Infinet maybe?

Come end month, I have to jump off Telkom ADSL. One of my likely choices is Africa Online's Infinet 128k offering.

Getting a demo hasn't been easy at all. On three occassions in the past few weeks, I've been trying to get them (AFOL) demo/attending one but nothing. They either don't show up, cancel at the last minute or go to the wrong place. Disorganized??? To be fair, they did show up on one occassion, though I couldn't attend it, but at that location, the signal was too weak since NEMA won't let them put up a tower in the area (there must be some endangered cockroaches around).

Infinet uses a new technology called iBurst and contrary to what I said in an earlier post, the service should not degrade as more users jump in. The only real downside of this technology is that it is still pretty new so hardware is a bit expensive and not that user oriented. Maybe in fives years time, PDAs with in built iBurst will be available(That's if Wi-Max does not win the tech war ).

Something that strikes me as odd is that it seems to me that ISPs are doing the job that network service providers should do. IMHO, a company such as telkom or kdn should be the ones providing the iBurst system and the ISP just focusses on what it should be really doing, Internet Service(Access). A major reason for this, in the past, was the failings of Telkom (and most likely politiks in the CCK). Slowly by slowly, ISPs are beginning to rely on kdn (mostly) and Telkom (hesitantly) to provide that last mile coverage.

In a nutshell ->

Pros:

• Always on connection
• Mobility
• 128K down (as with telkom) with the added advantage that i get 128k up instead of 32(uploading has been a real pain). For instance, while skyping, I can hear the other party fine but they can barely hear me.
• AFOL have band, or rather they should be managing it well, unlike telkom who are just nashing in this area. With telkom, during the day you'll be lucky to get 64 except on weekends.

Cons:

• Equipment costs 15,000 (minus vat)
• Its 8,000 per month (minus vat)
• The technology is bleeding edge (IMO) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:IBurst & http://global.kyocera.com/prdct/telecom/office/iburst/news/051108.html
• I'm yet to see it in action

The other two contenders are popote and now I'm hearing something about butterfly. Will put those up as soon as I have more info.

Telkom hikes ADSL rates

Gone are the days of cheap Internet from Telkom. Come 1st July, instead of paying 5,604 bob a month for a 32/128 nailed up connection, we're to fork out 9,188 (~$125) bob a month. For those who cannot afford this exorbitant rates, theY can still fork out 5604 a month for 90 hours a month billed at 1/- as minute and 50 cents in the evenings. Only Telkom can turn ADSL into dial-up! At 5,604 a month, individuals and not only businesses could sign up for a permanent net connection (and a lot did), now they're out.

The thing with ADSL is that when I signed up (January), the service was excellent acceptable. I could get on at almost anytime of the day and get my 128K down. However, of late the service has been really crappy. At peak hours (8-7), at best I get 32K! What I suspect is happening is that they've oversold (too many subscribers for the band they have) their bandwidth, at least on the ADSL side(though people on Jambonet have the exact same problem); they have an ADSL link to Jambonet and since they're on ADSL 1, I hope its at its maximum of 2Mb (with telkom, you can never know). So, with this strategy, Telkom probably hopes to half its subscribers while maintaining what they earn.

Come end of this month, I'm jumping off. There is no way I'm paying 9k for crappy service or 5604 for 90hrs. My only alternatives are either Africa Online's Infinet Wireless for 8k a month of Popote Wireless for 5k a month. Popote wireless are offering a maximum of 115K dial up a month for 5000 (equipment is 15k) and this includes unlimited popote to popote calling. AFOL's offer is 128k for 8k (around 9k with VAT and equipment is 15k). I'm leaning on getting the popote since I would need good justification for paying an extra 3k and I wouldn't need the connection during the day. With popote, I pay what I would pay telkom for their new ADSL dialup with the advantage that its unlimited and heck, popote is in for the money so for sure their customer service will be excellent. However, both these services have just started up and as more people subscribe, the more degraded the service will be (ADSL has the advantage here for the provider since the same band can be resold 20 times) and until the eassy project comes through, the providers are stuck.

Flashcom you ask? They are lost (at least on data). They're offering data at 2.50 and there is no unlimited option.

rEbOoT

After an abortive first attempt at creating a blog, here I am at it again.

Short intro: I am Kenya Male in his early twenties and in the IT profession.
This time round, the blog will focus on happenings and my experiences in IT in Kenya and from time to time rants on politics and anything else that comes to mind.

So, without much further ado, here is 69/\/\…