Sentech, the commercially operated state-owned enterprise, has announced measures it says will improve the service on its broadband MyWireless product range.
This follows weeks of complaints from disgruntled MyWireless users.
Marcel Raath, Sentech's executive of sales and marketing, says a key measure will be to cut back on "network abuse" to allow all users to get an equal share of bandwidth available.
Raath says a platform is being set up to monitor excessive usage and downloading on the network.
"The past three months have shown that there are a small number of customers whose usage can be termed as 'network abuse' in terms of the paragraph headed 'excess utilisation of network resources' in our acceptable use policy. All users have accepted, and agreed to abide by, this policy and non-compliance is resulting in degradation, creating a knock-on effect for all MyWireless users.
"Obviously, the situation cannot be allowed to continue and excessive usage is being monitored with a view to contacting customers to assist them with managing their usage, in order to ensure fairness for all users," says Raath.
These users might be upgraded to another package or type of service.
Raath says some of these customers have already been contacted and are co-operating with Sentech.
"MyWireless is a contended Internet service, which means we share bandwidth with other users, and with the cost of international bandwidth being at a premium in SA, it is imperative that Sentech manages this efficiently to ensure that all our customers receive an equitable share. We are also engaging with our international partners to assist us with optimising the MyWireless network in order to restore the service to acceptable levels.
"We are confident that subscribers currently affected by the apparent degradation of the service will see an improvement over the next few weeks."
MyWireless users who posted online responses to Sentech's promise to do better have been generally unimpressed as they say the company is doing too little, too late, and has a long way to go to live up to its initial promises.
Related stories:
Sentech promises to do better
Sentech threatens legal action
User may relinquish anti-Sentech sites
Share