In this review i talk about the Vodafone Ghana Fixed Broadband service that solves my 4 years old need. Better late than never as it is a money saver.
UPDATE: There’ve been changes to the service after I first published this post. Kindly scroll down to read about it.
As someone who is always on the go and mobile, i tend to spend a lot on mobile data. I am a heavy user of data. Mobile data isn’t cheap, not in Ghana and any African country. I remember some years back when it was so obvious this was going to be my routine i decided to find a solution. My pocket was feeling the drain by telecommunication companies.
My quest was to find that network that will offer me good internet speed, more data and a reasonable price. I searched, researched, spoke to telecom business managers on their various mobile data options but there was no hope. No one had it all. The closest i came to was super expensive. I was being offered a dedicated line et all but seriously out of my budget.
So i stuck with using Vodafone Ghana Fixed Broadband at home and a mash up of other mobile data packages on the go.
Not the Saviour
I remember when a friend suggested GLO was the saviour i needed. He wasn’t far from right. The pricing was great and they gave lots of mobile data. Maybe as a way to wow in more clients. There was a slight problem though. In the locations i frequent and have to use it, there is either poor or no signal. I would have to use about 30 minutes to 1 hour finding the right spot to place phone or mifi. Oh and this was in Accra and also around the airport so GLO really where does your network work, lol?
Fast forward to June last year when Vodafone Ghana announced it was introducing a new service. Where any suscriber of its fixed broadband service can enjoy their fixed broadband data on their mobile phone. I was like wow God has finally answered my cry.
To put it in context, it means i can walk around with over a 100 GB of data on my mobile phone for less than how much it will actually cost to buy that as mobile data. Let me help you get a clearer idea.
Vodafone currently sells 20GB mobile data at GHS 199, 200GB at GHS 399. Whereas Vodafone Ghana Fixed Broadband packages range from 20GB at GHS 85, 40GB at GHS 125, 80GB at GHS 180, 200GB at GHS 265 and 500GB at GHS 400. (these prices might have been changed as at the time of reading). This means if i buy the 200GB for FBB and transfer it to mobile i have saved about 134 GHS.
Vodafone Ghana Fixed Broadband Delight
Now this is why i’m delighted and like this service offer. It offers me lots of data at a very good price. Compared to buying the mobile data at a very expensive amount for even less data. Vodafone 3G’s service – (see i’m not even mentioning 4G, that’s for another post) – is everywhere and offers good speeds to do most of my work. Streaming isn’t the best with light buffering on HD content, so i won’t stream HD away from the fiber broadband router (which offers great speeds up to 100Mbps on default routers). But it does however offer everything i had wanted some 4 years ago.
From the terms and conditions of the service, i can buy a data package and as long as i don’t move all of the data – to render the account inactive (you can leave only 1MB, lol) – from the broadband i can keep moving it back and forth till it is either exhausted or package expires. Rendering your FBB inactive after moving all the data to your mobile sim means you can’t reverse it.
Does it work?
Does it work? Yes it does work. I have suscribed to the 200 GB FBB package and moved plus or minus 100 GB to my phone. I spend only nights and weekends at home so balance i guess. Also don’t judge me, lol, i stream everything on HD with the broadband, i mean why not. When i’ve watched various premier league matches, movies, documentaries and run the FFB data down i just use the USSD or the myVodafone portal to send more data to the FBB to top it up. The app can be used as well.
So far i’ve linked two different mobile numbers to the FBB account. Oh one mobile number at a time. Vodafone says “the linked number can only be changed after 30 days of linking“. Well i was able to do that in less days so not so sure about the real limits. The data on the SIM has a three months validity which is good.
I have been able to find more hacks around this to enjoy the service to it’s max. More of that in another post. Subscribe to be updated on new posts.
Have you used this service offer? Did it work for your needs? Got more questions? Share and leave them in the comments or ask me on twitter.
UPDATE
Vodafone has reduced the validity of the shared mobile data from 3 months to align with that of your broadband. You can only link 1 mobile number in all the FBB packages except the office package. (Vodafone really! At least let the 200GB and 400 GB packages link to 2 numbers) Notice anything else? kindly share.
I’m poised to spend the next three months in Nairobi, as my executive editor will say, as the East African correspondent. Previous visits in Kenya have been brief or short. Maybe a few days, weeks or at most a month. So to be here for that long means I had to find a good workstation. Primarily for me this will be mostly getting a good, reliable and fast internet. Electricity too, but I think electricity is more stable in Kenya. As I’ve experienced few disruptions which last for hours or minutes.
