Wireless Broadband

[Convergence Networks]

Let me give a brief overview:

Convergence Networks has been supplying businesses with wireless broadband for over 4 years, we are fully licensed Telco and have a number of towers around the JHB region.

We are looking at expanding into the Consumer market and in order to do so, we need some feedback from users as to what are the the expected requirements for a Consumer to be happy with a package, based on pricing FUP type, Speeds and price. We also need to be realistic here. For the assistance, once we launched the consumer broadband the first 10 users who have assisted us will get a free 6 month connection.

Many Thanks
Jonathan

 

[disiza]

Let me give a brief overview:

Convergence Networks has been supplying businesses with wireless broadband for over 4 years, we are fully licensed Telco and have a number of towers around the JHB region.

We are looking at expanding into the Consumer market and in order to do so, we need some feedback from users as to what are the the expected requirements for a Consumer to be happy with a package, based on pricing FUP type, Speeds and price. We also need to be realistic here. For the assistance, once we launched the consumer broadband the first 10 users who have assisted us will get a free 6 month connection.

Many Thanks
Jonathan

Currently on a 1:1 contention 10mb/s Down and 2mb/s Up........ FUP based on the Leaky Bucket Algorithm, Good Service, however we are paying a premium price for a premium service but the FUP only allows an hour of that premium service to be utilized then you get throttled to half speed. My opinion, its only worth R 899.00 because of the FUP

Ideal Service would be a 1:1 contention 10mb/s Down and 2mb/s Up........ FUP based on data used 750GB soft cap, then throttle service speed by half.

 

[einad5]

Disclaimer: The following is the opinion of one user

Generally a potential user would first consider DSL then if DSL is not available the user would start to look at wireless options. In my case I first went 3G, but getting a stable 3G connection takes some work. 3G is historically bloody expensive. Telkom mobile and to a lesser extent Afrihost forced the prices down.

After some frustration with your mobile provider of choice, (possibly by process of elimination) you start to look for alternatives (thats how I got to this part of the forum)

Now knowing the above you have some upper bounds on what the consumer would pay for:
1. Be available where DSL is not
2. Be more affordable than mobile internet

Those two options alone would net you some users.

Now on to the topic of a FUP my rule would be just be sane. Don't throttle a user to 128k It would be kinder just to cut his/her access at that point. I would strongly suggest do not throttle to below 1 Mbps

Consider that gaming is a big part of why many people want an internet connection, people do not just check email and browse a bit anymore, it sounds stupid to say it out load, but some of the companies out there may have missed that point.

I think a FUP limit of 200GB could be fine. It allows some steam downloads, some streaming and actually playing your games while using teamspeak. Below 100GB I would start to ask myself why I would want to use the service, below 20 I would just use 3G.

Something I noticed while investigating WISPs is the upfront investment R2000-R3000 is a big amount to fork out. Many places offer free install but on contract. Contracts make people hesitent because they are locked in. I always ask myself "einad5 what if you hate this service and you need to keep paying them for 2 years" Maybe try something like allowing users that cancel their service (Lets be realistic, this will happen) to sell their equipment to new clients, this makes the fear of that initial investment less.

24 hour support would also be great

 

[Convergence Networks]

Hi,

There are a number of limiting factors to any connection, the first and most important is the bandwidth, lets assume that the bandwidth a providers pays for is around R 400 per MB (This is a dedicated 1:1 fiber service), this would equate to R 4000 per 10 Mb if you would want to sell that as a 1:1 connection, and then you don't have the costs of the actual wireless network or the support team.

This give you only one option, and that is to contend the service and this is where the problems come in. How do you contend a service and keep a customer happy.

1. Apply a leaky bucket system (I don't think it works well and is nor fair to the client).

2. Create a real contention pool, namely assign 100 MB to a pool and then add 20 clients, that would give a 2:1 ratio and hope that all users do not peak at the same time (But the problem come in that someone may launch a torrent and will therefore hurt the pool)

3. Give guaranteed bandwidth between certain hours and then limit during peak hours ? Clients can then alter there requirements around these time.

The issue is that one has to be realistic and realize that there are costs involved, so these need to be covered while providing a good service ?

 

[einad5]

Affordable and 1:1 contention does not exist in the same space.
Users will generally peak at the same time. Since most people get home at about 5 and then hop online.

I like option 3, but you need to make sure the service is still usable. QoS will help but you need to get it right, there is nothing worse than QoS rules set up by amateurs.

Build profiles of what kind of customer you want so that you can model their usage habits, then you can decide which limits to impose.

 

[znh]

Personally I would think that you should give a customer full speed, after reaching usage of 100Gigs cap speeds at 10Mbps, 250Gigs usge drop cap to 5Mbps and at 500Gigs cap speeds at 2Mbps.

That way the abusers will get less and less of what is available and the actual users will always get great speeds.
Your service will be faster than all the other WISPS and for most people the service experience would be similar to Fibre.