newsletter WIRUlink Newsletter: 15 March 2022

Advanced Equipment Warranty

Author: KT Butt

South Africa is the "lightning capital of the world". Why is this relevant to your WIRUlink Wireless services?

By default, all WIRUlink equipment is covered by the Standard 12-months onsite manufacturer defect Warranty. This Standard Warranty does not warrant your equipment to continue operating due to power surges, lightning damage or other faults/damage excluded by the equipment manufacturer. After the initial 12-month Standard Warranty period, the equipment has no warranty, even if the hardware is still rented by you from us. Because of the limitations of the Standard Manufacturer Warranty, we recommend that customers comprehensively insure their rented equipment for the period of their Service Application at WIRUlink.

WIRUlink’s Advanced Warranty for lightning damage and more

We genuinely care about our customers’ network uptime, financial sustainability and only have our clients’ best interests at heart. We recently launched our “Advanced Warranty”, which warrants that your WIRUlink rented equipment will continue to operate for the lifetime of your service with WIRUlink, including after lightning storms, power surges and other defects not covered by the Standard Manufacturer Warranty. With our optional Advanced Warranty subscription, WIRUlink will repair / replace and install, at no cost to you, the rented equipment with similar or more advanced equipment in case of a failure.
Read more at https://www.wiru.co.za/advanced-warranty-terms-conditions or contact us on 010 595 0000.

Fixed Wireless vs. LTE

Author: KT Butt & Petrus Meyer

We often get asked “What’s the difference between WIRUlink’s Fixed Wireless and LTE?”. While both services make use of wireless technologies, there is a fairly large difference between the two. Let’s explore some pros and cons of each.

Fixed Wireless does not use LTE GSM technologies. A radio is installed on your roof, directly pointed at one of the towers servicing your area.

See a short explainer video about WIRUlink Fixed Wireless at https://youtu.be/RQbOZ2lNI3c.

Mobile / LTE Pros:

• It’s mobile. You are able to take your router along with you on your travels.
• Because it works with a mobile router and SIM card, you normally do not require any costly specialist onsite installation to get connected.
• The mobile operators have thousands of towers throughout South Africa to offer coverage in and around most cities, towns and major roads.

Mobile / LTE Cons:

• You are not guaranteed a certain minimum speed.
• Speed varies from area to area and time of the day, week or year because of shifting usage patterns and users moving around on the network.
• Services are shaped at all times or during peak times (18:00 PM to 23:00 PM) causing certain services to not work optimally.
• Your services are capped or throttled. Once you reach your cap, you are normally completely disconnected and need to fork out more money to buy data.
• Data packages have become increasingly more expensive.
• When you are experiencing problems, it is almost impossible to get proper personalised technical support, or even get through to a technical support desk person at all, thus troubleshooting will need to be done yourself via Google search.

WIRUlink Fixed Wireless Pros:

• Fixed wireless guarantees a certain speed on the package that you select. If you do not get the promised speed, there is a technical problem that needs to be fixed by our team.
• Services do not get capped, shaped or throttled, even during peak hours.
• Fixed Wireless has a very low contention ratio, meaning that you do not share your service and bandwidth with countless other users.
• Fixed wireless is available in many rural areas where there is no other fast and reliable uncapped internet infrastructure.
• Fixed Wireless offer a constant, very low latency, making it perfect for real-time applications and online gaming.
• Towers are already powered with backup power solutions to stay online during load shedding or power outages.
• Our towers are not susceptible to theft vandalism as we have 24/7/365 monitoring and armed response at all towers. Our telephonic, remote and onsite support are matched by no other network provider. When signing up for our Fixed Wireless, you can be assured that you will be taken care of.

WIRUlink Fixed Wireless Cons:

• This solution is unfortunately not a mobile solution and is a fixed installation at a specific address.
• The hardware and service can only be installed onsite by one of our Authorised Installers, but gives our peace of mind for the quality and reliability of the service for many years to come.
• The service requires a clear LOS (line of sight) to the tower you are connecting to. Therefore trees and buildings between you and one of our towers could prevent you from having the outdoor radio installed at the visually desired location on your roof.

Fixed wireless services are an ideal solution for both home and business users. It offers high bandwidth and low latency, making it an appropriate choice for activities such as online gaming, video streaming, online meetings and more.

Mobile / LTE networks, however, keep you connected on the go for more simple tasks such as using mobile applications and surfing the web. Just be sure to keep track of how much data you are using each month, as additional data can be expensive.

Many people opt for both fixed wireless and mobile / LTE services. Fixed wireless has them covered while they are at home or work, during which they do their heavy bandwidth activities. They then use a mobile / LTE service to keep their mobile devices connected when on the move.

If fast internet connection with no data cap sounds good to you, consider using a fixed wireless connection from WIRUlink at https://www.wiru.co.za/wireless.

Fibre Migration

Author: KT Butt

The future of connectivity is made up of a mix of technologies including fibre, wireless and satellite. We believe in offering the best service at competitive rates across multiple technologies to suit customers’ needs.

WIRUlink has partnered with several fibre providers such as VUMAtel, Evotel, Frogfoot, DFA and OpenServe to ensure that we are able to offer the best services.

Because fibre infrastructure is being rolled out in areas previously only serviced by wireless technologies, we offer customers the opportunity to migrate from fixed wireless to fibre. Although you may still be in a wireless service term agreement, we have made it easy and affordable for you to migrate to fibre.

Before requesting for your wireless service to be migrated from Wireless to Fibre, please make sure you understand the pros and cons of each technology:

Visit our website at https://www.wiru.co.za/coverage to check if fibre is available in your area. For more information or assistance, contact us on 010 595 0000 or sales@wiru.co.za.

Meet Dean Theart

At WIRUlink we stay true to our Core Values, including “Serving our customers”. Dean Theart plays a key role in demonstrating this value.

Dean’s colleagues are important to him and so is his drive to give awesome customer support. Dean is a great asset to the WIRUlink Helpdesk team and thoroughly knows the various fibre networks and systems. Without meaning to do so, increases the rate his manager gets grey hairs at, by at least 50%, for being well known as the office joker. He always make his colleagues laugh and has an equally contagious laugh himself. Although he joined the WIRUlink family in July 2017, he has been a joker since 1991.

For any queries or technical concerns, please feel free to reach Dean and the rest of our Helpdesk on 010 595 0000 or support@wiru.co.za. Our skilled and competentHelpdesk is available 365 days of the year (including weekends and public holidays) until 11PM in the evening.

Dean is a great asset to the team, offering Service Excellence!