I have been out of the loop for a bit, but: does Vodacom have a Wimax licence? Did they buy out iBurst or buy iBurst's Wimax licence from them? I cant see Icasa giving Vodacom a licence without giving licences to the other ISPs that are trialing it in the country.
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Vodacom WiMax
- Thread starter rpm
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As I recall - they do not have their own licence and ICASA has shown no interest in giving them one. From a regulatory point of view they are 'operating' iBurst's WiMAX network although practically speaking you will probably purchase products directly from VC.
ajax
Executive Member
Yes, Teklom charges a "rental" fee similar to its ADSL "connectivity rental". So you pay before even using the service.
I suspect Vodacom won't charge "air" rental, but their per MB charge will be higher than Teklom's.
Prometheus
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More e-propaganda. Oh well, nothing for the consumer I guess. Will just have to wait for Neotel to offer something affordable.
At the moment it appears that WiMax runs on a different network or directly on the backhaul. Trust me as soon as they start overselling it like they did their 3G/hsdpa, speeds will come to a crawl again. WiMax is future proofing for when they have to decommission their 3G network or only use it as a supplement to their 2G one for video calling etc. Imo they should stick to what they know best as they have shown they can not compete effectively in a broadband environment but perhaps every bit of competition will help.
It seems their WiMax is only tested by a few and very select group of Vodacom employees. A month (possibly two or three by the time it launches) is not enough to properly test it through these imho.
Yeah, it's pretty big around the waist with all that money they have to carry around.
At the moment it appears that WiMax runs on a different network or directly on the backhaul. Trust me as soon as they start overselling it like they did their 3G/hsdpa, speeds will come to a crawl again. WiMax is future proofing for when they have to decommission their 3G network or only use it as a supplement to their 2G one for video calling etc. Imo they should stick to what they know best as they have shown they can not compete effectively in a broadband environment but perhaps every bit of competition will help.
Icasa only regulates adsl line rental. And do you actually think they would give a damn anyway? I think it's actually a good thing since now eveyone would have to compete directly without regulatory interference.
jannievdberg
Well-Known Member
V3G, when do you think we will see Wimax for us small oukies? I have been without proper internet for about 8 months now and I'm hungry for it.
vodacom3g
Vodacom Representative
V3G, when do you think we will see Wimax for us small oukies? I have been without proper internet for about 8 months now and I'm hungry for it.
It's a function of how quickly the sites can be built and the backhaul put in place. Unfortunately us mere mortals need a fair amount of time to do this.
It's only Prom's speedy Neotel who seem to be able to lay down thousands of Km's of fiber and roll out a 3G network overnight.
The rest of us are plodding along, but if you PM me your physical addy I'll see if I can find out for you. Can't promise but I'll ask.
Prometheus
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Not overnight. But significantly faster than the rate of 23km a month (was actually a lot longer than a month but I'll give the benefit of the doubt) that Vodacom is doing.
Btw read this article to see that it is actually now closer to 13,000km, that's 3,000km more than the last time the figure was published, again in only a few months...
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vodacom3g
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spacemuis
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I thought the whole geewhiz with wimax was that it had long range and robust signal propagation over difficult terrain and is therefore well suited to rural applications.
So how come they're only (apparently) rolling it out in the main business centres and aiming it at biz users?
Us users in the peri-urban sticks (e.g. Hout Bay, Camps Bay, Noordhoek) are thoroughly underserved by e.g. iBurst and HERE is a golden opportunity to put wimax to its intended use.
So how come they're only (apparently) rolling it out in the main business centres and aiming it at biz users?
Us users in the peri-urban sticks (e.g. Hout Bay, Camps Bay, Noordhoek) are thoroughly underserved by e.g. iBurst and HERE is a golden opportunity to put wimax to its intended use.
That came from the mouths of marketing people and not engineers.
You can have long range or fast speeds... but not both. And unfortunately the laws of physics are not 'made to be broken'. You are not going to blast a wimax signal through solid rock no matter how much you want to.
Any new technology is going to be deployed first in areas where it will be most used and give the best return on investment. I'm sure VC would welcome a petition from a large group of interested individuals who could assure them that they would be willing to use a service to capacity in a particular area.
Prometheus
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While that is true it is also a fact that the rural areas with equal potential are severely underserviced. Everyone (IBust, Semtex) always launches in the metros and then never get around to the rural areas. As a result there's too many connectivity options in the same areas and literally nothing in the rural areas where, let's face it, the largest part of the populace actually lives.
There is a far greater business potential here where everybody is just waiting to be connected than where everybody is already connected by their provider. It is precisely this segment of the market that wisps have very successfully, and sometimes even illegally exploited. Despite what some may say they are providing a great service to the country but as a consumer I would rather use the more predictable devil I know than the one I don't.
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