What went wrong with Nomad
And did Emtel learn from Nomad’s failure?
NOMAD was a very good idea and marketable product. At least, on paper. But, in practice, there was a BIG snag…
In Mauritius, most houses are built with 6-inch thick concrete blocks with flat reinforced concrete roofs supported by reinforced concrete columns and beams. Windows and doors are fitted with anti-theft steel bars. That’s a lot of metal for radio signals to get past, especially the kind used in WiMax.
And so, the teeny-weeny antenna on the Nomad WiMax modem was not up to the task, which resulted in poor Internet connection for the users. From Nomad Support page:
If your Rabbit Modem’s connection light is blinking red, this means that the signal is not strong enough to connect to the Nomad Wireless Network. To improve the reception of your Rabbit Modem you should try the following:
a. Try changing the orientation of the Rabbit Modem. Changing the angle at which the Rabbit Modem is sitting in can be just as effective as moving the modem to a new position.
b. Move your Rabbit Modem as close as possible to a window and place the modem on an elevated shelf. The further your Rabbit Modem is indoors and away from windows, the weaker the signal may become. Signals may become too weak if they have to penetrate through concrete or metal walls, as well as steel roofs. Note: Glazed windows may contain high levels of metal, which may obstruct signal.
c. If (a) does not work, test your Rabbit Modem in different rooms of your home or building. If the signal becomes a constant red, orange or green color (as opposed to flashinng red), then you are receiving signal in that particular location. In this case, we recommend that you place your Rabbit Modem in that location and extend CAT 5 fibre cable to your computer’s location. Alternatively, we recommend that you re-locate your computer as close as possible to the position where the Rabbit Modem receives a constant signal.
Emtel watched and learned as Nomad tried to cope with the avalanche of abuse from unhappy customers, then launched a better WiMax service to complement their already excellent 3G/HSDPA service.
How does it work?
Emtel Wimax offers a fixed wireless connection for subscribers. The service is offered through an external antenna which is connected to an indoor unit through an Ethernet cable. The external antenna is wirelessly connected to an Emtel Wimax base station.
From the indoor unit, the customer has the possibility to make his own network using a router. A wired or wireless network can be created depending on the type of router used.
Theirs includes an outdoor antenna and an indoor unit to which users connect their computers. Same technology, better implementation and happier customers.
Nomad, watch and learn.
Eddy.
22 Comments
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I have Nomad 512 and max download speed I got is 57KB/s on Rapidshare and 59KB/s on Megauload.
Comment by HB — Friday, 16 May 2008 12:58 GMT #
THE speed is impressive, good on you. Nomad need the PR to pull themselves up again :-)
BTW, have you always enjoyed such speed?
Eddy.
Comment by Eddy — Friday, 16 May 2008 13:11 GMT #
Nomad went from bad to worst when they decided to implement their login system. Everyone is complaining that it logs you out automatically, even if you are actively using the Internet.
@HB
If you were using ADSL 512k (hopefully), this should have had been 70+KB/s! LOL
First time since a long long time (in a far away galaxy), that i’ve seen someone not complaining about Nomad.
:P
Comment by carrotmadman6 — Friday, 16 May 2008 16:40 GMT #
thnks for linking back eddy.
Nomad was indeed a good idea, but a very bad logistic, installation, customer care and marketing behind.
thats y it transformed into a flop idea, being even more expensive than The myT, which has only 1 disadvantage for a big majority(the 1 gb limit FUP )
However, the only place where nomad helped is its 64kbps connection which allowed many many ppl (including me) to have a “24/24″ connection, please pay attention to the “quotes” lol!
Comment by Yashvin — Friday, 16 May 2008 17:32 GMT #
Nomad works perfectly on Linux OS such as Ubuntu but on Windows is very poor performance….
Comment by nasrullah — Saturday, 17 May 2008 17:02 GMT #
Hi,
Got a Nomad 128 at around Rs1024 per month. The best speed I get is around 14 kbps but most of the time it fluctuates between 5kbps – 8 kbps. It costs more than Orange’s MyT or ADSL but however it has one advantage, it does provide some “mobility”. Emtel’s HSPDA modem is costly and has download limits.
