[Question] 3G Provider

[Nickolai Naydenov]

I'm currently on Cell C 3G contract which sometimes works well and other times it doesn't work at all, nothing special. A saw an 8-ta advert 10GB per month for R199pm subject to 2 years contract which is fine with me. 99% of the time I use my 3G in my iPad. I've checked that there is coverage at a few places that I'm often at. Does anybody have that package, how is their service, how is internet speed, any issues that you picked up, what happens if you are in a place with no 8-ta coverage, any advice?

[Mike C]

Hi Nickolai. We have this package and are in Durban, and my daughter has it and is in Cape Town. We have been on it for about a year now and love it. My daughter has been on it for a year and a half and is also very impressed. Vodacom was constantly hanging up on us and MTN was quite expensive. After my other daughter had a run in with CellC we won't go near them.

I have found the speed to be very good. I don't think that their coverage is as wide as some some of the other networks, and would imagine that this could be a problem if you move around a lot.

I know of someone in Rustenburg who wanted to try 8ta but the coverage did not extend over the area where she lived, so she had to go the Vodacom route.

So far the service has been very good, and I would give it a thumbs up.

I hope that this has helped.

[Nickolai Naydenov]

Thanks Mike, really appreciate it, I will give it a shot

[irneb]

Haven't tried it myself - I'm also in Jhb (Sandton & Northern subrbs mostly, though sometimes at Harties too). Thus far I'm on Vodacom prepaid - using my Android phone as phone / pda / gps / etc. as well as my HotSpot when at home. Speedwise I've not had an issue at all, sometimes drops connection but then a reconnect is a finger press away. Only issue I have is: Expensive at around R500 for 3GB - contracts aren't much cheaper. My brother's got the uncapped MTN at R300/m and seems to find it decent (even in Secunda where he lives), but when he's here he praises the extra speed (easily surpasses 500kbytes/sec download - that would be around 5MB/s).

Would actually like to know how well you're finding 8ta here. They're cheaper and I want to put the money towards a new phone (this 4 year old Motorola Milestone is starting to pack up with dead spots on the screen). I'm looking to getting myself another Motorola, but this time the Razr Maxx HD.