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Wireless broadband report released

By Damaria Senne, ITWeb senior journalist
Johannesburg, 17 Oct 2005

Sentech's MyWireless is the best broadband solution in SA, says the wireless broadband report released by Johannesburg University's broadband laboratory.

The study involved an in-depth testing of Sentech's MyWireless, Vodacom's 3G, WBS's iBurst and MTN's 3G. According to Rudolph Muller, the founder of MyADSL portal and researcher at the broadband laboratory, 20 000 diagnostic tests were performed, testing 60 different aspects of each service.

Additionally, 150 volunteer broadband testers performed thousands of uploads, downloads, and latency performance tests using their broadband connections.

Each service was rated according to various criteria including cost, reliability, upload speed, download speed, latency service restrictions and technical support.

MyWireless performed consistently in all departments and emerged a comfortable winner with an overall result of 87%, Muller says.

Vodacom's 3G finished second with 81%, followed by iBurst with 80% and MTN's 3G with 78%.

According to Muller, the study was launched to clear up the confusion buyers are confronted with when choosing a wireless broadband service.

"Consumers can now make an informed decision when it comes to wireless broadband while the operators know which aspects of their service need attention," he says.

Pranill Ramchander, Sentech's public relations and external communication manager, says the test results tally with its own analysis of the strength and weakness MyWireless. However, more work will be required on support of service, he adds.

Ramchander says post-analysis will determine what to use from the study.

Muller says the research is ongoing and an ADSL report that includes Telkom's ADSL service will be released early next month. Some of the assessment criteria will change, Muller says, with greater focus given to speed of the service and reliability.

The full MyADSL Wireless Broadband Report is available on the MyADSL Web site.

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