[kictanet] Quality of Tech Support with Kenyan Telcos

Mon Oct 17 20:38:18 EAT 2011

There was a USB modem sticking on it. Cannot recall which model it was.

I remember streaming a YouTube HD video on a laptop present for demos.

Noted bandwidth @ 4Mbs - 7Mbs via speedtest.net

On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 4:34 PM, Odhiambo Washington <odhiambo at gmail.com>wrote:

> Did you see a USB modem sticking on it? This DIR-412 can work like the
> DIR-825 - they both can use 3G modems but fall back to an Ethernet
> connection for WAN. DIR-412 has a 10/100 Ethernet port while the DIR-825 has
> 10/100/1000 ports (fully Gigabit).
> So if there was a USB 3G modem sticking on it, it could be several things:
>
> 1. Could be a Huawei (documented and easy to find AT strings for)
> 2. Could be a ZTE (their techie managed to disable the virtual CDROM, but
> did not share the info on what AT strings to use)
> 3. Could be just a dummy sitting there...
>
>
>
> On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 15:35, S.M. Muraya <murigi.muraya at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> This does not answer your question, but, I noticed a D-Link DIR 412 being
>> used at an Orange Kenya shop.
>>
>> www.dlink.com/dir-412
>> On Oct 17, 2011 1:45 PM, "Odhiambo Washington" <odhiambo at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Both AT command sets return ERROR for the ZTE MF192.
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>>
>>> On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 13:25, Nicholas J Dear <
>>> ndear at sundayafternoon.me.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Have you tried AT+ZCDRUN=8 to disable, AT+ZCDRUN=9 to re-enable?****
>>>>
>>>> ** **
>>>>
>>>> That works on other ZTE modems.****
>>>>
>>>> ** **
>>>>
>>>> N.****
>>>>
>>>> ** **
>>>>
>>>> *From:* kictanet-bounces+ndear=
>>>> sundayafternoon.me.uk at lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:
>>>> kictanet-bounces+ndear=sundayafternoon.me.uk at lists.kictanet.or.ke] *On
>>>> Behalf Of *Odhiambo Washington
>>>> *Sent:* 17 October 2011 13:06
>>>> *To:* Nicholas J Dear
>>>> *Cc:* Kictanet
>>>> *Subject:* [kictanet] Quality of Tech Support with Kenyan Telcos****
>>>>
>>>> ** **
>>>>
>>>> Apologies in advance for cross-posting.
>>>>
>>>> I'm somehow very appalled at the level of technical support we get from
>>>> our Telcos. What surprises me is the fact they they have some of the best
>>>> brains in the market, yet they simply cannot get these brains to address the
>>>> consumer problems. A simple problem can take you ages to get solved --
>>>> unless you go behind the scenes and contact these techies at a personal
>>>> level.
>>>> I've come to the point of thinking that either there is too much
>>>> bureaucracy introduced between the people we talk to (the CSEs) and the
>>>> engineers who work in the background or the escalation process simply isn't
>>>> streamlined. The process of getting a solution from the engineers can take
>>>> ages (to me, a week is ages!). Then again, the Customer-facing teams simply
>>>> seem to be robots who don't want to try and reason out. Is thinking out of
>>>> the box not acceptable for CSEs working in these Telcos??
>>>>
>>>> Take one such problem that I'm facing currently with one these Telcos -
>>>> ORANGE: I bought their much touted 21Mbps modem. The issue at hand is that I
>>>> need to share the Internet connectivity with other residents of my house via
>>>> a WiFi router. My router, a D-Link DIR-825, has a USB port that supports a
>>>> 3G modem. There is one obstacle that I must overcome with the ZTE modem for
>>>> me to be able to use it with my D-Link router -- I must find a way to
>>>> disable the virtual CDROM and card reader from the USB stick/modem. The
>>>> problem is no technician at ORANGE knows how to do this. Probably there is a
>>>> technician (I have a feeling Orange must have gotten ZTE to train some
>>>> technicians, or in the daftest form, ZTE must have seconded some techies to
>>>> Orange!) but it's not possible to reach him/her/them!
>>>>
>>>> My router already works with the Safaricom's Huawei E1820, because I was
>>>> able to go-ogle and find the AT Command to use to disable the virtual CDROM
>>>> (AT^U2DIAG=0 does the disabling; AT^U2DIAG=1 re-enables it if I need
>>>> to), which then enabled my router to recognize the USB modem. Fortunately,
>>>> after installing the drivers on a computer, I really do not require the
>>>> virtual CDROM interface anymore.
>>>> I have not been able to find an equivalent command for ZTE-MF192 USB
>>>> stick and has called Orange Customer Support (Data+Internet) so many times
>>>> and they simply don't have a clue as to what I am asking for. I'd have
>>>> thought they are trained to know that some clients are more demanding than
>>>> others and as such they are allowed to go the extra mile and reason outside
>>>> the box to help such customers.
>>>>
>>>> I am not sure  if I am expecting too much, but because I paid money to
>>>> get this modem, I'd expect Orange to help me in any way that I'd like to use
>>>> the modem. They still make their money by allowing me to use it.
>>>> What I don't seem to be able to wrap my head around is why there is no
>>>> technician at Orange (whether native or Chinese) who can help me with this
>>>> problem? Aren't we supposed to expect a better quality support from these
>>>> Telcos than we are getting now??
>>>>
>>>> I started by generalizing on "Telcos". I have only detailed my problem
>>>> with Orange, but such problems are not exclusive to Orange. I remember
>>>> Robert Yawe has detailed his own tribulations with other Telcos on this very
>>>> forum.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Best regards,
>>>> Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
>>>> Nairobi,KE
>>>> +254733744121/+254722743223
>>>> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
>>>> I can't hear you -- I'm using the scrambler.
>>>> Please consider the environment before printing this email. ****
>>>> ------------------------------
>>>>
>>>> No virus found in this message.
>>>> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
>>>> Version: 2012.0.1831 / Virus Database: 2090/4556 - Release Date:
>>>> 10/16/11****
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Best regards,
>>> Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
>>> Nairobi,KE
>>> +254733744121/+254722743223
>>> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
>>> I can't hear you -- I'm using the scrambler.
>>> Please consider the environment before printing this email.
>>>
>>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Odhiambo WASHINGTON,
> Nairobi,KE
> +254733744121/+254722743223
> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
> I can't hear you -- I'm using the scrambler.
> Please consider the environment before printing this email.
>
>
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