What IBurst Think

THX1138

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Just as Sentech is ruled - not by the low end employees - but by those at the top, IBurst follows the same structure. So its important to know what those at the top, think - if one want to get a sense of what the future holds..

I've noticed a lot of hopeful chatter, and loud pronouncements on forum about 'what Iburst will/might do' - as well as what they supposedly WON'T do, because 'it would be too stupid'

After I met with various department heads of IBurst, the following prevailing attitudes emerged as being part of their actual thinking at the top of IBurst. This is what I saw, or was told directly:

They consider 3 gigs of download to be a LOT of data, and quite sufficient.
(The idea that 15 - 20 or more gigs a month downloading, was a norm, was unacceptable and apparently incomprehensible to them.)

They believe that the 'mobility' factor of their product, is the biggest 'sell' for their product.

While they're aware of this forum, they dismiss the people on myadsl as being just a 'minority' (they used that word specifically)- and not of relevance to the market or their product.

They also appeared to be unaware that any of their users/employees are posting on this forum, and also, they made it clear that they didn't pay much attention to this forum.

Their market would - according to them - appear to be the casual user, not the power downloaders, who they clearly percieve as 'abusers'.

And one little anecdotal gem that emerged, apart from the interesting fact that IBurst and Sentech have been holding meetings, was that Sentech had discovered that a sizeable portion of their own bandwidth, was being used up by Sentech employees.
(Any anonymous Sentech employees want to confirm or deny this?)
 
LOL staff are always the 1st to abuse networks if u let them, Sentech dont know JACK, they have proven it time and again. MyADSL is a minority in terms of user requirments, company i left was selling quite a few IBurst accounts to corporate guys who just need the mobility it provides and find 3 gigs enough. PPl who wwant in excess of 20 gig are ppl who want to download material that requires huge bandwidth to deliver P2P ect. Most big users seem to be into movies and games and just need the bandwidth to download their latest fix of new software.

Iburst dont really seem to want abusers as they term them, i must say their offering is technologically advanced and outpreforms sentech all the time. I personally think they will suceed wether they are supported by our type of users/abusers or not.

I will just carry on using/abusing my 2mb ADSL :)

<b>in chaos all things are harmonious</b>
<i>Tower 82 14% Signal 512k package </i>
 
I am yet to find an individual who signs up for iBurst/ADSL/mywireless for casual internet use. It makes no sense to me to sacrifice well in excess R500 just for an occasional browsing or the odd download of mail. There are far much cheaper alternatives for that.

On the other hand though I am deskbound 8 to 5. Perhaps there really is a significant portion of the sentech/iBurst customer base out thre who really got this product for mobility. I have my doubts.
 
Well there you go. Thanks for the heads up THX1138.

<b><i>They consider 3 gigs of download to be a LOT of data, and quite sufficient.</i></b>

Are they even aware of the fact that businesses may want to make use of their services. If we didn't tightly control the bandwidth usage on our ADSL line in our company, it would be used up in a few days.
 
they're shooting themselves in both feet if they do this!

Like KK and qDot said - casual browsers are NOT going to pay R600 a month to do the occassional downloads and some browsing.

WBS - DON'T DO THIS! YOU'RE GOING TO FCK IT UP IF YOU TAKE ON THIS MENTALITY - JUST LIKE SENTECH DID!!!

<hr noshade size="1"><font size="1"><i><div align="right"><font color="red">one day we will all look back at this... laugh nervously... and change the subject...</font id="red">
Sucktech no more... I'm now an iBurster! hmmmm... bandwidth... [:D]</div id="right"></i></font id="size1">
 
Kai, note... top management does not read these forums :)

this makes me think of how customer orientated the company really is, fine, I found that some of the staff could be very customer orientated, but reading these comments that top management made, I doubt they are BECAUSE if the were, we as the minority on this forum would actually mean something

There goes my hope and dreams... eish, I hope my visa gets granted, if it does I'm moving to the states.... my life for decent bandwidth and customer SERVICE!
 
