Uncapped alternatives?

S

SkyMatix

Active Member
Joined
Feb 20, 2007
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Location
Fairland, Johannesburg
Dear forumites

I have recently moved to Gauteng from Cape Town (sure, I know I'm crazy). I just moved into my new home in Fairland on the West Rand a couple of weeks ago, and have applied to have my Telkom service moved from Cape Town to the new place.

In Cape Town I had a 4,096 line which consistently out-performed that rating (!). I used Telkom only for the line, and purchased an uncapped service from Axxess. Total monthly cost came to just under R1,000.00 for fast, uncapped Internet. I generally use about 1 gig per day, due to the business that I'm in (TV production - and we upload/download a lot of footage between our offices, homes, etc.).

After applying with Telkom to move the service to my new home, I received an SMS saying that there is 'insufficient infrastructure in my area, and further investigations will be done'. I find this very strange, since the previous owners had Telkom ADSL installed... (Yes, I did try plugging in my router, but no ADSL detected on this line any more). I'm obviously fighting this battle with them, and hope to make some headway on that front soon.

But in the mean time, I have been wondering about alternatives...

My needs are for fast, reliable, uncapped Internet (or with a BIG cap, like 60GB or so). As mentioned, I now live in Fairland, on the West Rand, and would appreciate any advice. I don't mind spending a little bit more (up to R1,500 per month), and I don't need a land line for calls.

I get weak HSUPA signal on one side of my property, and nothing on the side where my office is (of course not!).

iBurst?
Neotel?
Metronet?
Others?
 
SkyMatix said:
After applying with Telkom to move the service to my new home, I received an SMS saying that there is 'insufficient infrastructure in my area, and further investigations will be done'. I find this very strange, since the previous owners had Telkom ADSL installed...
Click to expand...

Once service is cancelled the adsl port might have been reassigned to somebody else leaving you in the lurch until they upgrade your area sadly

As for who to try,i'm very happy with Neotel's Business Wimax service,give them a ring and see if they can check your area for signal
 
Thanks for the replies so far! I've made contact with both Neotel (seems a touch expensive?) and Amobia. Neotel promised to phone me back, but nothing yet. I've requested a site survey from Amobia, and certainly hope it works!

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Click to expand...
 
I have the 1mb uncapped at home and its awesome! Pings between 20 and 30ms and 1mb up/down. oh and it they use MWEB backbone for the uncapped products.

Check over here LINK

Coverage map for JHB, Fairland looks like it has coverage. LINK

SkyMatix said:
Thanks for the replies so far! I've made contact with both Neotel (seems a touch expensive?) and Amobia. Neotel promised to phone me back, but nothing yet. I've requested a site survey from Amobia, and certainly hope it works!
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
SkyMatix said:
Thanks for the replies so far! I've made contact with both Neotel (seems a touch expensive?) and Amobia. Neotel promised to phone me back, but nothing yet. I've requested a site survey from Amobia, and certainly hope it works!
Click to expand...

So did they get back to you?
 
So did they get back to you?
Click to expand...

They did indeed! Was a bit hectic the last two days, so I've neglected to update. Amobia sent out a tech crew for a site survey this morning. They arrived promptly at 10am as per the appointment, and set to work immediately. After showing the tech my study (so that they could see where the terminal point would be), the guys clambered onto my roof, squinted in the direction of Northcliff, pointed some fancy antennas in various directions and finally logged the location on GPS. They were done in less than 15 minutes, and proclaimed my site to be 'exceptionally suitable for their infrastructure'. Apparently I have clear line of sight to all of their infrastructure in the surrounding area, and as a result latency shouldn't be much of an issue (I'm going for uncapped, 3MB).

Shortly after the techs left, I received an email from Amobia's Joburg office, with forms to fill in, as well as a request for things like a scan of my ID document, proof of residence and proof of payment for the installation. My installation was deemed 'complex', due to the length of cable required. So my install is costing R1,699 - instead of the usual R999. I'm cool with that though, as I can see why they need the extra cabling.

I completed the forms, made the payment and supplied the docs. Shortly after I received an email to confirm that everything had been received, and that their installation team will contact me on Monday to set up an appointment for the installation. Nearly there...

The tech also showed me the terminal point they'll be installing, and I was surprised to find it consisting of just a tiny black box - the size of a pack of cigarettes, with two Ethernet ports - one for the antenna and one for my router. And it needs external power.

All in all I have been mightily impressed by Amobia's service, and the only thing I find surprising is that until now, I hadn't heard of them before. So their service is great, but their marketing needs work ;)

Will let you know once it is up!
 
wish i could get amobia, so tired of telkom crap service.... Amobia did a site survey at my place but unfortunately they don't have coverage in my area:(
 
Finally! The big day arrived yesterday (while I was out of town), and Amobia did the installation. Clearly everything went well, as I found the terminal point exactly where I asked for it, all very neatly done. Good start!

Next I plugged the fly lead into my Wireless Router (Netgear something or other), but couldn't figure out where to turn off the modem (I was very tired), so aborted the mission and went to bed. First thing this morning I plugged the Amobia feed into a non-wireless router, and added a lead for my desktop - online in seconds! I'll sort out the wireless later today, but for now I have access.

First impressions are good. I went for the 3mbs uncapped option at R799 per month, so expected reasonably high latency. Here are some of my first results:

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1946246791.png

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1946252299.png

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1946260037.png

The perceived speed is good so far, and I'm quite pleased that I'm rid of Telkom at last!
 
You do know you can direct from the PoE unit installed on the wall straight into your PC, instead of going through a router as the device assigns an IP. Your wireless router will work just disable the DHCP on it. But the results are looking good :)
 
SkyMatix said:
Yep, so far so good. My FTP transfers have been slick and fast - very pleased so far! As a matter of fact, everything feels fast enough - and stable enough!
Click to expand...

Think that's because you're situated in a prime spot where you have direct line of site :D
Congrates and enjoy! :whistle:
 
I know this is an odd question but do you have a pic of the install or point me somewhere as to what this looks like? I am moving into a top floor complex unit with direct line of sight to Northcliff (yay) and thinking that this may be my best bet to install as no ADSL availability. I own the unit but not sure if I need body corp approval before installing? If I do would be nice to have a pic to show them. I am new to complexes so not too sure what I can and cannot do.
 
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