Sentech signals the changes
It is understood to have spent tens of millions of rand over the past three years to roll out what was at the time considered a non-mainstream technology, but was in effect the first third-generation (3G) wireless network.
Since then, its subscribers have fallen from a peak of 13000 to between 3000 and 4000, according to analyst estimates. Sentech this week refused to confirm its subscriber numbers at its announcement of the R100 package and several other tweaks and price cuts to its product line-up.
Sentech hopes to convert Telkom dial-up users in its coverage areas. Called MyWireless flexiLite, the offering gives users 150MB of free bandwidth; while other packages start at R299 (with a modem included on a 24-month contract) or R199 without.
Until the launch of the MyWireless consumer service three years ago, Sentech in effect had only one major customer — the SABC’s television and radio stations. It lacked the skills to deal with consumers, and its slow speeds were blamed on so-called bandwidth hogs.
Its poor service resulted in subscribers quitting in droves and publicising their unhappiness on the MyBroadband.co.za website, the lightning rod for disgruntled users of all services.
“You’re dead right,” MyWireless product manager Marcel Steyn says in reply to questions about previous failures in customer service. “Without proper customer service, our product will not survive in the market place.”
Sentech’s master plan involved multiskilling its staff, chief financial officer Siddique Cassim said at the briefing.
While more mainstream flavours of 3G have been rolled out by cellular operators, which are also looking to the new WiMAX wireless broadband standard currently being tested by Altech and Samsung in Midrand, Cassim defends Sentech’s choice.
“This technology is good. We are looking at this asset which we have to sweat. It’s our fiduciary duty to sweat it,” he says, but he points out that WiMAX is also being investigated.
The troubled company was again in the news last month, as six top executives were dismissed .
This after reports of 100 resignations in the past year. It hopes to receive the R3bn earmarked in the budget towards government’s ambitious plans to build a countrywide wireless broadband network.
Meanwhile, cellular operators have been moving aggressively. MTN launched a new USB 3G modem this week and reduced its bandwidth costs, on certain packages, to 20c a megabyte, making it the cheapest wireless offering in SA. Vodacom has launched a similar USB modem.
Service provider Nashua Mobile this week launched an offer to subscribers of a range of fixed-line, wireless and mobile internet access offerings — all on a single bill.
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