Posts tagged Broadband

How Many Times Can Vodafone Ghana Replace Stolen Cables?

I have been on Vodafone Fixed Broadband since April 30, 2010 and I have little complains about the uptime. The uptime is actually great (for me).

My problem with Vodafone Ghana is the number of times the broadband/fixed line cables get stolen and replaced. It seems nothing is being done aside replacing them, absolutely nothing! It just keeps recurring.

In the past 4 months, the cables in my neighbourhood have been stolen 5 times. All 5 times, Vodafone Ghana has replaced them within a week but done nothing to prevent them from getting stolen again. Someone is obviously not doing their job well. How on earth does replaced cables get stolen in a week or two and all you do is replace them? Does Vodafone Ghana have that much cables to replace stolen cables every week whilst some potential costumers can’t get on the service because there are ‘no cables’.

I live in New Achimota, not too far from the Korkdam Hotel. I woke up at dawn, Sunday, a little after 3am like I always do to finish some outstanding work. I wasn’t surprised to see my internet wasn’t working. I reached for the landline and there was no dial tone. Yes, the cables have been stolen again. Strike number 6 and all in the last 5 months.

Cables Hanging

Disappointed, I went to bed and phoned costumer service in the morning to report it. Madina? He asked. No, Achimota, I replied. He took my details and said “We will get back to you”. So, this is not an Achimota problem after all. Madina too? My friend Barima, who lives in East Legon has had similar complaints (and he has a tougher time getting them replaced. I am quite lucky Haruna from the Achimota exchange always answers my calls). So what is being done to stop this?

The cable thieves can’t win! Besides, I have paid for the service and as much as Vodafone Ghana expects me to pay my bill every 30 days, I don’t expect to be cut of the service haven paid for the service. As a matter of fact, when I went to pay my bill for November, the costumer service lady convinced me to upgrade to Browser Max (2mbps) and pay 2 months of bill for which Vodafone Ghana would give me an additional month for free. My account thus expires in February 2012 and I don’t expect to be disconnected from the service till then.

For weeks, I have been playing the neighbourhood vigilante, waking up at 2am (for the most times, the cables have been stolen on Sundays, between 2am and 3am) to check on the cables. I get scared sometimes and my friends have advised me it’s not the safest thing to do.

My After-2am Tweets

This is not funny. Whoever is in charge of broadband or fixed lines at Vodafone Ghana should get to work. Can’t they see the pattern; Weekends, After 2am? Isn’t Vodafone Ghana big enough to get the police on this or think of a brilliant way to beat these criminals? If this whole fixed broadband isn’t working, it shouldn’t be difficult for Vodafone Ghana to provide NLOS modems.

Now, I have to wait up to 5 working days for the cables to be replaced and my broadband internet to be restored and another week or two for the cables to be stolen again.

Power to you!


Vodafone Ghana: Repeating The Mistakes Of GT OneTouch

Some weeks back, I grew tired of waiting for Glo Mobile Ghana to launch and the Glo-1 cable to go live and on the advice of a friend, I decided to get Vodafone Broadband at home.

So on the 24th of Februay 2010, I went in to Vodafone Ghana’s Sunyani office to put in my application. It was a Wednesday and they indicated that they would have someone come do a site survey by the close of the week. The week ended and no one called or came to do the site survey. By the way I stay in a residential area not far from the CBD and there are a lot of telephone lines and a couple of broadband connections in my neighbourhood.  

The following Friday, I got a call from Vodafone and they indicated that they got my number wrong and just realised I put an alternative number on the form. Come on, a whole week to figure that out? You’ll be contacted next week, the gentleman said.

Anyway, a friend prompted me that it took two months to get his installed and that I should contact the personnel in charge of the site survey. He gave his name as Sammy and sent his cellphone number to me. I called Sammy on Monday, March 8, 2010, which was a holiday and he was very helpful. In 15 minutes he was at my place and within a minute the site survey was done. An hour later, someone called me from the Vodafone office. I was asked to fill a new application form since they couldn’t find my old one, which I did and made payment for the installation and a month of subscription (I wanted to pay for 2 months, which I now believe would have been a mistake). I was told I would be contacted within the week and the installation done. I called Sammy as soon as I left the office to thank him. 