You can bet that iBurst will be aggressively shaping traffic if what is indicated here is true, Sentech users are now feeling the bite of aggressive shaping now that they've managed to get thier network under control. iBurst users will get the same treatment.

Ag man, if you can, just get the 384 home ADSL - if not, then that sucks pretty bad and I guess there's no other choice.

Yep, it's still a *** state of affairs to be in, but it's clearly the best option available now.

I may be cursing saying this if my line doesn't get installed soon ... 5 days to go ...

Vat hom Fluffy!
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">While they're aware of this forum, they dismiss the people on myadsl as being just a 'minority' (they used that word specifically)- and not of relevance to the market or their product.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Be careful with those words Iburst,cause this minority can make your life a living hell,look at sentech.
The people who were jerked around by Sentech are telling everyone they meet not to buy it.

So if Iburst turns to crap this board will tell everyone it`s crap which leads to word of mouth which equals you losing sales.

So I guess we will See Iburstcrap.co.za next year.


Google is so smart,I typed in Hellkom and guess what google said

Don`t you mean.....&lt;insert evil laugh&gt;
TELKOM!
 
Well I hope it does not come back to haunt you.
Please Iburst 3gb is not enough,I want 6gb cap.



Google is so smart,I typed in Hellkom and guess what google said

Don`t you mean.....&lt;insert evil laugh&gt;
TELKOM!
 
I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens, no?

Thank God I didn't sign a contract... and they can buy the modem back...

bb, I would LOVE to get ADSL, but I can't... exchange doesn't support it, and if Telkom thinks I'm going to reapply every second month to see if that status has changed, they have another thing coming!

<hr noshade size="1"><font size="1"><i><div align="right"><font color="red">one day we will all look back at this... laugh nervously... and change the subject...</font id="red">
Sucktech no more... I'm now an iBurster! hmmmm... bandwidth... [:D]</div id="right"></i></font id="size1">
 
If THX1138's comments are accurate this does paint a rather disturbing picture about the management of WBS.

If they believe that there is a large enough mobile market to make money they are badly mistaken, also the type of mobile user who would be prepared to lay out R600 pm for an internet connection would require a far more pervasive market than that limited business could sustain so they would have to look at other target markets. R600 pm is more than the casual user would be prepared to pay for an internet connection, which means the only real markets left are businesses and the power users (in other words us).

The belief that 3 GB of data is enough for a power user is laughable, they would also not find port shaping to the extent that they seem to be proposing acceptable. The technology is also unsuitable for gaming due to the fluctuating ping which leaves only the businesses.

The only conclusions one can draw from these statements is that the WBS management is investing time and money into a market they don't understand and haven't researched. The only people who would do that are morons. And most smart businesses don't give their money to morons when they can avoid it.

This does beg the question then of who they actually intend on selling this product to. If they scare off the business, don't care about the power users and charge too much for the average joe, how do they think they're going to get enough access points in place to service their mobile clients? Hopefully this isn't the case, but if so, then it wouldn't be a product I would have a great deal of confidence in.
 
Spamtheman, I believe you just described exactly what Sentech did...

Hopefully WBS management would wake up and smell the bandwidth...
 
Dam Telkom stop hogging the bandwith give back the SAT-3 cable cause you suck at using it.
Well we see how Sentech and Iburst do next year before we catch them begging on the street.


Google is so smart,I typed in Hellkom and guess what google said

Don`t you mean.....&lt;insert evil laugh&gt;
TELKOM!
 
Above is enough reason to avoid iBurst for at least 6 months.

When evaluating a new product, it can be compared to horse racing: There is a track, a horse and a jockey.

The track is the bandwidth starved internet community in South Africa. iBurst decided to focus on a very small section of this track. I believe too small to sustain any serious business.

The horse is a new technology. Possibly proven in Australia, but not yet in South Africa where staff and management conditions are 100% different from Australia.

The jockey - well there is a report at the top on which to judge them.

I will personally (and have advised others the same) not to sign any contract longer than 1 month and not to spend any money on hardware either until at least August 2005.