Be Curious, ask questions
I always will encourage anyone looking to use a service to ask questions, listen to other users concerns before deciding. It might or mightn’t influence your final decision but you would have been thoroughly informed. Also bearing in mind several factors might make your situation different from theirs.
So i reached out to my techy, thoughtful friends and inquired of their opinions. What is the best internet service around? I asked around, talked to some internet service provider vendors and looked at my budget. First and foremost i wasn’t trying to break the bank. So i believed a fixed broadband service will be way cheaper than mobile broadband.
From my collated data, Safaricom will be the go-to service provider. A lot of consumers trust Safaricom to be reliable and fast. But it had a hurdle. Firstly, Safaricom home fiber service isn’t available around the neighbourhood i stay in. My only option was to get the Safaricom GIGA box; a 4G tv digital box with hotspot. Secondly, its GIGA box is expensive. You don’t get a bundled service. You pay for the box and then buy data as well.
So that wasn’t my way to go and somehow that seemed to be the issue with other providers like Faiba and Airtel. You buy the 4G router and then buy data. As a consolation, these others have lower data prices for much more data sizes than Safaricom. For reliability, I opted to get a Safaricom 4G sim card and hotspot from my phone. I didn’t see it worthwhile to get a 6,000 KSH or 9,999 KSH router. The only issue is I’m a big data user. Safaricom’s 10Gb weekly data bundle of 999 KSH finished before mid-week. My going for their free unlimited WhatsApp bundle proved a scam, lol, literally.
Why not Zuku?
I hadn’t looked into Zuku because I hadn’t seen any customer care shop in my hood. There was this one time i was returning from Naivas when I was approached by a Zuku sales agent. She gave me a brochure with Zuku data packages and pricing. My only question was, is Zuku fiber service available in this area and reliable? To which she replied yes. oh, I had a second question, how soon can this be done? As soon as you pay. Perfect! I then remembered that guest houses, Airbnb apartments and hotels I had stayed in during previous visits had Zuku and it worked very well for me. Zuku also had my attention with FREE INSTALLATION and Unlimited data. These sounded like music to the ears of a heavy data consumer. Technically most fiber internet services come with free installation. I was like bring it on.
So i called Doreen the sales agent i had met and spoken to and asked for the service to be installed in my apartment. I was ready to give it a try but not commit whole heartedly. Here’s why. A day to when it will be installed, i saw a tweet from another friend wishing Zuku good bye. I reached out and it was more like run away whilst you still can.
For me at that moment it was the better option; unlimited data for a month and i was ready to try an alternative. So i went in for the internet only (Zuku has internet, TV and phone call) service. I didn’t need the others. I have a digital smart tv and will only loose out on a few Zuku channels. The Zuku phone, calls other zuku lines for free but pays more to other networks per-second. I’ll pass, thank you.
The thing with African internet service providers is when they give you unlimited data they can’t give you a higher internet speed as well and vice versa. In testing the service I decided to go in for the Zuku fiber 5 Mbps internet speed package which costs 2,499 KSH.
Review using Zuku Fiber Home Internet
According to Zuku “the performance of Internet component of the Services depends on the number of concurrent users. And customer may experience degraded performance the more the number of concurrent users“. The internet speed has been what I paid for. Never exceeding 5MBps and never lower than 3MBps. I really don’t have to worry about this and even with heavy usage and a lot of devices connected it works great with a few buffering’s. I have concurrently streamed HD videos from YouTube on the smart Tv and streamed live sport on my laptop. Skype and WhatsApp video and audio calls have been excellent.
I have had moments during the night when the internet had blanked out on me but its returned shortly. I’ved had to restart the router if it takes more than 5 minutes. But i am yet to have to call support service for assistance.
I was suprised to recieve a Zuku customer care support call checking up on me after 4 days of usage. Wanting to know if service quality was great and if i had queries or needed any help. Good customer care relationship is always good isn’t it?
All in all, i think I made a great call and I’m saving. Hopefully, this rosy relationship doesn’t turn sour. If it does I will come and tell you in a post update.
Visit the Zuku website for more details on their packages, locations etc. If you want to confirm some other details or have the service set up for you call Doreen[0710 305 250].
Some take away. *Make sure the internet service is available in your hood. *Find out from neighbours if it works. If it sounds like it is half and half, see if the benefits are more to you and you won’t lose much. Then make up your mind about it. You can give it a month’s trial and if it works, good. If they become shitty and you begin to hate them, eeerrrr just move on, lol.
Update 2021: Included “Update: Two years on from when I posted this it is still going great.” to the post.
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