As at Friday, March 12, no one from Vodafone had given me a call so I decided to call Sammy again. This time he didn’t answer my calls but he had someone call me from the Vodafone office, the person I am sure would be doing the installation. Again, he told me next week and explained installation is done within 10 working days after payment. I also hit back saying that I had put in the application about 3 weeks ago. In the end, I was obliged.

Today is Friday, March 19 and my broadband still hasn’t been fixed. I was preparing to go to the office to demand why my broadband hasn’t been fixed when I received a call from Vodafone Ghana. This time, the gentleman who called, who I believe is the same person I have been in contact with asked if I had paid for the service and whom I had paid to. The question sounded stupid to me. A receipt was issued and I saw the guy entering my details in the computer. Doesn’t it show on their records? I told him I had and I don’t remember the name of the person I paid to. He put me on hold and I heard him telling a female colleague; me ka sɛ w’atua meaning I told you he has paid. He got back to me and said they (Vodafone Ghana) would give me a call and have it fixed. I asked him what time the call would come in and he said next week. Ahh, what’s wrong with these people and next week? I told him I really need the service and my application is about a month old. He replied that they will get it sorted and with that I took to writing this blog post.

I don’t know whether I would be fair to say whether the staff at Vodafone Ghana are incompetent or the telecom giant’s way of doing business is just wrong. One thing I can say without hesitation is that Vodafone Ghana  is repeating the same mistakes with their broadband like Ghana Telecom (which was re-branded to Vodafone Ghana) did with OneTouch, their mobile phone service. I don’t understand the long wait. I don’t know if people in Accra, Kumasi or Sekondi-Takoradi also wait this long to get connected. Vodafone has a monopoly in the broadband market in Sunyani and in cable broadband in Ghana and perhaps don’t realise they have to sit up. I have used 2 wireless broadband services previously in Accra. The first one, Skyburst was at my place do a site survey in 2 hours and I got my modem the next day. The second Zipnet also sent someone to do the site survey right after I made a call to them. Within 2 days, I had my modem in hand and Zipnet’s costumer service was one of the best I have experienced in Ghana. It’s a shame they don’t cover Sunyani yet. 

In the past, that is late 90’s and early 00’s, people had to queue for OneTouch SIM cards and they were sold at exorbitant prices. Can you imagine buying a SIM card for GH¢80 (£36 / $56)? Yes, that’s how much the early adopters paid. Some paid more to cut down on the wait time. Those days are over but I can see those days in the Vodafone’s Broadband service.  

* Why the long wait for something which could be done in 3days or a week? It’s not like they have a shortage of ADSL modems or cables. The wait is just too long and unacceptable.

* I find the connection fee of GH¢55 (£25 / $38) quite expensive although it has been lowered from GH¢99. Why can’t installation be free and the ADSL modem remain the property of Vodafone? I think a lot of people would subscribe then or even if the installation fee is lowered to GH¢15. 

* A 256kb/s service with a data cap of 10GB costs GH¢45 a month. This is very expensive and I find the download cap annoying. It’s just 256kb/s and you already have a download cap? Anyway, I understand the reasons for the high cost of the service; the slow and expensive SAT-3 cable. With the Glo-1, ACS, MainOne cables going live or arriving soon, we should have a drastic reduction in data cost. 

* The staff, the staff, the staff. There are millions of Ghanaians out there who need jobs and it shouldn’t be difficult for Vodafone to find competent employees.

* The quality of the service will be discussed in a later post.

Aah.. my blood pressure just went down so I think I will end here. I hope someone from Vodafone, the toothless National Communication Authority or an ISP is reading this. 

PS: I know I complain a lot. My ex-girlfriend told me that!