Fibre internet service provider, RocketNet has just released another innovative product that gives customers more control over their internet experience.
Instead of phoning into your ISP and holding on the line for 10-20 minutes – and because there can be hundreds of calls to a call centre at the same time – RocketNet has developed a South African first: A real-time, national update feed with all the fibre faults or errors being experienced at any given time by most of the major network operators around the country.
The RSS feed is live in Beta mode and can be accessed from the following link at any time https://rss.rocketnet.co.za
The massive increase in the uptake of fibre internet during the Covid-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the way consumers engage online in South Africa, creating opportunities for innovation and access to more goods and services than ever before. From running businesses, home schooling, shopping online and streaming on-demand content, we have become dependent on ISP’s and their fibre packages. However, the mass increase in demand for internet services over lockdown resulted in a few issues.
A few months ago, an underwater fibre cable off the coast of South Africa was damaged, leaving many South Africans with extremely slow internet for a few weeks. When consumers can’t access the internet, this impacts the productivity of employees, the sales revenues of businesses, and the ability of scholars to keep learning.
“When fibre internet is disrupted in this way it causes enormous frustration. Bottlenecks can quickly form with customer complaints, which can result in slower turnaround for resolving these complaints. From the perspective of customer who needs to purchase goods and services urgently there is nothing quite as frustrating as not knowing why something you are paying for is not working and, even more frustrating, when the service provider you are paying is not supplying answers quickly enough,” says Simon Swanepoel, CEO of RocketNet.
News about a fault as big as that spreads quickly and although ISPs notify their clients of such news as quickly as they can, it may not always be enough. You may have a business to run and clients to attend to, or you may be in quarantine at home and suddenly your internet connection is down.
“We saw a need for clients to be kept in the loop when there is interference with their internet connection. In line with our value of transparency we developed a South African first RSS feed with live status updates of the major South African Networks. If your internet goes down, you can visit this feed (from your phone if necessary) and have a look at exactly where and what the faults are,” explains Swanepoel.
“Like our RocketNet probe app, which allows customers to diagnose slow internet issues from their phone, we believe this feed will continue to add value to our customers internet experience,” says Swanepoel.
The RSS feed is live in Beta mode and can be accessed from the following link at any time https://rss.rocketnet.co.za
