An independent test comparing uncapped ADSL offerings from several local Internet service providers (ISPs), saw MWeb fare poorly, with a much smaller company, GamCo, coming out on top.
The test was conducted by Outsource House, a local Web site development company, to investigate the best uncapped options specifically for SMEs.
GamCo had the best results in seven of the 11 different tests that were conducted as part of the investigation. MWeb, on the other hand, did not win a single category, and was at the bottom in four.
The criteria used for the tests were: customer service and response times, ping and latency, download speed, upload speed, packet loss and jitter.
“The main outcome of the test was that MWeb, which we have all heard of and which was first to market with uncapped ADSL, did poorly compared to other smaller ISPs,” says Paul Ogier, head of IT support at Outsource House.
Responding to the outcome of the test, MWeb product manager Rihana Hoosain says there are no excuses. “We have started an internal investigation.”
Poor contact support
Utilising the e-mail addresses found on the ISPs' Web sites, requests were sent for test accounts from Afrihost, Axxess, DigiChilli, GamCo, @lantic, MWeb, OpenWeb, Screamer and WebAfrica.
The ISPs were given six working days to respond. It came down to a comparison between Afrihost, GamCo, MWeb and OpenWeb.
Ogier notes that in conducting the tests, some of the companies had very poor contact support staff.
When Ogier contacted MWeb to enquire about a test account he was “passed from pillar to post” and ultimately received no response. “Maybe they're just too big,” says Ogier.
While MWeb had still not responded by the time of testing, Ogier explains that since it is one of the top-of-mind companies, an executive decision was taken to include it in the testing using an existing account.
“I tested a 4Mb uncapped shaped account from MWeb. All the other companies gave me the same type of account. So I don't think that they were unfairly tested,” says Ogier.
“The enquiry from Outsource House was definitely handled poorly and we do apologise. We would also like to thank them for still including us in the test,” says Hoosain, adding that MWeb would have recommended its business unshaped offering for SMEs.
The results
Using a Windows 7 machine, connected directly to an ADSL router upgraded with the latest firmware, the tests were conducted during office hours and after hours, and the average result was recorded.
In terms of download speed, Afrihost was the fastest, at 2.66Mbps, followed closely by Gamco, at 2.65Mbps. MWeb was the slowest, at 2.63Mbps. OpenWeb and Gamco shared the fastest upload speed of 0.43Mbps.
“The test results are being assessed internally,” says Hoosain, adding, however, that in a number of the tests, there was very little separating the ISPs.
A result that stood out for MWeb was the BitTorrent download speed, in which the ISP was considerably below par. GamCo was considerably faster than the competitors in this test.
“I'm not sure what happened there, since it does not correlate with results we have for similar tests. But there are lots of things to take into account, which could have affected the results,” says Hoosain.
'On the right track'
The overall winner of the test, GamCo, says it has watched with interest the sudden product and price shocks to the market, especially around uncapped services over the last few years.
“Notably, several companies have now risen and fallen, or their uncapped offerings have deteriorated to such a point that the service is almost unusable, specifically during business hours.”
GamCo says it is always seeking the best service offerings with the best pricing and the results confirm the company is “on the right track”.
“From MWeb's side, it certainly was an interesting exercise and we have found some of the results useful as we are always looking to improve on customer experience,” says Hoosain. “Feedback from industry professionals is obviously very valuable.”
Ogier adds that he is glad MWeb has responded to the test. “It might make them re-look at their structures.”
As a result of the test, Outsource House is in the process of moving its account to GamCo, he notes.
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