This is a follow up post from the last one i did a few weeks after installation. I am sorry to report that speeds and line quality has gotten worse from the last review. The comments, which are numerous and very insightful have provided a perspective on the service seperate from my own and draw the same conclusions that i did. After countless emails and calls to Zuku Customer care we are at this point now, lots of references to the mysterious Network Section have been made, to no avail.
This time i decided to use a different approach and show you using video captures off my screen to show my experience with this service. I was holding back this review hoping that they might have gotten their act together by now and i would do a glowing review after setting aside my previous verdict of rubbish and encourage aspiring subsribers to sign on in droves to a quality service.
So far, using my bandwidth monitoring tool included in my Tomato router software i have observed a very jagged graph for international speeds while the local speed graph is so smooth that it rivals a baby’s bottom. Enough of the verbosity and on with the show, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my world. I am using a 2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB 677 Mhz DDR2 SDRAM equipped MacBook with Mac OS X [10.5.5] as the test machine so viruses and other bandwidth leaks are not a factor since they do not exist in this set up.
International speeds on zuku.co.ke 512kbps
Demonstration of international speeds on zuku broadband [512kbps]
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international versus local speeds zuku.co.ke 512kbps
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Demonstration of local versus international speeds on zuku broadband [512kbps].
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You tube video streaming on zuku.co.ke 512kbpsÂ
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Demonstration of you tube speeds on zuku broadband [512kbps].
Frequent incidences of outage on zuku.co.ke 512kbp
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Frequent incidences of outage on zuku.co.ke 512kbps on mild load and after pings or trace route commands.
Intenational and local speedtest.net line speed test on zuku.co.ke 512kbps
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Speedtest.net line speed test on zuku.co.ke 512kbps with US and local servers; a comparison.
What do you all think? Do they live up to their promise? I thought so too.
Shiko-Msa
savvy
val
Miss Cheri
Mushki
{ 48 comments… read them below or add one }
haha.
I will try not to laugh. ati that is 512kbps.
I feel for you. That Brandy song is too cool to get a network error.
I thought my provider was bad, but after seeing that. I will stick where I am. I won’t mention their name since I have noticed that once a company becomes popular, they end up messing up like that zuku nonsence.
I will vote for your blog as the best blog in Kenya. What you have done is customer service bar none.
Now let us see what wananchi have to say about this. Probably something to do with the Hague being the cause of all Kenya’s problems.
@makii – oh Makii, wacha tu. I am debating whether my cover is already busted with them or not. I wanted to actually send them the links to the videos first as a demo of how effective their net is before i posted but someone mentioned something about the Network Section when i called them and i lost interest at that point.
I am still waiting for something good to happen though, i understand they have the most brilliant techies in Kenya working on it.
Holy crap!!!
Eleet, run and hide, your brains will surely be blown up now that you bring out some million dollar mans dirty laundry in public!!
And by the way, that mysterious NOC department that the zuku’ans customer support always talk about is so lame, so fuckin lame that even a child can configure it and provide better network access speeds.
One thing though i hate you for, why the hell do you use macs?? They suck!!
@Mushki – I have lived breathed and worked with macs since i was but a wee lad, son.
cool post, im on a 128 kbps connection and i stream better then that so zuku is definetely not for me. i read you are in kile, if i were you i would not use any wimax service. there simply too many trees and too few masts to get a great signal. i am gonna switch to orange next year. simply because they use radio signals not wimax for connecting to the internet. i know i wont get anything near the advertised bandwidth (nobody ever does, anywhere on earth) but i am expecting decent speeds since telkom aren’t really major players in the corporate game so most of the bandwidth will be allocated to their residential service (thats what i hope). just wanna say again if you are in a leafy part of nairobi dont sign up to wimax, stick to radio signals(i.e what your cellphone uses).
PS-if you have seen any orange review please tell me.
@David – About signal level…i have a stable signal so that is not an issue, please refer the local download vis a vis international download. locals can clock up to 70 something KB/s at times mostly stay about 60 something KB/s, international at good times clock 20 something KB/s. so signal level is not the issue here, international gateways are the issue. i shall see if i can post a traceroute here for reference.
how do you check local speeds? ive never known. the problem with line of sight methods like wimax is that they are horribly inconsistent. they have a really high bit error rate, and high latency. radio can lovingly bend around everything decreasing the error rate (i.e less time outs!). radio is also inconsistent, but unless you have true line of sight with the mast expect problems with wimax.
but i cant be sure about anything. i might be very wrong. these are my assumptions
The dude with the “quarter past-quarter to” legs is funny.
