I had abandoned ZOL last year because they sucked! After about 1
year with Aptics Wimax, paying $120 for a 1mbs unlimited link, I was foolish enough to get seduced by ZOL's emails, promising that they now ran the full infrastructure, Liquid was providing the back bone, Unlimited and at half the price of Aptics. I went yesterday and paid $99 for the 2mbs Unlimited package, and was given a free indoor unit (which is fantastic), but I chose to set up my Outdoor "AirSpan"
originally installed by ZOL) with the 5mhz Econet Baseband frequencies, and new ZOL password. Viola - I was connected
The service (from my house) is SHOCKLY BAD. Down speeds fluctuate terribly (at well below the 2mbs I paid for), but what will kill most people is the appalling up-speed. Forget about emailing a PDF over 500kbs. My GMail literally could NOT send simple graphics above 450kbs without timing out. I ended up tethering my trusted Telecel Droid and it sent in less than 2 secs.
Because of this terrible up-speed, there are many times when one types in a web address, and it will literally take 1-2mins for the query to get a response on a site. Once the site loads, depending on how the down-speed is at that time, its normally acceptable. But YouTube has always got to be on 144p for half decent (broken up) watch of a simple video.
To put this is perspective, on UMax, I never have this problem with my unit, however, I don't EVER want to pay $75 for 20GBs for a 1mb connection... so I forgot who I gave the ugly box too.
Aptics (on the 10mhz frequencies) is really good at my house. Up and Down is always way above what I was paying for ($120), BUT--- It regularly dropped out, so u never has a constant browsing experience without constantly checking the Airspan to notice that its DL SYNCRONIZING and then RANGING. One can get work done, but uploading a youtube video without "resume" function is a "fingers crossed - if ur lucky" affair. However, my friends in Greendale and Zimre Park have almost ZERO up-speed on Aptics, they both left after 4 months of trying to sort it out and are both now VERY HAPPY ZOL customers.
On a positive note, in my frustration this afternoon, I decided to take my free mobile unit with me to Avondale to sit at a cafe and lament at my foolishness to ever go back to ZOL. I plugged it up and it got 3 (maximum) Bars. I was amazed at how fast and reliable the indoor unit was in Avondale (pitty its pretty much useless at my home).
Having used ZOL fibre at a few location, I had hoped that the WiMax nightmare was over, but sadly I see #TeamZOL dealing with lost of unhappy customers, coz unlike UMAX, Zol didn't bother to tell me, or my sister who got it the day before, if Econet Basebands would be reliable in our areas... they took the cash, set the box up and prayed we all live in areas like Avondale - or greendale - or Zimre Park.
Because I have seen this SAME product both work well and terribly, I recommend everyone insist on taking the unit home/work 1st to test if you get your contracted speeds. For the price, you can;t really complain though.
