because I have capped my call costs and it's on most of the time. If you want to go with MW, just don't go direct, rather use a reseller. Trust me on this. Sentech's useless - I have never received a copy of my contract or a statement. I don't mind making noise in the meantime, but I reckon come Feb next year when my contract's up, there are going to be some much more attractive and stable offerings around. Then check my dust ....
 
Taking a deep breath for the next 12 months...

Thank you all for the replies, much appreciated.

I decided to go for the 128 package through NoWire. Getting the modem for R3000 and paying R549p/m for a 12 month contract, no activation fee. I guess it boils down to what you're prepared to put up with, service wise: I guess I can live with the fact that I might get around 5KB/s a lot of the time, but then that's slightly faster than my 56k, it's a 24hr connection, no cap and I'm not paying much more per month than I currently am. Web page loading should be faster, as well as local transfers.

I hope the NoWire technician that came to my house didn't bug the modem he was using because I got a 22% signal strength, 4 bars almost all the time. This without any antenna. I guess I've got good coverage *touch wood*.

Out of curiosity, the technician told me that I would have to pay an extra R150 for him to do a firmware update on the modem, otherwise I have to do it myself. A lot of people on this forum say that Sentech's service started off well, but has declined and that initially there was no international bandwidth throttle. I can't help but wonder if this "firmware update" has something to do with the throttle. Is the bandwidth throttle handled strictly from Sentech's servers or could it be implemented in the client's hardware i.e. modem? I get this idea from an article I read a while back on Tom's hardware that some time this year, HDTV cards are going to start being produced with a hardwired mechanism which prevents you from recording certain HDTV shows on your PC, via the card itself. Thus your hardware would prevent you from recording a show if the server sends a certain signal to your card. Anyway, just food for thought, Sentech probably wouldn't use such a complicated mechanism :)

Wish me luck with the MyWireless package and hopefully by the beginning of next year there will be plenty of uncapped, real broadband options to choose from, at an affordable price.
 
its a server controlled throttle and only on international bandwidth. I havent updated my firmware for months but have seen 2 throttle attempts
 
newb5000 said:
Wish me luck with the MyWireless package and hopefully by the beginning of next year there will be plenty of uncapped, real broadband options to choose from, at an affordable price.
Click to expand...
Yeah! Rule the day!
 
R150 to upgrade firmware, what are these fsckers smoking, get the modem, and once its installed on your PC, open the dialler and click the button that says ..... "upgrade firmware"
I personally haven't upgraded to the newer firmware as I prefer the old!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X