My Safaricom “3G” connection has seriously deteriorated. When I bought it in July, I’d get 5 bars of signal, uninterrupted Obama speeches on YouTube, and fast downloads of fat files. Now I only get 1 or 2 bars, really terrible speeds even at 9pm, and endless timeouts and disconnections. I live on Rhapta/Church Rd, Westlands. I’m getting 26 kilobits per second on PC Pitstop.
http://pcpitstop.com/internet/BwDownTest.asp
What speeds are you guys getting using the test above? When I signed up in July, I could get over 400 kilobits per second even during working hours on a weekday. Is anybody experiencing the same problem? Which ISP should I defect to?
@sungura – thanks for commenting.
first of all you need to lock your signal to 3G, the fellows in customer care can help with directions, for sustained 3G connections, edge is absolute bollocks, its like a different network altogether, use only if out of 3G coverage.
second i am still getting downloads of up to 80KB/s in industrial area’s enterprise road during the day which calculates to 640kbps which is still quite astounding if compared to the rest of the competition crawling about at a measly 100kbps or so. I shall do a test and post results here in an update to this post: http://www.thefaustchronicle.com/2008/07/safaricom-broadband-bambanethotspot-review/
third, there are rumours of Zain going 3G in January, fly on the wall stuff though, no official i have consulted will confirm this at the moment though.
lets hear from more subscribers. experiences, anyone? Hotspot and Zain alike. Orange especially welcome since they are the new kid on the block.
Mazee I e-mail Safcom support (mobileoffice@safaricom.co.ke) at 3.25pm and someone came 2 my digs n sorted me out for free. Before 6pm the problem had been resolved and I’m back to my happy self. Can u believe it? I’m still in shock. Wow!
@sungura – what were the details of the problem and what did they do to sort it out? New speeds? Please fill us in.
My problem was slow speeds and constant disconnections like during the Telkom dial-up days. The Safcom dude came with a gadget that detects the signal quality. Then he called a colleague and the signal problem was resolved in like half an hour! As I write this, I just got 200 kilobits per sec on PC Pitstop.
http://pcpitstop.com/internet/BwDownTest.asp
Anything above 100 kilobits per sec is good enough for Skype.
I live in lavington and I am looking for a reliable isp,which one should I choose
@James – I live in Westy and I’m quite happy with Safcom broadband. A friend lives a walking distance from me but can’t get a good reception. Even in my digs, there’s only good reception in 2 rooms. So there’s no guarantee it’ll work for you. It’s the fastest connection I’ve ever experienced in Kenya (uninterrupted Obama speeches on YouTube) but sometimes it can be slow. It can also be pricey if you youtube too much or download/upload fat files.
@James – i like the 3G option. for the long periods that zuku goes out it tides me over. i like the bandwidth caps since it protects the service from abuse and keeps the net fast since you think twice before downloading or uploading large files.
@eleet – True that. Charging per MB is much better than charging a fixed amount per month for unlimited surfing coz it discourages dudes who leave their comps downloading pirate movies the whole night/day which slows down the net for everyone else. I used to have an AccessKenya connection via Net@Home lakini it could get very slow coz they used to charge a fixed amount every month for unlimited surfing. It’s comparable to Kenya Power charging a fixed amount every month. Can you image the outages?
Mushki – Once you go Mac… you don’t go back… I (nowadays) pay the extra for a Mac.
Sungura – Yep, same here with safariCON’s 3G service. They are interested in selling as many modems & subscriptions NOT quality. Lakini I will e-mail the SafCon folks to see what they can do for me. Are you on pre-paid or postpaid? And what package?
I was African On Line customer before i ventured in to this hot service, initially they encourage you with their positive and sufficient service which turn out to be negative. Mine has taken a month of installation until to date nothing is happening, whenever i call them they promise to get back to me which they don’t fulfill. Given that have already paid it’s as if we are playing hide and seek, have been chasing them on phone which at some point is ignored or rings for ages with no one to respond. Tired!!!!!!!!!
