Quote Originally Posted by JWalker View Post
The part that was disturbing to me though was that if they are aware of this type of problem in the security industry(as the technician said its common) why dont they inform clients before it becomes an issue!
That would mean too many customers would cancel the contract! Never mind that their new sign-ons would drop drastically. This is a 2 part issue:

1st they load their own network to the max (in most cases exceeding its own design limits) simply to have the largest possible customer base with the least possible capital outlay. So they install "nice" systems and the 1st few guys get great service for a few months. They use this as advertising that their systems are the "best" and everyone jumps on the wagon. Then it ends with the usual bottle-neck which gives at best an 80's dial-tone modem's speed - when finally the customers complain so much that the public in general start "knowing" about the poor service. Then their customer base starts flattening out, and even starts decreasing as the contracts run their course. Only once they've squeezed every last bit out of that inferior hardware will they start looking at upgrades (and this goes for all of them, MTN, Vodacom, CellC, NeoTel, Telkom, and the rest of the wannabee's - as well as those "wireless" provides).

2nd, as other companies also setup in the area ... the available frequency ranges start being used up. Causing things like interference to get worse. This is especially prevalent with cell tech, as the frequencies is in a much narrower band than other radio connections. With cell, there's also all kinds of handshaking swapping connections to-and-fro between towers ... thus making for lots of dips & peaks in performance. The "best" scenario for the customer is if there's ONLY one single tower in his vicinity, with WAY less than its maximum number of active connections ... all other towers should be out of his range, so it doesn't "automatically" go and switch over "just because it feels like it".

I've got 2 anecdotal stories regarding the 2 scenarios:
1. Our company used to be linked through Verison (actually using MTN's broad-link). The 1st year was absolutely GREAT! We couldn't find anyone else with as good speeds and up-time. Then the hassles started, with days/weeks of absolutely NO connection at all. The "funniest" explanation they gave was: "It's sun-spot activity!" ... though doing a bit of research, the actual sun-spot activity was at a 20 year low at the time they used that excuse!

2. A friend of mine's had a Vodacom 3G data connection to his home PC for a few years now, as well as a Vodacom-phone. Last year MTN built a new tower not 100m away from his house. Since then data for him is non-existent, and he has to walk down the block to go make a phone-call. The VC-tower's only about 500m away (no obstructions whatsoever - he can see it from his front door, yet still no connection)! Worst for him is he just extended his 2 year contract before the tower got built, now he's stuck with non-existent service which he HAS to pay for even though he gets nothing out of it.