Vumatel under fire for network problems

This is my current speed on Vumatel in Roodepoort! This speed happens often on my 20Mb down and 2Mb up service!

MyBroadband Speed Test
Ping 30ms

Download 0.76Mbps

Upload 0.37Mbps
2021-03-15 09:15:21
Server: Johannesburg
 
Jeroen said:
This is my current speed on Vumatel in Roodepoort! This speed happens often on my 20Mb down and 2Mb up service!

MyBroadband Speed Test
Ping 30ms

Download 0.76Mbps

Upload 0.37Mbps
2021-03-15 09:15:21
Server: Johannesburg
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Damn. These look like RAIN lte numbers. Whos your ISP?
 
No Comment Required...... (but I will say this is even after an ONT swop out)

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Damn, this is worrying. They rolled out fibre in our area, and it's Vumatel.
 
Jamie McKane said:
Vumatel under fire for network problems

Vumatel is facing severe criticism for its poor network quality, prolonged outages, and lack of support while its prices are much higher than other fibre network operators.

MyBroadband has received information from prominent Internet service providers (ISPs) that Vumatel’s network quality is deteriorating.
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Have you guys decided to investigate Frogfoot in Port Elizabeth? It's as bad!
 
Johand said:
Okay - first off I do feel MyBroadband is only writing the negative news around Vumatel. Where is the in-depth article on the 10Gbps option.

As for service - would like to see some more statistics around it - maybe an in-depth survey?

Vumatel respliced my line 3 hours after logging an incident. During work in our complex replacing water mains, Vumatel was on standby fixing cuts within hours after the plumbing contractors cut the line (3x incidents). Vumatel helped a friend within hours after construction on his property exposed a fibre line. So my personal experience and the cases I know about doesn't gel with what is reported. So is it a Cape Town vs Joburg thing? How does the increase in complaints align with the growth in subscribers?

I used to tear my hair out when dealing with Telkom ADSL and my Vumatel experience has been the polar opposite of it... So would like to know the real statistics behind the claims in the article.
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Yeah my vuma line in durban hasn't skipped a beat in 3 years.
 
Never had issues with Vumatel. So far, the network is stable and delivered as expected. For me, the noise is purely because Openserve has plumbed their prices.

What I do not see in all of this is whether this sustainable or if it is relative to the actual cost of the fibre.
 
Creag said:
Never had issues with Vumatel. So far, the network is stable and delivered as expected. For me, the noise is purely because Openserve has plumbed their prices.

What I do not see in all of this is whether this sustainable or if it is relative to the actual cost of the fibre.
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OpenServe pretty much slowed down their fibre roll-out and is more focused on bleeding their current assets. So it makes sense for them to drop their prices - they don't want to fund capital anymore and just want market share where they have deployed (at the cost of reducing their overall long-term market share).

Vumatel is actively doing roll-outs - and yes - their debt levels are high but people like to mention CIVH but they all somehow miss that Remgro has an effective interest in CIVH of over 50%. So yes - Vumatel has high levels of debt but they have a grand daddy with DEEP POCKETS. And Remgro management aint stupid -- if Vumatel was not a good long-term investment they would not have invested. Vumatel can easily fix its balance sheet by pausing roll-outs and directing cash to debt. But they are using their cash to do more roll-outs. But income lags capital expenditure by months, so the ratios can look scary.

You cannot compare a business that is growth orientated (vumatel) to a business that is throwing away overall long-term market share (telkom/openserve). Yes -- not investing is cheaper and looks better on the balance sheet in the short-term. Just like if I don't buy a house and rent, it looks fantastic because I have no debt - the picture starts to look different by year 5 to 7. Long game and short game. Openserve will look fantastic in the short-term - but long term? Meh. And people can flock to the cheaper prices now -- but do you think OpenServe will keep on investing and improving their network? No.
 
Johand said:
OpenServe pretty much slowed down their fibre roll-out and is more focused on bleeding their current assets. So it makes sense for them to drop their prices - they don't want to fund capital anymore and just want market share where they have deployed (at the cost of reducing their overall long-term market share).

