About
Subscribe

Sentech: 'We`re still improving`

Tracy Burrows
By Tracy Burrows, ITWeb contributor.
Johannesburg, 02 Sept 2004

Sentech says it has taken further steps to improve its MyWireless , following widespread complaints earlier this year.

Sentech says that in the past month it has made "considerable progress" in correcting management problems, extended the MyWireless coverage and improved its response to customer complaints.

The company says it has installed a new management system on all three of the MyWireless packages to improve the service, ensuring available bandwidth is distributed equally among users.

"The bandwidth management will be effected at a user level and not per concurrent download, thus ensuring the usage of one user does not affect the bandwidth available to the other users on the same product package," it says.

However, Sentech notes it has "not yet optimised all points in the network".

Sentech stresses that MyWireless is a contended service and that users on a particular MyWireless package are provided with equitable shares of the available bandwidth.

When Sentech first rolled out the MyWireless product, the contention ratio on any of the three packages was 30:1, later reduced to 15:1. The immediate goal is to reduce this across all packages to a ratio of 4:1 for local Internet access bandwidth. International access bandwidth cannot be guaranteed and is, therefore, still regarded as best-effort access, Sentech says.

The company also says it has made significant progress in rolling out the first phase of the service, with more than 60 base station sites with infrastructure having been constructed across the country. The next phase will focus on filling the gaps in the existing Gauteng, Durban and Cape Town zoned areas. MyWireless coverage currently extends to 107 suburbs in Cape Town, 111 in Durban, and 483 in Gauteng.

Share