VC 3G vs Telkom 3G

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sunsoffun

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Any of you guys moved over from Vodacom 3G over to Telkom 3G?

I know Telkom's price is a lot better than Vodacoms, but how would you compare the two in terms of speed, uptime, pings, QOS...ext.
 
There are two, and only two, reasons to even consider v3g over t3g and those are:

1. v3g data expires 30 days after purchase, t3g expires on the last day of the month.
2. v3g has bigger coverage.

If you live inside the t3g coverage area point 2 falls away, so v3g has a very, very small edge over t3g.

In my opinion the v3g data network is a joke. Sure it works fine after 3am, but peak time (when you want to use it if you have a standard 9-5 job) it is useless.

If you can get t3g, go for it! :)
 
I got Telkom 3G after struggling with poor reception on both MTN and Vodacom and it is a massive improvement.

My ping to www.saix.net is mostly a constant 70ms or so, with speedtest.net giving me latency of about 160ms.

Downloads really fly with speeds of at least 4000kbps.
Uploads are generally also very good in the region of 1000kbps.

All of this with relatively poor reception, (my 3g router show signal strength of about 2 bars out of 10)

http://www.speedtest.net/result/378253279.png

I have been playing War3 on the local server without any problems and very decent pings, which was previously impossible on both MTN and Vodacom 3G.

Oh, and it is cheaper.

Why not try it for a month, and if you are not happy, you can just cancel it. Although I think they now charge you a sim and connection fee which you will then lose. Up to end November this was free.
 
@Pilgrim

I don't think point 1 is to much of a deal breaker for me, and with regards to point 2 - I work mostly in CT, DBN and JHB. As long as those areas are covered, then I'm not to concerned about how large Telkoms 3G footprint is.

@gifs

As soon as it comes to DBN, I will give it definitely give it a try. Double the speed at a reduced price seems worth it. I am just a bit concerned how stable the whole new network is though. Nothing frustrates me more than a dicey wireless connection... something that has not really happened to me on the VC network to date...touch wood. ;)
 
Enjoy Telkom's 3G offering while it is not heavily populated. I have a sneaking suspision that Vodacom is going to blow our socks off in a few months, since they are no longer associated with Telkom. I would like to predict that Vodacom will be on top of the food chain in terms of speed and price. A family member uses Telkom 3G, and it is brilliant... for now.
 
iDDQDm0de said:
Enjoy Telkom's 3G offering while it is not heavily populated. I have a sneaking suspision that Vodacom is going to blow our socks off in a few months, since they are no longer associated with Telkom. I would like to predict that Vodacom will be on top of the food chain in terms of speed and price. A family member uses Telkom 3G, and it is brilliant... for now.
Click to expand...

Well lets hope so. Like most of us out here on the internet, we go for the best deal around and Telkom 3G seems to be that deal at the moment.
 
I totally agree. As consumers we always look for the best product and price. But what is better? Reliability and experience... or monopolism and utter horseballs service at a cheap rate?
 
iDDQDm0de said:
I totally agree. As consumers we always look for the best product and price. But what is better? Reliability and experience... or monopolism and utter horseballs service at a cheap rate?
Click to expand...

Hence why I started this thread ;) Best deal for me includes price and QOS.
 
sunsoffun said:
Hence why I started this thread ;) Best deal for me includes price and QOS.
Click to expand...

With a handful of users on the network and no constraints on back-haul, it will be really, really surprising if Telkom's 3G is not faster at the moment.

Should be interesting to see what happens when they get to a million+ users. And obviously reliability will only be known in time. But Telkom is not doing this half-arsed, so I don't think reliability is going to be a problem for now.

Where I do think they're at a disadvantage is the lack of experience in rolling out BIG wireless networks. Getting a few hundred towers up with the relevant back-end systems should not be a major job. It's pretty-much tried and tested technology.

But as we know, complexity grows exponentially as the network grows in a linear fashion.
 
vodacom3g said:
With a handful of users on the network and no constraints on back-haul, it will be really, really surprising if Telkom's 3G is not faster at the moment.
Click to expand...

I doubt back-haul is going to be a problem for Telkom, seeing they supply most of it to everyone. Vodacom is only running at 3.2MB nationally, not so? I hear that Telkom have launched with 7.2MB. Also, the pricing is cheaper. Is Vodacom planning to drop their rates soon?
 
sunsoffun said:
I doubt back-haul is going to be a problem for Telkom, seeing they supply most of it to everyone.
Click to expand...
Yup.
sunsoffun said:
Vodacom is only running at 3.2MB nationally, not so? I hear that Telkom have launched with 7.2MB.
Click to expand...
3.6 at the moment. Network is fully 7.2 but not activate, awaiting better backhaul. See point 1 above. :rolleyes:
sunsoffun said:
Also, the pricing is cheaper. Is Vodacom planning to drop their rates soon?
Click to expand...
Products guys are busy with some stuff. Obviously if I tell you, I'll have to kill you. :)
 
vodacom3g said:
With a handful of users on the network and no constraints on back-haul, it will be really, really surprising if Telkom's 3G is not faster at the moment.

Should be interesting to see what happens when they get to a million+ users. And obviously reliability will only be known in time. But Telkom is not doing this half-arsed, so I don't think reliability is going to be a problem for now.

Where I do think they're at a disadvantage is the lack of experience in rolling out BIG wireless networks. Getting a few hundred towers up with the relevant back-end systems should not be a major job. It's pretty-much tried and tested technology.

But as we know, complexity grows exponentially as the network grows in a linear fashion.
Click to expand...

I think Telkom has gained enough experience from VC. Also spoke to a consultant at a 3G shop in Canal Walk about price reductions. He said prices are not likely to come down in the near future. But we'll see. This is where the competition comes in real handy and the consumer should benifit.
 
PythonFSi said:
I think Telkom has gained enough experience from VC. Also spoke to a consultant at a 3G shop in Canal Walk about price reductions. He said prices are not likely to come down in the near future. But we'll see. This is where the competition comes in real handy and the consumer should benifit.
Click to expand...

Its going to be interesting!
 
Paying money to telkom is like skinning a few cats and drinking their blood.
Both actions involves a sacrifice you make to satan.
 
Rouxenator said:
Paying money to telkom is like skinning a few cats and drinking their blood.
Click to expand...
Since Telkom own half of Vodacom, does that mean paying money to Vodacom is like skinning half as many cats and drinking their blood?
 
ginggs said:
Since Telkom own half of Vodacom, does that mean paying money to Vodacom is like skinning half as many cats and drinking their blood?
Click to expand...

Is it still half? Dammit, whats holding up the Vodafone deal!
My wife is getting pissed off about all these cat halves I store in the freezer :sick:
 
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