2006 Mobile Broadband Report: Please Give Your Feedback

rpm

rpm

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Hi folks

We are glad to have finished the analysis of the recently finished broadband survey, and here is the latest copy of the Mobile Broadband Report. Thanks a bunch to everybody who completed the survey and helped with the testing. This meant that we most likely have the most accurate comparative analysis of all broadband services ever conducted.

The results in this report are based on subscriber survey feedback (over 1000 broadband users completed the survey), actual user testing and official controlled testing in different settings. We are confident that it provides users with an accurate comparison of the various mobile offerings available today.

Your personal experience may vary dramatically from the results in this report for a certain service, but before lashing out at the results please keep in mind that this report are based on thousands of tests rather than a single user experience. You may therefore just be one of the lucky/unlucky ones.

Please also keep in mind that the percentage is simply an indication of how one service performed in comparison with the others. It therefore does not say a service is great or pathetic, but rather that it is great or pathetic in comparison to the other services that were evaluated.

And if you wonder why Vodacom has been selected in favour of iBurst as the best offering: Their rating was slightly higher (by 0.3%) :D

Thanks and regards,

RPM
 

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I hate commenting here, my opinion is quite useless since I don't have mobile broadband, but will there be a fixed line broadband report as well uncle rpm? ;)
 
teraside said:
I hate commenting here, my opinion is quite useless since I don't have mobile broadband, but will there be a fixed line broadband report as well uncle rpm? ;)
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Coming soon...within the next two weeks!
 
Being that it's a mobile broadband report I'm curious - what percentage of the overall score did coverage account for?
 
Some suggestions and comments...

A few quick suggestions regarding the layout of the document and the results of the survey.

Place the rating box at the top of the text of each company’s services, so one can see at a glance what the outcome was. Also, maybe a rating scale of (1/10) would be more appropriate rather than using a percentage which could easily be construded as a customer satisfaction rating. Have a look at how some of the companies surveyed here, have reported the findings in the media.

As for the graphs, rather position them below each other with some descriptive text clarifying the graph above it and alter the axis’s of the graphs vertically and remove the text “more/less is better”.

As for the outcome of the survey and from a consumer point of view, I’m puzzled about the all positive outcome for the services of several of companies in the survey. I however do regard Vodacom, Sentech and Cell C’s reviews as accurate. I have not made use of MTN’s services, so I won’t comment on it.
 
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Hi Who.is.michael

Thanks for the valuable feedback.

We have only focused on the positives rather than the negatives in the write-ups. And also keep in mind that it is merely comparative. If all companies therefore received overwhelmingly negative reports it is very similar than all companies receiving overwhelmingly positive reports…

Bwana: Mobility counted for 9% of the final result. We used all the ratings supplied by users in the survey to determine the relative importance of each component, so it is entirely based on subscriber feedback. The most important factors were cost, download speed and reliability…

Regards,

RPM
 
I like that warnings are given for both Sentech and iBurst to potential customers. That, and that iBurst has finally come to the fore. ;)

I missed the fixed line operators - didn't click until coming to this thread that it was Mobile only...

Some may argue that iBurst gets better and decidely cheaper as the higher packages are taken into account. Why was the decision made to compare the G1 account only?

Overall, well done.
 
Excellent report.

Separating mobile from fixed is a good thing - it compares apples with apples and Telkom won't be able to compare itself with pears anymore and claim they are providing a product in a competitive market.
 
The algorithm used to calculate the rating is a product...
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The algorithm used to calculate the rating is the product...

The word "country-wide" is hyphenated in both MTN and Vodacom HSDPA, but not in iBurst.

The MyWireless suggestion that you consider it if you use "far in excess of 1GB per month" I find somewhat misleading. IMO iBurst has been recommended across the board for current MyWireless users on this forum, particularly the G3 option.

K, I'm done being pedantic. :D
 
rpm said:
Bwana: Mobility counted for 9% of the final result. We used all the ratings supplied by users in the survey to determine the relative importance of each component, so it is entirely based on subscriber feedback. The most important factors were cost, download speed and reliability…

Regards,

RPM
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Hi rpm - just to clarify I wasn't referring to mobility rather coverage. Surely that should be an important factor in any broadband survey - mobile or otherwise.
 
bwana v.20 said:
Hi rpm - just to clarify I wasn't referring to mobility rather coverage. Surely that should be an important factor in any broadband survey - mobile or otherwise.
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Hi Bwana

Coverage is the main component of the mobility part. We looked at general countrywide coverage, whether it has fallback coverage (like MTN & Vodacom with EDGE/GPRS) etc. WE therefore really measured how mobile you can be when using this service, especially for country-wide travel.
 
Wow Micheal.. Hope it help RPM :D

iBurst's cheapest 1gig offering is actually R389pm, which is a great comparative price, but I suppose you took all of the prices to be inclusive of the modem.
 
I'm being ripped off...

Hi there EHV

Yeah, oops couldn’t resist...

As for the price of R 389 pm on iBurst where do you get that from, I’m paying R 424 pm for my iGo Lite package, including an extra Gig of course. Modem purchased outright? Off topic – PM me.
 
