Repeat misfire
Vodacom appears to be making the same mistake Sentech made in 2004 and the controversy surrounding MyWireless.
MyWireless was launched by Sentech to offer South Africans unlimited and uncapped access to the Internet. Everything appeared to be running smoothly for the first few months, until some users reported that connection speeds had suddenly dropped dramatically.
At the time, Sentech responded to complaints by saying that only 5% of customers were experiencing speed problems and that it was merely symptomatic of a growing network.
In July 2004, responding to bad publicity and multiple anti-Sentech Web sites, Sentech announced it would take steps to ensure the MyWireless system would not be abused further.
The company analysed user statistics and determined that 6% of users were abusing the system (with some downloading as much as 60GB per month), and as a result, a decision was made to begin managing the service.
Sentech's fair usage policy allowed it to manage those users who were abusing the system – despite the fact that the policy was not made immediately apparent to subscribers – causing another backlash. MyWireless was discontinued in 2009.
