From Vodacom HSDPA to Neotel CDMA2000 EVDO
Written by Meraj Chhaya on August 1, 2008 – 1:03 am
I’m going through an important phase in my life, and no, nothing to do with changes in my body. I’m changing my Internet Service Provider. Why am I telling you that? It has all got to do with wireless, and ultimately, phones.
If you’re not aware of my current internet status, I got a 2 year contract with Vodacom for their HDSPA modem. The speed is 1.8mbps but I can ask them to increase it to 3.6mbps, all for the cost of R50 per month. Useless. My cap is 2GB per month, and I’m paying R449 for it. I can lower it to t the minimum of 500MB at R249 or increase it to 10GB, and I’m not interested in the price.
As you know, posting here at PhoneReport requires quite a lot of internet traffic, we get pictures, videos, download news articles from literally hundreds of sources, etc. We need more than 2GB, and Vodacom’s prices aren’t comfortable at all.
So one afternoon, I was heading to PostNet at Eastgate to get my business cards done, and I see a huge Neotel poster, and just in front of me: “Neotel NeoConnect Prime Unlimited – R999”. That’s freaking cheap if you compare Vodacom to Neotel, and Neotel provides speeds to 2.4mbps, but the only problem is that their coverage isn’t very good, and you cannot remove the SIM card, or PIM card which I believe is used on CDMA2000 EVDO devices.
“No problem”, I thought. “I live in a CBD, so coverage should be excellent”. Wrong! I’m only covered for NeoConnect Lite, which has speeds up to 153.5kbps, which honestly sucks. The Unlimited package costs R470, which isn’t really bad and it’s probably the cheapest one in the country. I will have to go for it, and when I’m covered for Prime, I will upgrade.
I phoned Neotel and enquired about the upgrade procedure, and it turns out that I would have to cancel the Lite contract and pay R40 for every month left, and then sign up for the Prime contract. That’s no upgrade! I complained about this, and requested customer care to escalate this issue, and I also complained to the media representative. My calls were heard and they allowed me to upgrade for free, as long as I returned the Lite device. No problem, but I need that in written. Unfortunately I haven’t received this statement in written, therefore I haven’t bought the Lite package yet. I’ve been waiting almost a week, and as soon as Neotel sends me a signed policy stating that I can upgrade for free, I will go sign up for the NeoConnect Lite package.
Customer care and all representatives have been excellent in terms of response, and if they think I need help, they will call me. They phoned me few times to let me know that they are aware of my issue and questioning if I need help to purchase a Neotel package. Other ISPs such as Telkom will only answer your call in hours time, nevermind calling you back. The only bad points is that Neotel cannot inform the public when there will be coverage of certain areas, and that I haven’t received my statement yet.
Please do discuss your experience with Neotel with us, and when I get my service running, I will update you on the issue.
Tags: NeoConnect Lite, NeoConnect Prime, Neotel internet, South Africa CDMA2000, South Africa EVDO
Posted in networks |
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