I think its time we decide the best ISP in kenya.I have set up a few discussions on my blog and on my forum,check them out
Blog-http://kenyanguru.blogspot.com/2008/12/lets-end-debatewhich-is-best-isp-in.html
Forum-http://s1.zetaboards.com/Kenyan_Guru/topic/975899/
Zuku is actually great whenever it is available. You rarely get full speed but the speeds are reliable. However, downtime is common, sometimes up to three days in succession.
However, on weekends, I have actually managed to get 1.05MBPS down over a period of time.
Wananchi should simply get reliable satellite links and improve on the service.
Presently, I consider Safaricom’s 3G to be the most reliable broadband connection around (but their plans are pretty expensive for media-intensive Internet activity).
For enterprise users, I have heard from some quarters that Jamii Telkom offers up to 16MBPS! down. I have used in some institution and it is unbeliavably fast (up to 800KB/s download speeds)! Uploading a 50MB video to Youtube takes approximately 15 Minutes during peak hours. Not sure about their pricing though.
Hey guys….anyone noticed the speeds of the zuku connection?
Since the 31st Dec ‘08 at around 8pm, i’m getting an average download dtr of 60Kbps. Its also become a very stable connection. Even right now i’m getting those ‘high’ speeds. I’m on a 512k connection.
Am i the only one or is there anyone else experiencing this? Its pretty good to be true.
rgds
@Mushki – it has been quite stable the past week or so, not too sure about the speeds though, i shall keep monitoring them, they have been fluctuating quite a bit.
I’m you tubing right now (which i have been doing, lol)…..its bufferiing faster then it plays. its somewhat slower then safcom but definately not what it used to be.
I hope it stays this way.
I’m using Access Kenya and also have noticed the increase in speed and reliability. Hope this continues (users coming back from Christmas leave this week/next week).
I’m using Access Kenya and have also noticed the increase in speed and reliability. Hope this continues (users coming back from Christmas leave this week/next week).
Hi
I doubt its excessive number of users on the network that was giving the zuku clients those pathetic connections and speeds. I mean too many users definately does have an impact on speeds but not so drastic.
In my experience, getting a sudden upsurge of bandwidth from the lows of 50Kbps suddenly isn’t coz of too many users. I’d be getting that or close to it on sunday late nights atleast right?
I’m just keeping fingers crossed that zuku retains this or improves it.
I’m wondering if i should investigate further. If i go on their 1Mbps connection, will my bandwidth increase too or is this just a standard increament they have done to all!! If you read the other zuku blog, i was on a 256k then moved to 512k connections but the bandwidth was the same pathetic one on both. Eleet, howz your connection? And do you want to be the scapegoat to try this test out?
Sorry, some grammer correction here to my last post….
In my experience, getting a sudden upsurge of bandwidth from the lows of less then 10Kbps to the mid-range speeds of close to 50Kbps suddenly isn’t coz of too many users. I’d be getting that or close to it on sunday late nights atleast right?
I became an Africaonline infinet (256kbps) customer about 18 months ago. Speeds were ok and support quick. The service deteriorated steadily and about 3 months ago it was so slow that I decided to go for the wananchi zuku 1Mbps package. The salesperson promised 1Mbps 80% of the time
Installation of zuku was anything but swift. I discussed with the salesperson that a pole would be needed to reach above the hedge around the compound. Three times installation teams arrived without a pole and told me they need to bring one. The fourth team arrived with a pole but did not find the mast they were supposed to connect to and only after I pointed them in the right direction (a 180 degree turn of antenna) we got a signal. A further five visits from tech teams followed although none were able to increase the signal (RSSI <-75, CINR < 20).
For the first few weeks the signal was steady and the speed very good (~125kB/s international). Then the signal started to fluctuate. At some points signal was 0 – which to me indicated that something was wrong with my antenna. The connection would work for a few minutes at a time. After at least 10 emails – over a period of three weeks – to zuku support (with no replies except one apologising the lack of replies) I was starting to lose faith. The tipping point came when, for the second day in a row, I was not able to connect at all. I called support and reported and they promised to call me back (they NEVER do – zuku support is the worst I have ever experienced). When I called back later in the day I got lucky and got to speak to someone that knew I had been disconnected due to lack of payment. Since the service was not working and no invoice had been issued I had not paid. I argued that I will not pay full price (9999 Ksh/month) for a service that is off-line more than 50% of the time but got no alternatives for further discussion. Promises from zuku to come back to me proved false.