Nomad’s connection seems
reliableok at home, uni and work. However it is very frustrating calling support and having no one picking up the phone. It has happened 2-3 times already.I also hate their login system, Nomad used to be plain simple plug and play. Now it is a pain. The systems logs you out after 120 minutes of “idle” time… dunno what they call “idle” but it keeps on logging out when leave stuff to download. Arg i curse the guy who got the idea for a login system.
Sign the petition if you want them to voice your concerns
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/notonomadlogin/
Comment by Kailash — Saturday, 17 May 2008 17:22 GMT #
I think what went wrong is a too early launch of Nomad. they should have taken the time to put a stable network in place instead of launching a half-baked barely ready system. Why else would they advertise “improved nomad” after a couple years only.
And recently they have really started going down, especially since they’ve been firing most of their qualified staffs… some of my friends included. And they tell me it’s horrible to work there… So if the employees themselves are not happy, how can the customers be?
I bet Emtel took the time and used their years of gained experience in the wireless field.
Comment by akash — Saturday, 7 June 2008 16:11 GMT #
Very interesting comment, akash.
Back in November, I heard that Nomad would be folding up in June this year, so I was quite surprised when they started their “better faster” marketing campaign.
Eddy.
Comment by Eddy — Saturday, 7 June 2008 18:18 GMT #
Hi
Sincerely, i’m interested – you work for which company? any commission based on this website or posting these comments?
How much money? tell me, then i can to some bitching about nomad/emtel/orange/mtml…
Human rights encourage free speaking. Thats the basis of democracy. But democracy talks about neutrality in speech & acts. I dont
think it talks about talking ill about a company in favour of another (UNLESS YOU GETTING MONETARY COMMISSIONS) HEHE. KEEP IT UP BOSS.
Letme know how much money you getting. Thanks.
cheers mate
Zan matt
Comment by Jean mathieu — Thursday, 19 June 2008 07:25 GMT #
Hello Eddy,
Just to let you know that YOU ARE TOTALLY WRONG IN YOUR ANALYSIS.
Its your personal experience, not in a general sense.
Regards,
A.Ramphul
Comment by Anil Ramphul — Thursday, 19 June 2008 07:37 GMT #
[...] NOMAD boys (same IP address) are coming out of their foxholes, a little pissed that I say bad things [...]
Pingback by The truth hurts | priscimon.com — Thursday, 19 June 2008 16:54 GMT #
To Zan matt/A.Ramphul:
LOL, seems u dont know how the rabbit modem makes miracle!
ask other users if u guess that eddy is being paid for this post!
read a bit on my blog, and u will know the whole story of nomad!!!
http://blog.yashvin.net/category/nomad/
Comment by Yashvin — Friday, 20 June 2008 13:00 GMT #
hey, i jusu wanna say that Nomad sucks, hard! it just bugs me. firstly because it gives very low internet connection at about 5-20 kpbs for my ADSL 128 K.. it really bugs me..
a thing happen just a few days back, i was downloading a file from Rapidshare, at least it was going at 11-15 kbps but when i tried the next day, it was downloading at 3-8kbps.. that really nagged me…
but one thing is cool, am a music fan, and like to download video clips from the net, i use a P2P prg and download more than 2 GB per month (if i am online all the time with only 10-25 kbps) it does not really have a download limit.. but don’t think that it is a praisng towards them(nomad ones)
hey one tip for the login screen that you get.. long back i had installed a software containing many updates for windows XP and also contained tweaks.. one of those tweaks added the function “minimize to tray” which hid the browser in the tray menu where the windows clock is found….. i don’t really recall the name of the software but it was really cool, i can’t find it in my back ups (so sorry)… I would also like to recommend you to use Mozilla firefox for login into nomad.. for me it never shows logout screen, i can let my files to download 24/24.
Comment by sharvin G — Monday, 11 August 2008 14:55 GMT #
Sharvin,
Thank you for your comments. I think it’s safe to say that we all agree that Nomad sucks :-)
Regarding your tip on how to avoid the log-in screen, I suspect that a keep-alive mechanism is involved, whereby if there has not been any traffic over the connection for a while, it is dropped and a log-in is requested at your next attempt to connect to a server. If that is the case, it should be enough to keep an instant messenger window open at all times, which would generate just enough traffic to keep the connection up and avoid the log-in screen.
Eddy.
