Moving into a brand new house is incredibly exciting. Watching the progression from dirt into a home, choosing the finishings, moving in while the paint is still drying, the carpets are still soft under foot, and the bathrooms are pristine, is a little like being a kid at Christmas time.
The problem with moving into a newly developed area, however, is not so much that the streets are also new and are, therefore, not visible on any online maps or GPS devices. It's not even the fact that we're literally living in the middle of a construction site, complete with all the eyesores that come with that.
No, the blindingly frustrating part is the lack of telecommunications infrastructure. We discovered this quickly when we struggled to get by on Edge, if we were lucky, when we constantly lost service, and when we realised that trying to maintain a cellphone connection involved running up and down the stairs, into the garden and around the yard, while trying to fight off a hyperactive Boston Terrier who was convinced this meant playtime.
I saw this as an opportunity to test out a few providers' services and willingness to boost infrastructure in the area. I approached it from the angle that ours was the first of 10 new complexes being developed in the area, and that, while we could get by (begrudgingly) for now, service would become an issue once all the complexes, with 40 units in each, were competing for 3G and WiFi coverage.
Good start
It all started on 8 August. My husband and I are both Vodacom customers, so my priority was to get signal boosted in our area. I sent an e-mail to Vodacom and got a response the same day, asking a silly amount of ridiculous questions, including how long I had experienced the problem, the exact location (which was difficult to provide seeing as though the streets are not yet listed), and how many people were experiencing the same problem and their contact numbers.
I didn't have the time or inclination to gather all that information, and felt I was succinct in my description of the problem.
And so I turned to Twitter. We've all heard how crucial it is for business to engage with customers over social media, so I decided to put them to the test.
On 13 August, I sent Twitter and Facebook messages to Vodacom asking what I had to do to get signal boosted in my area without answering a million questions, and to Telkom and Neotel asking if it was possible to get ADSL infrastructure installed in the area, as we have been pining for uncapped ADSL for a few years.
I got a Twitter response from Vodacom within 10 minutes requesting more information, as well as an equally fast response to my Facebook message, telling me to submit my query to a social media e-mail address.
Thirty minutes later, I received a call from a friendly lady named Nadine, who asked whether we were only experiencing Internet problems or if we were struggling with dropped calls, too. She promised to forward my query to the network guys, and called again 10 minutes later with a reference number. About three-and-a-half hours later, I received another call from Vodacom, saying the query would have a 14-day turnaround time. All in a day's work.
True to its word, Moegsien, from Vodacom's network department, called just nine days later, informing me that, following an investigation, two new sites had been planned for the area, that he would leave my query open, and that I would be informed once the sites go live. He could not, however, give me a date for go-live, saying they were dependent on third-party contractors.
Nevertheless, I was satisfied with the service I had received. Bravo, Vodacom.
It's not what I can do for you
Neotel was not so willing to bend. Rather than contacting me, I was told (one-and-a-half hours after my social media post) to contact the sales department about products and services available in my area. It is not lost on me that I received a response to my e-mail to the sales department in just 10 minutes, versus the considerably longer response time to my social media query. Money talks, apparently.
I was satisfied with the service I had received. Bravo, Vodacom.
Neotel said it is "not necessary" to install ADSL lines in the area, as we were within range of its LTE tower, and that we could sign up for uncapped LTE at a cool R999 a month. I'll admit Neotel's pre-sales service is great. It was willing to send someone to my area to test the signal the very next day, and would sign me up the day after.
I told the salesperson that R999 was a bit out of our budget, and that paying R250 a month for uncapped ADSL was more appealing. He didn't budge. Rather, he offered a capped WiFi package for R299 a month. I politely declined.
No concrete answer
I'd heard that Telkom's social media service is a shining example of how it should be done, but while it wasn't as quick as Vodacom, I did get a response the same day I sent my social media query - about five hours after the fact.
After requesting my details, Telkom called three days later, saying it would refer my query to its networking department and inform me of the progress. I have yet to receive an update.
I also tried the middleman route - I'd heard good things about Afrihost's service from friends, in terms of doing all the infrastructure legwork for you. I sent the same story to Afrihost via Twitter, and received a response the same day, explaining that, while it couldn't perform ADSL infrastructure miracles, it would be launching mobile data soon (initially capped), but that this would be dependent on 3G and LTE coverage in the area - and that it used MTN for its coverage. At this stage, I figured it was up to an MTN customer to find out about coverage, so I didn't take this further.
My expectation from this little exercise was that the operators would jump at the chance to connect a possible 400 new households. While it seemed this was the case, it was also evident that they would only do this in the easiest possible way - by offering alternative services rather than actually installing additional infrastructure.
For now, our uncapped ADSL dreams remain in tatters. It seems we're stuck with our 20GB 3G, provided by Telkom, the signal for which is just as temperamental as that received from Vodacom. At least I know there's a dimly glimmering light at the end of Vodacom's tunnel.
Vodacom scores top points for its customer service and willingness to help a brother out. Neotel scores top points for offering alternatives that don't meet my needs, but at least it has its bottom line top of mind. Telkom lost brownie points when it failed to follow up my query, but I'm still hopeful - it has only been two weeks. That said, there might still be some hope, but for now, dear Vodacom, can you enter the ADSL space?
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