3 years ago
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Vumatel subscribers across Johannesburg are complaining about network performance problems, including neighbourhoods in Fourways, the Edenvale area, Boksburg, and Germiston.
Although the nature of the complaints isn’t all the same, they are all related to performance problems on the Vumatel network.
MyBroadband received a flood of complaints from Elspark and Freeway Park residents on Tuesday, who reported severely degraded performance during evening peak times.
They say they’ve had the problem since at least October 2022 but have been unable to get Vumatel to acknowledge the fault.
“My area has been suffering severe fibre outages for months now,” the coordinator of a community WhatsApp group about the issue told MyBroadband.
“Every night between 18:00 and 22:00, and weekends, the Internet speeds drop to 0.1Mbps with around 30% packet loss.”
Another resident sent us a photo of a speed test result illustrating the issue.
At 0.1Mbps, these customers are receiving one-fifth of a per cent (0.2%) of the maximum speed Vumatel’s entry-level 50Mbps package is supposed to provide.
Depending on the ISP, this package costs these frustrated subscribers around R700 per month.
“The ISPs cannot do anything as it is a Vumatel fault, and Vumatel is refusing to acknowledge the fault, saying everything is fine,” the Elspark group coordinator said.
“I have opened a complaint with ICASA, as with many others, but we are still not getting any support from Vumatel.”
One desperate subscriber told MyBroadband he works from home for Amazon, serving the American market during the evening hours when the Vumatel network in their neighbourhoods is degraded.
“The main requirement for my work is a fibre line, and I have now received warnings that I may lose my job if this continues,” he said.
This subscriber is not exaggerating. MyBroadband has first-hand knowledge of Amazon’s broadband requirements for remote customer support staff.
The job description clearly states they must have a fibre connection with a certain minimum speed.
Amazon support managers can, in extreme circumstances, make exceptions for employees to use a high-quality fixed wireless access 4G or 5G backup connection.
However, the higher latency can significantly impact the stability of the employee’s connection to Amazon’s systems and their work performance.
If they don’t perform to a certain level, they are dismissed with a generous severance.
In addition to the residents of Elspark and Freeway Park, MyBroadband has also received complaints from Fourways residents and the Elphin Lodge Retirement Village near Edenvale.
The problem reported in Fourways is different, as it has to do with the stability of the connection.
When the subscriber’s Vumatel line is up, they get decent speeds from it, albeit not always at the advertised maximum.
However, the line frequently drops, interrupting work and streaming video at inopportune times.
MyBroadband asked Vumatel for feedback on the problems reported around the Gauteng area.
“There are no large-scale outages on the Vumatel network,” it stated.
“In certain suburbs, we have experienced higher than normal faults due to outages from third-party backhaul providers, and secondary damages due to theft of electrical cables in close proximity of our fibre infrastructure.”
Vumatel said it is aware of network disruptions affecting some residents.
“As per our normal business process, our teams are on the ground to resolve issues as swiftly as possible. We urge any user experiencing slow speeds or downtime to contact their ISP directly.”
Vumatel confirmed that sister company DFA, one of its backhaul providers, is currently upgrading certain portions of its network within Gauteng.
It said this had increased scheduled downtime and that this work is predominantly performed after hours.
Asked specifically about Elspark and Freeway Park, Vumatel acknowledged the problem but didn’t provide details.
“We are aware of an issue, which was logged with our backhaul provider,” it said.
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