fringsters,

Urgent news: It looks like Vodacom has changed the proxy on their internet access point so when browsing on your mobile handset all websites will have a Vodacom banner.

As a result, fring is not working properly on Vodacom handsets.

The solution is to take off the proxy settings in the access point and it should work again:

Tools > Settings > Connection > Access points > Vodacom > Options > Advanced Settings > Remove the Proxy server address.

After doing this, exit and everything should be working again. If it’s not working on your handset drop us a line and we will try and find the fix for your handset, or try a good old Google search.

Our friends over at the UK fring Blog recently Blogged on 3 UK’s new “Broadband Max” data package 7GB of 3.5G available for only £25 (R360.50) per month.
Thats R0.05c per MB – wow, i wonder how long it will be till we see such a package locally.

Lets hope South African networks follow the example of their British comrades as our rates don’t even come close at R0.19c per MB.

Vodacom

With the extreme mobile use in South Africa, networks are struggling to keep up. This leaves everyone fighting hard to be the best. Both MTN and Vodacom are under huge pressure to keep up, however Telkom their main supplier is struggling to meet their increasing needs. So now they are looking elsewhere. The 2nd national fixed line operator Neotel could be a good partner, however both MTN and Vodacom have opted to install their own fibre lines.

Doing a quick Google search revealed the following:

“According to IT Web and other news sources, communications
minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri announced in Parliament” (in 2005
already) “that voice communication can be legally carried by
value added network operators using any protocol.”

However doing a quick mobile provider search revealed something different.

Quote:
“In terms of the current regulatory regime in South Africa,
please note that these tariffs and the MTN GPRS, GPRS+, EDGE or
3G technologies may not be used to transfer or generate Voice
over Internet Protocol (VoIP) traffic. Should it be found that
VoIP traffic was carried over the MTN network using these
tariffs or technologies, MTN reserves the right to cancel the
agreement that you have with MTN, with immediate effect. You
will also be charged retrospectively at R21.93 per Megabyte (VAT
excluded) for any VoIP traffic transferred by such means.”
MTN Terms

so in a quest to investigate this “regulatory regime” further, I
popped over to other local mobile operators websites and to my
surprise i found the following. Quote: “Unrestricted VoIP”

What does this mean to fringsters? Just make sure that you are not caught unawares by your mobile operator. Double check your contracts and fring aling along to an operator that supports VoIP.

Some questions now remain. Are only some mobile networks regulated by this “regulatory regime”? Who is the “regulatory regime”? Why does it only seem to affect some?

It’s going to be interesting following future developments?

As most fringsters know, good 3G coverage = good fring voice quality. Good news is that the major cities in South Africa are covered, and the coverage is growing rapidly. Although the 3G coverage in South Africa is limited at the moment, with price and fibre wars in the air this may soon mean better 3G for all.

South Africa only has 2 Networks offering 3G at the moment.
See the coverage maps on their websites.

• VODACOM 3G MAP
• MTN 3G MAP

The other two operators in South Africa, Cellc and Virgin mobile who currently share towers do not as yet support 3G coverage, however competition in the mobile field will force growth in the not to distant future.