Mark Forrester

iBurst: Mobile Broadband Internet

We have been using iBurst as our business internet connection for the last year or so, we have also resold a few packages. Generally we have been quite happy with the connection, so I’m not going to bash their service. However, iBurst does have its fair share of issues.

Now don’t get me wrong iBurst is a great alternative to Telkom Broadband at home. Its great for personal use, downloading the mail, and surfing the net. Its got no affiliation with Hellkom, I mean Telkom, so no waiting for an ADSL installation, it’s cheap, and its got the freedom of wireless. So you can surf whilst on the toilet, nice! As a business solution I’m not convinced though.

Seeing we are based in the centre of Cape Town we get good signal strength. Surrounded by big buildings does not seem to affect the signal. The signal often drops though, on average once a day. Why? I have no idea, but iBurst always have some excuse. We are constantly resetting the modem, not sure if this is firmware related (we have the latest firmware installed), or signal related. Quite irritating when a deadline looms and I can’t FTP or send big emails. Skype telephone calls are always a problem with iBurst. The only time I seem to be able to have a clear, semi-uninterrupted telephone chat is after business hours. Even then the connection is often lost, and a few attempts at redialing a contact is required.

The administration at iBurst is something else. We have been invoiced once in the last year, an email with about 15 invoices attachments, with a not-so-friendly message requesting immediate payment or our service will be suspended. How can we pay if we haven’t been invoiced?

My tether has been torn, if there is such a saying, and iBurst is no more. Uncapped ADSL is our new, faster, uniterrupted internet supply.

I’m a much happier camper. Let me know your feelings on the wireless giant, iBurst. Are you happy with your connection?

In

3 responses

  1. JBagley Avatar
    JBagley

    In SA, we havent solved our Wireless woes. Here at work we use ADSL and Sentech – not wireless, satellite connectivity. Everyone that I know that uses wireless have technical issues every now and then, and its really frustrating.

    I have to say that our ADSL is probably the most stable connection. We have the least trouble from Telkom. On the other hand, our Sentech satellite has its days. We were upgraded for free from 50-1 to 15-1 over subscribed, because of their poor service and didnt want to lose us a customers. But even so, now and then it bums out on us.

    The one thing that I love about it is that there are times when we are getting more than 1mb/s downloads…. NO JOKES!

    But if I had a choice, (Not like we have much of a choice in SA anyway) i would go with ADSL. Let us know how your uncapped account goes, especially when you reach over 5 or 10 gigs and see if it still is going strong. 🙂

    Reply
  2. Darryn Avatar
    Darryn

    I agree with Jason (Bagley) in that Wireless in SA does have its problems (and its often to do with dropping the signal – at that essential time!). This is one of the reasons ADSL does excel in the MyADSL comparison with the other options – and will remain there until the others step up their service offering.

    Just from my side: my wife had the same connectivity issues with iBurst – and the exact same response from iBurst…..”Reset your Modem”. It also frustrated her to the point of changing as well as internet was core to her business communication (Recruitment).

    Its a real pity that nothing exceptional has come of any of the product offerings in the last while here in SA. I remember looking last January for a solution and decided to wait for one of the offerings to become a little more attractive….. here I am a year and a bit later and no further in installing anything (at home that is). 🙁

    We really need a product that would shake the market! Until then I will continue to ponder what option I will have to go with…

    Reply
  3. roberta Avatar
    roberta

    Have you thought of sharing your uncapped adsl with your neighbours by mounting a wifi access point? seems to me the obvious way to go. You can usefully share one or two adsl accounts between the whole building… if you wanted to charge for access or limit access that is easy too.

    “local” wifi is realiable – I never have to plug in, not even to download movies. I have cable access not adsl, but I hooked up my cable modem to a linksys WRT54GS wifi access point which I firmwired to control who can go on. I then hooked the up a ap210 rugged out door wifi access point via a power over the ethernet cable and broadcast my signal off my roof. I charge £4 per month I have 3 users, and I pay (for the cable) £12, we are all smiling!

    Local wifi = wifi card + arial only (no modem required)

    Reply

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