Since a few weeks I am back on infinet classic 256kbps (supposed to be upgraded to 512kbps according to their marketing) which is by now slow to the point of being absolutely useless. To load an international newspaper start page takes, on average, 5 minutes – if it loads at all. I have 5 reception level indicator LEDs on the modem – max.
I’m out of options but will try Safaricom next while waiting for the fibre to arrive in Nairobi (July?).
Please do tell me about your experiences with zuku and infinet even if they differ from mine.
@colaboy – read these two blogs of eleet completly and you’ll know about zuku!!! I wish you’d have read the blogs before you got their service.
On the 31st dec ‘08, zuku surprised me with super fast speeds. however from the 4th of Jan ‘09, the link just went bonkers. Its being worked on coz mine seems to be some configuration issue.
I think the best bet is safaricom, though they have pathetic customer care unless you’re a postpaid client. I use safcom as a plan B.
I was expecting Zain or Yu to launch 3G this year but alas. I wonder if they think Kenyans are not Tech savvy!!! Anyways the year is too young to make a judgement.
rgds
since 19 December I’m now experiencing good speeds with Access Kenya 292kbps download and 50kbps upload yesterday compared to 192/32. I,m not sure if this is the result of the submarine cable being tested by some ISP. (Testing normally takes 6 months I think?)
Ok, ya same problem with Zuku. What I found however was if you use an external proxy server (I use one in the UK), the speed improves significantly for browsing.
The reliability might not be better, but atleast when it works the experience is much much better.
But if you use a free proxy it might not help – coz they are usually overutilised.
Open DNS will also help speed up browsing. Replace your existing ISP DNS server address with the one’s below.
Primary: 208.67.222.222
Secondary: 208.67.220.220
Checkout http://www.opendns.com for more information. (There’s no need to register, unless you want to use the extra features available).
Ok, i’m gonna look like the idiot who gets excited on seeing a girl in mini’s, little knowing she carrys a cock around!!!
As i said about getting super fast speeds on Zuku from the 31st of Jan, it lasted up to the night of 4th Jan. Since then, till now, its one excuse after another, from the base station that i’m connected to being down, wrong configuration and now to the age old “Limited or No Connectivity”.
Oh boy, I just give up!!!
I tried one of those local providers called Kwachunet in south C.
Surprise surprise, the same excuses you get with zuku, I got with these guys. can you imagine I had no connectivity from 23rd december to the 2nd of January. They then called me on the 5th asking for payment.
I took my payment to safaricom and ladies and gentlemen. Safaricom 3g is as fast as any internet access anywhere in the world. You just have to be careful with bandwidth. One tip to save bandwidth is avoid youtube, and also configure your browser to cache images.
I am not turning back. If I change providers, I will need a free trial as you get anywhere else in the world. It might be a bit costly, but if you really need to be online working, do not even look at any other provider.
i have a way to boost zuku but it might sound illegal for you people. if you want to know it you can contact me on takeovaniks@gmail.com. i will tell you the solution.
@makii – I returned to Telkom Landline broadband (now called Orange – something) after a couple of years and I must say I am impressed. Having a landline is of course the first step but after making the commitment and after the technicians check out if you are close enough to the exchange you are on your way. From payment to final installation (in the Lower Kabete area) took less than a week. Since then (about a month) it has worked exactly as advertised for the broadband plus package (5990 bob) 256k down around 100k up for 24h a day every day. Have only detected about 12 hours of downtime (total) over the past month. You have to buy their ADSL Modem (or as they insist “Livebox”) for 10990 but it is a wireless station as well. So far very pleased.
Was on the KDN wireless and sometime in Dec 08 the speed jumped from 128 to 256 but could never go a week without a outage lasting hours.
