BUYER BEWARE - Misleading Advertising.
SmartBroadband deals ONLY available on Telkom's network - which does not cover most of SA. This restriction is not shown in the advertised deals. Once you sign up for two years - it's your problem if you find yourself without coverage. Telkom have been promising major network expansion since 8TA was announced five years ago but it is still pathetically restricted to the major centers - no country-wide cellular network. Their cellphone customers roam on the MTN network - but data is expensive. I get MTN 3G at home with 3-6Meg speed on Speedtest which I would have been happy with and assumed it would be the same from Telkom.
The "More Info" Page mentions nothing about network restrictions - misleading advertising.
I finally found it in the Terms And Conditions - and who reads those details when you sign a new cell contract in a shop? You accept you are signing for a deal "as advertised".
Here is the "fine print".
"Subscription to Telkom’s SmartBroadband Wireless service is subject to the availability of its LTE network coverage within the specified location and the subscriber will not be able to roam on MTN’s 3G network."
It's a "Home" solution - but there are a lot of homes not covered by the Telkom network - the most restricted network. An existing Telkom cell phone customer might assume this will work because he has 3G data at home on his phone because his phone is using the MTN network.
SmartBroadband deals ONLY available on Telkom's network - which does not cover most of SA. This restriction is not shown in the advertised deals. Once you sign up for two years - it's your problem if you find yourself without coverage. Telkom have been promising major network expansion since 8TA was announced five years ago but it is still pathetically restricted to the major centers - no country-wide cellular network. Their cellphone customers roam on the MTN network - but data is expensive. I get MTN 3G at home with 3-6Meg speed on Speedtest which I would have been happy with and assumed it would be the same from Telkom.
The "More Info" Page mentions nothing about network restrictions - misleading advertising.
I finally found it in the Terms And Conditions - and who reads those details when you sign a new cell contract in a shop? You accept you are signing for a deal "as advertised".
Here is the "fine print".
"Subscription to Telkom’s SmartBroadband Wireless service is subject to the availability of its LTE network coverage within the specified location and the subscriber will not be able to roam on MTN’s 3G network."
It's a "Home" solution - but there are a lot of homes not covered by the Telkom network - the most restricted network. An existing Telkom cell phone customer might assume this will work because he has 3G data at home on his phone because his phone is using the MTN network.
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