Poor billing + Poor Customer Service + Terrible pricing (though much better now). Those are the 3 main reasons for iBurst's problems, and not the poor technology choice.
We could have lived with the out-dated technology and lower speeds (1mbps):
- if it was provided at a more affordable price. iBurst however choose to charge exorbitant rates, and then back it up with terrible customer service and billing.
- if the internet service was stable and reliable, and backed up with good customer service and billing, even if meant paying a premium price.
With regards to poor technology choice, HC-SDMA was revolutionary when it was first released, but due to non-adoption from other industry players (Kyocera being the only vendor), hardware and equipment is expensive due to poor economies of scale. iBurst should really have pushed WiMax a long time ago, as they had access to the necessary spectrum. They should have dropped HC-SDMA like a cold stone and ran with WiMax all the way to the bank.
Unfortunately, it is now too late, as WiMax will suffer a similar fate to HC-SDMA, though not as harshly, and not as quickly. iBurst need to figure out a way to migrate to LTE, as that is the real future.
Even though HC-SDMA wasn't the best technology choice, for many South Africans, iBurst is/was the only way to get connected to the internet, due to copper cable theft, poor service delivery from Telkom, the MNOs and others. It was also the only other option for those who needed a connection that is faster than Telkom's 384kbps ADSL lines.
My prediction is that within the next 6-24 months, iBurst will be bought out by a large tech company, possibly Altech, BCX, IS or even MWEB, in order to get access to the valuable spectrum they possess. The cellular network operators won't touch iBurst otherwise it will affect their ability to participate in spectrum auctions / acquire more spectrum, which will affect their long term LTE plans.