Comment by Eddy — Monday, 11 August 2008 15:30 GMT #
I just want to confirm to all of you that Nomad sucks. I am a 64kps user and my download speed is only at around 1 kbps nearly everyday for over 7/8 months already now… I really get pissed with it and my telephone calls to Nomad is another big cost I have to account for now!!!
I guess people are right when they say “Bon marcher coute chere”
Hopefully, I will try to upgrade to MyT in the coming months and I will definitely not advise anyone to go for Nomad!!
Comment by Madzguy007 — Thursday, 18 September 2008 13:25 GMT #
even if nomad sucks, it does have one good thing about it and thats the only, it provides unlimited internet download compared to other ISPs…. that really kinds rulz, but its still very slow, i walk on 10-20 kbps with my 128 K with 1-1.5 Gb download per month and that sucks…
and yeah, I want to downgrade to 64 Kbps, how to do that?
I took my 128 K on a year contract, i think that the contract is on its end.. does it cost more to get a new 64 K modem?
Comment by shark666 — Thursday, 18 September 2008 19:49 GMT #
I won’t advise anyone not even my bitter enemy to sign a contract with Nomad. Seriously, I don’t know what is wrong with them. In one hour it is rather good and in the next hour bad, very bad! Due to this, I can’t do my course work and other thing, I must wait and repair the local area network thing! And if by chance it gets repaired and everything is ok, in the next five minutes the local area network is unplugged!
24 online is another thing that pisses me off, seriously! Why should we log in? This seems to be an archaic system!!!!
I pay at around Rs 600 for that 64kps! It is not worth the value! Yesterday itself I called their customer care services and I gave them my details and they told me they would sort it out and after five minutes, It was ok and then you know the story!
Oh and I am not receiving any commission!
Comment by Hans — Thursday, 4 December 2008 03:55 GMT #
Yeah, i need some help from you, fellow unlucky-with-nomad mauritians, i mean brothers and sisters….. I wanted to unsubscribe from nomad.. I have a 128 kbps modem with a 1 year subscription and its finished.. I called nomad customer care, they took my number and anything else and told me that they will call me.
So today they will called me, they told that i have to bring my modem back to happy world house, port-Louis. So i wanted to ask, they did that 1 year contract thing so as to pay for the modem, i mean if i had bought that thing, i would have paid some RS 4000 and have a monthly rental of RS 600, i think.. So, when i will return them that modem, must they return the money or at least part of it?? I would like them robbing me..
Please advise me.. Am gonna blow their a**….
Or else i have a friend who works at nomad, he is some head of advertising department, Can i ask him to cut that subscription for me so as not to move from my place, avoiding me to take a day off from my part-time job.. But i don’t really wanna ask him this favor, its a bit too professional and against his company itself..
Comment by shark — Wednesday, 10 December 2008 14:47 GMT #
I believe you were charged a deposit for the modem. Please check your contract, and if indeed you have, you should demand that deposit back.
Eddy.
Comment by Eddy — Wednesday, 10 December 2008 14:53 GMT #
Reply to Eddy: “I believe you were charged a deposit for the modem. Please check your contract, and if indeed you have, you should demand that deposit back.
Eddy.”
Yes i did that deposit thing. I think it was a Rs 500.. Then took the modem home…. But the money that i had to pay in extra in the 1 year contract+rental, wouldn’t that money go in vain, the extra money??
Though thanks for the reply, not forgetting the help that you brought… I must say am gonna try Orange ADSL now..
Thanks once more.
Comment by shark — Wednesday, 10 December 2008 15:17 GMT #
I have 64kbps which represents about 8KB/s but i get only 3KB/s and sometimes 0.3 KB\s !!! No jokes. I used to get 9-10KB\s. Note that i stay at the same place and there is no big construction houses or trees obstructing the signals everything is the same. Nomad login page is ridiculous and they are greedy. If nomad continues i’ll surely turn to other services.
Comment by Curse-Greedy-Nomad — Thursday, 5 March 2009 05:42 GMT #
NOMAD IS A GOOD CONECTION BUT DUE TO THE LACK OF EXPERIENCE AN LACK OF GOOD SKILL PERSON THE NOMAD COMPANY WILL BANKRUPT HIHIH NOMAD RISE UP WAKE UP DUDE PUT A MOVE IN YOUR COMPANY OR ELSE U WILL REGRET BYE
Comment by arshad — Friday, 13 March 2009 17:26 GMT #