ZUKU is fooling and cheating Kenyans by this half price thing they are offering. They know that in about 3 weeks Kenya will
be connected to 2 undersea fiber optic cables, Seacom&Teams. This will reduce costs by upto 10 times. Currently ISPs in Kenya pay
6000$ duplex for capacity because they use satellite but now they will be paying 600$ duplex for even better capacity. So by
ZUKU charging 5000/= for the 1Mbps megasurf product is very expensive, I bet some ISPs will charge 2500/= for the same
in 3 weeks time. They just want to hook Kenyans paying 5000/= for 6 months for a service which will be 2500/=, do not be
fooled and rush to pay and sign stuff, wait, that is still too expensive. KDN manager Kai Wulff said in the May 15 Business Daily
that their Butterfly wireless service will be free when they start using the undersea cables. Butterfly wifi was charging 2800/= monthly
for unlimited use but it will now be free, it tells you how cheap stuff should be. Safaricom are also cheating and fooling people claiming they have an offer for their 3G
service. It is not a limited offer, it is a forever price reduction. Even that 3G modem will be much cheaper than 4000/= very soon.
There will be too much competition and cheap and free internet. So do not buy any service, modems and shit for now. Things are
even going to get cheaper and free in 3 weeks time. Buy nothing for now until the undersea fiber optic cables are in use.
I agree prices of ISP services and equipment will become cheaper. My connection with Accesskenya have just been upgraded to 512kb for the same price as 256kb, (competition starting).
If there was a service for unlocking usb modems, (not locked to one provider). Would there be a big interest?
I’m also an AccessKenya customer like Roy and I’m getting 472 kbps on PC Pitstop for downloads and 58 kbps for uploads.
http://www.pcpitstop.com/internet/bw.asp
AccessKenya is reliable and unmetered but I hope their rates reduce from the 9,860/- (8,500/- + VAT) that I pay monthly.
A friend of mine is with Zuku and his connection for the past 2 weeks got slower due to their half promotion, and I’m sure it would stay like that until the fibre cables are activated. So glad I went for AccessKenya rather than Zuku. Kenyan Dude why is your subscription higher than mine when you’re getting the same speeds?
Roy, I pay more coz I have their Small Biz package (128/32 daytime and 512/64 evenings, weekends, and public holidays). I work from home for a stato client so that’s why I need a fatter pipe. I still save a fortune in motoring costs, suits, lunch (home food is much cheaper and much better), lost man-hours in traffic jam, lost man-hours recuperating from motoring, baada ya kazi drinks, etc. I wouldn’t mind a better Internet deal though.
Make sense now. If AccessKenya is already offering double speeds at no extra charge, it would be interesting to see how much bandwidth they will offer us when the cable arrives.
In my opinion they would increase the speed to 1MB at no charge, 2MB plus will be chargeable. Prices will decrease within the next 6 months depending on competition (Orange, Zuku or any new player in the market).
Watch this space.
when will the cable link start?
Teams Undersea cable will be launched by President Kibaki this Friday at Mombasa. It will have like 3 weeks of testing before commercial use. Seacom cable is already complete and is undergoing testing. Both should be now in testing. Either way by end of this month the Cables will be in complete use. Avoid contracts with any ISP. Just purchase a service you can abandon at will. Because competition will be ripe and you might regret making an inferior choice. As for ZUKU avoid it for now. Always remember ZUKU is shared and so your internet speed depends on how many people are using the same base station. You will only get the 1Mbps with ZUKU if you the only one using that base station at that time. If you want super high speeds contact KDN.
Teams Undersea cable will be launched by President Kibaki this Friday at Mombasa. It will have like 3 weeks of testing before commercial use. Seacom cable is already complete and is undergoing testing. Both should be now in testing. Either way by end of this month the Cables will be in complete use. Avoid contracts with any ISP. Just purchase a service you can abandon at will. Because competition will be ripe and you might regret making an inferior choice. As for ZUKU avoid it for now. Always remember ZUKU is shared and so your internet speed depends on how many people are using the same base station. Safaricom 3G is also shared, the speed you get with that Safaricom 3G modem depends on how many people are using that equipment at your booster at that time. If you want a stable high speed connection get fiber to your place and make sure it is DEDICATED, not SHARED. The best company for that is KDN but they deal more with commercial than residential. Spread this advice please to as many Kenyans as you can. This companies are really cheating people, ZUKU really cheated people with that 6 month deal which is now over. Tell other Kenyans.
I’m looking forward to better Internet deals with fiber but I’m also cynical about Kenyan businesses not passing on cost savings to consumers. Just look at the oil companies, flour millers, and retailers. They just pocket the cost savings while consumers get nada. When the dollar hit an all-time low of 60/- in Nov ‘07, did the cost of living reduce?