Telkom mobile (8ta)

[ians]

Be warned if you decide to take out a contract with Telkom mobile (formally known as 8ta), beside the rest of the crap, defective iphone5, R2000 bill the first month, then the R11 000 bill the second month. I am getting to a point with this contract that I am gona be better off throwing this phone into the sea. The time I have wasted on this phone and contract I could have paid cash for a Samsung S4 and not been stuck with a R400 per month bill and I could have at least had good reception with MTN. So anyone wanting to invest in Telkom mobile (8TA) don't say you haven't been warned, especially the Telkom mix, that just takes the inconvenience to a whole new level.

I decided to take the iphone5 out for a test run today, and so the kak just gets worse.

Sitting in the middle of Pinetown, I attempted to make a call, 3 seconds into the call, the line dropped, tried to redial, no service.

This is the part that really burns my ass, with Telkom mix you get a free Telkom landline number to call, so I attempt to call this number, line drops, no service, full mtn signal appears with 3G sign, I attempt to use the phone to the free landline number again, it wont even dial out, no service again. After the 3rd attempt I get through order materials I need and dial *188# ...yip on the nail, the bundle less the duration of the call indicating it I had just paid for the call.

I don't have time to go into the whole story trying to load data, once the 350 meg was used up.

Why I didn't I just stick to MTN pay as you go.

[ians]

IT all looks good in the ad, what they don't include in the ad is the rates they charge per minute and data fees, once these limits are used up. The rate per minute in this contract R1.50 p/m but Telkom mobile rate is 0.95c, I still cant find the data rate per minute

Try find the call per min. rate or data usage rate, in or out of the contract

http://www.telkom.co.za/general/customercentre/april-Newsletter/April-Newsletter.html

[ians]

Telkom mobile (8ta) on site in Hill street Pinetown, no signal

Saturday Knowles centre, no signal, pick u p my MTN phone, full signal.

Another issue I am having, there seems to be 2 types of data available, Telkom data and data for other networks, this just didn't seem real until the data for other networks expired and I received a message indicating that my internet had been paused due to the fact that data to other networks had expired. You then go onto Telkom data, no comment.


I made a similar mistake many years ago with Virgin mobile, which almost cost me my business, ported my number and expected the same coverage as MTN, well you live and learn or well you suppose to, I made the mistake of thinking Telkom is so big they would have the same kind of coverage if not better, but once again I should have taken the time to do a little research first and found that Telkom mobile(8 ta) are still new in the game and have along way to go.


The data rate is R1.00 per meg, if you are on Telkom mix and you don't have a cut off at 350 meg and run over the 350 they offer in the mix, you better start looking at your access bond, because if you are downloading you tube videos for example and run into the 10 gig range, it is gona cost you R10 000 +

If you use the adsl wi fi, speed is .77 Mbps download and .41 Mbps upload, reading done this morning at 8.30am
If you use the Telkom mobile sim card with the 3 G on (which by the way is very unstable and I am yet to get a full signal with 3 G) reading taken this morning with 3 bars and E 8ta 0.14 Mbps download speed and 0.00 Mbps.
With data for other networks available I manage to get 3.45 Mbps download and 1.45Mbps speed that is with MTN 3 G indicated on the iphone5, reading taken last week.

[adrianh]

I am currently on pay as you go and I want to purchase a new phone, my Sony Erricsson P1i is a bit long in the tooth. After much research I've come to the conclusion that the best way to go is to buy a Galaxy S4 for R6,000 off Gumtree, with papers of course, and to stay on pay as you go. They are welcome to keep their contracts shoved very deep up their Jaakop Zoomba verbal orifices, at least I can't get a nasty surprise at the end of the month as I did many times when I was on contract.

[ians]

Beware of buying phones on gumtree, my mate purchased a phone brand new still in the box, a couple of weeks later the phone required a repair, took it the store, was told the contract for the phone was not paid up to date and therefore, they could not repair the phone.

[adrianh]

hmmm...now that it not nice, thanks for telling me.

[IanF]

I bought a S3 mini off carbonite forums for R2800 a few months ago so far no hassles also on pay as you go.

[adrianh]

This actually opens up an interesting question. If a phone is purchased on a 2 year contract at what point does the phone become the property of the the contracted party. Does it legally become your property at the start of the contract or at the end of the contract? Now, if it works like a lease, can one then legally sell the phone before the contract is up?

This is really something interesting to think about.

Another question of course is if the phone is sold on to a 2nd party during the contract period is the original supplier still responsible for repairs or does that then become the sole responsibility of the manufacturer.