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Thanks for this effort rpm & co. It comes at a good time for me, as i'm currently looking at a mobile solution. I find that i need to be online from my laptop while i'm away from the office, often in my car, or at a cafe or at one of our subscribers. Based on this report, HSDPA would be the best solution, the only choice being Vcom for faster speeds or MTN for better service.
I see iburst as a potential replacement for my hardline adsl line at home/office, as opposed to a mobile solution, or am i wrong, i havent really seen the kit that comes with it, whether its easy to carry round with the laptop etc.
 
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Strobemeister said:
I see iburst as a potential replacement for my hardline adsl line at home/office, as opposed to a mobile solution, or am i wrong, i havent really seen the kit that comes with it, whether its easy to carry round with the laptop etc.
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The are 2 varieties of desktop modem, or you can get a plug-in card for the laptap.
 
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RPM, no major complaints this time. :D

Only one thing that sticks out is that Iburst have four different price structures to achieve a 1Gig package:

The i-Go packages have more similar characteristics to the competition in this category, rather than the G1 package quoted in the report.

You get the i-Go Lite with an additional 1GB (Total of 1234Mb) for R424pm

You get the i-Go which comes with 512Mb and an additional 512MB for a total cost of R438pm.

Then there is the standard G1 package, which is more expensive because you have free and continued internet access beyond 1 Gb, albeit at a reduced 64kbps. Also the cost of additonal bandwdith is far cheaper than on the I-go packages.

Thirdly, you can get the G1 package on 24 month contract for R389pm.

For the purposes of the report, it would useful, I think, either to tell readers about the post-cap access, or just to go with the lower cost i-Go Lite month-to-month package for your comparison.

In general, though, I'm not sure you've stressed the huge difference in cost when greater bandwdith usage is required. Iburst's G9 versus 9Gigs of HSDPA, for example, are on totally different continents in terms of affordability.

Otherwise, well done. Thanks for all your effort.
 
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One thing - I seem to remember reading that POP access outside of iburst were blocked, surely that sort of thing and other shaping should be included?
 
Hi folks

Thanks a bunch for the great feedback. I have incorporated most of the suggested changes and have uploaded the new version.

Gatecrasher: We used the various pricing options in out final evaluation, but the purpose of the document is partly ease-of-use, which is why we left some information out. If one tries to give very accurate descriptions and all pricing models it becomes so complicated again that one needs to write another report to explain the first one :D We have therefore decided to only use the most basic pricing options…

Who.is.michael: Great feedback thanks!

Kilps: included in the report, but again it will become too complicated for non-tech-savvy readers when one starts to talk about port prioritization and the like.

Regards,

RPM
 
CellC’s EDGE service is not
really a true broadband service
- despite what their adverts tell
you -
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Sorry to burst the bubble here, but neither of the other products are broadband either. In a sense all the adverts are misleading. Considering that even HSDPA is slower than 1Mbps in most cases they are all medium band and not even high-speed internet.
Ekhaatvensters said:
iBurst's cheapest 1gig offering is actually R389pm, which is a great comparative price, but I suppose you took all of the prices to be inclusive of the modem.
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Is it really comparitive if you must sign a 24-month contract?

In all honesty I think Cell C/Virgin got the short end of the stick here. All these tests were done after the batch of VM data users came on board. I noticed a considerable decrease in performance and reliability leading up to the peak testing period. This started to get better again after the testing was done, maybe the result of users leaving or because of the rumored upgrades. All in all not a very level playing field imho. One thing about the price that was not mentioned was the V Rewards which can range anywhere from 8% to 17%.
 
Well ic, the thing is that all the original VM users were very happy with the "Cell C" network as you put it. Yes I know Virgin is not a network provider and merely a service provider. To the general public that doesn't matter much, they have their own brand and pricing structure which is so different from their Cell C counterpart that they might as well be a different network.

My point is that both Virgin and Cell C users were affected by the amount of VM data users coming on board which the network was never designed for. Yes I know Cell C's coverage is crap as you put it, that's why they have Vodacom's network as a fallback. Vodacom and MTN coverage was also crap when they started off and they used each others network as a fallback. Nobody laid this burden of coverage on them so how fair is it to lay it on Cell C now. I know Cell C isn't serious about broadband. Can they really be if they are still rolling out their network? Vodacom and MTN certainly wasn't serious about it either charging R50+/MB. At least they have EDGE in the populated areas where Vodacom doesn't and are planning to roll out 3G.

So what the report has nailed their "broadband" service? Neither MTN nor Vodacom deliver what they advertise either and none of them offer broadband speeds and not even high speed internet in most cases.

Virgin never really "decided" to use Cell C's network. The decision was already made for them with Vodacom and MTN making it difficult for them to enter the market (usual anti-competitive bs). Cell C was the only alternative they had and considering the price it wasn't such a bad deal.

I am prepared to stick it out with them if it will mean a cheaper alternative. I don't think the report could have come at a worse time for them. If it was done in July they would have gotten a very good rating from the few VM data users at that time. Likewise if it was done during the two weeks people complained about Vodacom's service/non-service with Telkom cables being stolen/vandalized Vodacom could have gotten the worst rating.
 
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