BUCKLE UP! Mind the speed

“We've been around for just over a year, and have grown significantly in the last 12 months. We were privileged enough to be rated in the top 3 ISPs on My broadband in our first 3 months of launching.

HOW TO CHOOSE AN INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER

Firstly, there is a difference between a Fibre Network Operator (FNO) – think Openserve, Vumatel and Metrofibre – and an ISP (internet service provider) • FNOs lay the physical infrastructure to your house and install that box on the wall – its called an ONT • SPs deliver internet via the fibre infrastructure. You’ll get a router from your ISP. • You will notice that we deliver fibre across several fibre network operators; vumatel, metrofibre, frogfoot and Openserve

BEFORE YOU CAN GET FIBRE YOU NEED TO CHECK THAT YOUR ADDRESS IS FEASIBLE FOR FIBRE.

• This means – is there fibre infrastructure in your area. • On the MTS website you simply put in your physical address and we will let you know if your address is feasible for fibre internet. • And we will tell you what network operators have laid fibre in your area. • And what packages you can select under these operators.

HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS YOU NEED TO LOOK AT WHEN YOU SELECT AN ISP

• First and foremost, infrastructure is key. But luckily most of the top ISPs have similar infrastructure. • For instance, MTS has capacity on 5 different subsea cables – which connects SA with the rest of the world – SEACOM, SAT-3, WACS are the most popular. • You will probably recall them breaking at some point in the year and people subsequently not having any internet. • By having multiple cables on both the western and eastern sides of SA MTS has redundancies. So, if one fails, we can run the service on other lines. • But in our opinion what really sets an ISP apart from the other is SERVICE

HOW DO YOU TEST SERVICE?

• Call the support number and see how quickly they answer the phone • Send support an email, see if the respond • On average our support response time is <within 30 to 40 seconds.> • Can you sign up online? • How long does it take for someone from sales to get back to you – we encourage you to ask questions • After Hour support? we offer support after hours until 8.30pm weekdays as well as Saturday and Sunday mornings so as to assist users when they are at home.

OTHER THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR

• How knowledgeable does the staff sound? Our engineers and support staff are highly skilled and go through rigorous training before they are allowed to even speak to a customer • Is your line unshaped? • What does their fair usage policy look like?

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

• If they are very long and convoluted – ask yourself why • Do you understand them • Do they seem reasonable and fair to both parties?

ONLINE REVIEWS AND WORD OF MOUTH

• Check sites like hello peter etc – are people mostly happy or mostly unhappy • Sure there will always be a proportion of unhappy people, but for the most part, are people happy or do they complain about the same thing

WHY HAVE WE SEEN SUCCESS?

• Trained, dedicated, happy staff • Remote work – we’d been doing it way before lock down and so we were very geared for the sudden shift in work life balance • Our infrastructure is solid and our engineers monitor our core on the hour • We don’t just offer fibre to the home, we help people work, learn online, relax, explore and connect! We treat our customers like the humans we want our service providers to treat us! Despite us being a start up ourself we helped out a number of customers over lock down with some financial relief. These were customers in the travel industry, restaurant owners, single parents. And we show up every day with that attitude. And I think that sets up apart from a lot of big ISPs who simply cant treat people like individuals.

SAY WHAT! Free internet and a payment plan?

Sign up by 31 October and get 1 month's FREE internet access.

Also, get the option to pay off the installation and setup fees (charged by the fibre network operators) over 6 months to help with your cashflow.

www.mindthespeed.co.za | 086 999 0161 |