I can get a new Vodacom phone in March next year, and if they are dishing out 3G phones for free, I will take it with a very casual usage contract to try it out. If they don't dish out 3G phones for free, well, then they are not serious about 3G.

I guess the whole internet access scenario will change during the next few months. iBurst,3G, WiMax, IS ADSL, and maybe a revived MyWireless.

I doubt if we are going to see much price competition during the next year, it will most probably be "we have more bells and wistles" market environment.



South Africa needs World Class Broadband at World Competitive Prices.
 
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Kai</i>
<br />

bb, I would LOVE to get ADSL, but I can't... exchange doesn't support it, and if Telkom thinks I'm going to reapply every second month to see if that status has changed, they have another thing coming!

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

I hear you - I really didn't want to go this route as I didn't want another land line.

If you can get away with not signing a contract, go for it !

In terms of 3gig being enough for most users, well, it depends what users that are talking about.

I don't think they understand the simple fact that the people who want broadband internet want to download lots of stuff.

There are many legitimate sources of bandwidth useage :-

1. Streaming audio / video
2. Online gaming
3. Website maintenance - uploading files
4. Linux enthusiasts - large iso files / install via network
5. OS updates
6. Game patches
7. Game demos

3gig is effectively 100meg a day.

An average game demo is 200meg
Steaming audio at a decent kb/s, say 56kb/s will consume 20meg of data in 1 hour.
A linux distribution is anything from 700meg to 3gig

Ah well, guess we'll have to wait and see what happens next year ...

Vat hom Fluffy!
 
I agree, with everyone that has commented so far.

I have no reason to think that THX1138 has not portrayed an accurate account, BUT I don't just believe everything that people try shoving down my throat, some form of proof to back this up is required.

If this is the attitude that WBS Management have, then I would like their management to register as a MyADSL member, and have the guts to post a reply to this topic. <b><u>Sihen and Anakin</u></b> can both confirm for us that said new member is a WBS big cheese. Until then, my opinion of WBS is not favourable.
 
Well said Spamtheman.

I find it hard to believe they will garner enough business from must-be-mobile clients. Wouldn't 3G suit those road warriors rather better? 3G phone (for free e.g. contract) + laptop + reasonable per MB charges = road warrior sorted.

Whatever you do, do NOT sign contracts with Telkom, Sentech or iBurst for the next 18 months at least.

PS: I note ICASA seems to have shut the door to VANS providing net access to consumers with wifi in their latest annoucements which is a big blow.

Seems to me wifi mesh networks with private sat links and an occasional ADSL link + intelligent routing will be the way to go.

Come to think of it I can't recall any pro-consumer move by ICASA to date? So much for protecting the consumer
[}:)]

-Information anarchist-
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<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by playkiller no.2</i>
<br />Dam Telkom stop hogging the bandwith give back the SAT-3 cable cause you suck at using it.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Just an aside here: A reasonable % of Telkom's portion of SAT-3 is unused atm. Telkom does this on purpose to create artificial scarcity of international bandwidth in order to massively inflate the prices they charge other ISPs for access to the cable. This neatly allows them to make a killing while at the same time strangling other ISPs that compete with their own ISP division. It's not that they don't know how to use their cable, they know EXACTLY what they're doing.

Spamtheman, well summed up. iBurst seem to be making the same "high end pricing, low end specs" mistake as ST. It may be true that 3GB is a lot for "casual" users like my dad/mom/gran etc., but then the price is also a lot for them. They can get by just fine on dial-up for a fraction of the price, and I'll keep recommending that they stick with dial-up for now. So much for the "casual user" market, and the "mobile business-user market" is tiny in comparison (and even worse you need broader coverage for mobile users than home users). The potential "casual user" market size (for *affordable* broadband) in SA is probably ultimately well over 1 million, but none of the SA companies seem to have the vision / balls / understanding of broadband markets to bite the bullet and aim for this market (which is the only way to get decent economies of scale). Looking at iBurst pricing vs. specs, I must say I can't really think of any good reason to recommend it to anyone I know (unless someone is in an area where ADSL isn't available).
 
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