Vodacom 3G sucks!

[irneb]

Well Bell is quite average but Rogers has got real ground-breaking technology infrastructure and coverage yet equals it with massive prices...there are several low profile. whereas Telus, Northern tel and Virgin are ok but the best internet is from Bell mobility and Rogers...Bell cheaper ofcourse. Afterall Bell is the first ever telecomunications company of canada. What about SA can't you change or are these regional issues?

As Dave's stated, we've got 2 choices, Telcom / IS for the main connection.

For the wireless / cell: Vodacom / MTN. The others (Cell-C, Virgin, etc.) are all just piggy-backing on top of those two's infrastructure. And actually those two are "owned" (partially between 35 & 60% shareholding) by our national telecoms company (TelCom), who has just introduced their own brand now called 8ta ... how great that's gonna be is really up for grabs (we know from experience how bad TelCom's land line support is). But all these actually use Telcom's connection for international, or through the "only" other competitor IS ... not sure if the main company is IS (Internet Solutions), but it looks that way. Under them is a whole bunch of "ISP's".

There's two other which seems a bit more independent (locally at least) called NeoTel and iBurst, for their international link they still use either of the 2 giants. They only have wireless connections - no land-lines. But I'm unsure if they perhaps use one of Vodacom / MTN's cell networks. I think iBurst may be under IS, as their coverage is rather poor when not in the major city centres.

The rest are all simply using the infrastructure of the 2 major players. E.g. the X-DSL which we have for our ADSL work through Telcom. For these guy's wireless, they use one of the cell companies or in some areas a WiFi connection - as per our Verison under IS.

In SA there are 100's of "ISPs". But actually they're just middle-ware taking a cut between the customer and the supplier. Very few of them have their own infrastructure, and those who do - only in very small specific locations.

[Dave A]

There's two other which seems a bit more independent (locally at least) called NeoTel and iBurst

iBurst is actually owned by Vodacom, although it doesn't operate over the cellphone infrastructure. Let's face it - we're pwned.

[AndyD]

Let's face it - we're pwned.

j00 m34n 7h3y'r3 pu11ing 0ur p4n7z d0wn?

[irneb]

4nd 7h3n 63nd1n9 u5 0v3r 4nd 74k1n9 u5 fr0m 63h1nd!

[Dave A]

Oh trust me - I don't need MS to diagnose this problem

Vodacom is a firken nightmare for me tonight.

[irneb]

That's the usual problem with that dongle modem from Voda-sucks. Mine was working at best for about 20min, then no connection, unplug - restart - reconnect ... doesn't want to read the modem ... restart again with the modem connected - blue screen ... disconnect, reset, plug in before the Win Logo comes up, finally ... connect ... ahh another 20min (max).

That's the major reason I went with my phone directly. I've now got a Motorola Milestone ... frikken awesome speeds (max of 12MB/s - average of 4MB/s) and yes I've tested phoning from & to it while downloading (no prob whatsoever).

I'm a bit green , because the Milestone 2 just came out: Has built-in 3G hotspot for up to 5 devices. No cables needed . Although I suspect battery life's going to be poor when you've got both its 3G and WiFi turned on.

[Dave A]

That looks sweet!

My first phone was a Motorola, but I've been a Nokia diehard ever since. Maybe time to take a closer look at Motorola again.

[garthu]

My latest problem is i really battle to buy bundle airtime though the *111# service. Took me around 3 hours before i got bandwidth tonight. Seems to be getting worse as well with the messages "All connections busy" and "failed"

Anyone tried the new Cell dongle and packages??

[irneb]

Actually I prefer the SMS Mymeg ### or MyGig #.# to 100 instead of the *111# service. Although the data bundle's not immediately available: this week it took a few hours for it to come through. So it seems V's servers are overloaded (at best) or they're just screwing with us again (most probably).

[irneb]

That looks sweet!

My first phone was a Motorola, but I've been a Nokia diehard ever since. Maybe time to take a closer look at Motorola again.

I've had 2 Nokias in the past: an old die-hard 5110 (which died on me), and more recently an E64 - the E64 was the one with the dodgy data connection (see one of my earlier posts). I've had a Phillips Savy in the 90's, as well as one of those old Ericsson bricks.

But the best phone overall which I've ever had (prior to my newest toy) was (and still is) a Siemens ME45. That thing had quite a few features (after the flash upgrade) above even top-of-the-range Nokias of the time (not colour though) ... but what I loved about it is its ruggedness: Once dropped it 3 storeys onto a concrete floor, then it bounced and fell into a pool. Went down and dove into the pool to gather the bits ... had a surprise, it was still on and working, only a scratch on the side to show that anything happened. So for me the "resistance to dust, shock and water" meant: Water proof and built like a rubber ball. And it's still used as my back-up phone, which I've had to use numerous times when a MotoRazr (absolute CR@P) and the E64 (lesser CR@P) bombed out on me.