[kictanet] Quality of Tech Support with Kenyan Telcos

Mon Oct 17 21:45:14 EAT 2011

Which shop was this? I'd like to carry my router and USB stick to that shop
and ask them to sort me out - on a serious note.

On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 20:38, S.M. Muraya <murigi.muraya at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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.
>>
>>
>

-- 
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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