eltherza
Expert Member
So other than mweb, which would be a better alternative uncapped provider?
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Web Africa pulls FreeZone for uncapped ADSL subscribers
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LazyLion
King of de Jungle
Very bad PR for WA. 
WAJeff
Web Africa Representative
Morning everyone,
First and foremost, I'd like to extend my personal apologies for two things.
1) We haven't yet sent out a notification to our customers, this is planned to go out at 9am this morning. The customers currently using FreeZone on our Uncapped products are only 30, which is a very small portion. I'm the first to admit, that having a public article published before we notify customers is definitely not the way to like to run things.
2) Initially, FreeZone was a good idea on our part as it was already a standard offering on our Capped packages. The accounting system that calculated FreeZone usage and allocates the traffic is an extremely complicated one - and does have conflicts with how our Uncapped packages work. It wasn't seen as fair to continue offering as for one month you may have 100% traffic towards Freezone, but other months FreeZone traffic would been seen on the normal usage.
First and foremost, I'd like to extend my personal apologies for two things.
1) We haven't yet sent out a notification to our customers, this is planned to go out at 9am this morning. The customers currently using FreeZone on our Uncapped products are only 30, which is a very small portion. I'm the first to admit, that having a public article published before we notify customers is definitely not the way to like to run things.
2) Initially, FreeZone was a good idea on our part as it was already a standard offering on our Capped packages. The accounting system that calculated FreeZone usage and allocates the traffic is an extremely complicated one - and does have conflicts with how our Uncapped packages work. It wasn't seen as fair to continue offering as for one month you may have 100% traffic towards Freezone, but other months FreeZone traffic would been seen on the normal usage.
acrobat
Active Member
Perhaps WA have 30 subscribers to Freezone that have uncapped, but you are not required to register for FZ to get the bandwidth benefit so I'm not sure that Jeff's statement is accurate.
Zewp
Banned
Depends on the backbone you're allotted. VB can give Mweb a run for their money, but most of the other backbones, nah.
WAJeff
Web Africa Representative
Not quite sure I understand your post...
FreeZone was added an a free add-on to our Uncapped. 30 customers were taking advantage of the FreeZone usage - the others weren't.
Zewp
Banned
No offense, but this sounds like total nonsense. I smell a rat here. From the sounds of it there's more to this removal than what you're saying. This has got nothing to do with 'fairness'.
Me, and any customer you have, will tell you that they'd prefer to have a slightly broken system not attributing all the data to Freezone correctly than not having one at all and having ALL data attributed to your normal cap and rolling window.
I'm sorry, but once again, the only question of fairness here is whether it's fair that you remove a feature from a package that helped, even if it was slightly broken.
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acrobat
Active Member
What I'm asking is whether your assessment of 30 users is based on FZ subscriptions by uncapped, or network traffic to WAGE/FZ from uncapped accounts? If it is subscription based then your number is not accurate(I connect to WAGE servers but I'm not a FZ subscriber) and if it is network based then it is also inaccurate because as you state you cannot accurately account for uncapped FZ access.
gregmcc
Honorary Master
FAIL! So they are technically incompetent
Zewp
Banned
FAIL! So they are technically incompetent
My thoughts as well. Either that or it's just a very convenient excuse to remove the service from Uncapped products.
I've seen, heard about and used some pretty bad uncapped products, but WebAfrica seems intent on going the extra mile to make their uncapped less desirable.
I was strongly considering moving over from OpenWeb, after seeing what the rolling window actually looks like, and now this. No thanks. Even if the rolling window is only applicable when the network is under strain, who's to say it won't be under constant strain once more users jump ship and move over from other ISPs?
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I think the point of the uncapped is to not have to worry about running out... More this than let's download the whole internet 24/7. On a 4mbps connection, your 6 hour window is 3gb. Don't forget that this is outside of the +-8gb you get in DL+... So in theory you could manage well over 300gb in a month without being de-prioritised. I don't see what the big fuss is. If you want to download a big game, do it. And if you don't want it to affect your prioritising, then do it in download+ time...
Necuno
Court Jester
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Because rest of us was waiting for you guys to actually sort out your network and system before coming over.
That's your own fault going with a complex system. Maybe next time don't go with stitches implementation, but a proper or more simple one. KISS always works better in the real world outside labs.
ISP cash cow
Executive Member
I don't think it is only the Freezone thing that is not working properly on the uncapped accounts. I have had nothing but issues with the uncapped account with regards to gaming. It seems the uncapped account does not like having three computers linked up to it playing games on international servers, so I have now reverted back to my Capped home pro account that I had. I am currently wasting so much money with Web africa having an uncapped account which I cannot use and therefore having to buy gigs on my prepaid account
I was a huge Web Africa but recently my faith and belief in Web Africa has been highly tested. My Web africa uncapped account changes back to the home pro on the 1st of February and if I have any crap with it after then it will be bye bye Web Africa
I was a huge Web Africa but recently my faith and belief in Web Africa has been highly tested. My Web africa uncapped account changes back to the home pro on the 1st of February and if I have any crap with it after then it will be bye bye Web Africa
WAJeff
Web Africa Representative
I can promise you guys that we're not removing FreeZone because of any abuse or the traffic being pushed through our network - that isn't the problem here. We are no longer offering this because of the fact that our accounting system wasn't working correctly.
As a company, we can't continue offering something that isn't working properly.
As a company, we can't continue offering something that isn't working properly.
Hummercellc
Expert Member
I had Openweb Gold it was brilliant for two whole days.... I was switched to every backbone, next being worse than the last,
Back on Mweb and maybe for 10mins here and there i have a problem...... Mweb FTW!!!! (although i am still upset they canceled my first account)
Zewp
Banned
Even when it is still useful to a reasonable extent?
I reiterate, I'd rather have something rather than nothing.
Meh, doesn't affect me anyways. With the vast myriad of issues WA is undergoing, I'd rather not risk losing my decent OW account for an account that can get chopped and changed at any time, and which doesn't work well.
Ok wait, so people are freaking out just because their Steam downloads will now be attributed to their thresholds IF you download outside of DL+ hours? Really? Do you guys ONLY use Steam? Is it THAT important? Had a look on the WAGE FTP and reeeeally not that many interesting stuff...
I use steam for games/gaming and last time I checked you only download/install a game once. And guess what? If you want to remove the game you can always download it again, without worrying about a cap, because it's UNCAPPED
In any case, exclusion of freezone doesn't make any difference to the line speed/line quality/amount I can download. So I really couldn't care less. You moaners should relax and go release yourselves in some apple pie.
I use steam for games/gaming and last time I checked you only download/install a game once. And guess what? If you want to remove the game you can always download it again, without worrying about a cap, because it's UNCAPPED
In any case, exclusion of freezone doesn't make any difference to the line speed/line quality/amount I can download. So I really couldn't care less. You moaners should relax and go release yourselves in some apple pie.
Zewp
Banned
I use steam for games/gaming and last time I checked you only download/install a game once. And guess what? If you want to remove the game you can always download it again, without worrying about a cap, because it's UNCAPPED
Missing the point entirely I see. Do some research before you start throwing around insults.
People are worried about their usage thresholds, meaning the 6 hour rolling window.
Either way, I thought the Freezone included DL+, and signified that that will also be lost. Eh.
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Dude I've been above my threshold for the better part of the time since this product was launched. I still download as much as I want. You're just looking for a reason to bitch. And I'm not giving you any more bait, peace out.