Vumatel is actively doing roll-outs - and yes - their debt levels are high but people like to mention CIVH but they all somehow miss that Remgro has an effective interest in CIVH of over 50%. So yes - Vumatel has high levels of debt but they have a grand daddy with DEEP POCKETS. And Remgro management aint stupid -- if Vumatel was not a good long-term investment they would not have invested. Vumatel can easily fix its balance sheet by pausing roll-outs and directing cash to debt. But they are using their cash to do more roll-outs. But income lags capital expenditure by months, so the ratios can look scary.

You cannot compare a business that is growth orientated (vumatel) to a business that is throwing away overall long-term market share (telkom/openserve). Yes -- not investing is cheaper and looks better on the balance sheet in the short-term. Just like if I don't buy a house and rent, it looks fantastic because I have no debt - the picture starts to look different by year 5 to 7. Long game and short game. Openserve will look fantastic in the short-term - but long term? Meh. And people can flock to the cheaper prices now -- but do you think OpenServe will keep on investing and improving their network? No.
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Yep. Show me one new player that is not investing money that they raise from wherever. ROI in a few years, depending on take up... At least Vuma has a lot more connected homes than many other competitors with high homes passed counts, which means their ROI will be in less time.

The whole cost comparison with OpenServe is also quite unfair. State owned OpenServe has all their existing infrastructure to utilise, which they built up through many many years of being the only network provider allowed by the state that owns them. Everyone else now has to trench, drill and apply for wayleaves, which is not cheap.
 
Johand said:
Who is your ISP. Get them to liaise with Vumatel. That looks and smell like a bad fibre. They re-spliced by fibre due to a bad connector when I had problems like that and the problem disappeared completely.
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Thanks Johand,

It was and still is in hand with the ISP and Vumatel even prior to posting.

This is more a rant due to this:
Vumatel CEO Dietlof Mare said it “has been our aim over the last seven years to give our customers the best quality infrastructure and to do so in the most sustainable way possible.”
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and I agree with this:
Mare’s argument about offering the “best quality infrastructure” could explain their higher prices, but it does not hold water if the allegations about lagging network quality and poor support are true.
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Quantum Theory said:
Yep. Show me one new player that is not investing money that they raise from wherever. ROI in a few years, depending on take up... At least Vuma has a lot more connected homes than many other competitors with high homes passed counts, which means their ROI will be in less time.

The whole cost comparison with OpenServe is also quite unfair. State owned OpenServe has all their existing infrastructure to utilise, which they built up through many many years of being the only network provider allowed by the state that owns them. Everyone else now has to trench, drill and apply for wayleaves, which is not cheap.
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Agreed fully, this raises another question though, will the other players be allowed into these now monopolised suburbs? I mean do we have true competition when the FNO's are the one and only FNO in an area?
 
I don't have Vumatel, but it's interesting nobody from MyBB's journalism team hasn't written about Frogfoot's horrible service in Port Elizabeth. And I mean it's horrible!
 
Krazeyboy said:
Agreed fully, this raises another question though, will the other players be allowed into these now monopolised suburbs? I mean do we have true competition when the FNO's are the one and only FNO in an area?
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Very few FNO’s will overbuild an area that someone else has taken already. Doesn’t make business sense, unless the existing FNO is messing up badly.
 
Quantum Theory said:
Very few FNO’s will overbuild an area that someone else has taken already. Doesn’t make business sense, unless the existing FNO is messing up badly.
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Frogfoot in PLZ. And in my suburb the only other option is Vumatel. Prime opportunity for some company like Openserve to take their clients! He'll, I'd leave Vox and go back to Openserve tomorrow if I could.
 
JohnStarr said:
Frogfoot in PLZ. And in my suburb the only other option is Vumatel. Prime opportunity for some company like Openserve to take their clients! He'll, I'd leave Vox and go back to Openserve tomorrow if I could.
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Where are your issues mostly though? With the Frogfoot infrastructure, or Vox's?

I only have Vumatel in my suburb in KZN, and their infrastructure is largely rock solid. The issues by and large are on the ISP side when they hand the traffic off to them.
 
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