[flaker]

If u want the Samsung S4, quite honestly i would just get it on a Cell C contract, there are savings, trust me. i now have a samsung S3 on a R299 p.m. contract with free R100 air-time at 99c/min/sec billing and any additional usage at the the same rate.

Of course my new contract was entered into after i bid farewell to MTN after a lifetime with them!!!

[adrianh]

I've been with with Vodacom for a lifetime and I have no qualms about parting ways with them. I'll look into Cell C with an S4...thanks.

[ians]

I have worked in some really remote areas like next to rivers miles away from anything, up in the mountains and I am yet to be the one without a signal. I have had the odd run in with them (MTN) but over minor issues, been on pay as go for as long as I can remember, tried the Virgin mobile contract, it sounded like a good deal at the time, it lost me a lot of money due to their little ooops which got them on consumer watch on East Radio, but still to this day never fixed the problem or lived up to their promises they made.

[ians]

Seems this problem with the data is not only with Telkom mobile, chatting to a mate yesterday he told me he also got whacked with an insane bill last month.

It seems people take out contract with data packages, what you don't take note of is the small print or the finer details, like Telkom you get 350 meg free data, they just don't tell you that it is only Telkom data and not data to other networks, you have to actually buy data to other networks otherwise you get billed at R1.00 per meg. You can buy packages which will save you a little, but you don't get the bundles at the same rate as the Telkom mobile data bundle, you pay more for the data to other networks a lot more.

It also seems to be the case with airtime, MTN to MTN for example cost x amount but if you call another network form an MYN phone it cost you a different rate.

Just more scams the cellphone companies have managed to get away with, to rip off the public, and boy are we collecting, people are so dazzled by smart phones and what looks like a deal they are not reading the contracts properly and understanding what they are getting themselves in for.

SOMETHING YOU NEED TO BE VERY CAREFUL OF...using data and airtime in "OPEN CONTRACTS" (for all networks)which is a method the cellphone companies use to rip a hole your backside, by the time you realise what happened you could be in for a whack of a bill. What I did to overcome this problem is I have limited the contract s to what ever they offered ie...if I am offered 350 meg then that is what my limit is, once I reach this limit they cannot just bill me R1.00 per meg I have to reload using a voucher, only then can I load more data then I don't buy Telkom data because it is useless, I buy Telkom to other network data, which is more expensive but seems to work a lot faster.

I have noticed up to 5 Mbps for other networks, but if I use Telkom data, I am lucky to get download speeds of over 0.7 Mbps download speed.

[ians]

Today was the last straw, I tried to use the iphone5 to download a user manual for a customer, made a right arse of myself, couldn't get the phone to log onto the internet, this is now in Durban, full 8ta signal with 3G displayed on the screen.

So I go to the Telkom store,
while I am there ask about my R11 000 bill, which is being sorted,
I ask why I cant use the 8 sms which come with the Telkom mix bundle for the last 3 months, I am told that Telkom are busy trying to sort it out with Apple, it seems there is a problem with the iphone5 software will not work with the Telkom sms network, that 3 months of 8 free sms down the crapper, because it doesn't carry over.
Why I cannot connect to the internet with a full 8ta 3G signal displayed on the screen, checked the settings and it looks like I have to switch on data roaming haven't tried it yet but will tomorrow when I am back on site, when I put my MTN sim card it works like a charm without using data roaming, so I don't know.
Still trying to figue out how the Telkom data and data to other networks work and why when the data to other networks expires my data useage is paused even if I still have Telkom Data.

For f%^&* sakes there must be some sort of legal action I can take, they are in breach of contract, I have signed a 24 contract with Telkom to render a service, which means I should have a defect free working phone with at least coverage in the built up areas. It is not like I am complaining because I work in some remote location where is no available signal. You watch the ad on TV where one person goes into the meeting, what a load of crap.

I also believe they should have to explain the pros and cons to this Telkom mobile data useage and to other networks, when you sign up the contract.

[ians]

Working in Davenport Rd Durban, no network coverage, full bars with 8 ta and 3G indicated on the screen, just keeps rolling when you try update or connect to the internet, the phones rings and I can make calls but thats it, which means I cant use the internet to download emails, cant sync evernote to work on site, cant use whatsapp to send messages to supplier to order material, I cant even sms even though Telkom offer me 8 free sms per month, which expire every month because you cant sms from an iphone5 using Telkom mobile network, so sad.

[ians]

The other joke is I have just noticed Telkom mobile is offering LTE, they cant even get the internet right how on earth are they going to get 3 G never mind LTE. I can tell you that I am yet to see LTE on my iphone5 using the Telkom mobile (8ta) sim card, with my MTN sim in the iphone5 I get LTE and full signal.