Paul Jacobson - Latest Comments in Big in Japan

Re: Big in Japan

richard — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 10:46:43 -0000

Excellent, so someone in a 'good reception' area will experience even lower speed. Not good. Was hoping you were in a 'good' rather than a 'excellent' reception area.

Then again it seems like a big building in the way of the signal has an effect based on looking at the map on the mapping tool on the Neotel site.

I would expect that someone will hack the device for an external aerial for better reception. See http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/archive/index.php/t...
Else Neotel needs to put in more base stations. I expect this isn't a high priority for them given Sentech's & iBurst's trackrecord in terms of reception.

Re: Big in Japan

pauljacobson — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:32:04 -0000

Hi Richard

Thanks for pointing that out. I have edited the post to mention that I enjoy excellent connectivity in my area (if I understand the indicator correctly).

I am not sure about the external aerial option but if you take a look at the image in the post you will notice the two aerials on the edges. Those are for the CDMA connection. The smaller ones are for wifi, I believe.

Re: Big in Japan

richard — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 02:21:46 -0000

Paul, great review with very useful detail. I'd just like to make a few points:
a. You didn't indicate where about you used the Neotel service from. If you look at the Neotel coverage map tool on the Neotel site, it will indicate what you reception will be (average, good, excellent). So it would be nice to know what rating you area so that one can put your download speeds in context.
b. I assume one can add an external aerial to the modem as one does for 3G routers, this increasing the speed. This might be of use for some people as it might result in a good speed jump for little investment.

I think you've done well to communicate that this is a good alternative for the 384/512kbs ADLS users which I assume most are. Also I think 10gb is more than enough for many average users too. The reception of Neotel service is the make of break issue in my eyes. Let's hope this gets better.

Re: Big in Japan

pauljacobson — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 01:09:33 -0000

Thanks Simon! Glad you included the link to your article, I was about to update my post with the link. I am also going to stick with ADSL but the pricing stinks compared to Neotel's. I hope there are going to be substantial price cuts when the new cable/s land/s mid-year. If it wasn't for price, Neotel still wouldn't be a viable option but as things stand, price can make a big difference.

Re: Big in Japan

scramblekid — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:54:02 -0000

Very good article Paul. I ran something similar and published the results on Fin24.com over here: http://is.gd/i3kx

Great minds ;)

I'll stick with my Telkom ADSL.

Re: Big in Japan

lioneldp — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 00:52:13 -0000

Cannot wait - I'm a "power" user - so should work for my needs.