Liquid’s frequent service disruptions might prematurely push users to satellite

The hardest thing to do as a human being is to be unbiased and objective. It is especially hard when you have parted with your hard-earned money for a product or service. There are two main ways you might review the product or service if it is of subpar quality.

The first is the copium method. See, we humans do not like to feel like chumps. Sometimes, you will find people defending a service provider who swindled them because they don’t want to appear gullible.

The best example of this was when the metal-unibody iPhone was prone to bending and dropping signal. We saw fully grown adults, who were not affiliated with Apple in any way, parrot the company’s propaganda that humans just weren’t holding their phones correctly.

The second way of coping with bad service is to paint the service provider as the devil incarnate who set up an elaborate scam to fleece the public. Here, the goal is to clear one’s perceived gullibility by pointing out that the other party is an evil Goliath they couldn’t possibly fight.

Telling this kind of person that there are some valid reasons why the service provider failed to deliver will be met with hostility.

However, life is not that black and white. There are always nuances that need to be considered, so let us attempt to talk about service disruptions with all this in mind.

Liquid Home internet disruptions

Check this screenshot out:

It shows a list of notifications from Liquid Home about service disruptions. Mind you, there are more before these, and one is just fresh off the press. I received one this afternoon.

Now, I am glad that these notifications are being sent out via SMS to all affected customers, rather than waiting for them to call customer care asking why they can’t watch their Cocomelon videos on YouTube.

I am also glad that in the last message, they told us what caused the disruption—road works. It’s a little thing, but it goes a long way. When left in the dark, humans fill in the blanks with all sorts of crazy conspiracies.

So, I believe the communication aspect is being handled much better now. One time I called, and the welcome message informed users of a service disruption, the areas affected, and how long they expected to sort it out. I didn’t even need to speak to an agent after that.

Why so many though?

Do note: the internet (for fibre connections) comes through cables buried underground. When those cables are cut, there is no internet service.

Accidental damage

One of the main causes of fibre service disruption is construction and excavation activities. A few years ago, a farmer in the Beitbridge area put the whole of Zimbabwe on its knees.

Now, with so many roadwork projects going on in Harare right now, more frequent fibre cuts are to be expected. It’s mainly so in Zimbabwe because, at the best of times, internet access providers, utility companies, construction firms, and municipal workers have terrible communication.

The likes of Liquid and TelOne won’t exactly come out and say it, but the city knows where all fibre optic cables are. Should they communicate this effectively with their construction partners, there wouldn’t be nearly as many fibre cuts.

Accidental damage also comes from vandalism and natural disasters. In some areas, rats and other rodents are known to chew on cables.

In all the above, the internet provider is not to blame, for the most part.

Infrastructure issues

Nothing lasts forever. Not even the mighty fiber optic cable is immune to wear and tear. So, older fibre networks are more prone to damage, especially when they haven’t been properly maintained or upgraded.

Human error and poor initial installations can be factors too. For example, we talked about rodents chewing through cables. Some experts will tell you that only happens when there isn’t proper cable protection and rodent control.

Another main issue with initial installation is burial depth. I have conversed with some experts who tell me that much of the fibre network in Zimbabwe is not buried deep enough. If it were, they claim, we wouldn’t have farmers willy-nilly crippling the country.

There is also the fact that cable choice matters too. Substandard cables can be just as bad as poor installation practices in the long term.

Get me right, I’m not saying Liquid, TelOne, Dandemutande, and others are guilty of all of the above. I’m saying these are some of the reasons that could lead to frequent service disruptions.

Maintenance and operational issues

We touched on this already. Insufficient maintenance and inspection of fibre networks can lead to undetected problems that eventually cause cuts.

Just from that, you can imagine how the forex-starved internet providers have fared with their maintenance and upgrade schedules. They have told us, often and loudly, that they have not been able to maintain their infrastructure as they should. Hence the frequent fibre cuts.

When talking operations, we cannot ignore power cuts. Frequent power cuts can affect the operation of equipment that powers fibre networks, leading to an increased risk of damage. Power cuts are back with a bang, and so that contributes to the problem.

Is fibre doomed then?

One might then wonder if investing millions in laying fiber is still a worthwhile venture. Or, from a customer perspective, if getting a fibre service as opposed to satellite (which Liquid and TelOne have announced they will support soon) is a good idea.

Well, all things being equal, fibre should be more reliable. Satellite internet, especially the kind that Starlink and OneWeb provide, gets frequently disrupted through obstruction.

When talking about a properly maintained fiber network, satellite internet is inferior in most ways.

I realised that some didn’t know that for many Starlink users from all over the world, video calls can be tricky. Starlink regularly has short ~1-second outages that disrupt video calls and other real-time applications.

Some experience frequent call drops, which fibre users don’t have to deal with. We won’t get into it, but it can be caused by variable bandwidth, weather, moving from satellite to satellite, etc.

That said, you can see how the frequent fibre disruptions experienced by Liquid and other fibre companies make this negative for Starlink less of a problem. If I can’t count on fibre to be reliable, or if satellite ends up being more reliable in Zimbabwe, what then?

So, I guess it’s a good thing that Liquid and TelOne have committed to working with OneWeb for satellite internet provision.

So, yes, fibre still has a place in the future. That takes nothing away from satellite’s 100% coverage benefits.

Unfair fight?

Satellite internet providers have an addressable market of billions of people and so, despite high costs to set up fleets, they can absolutely shake up the pricing strategies of fibre companies.

I bet the fibre companies must be thinking, “Those lucky satellite bastards have their most expensive and critical equipment up in space. There, no vandals, rodents, farmers, or construction workers can cause you a PR nightmare with one swift action. There, you don’t have to coordinate with a nonchalant city about planned construction projects. The satellite bastards can connect some recluse out in the middle of nowhere at no extra cost.”

That’s what disruption looks like, I guess. And that is why Liquid’s frequent service disruptions might push users to satellite faster than they would have adopted it. Even if some of the reasons for the service disruptions are not of Liquid’s doing.

Also read:

• No Company Has Starlink Exclusivity In Zimbabwe… IMC Has No Agreement With Starlink… Has No POTRAZ License
• TelOne partners OneWeb (Starlink competitor) and looks to slash fibre and ADSL prices too
• Liquid partners Eutelsat to take on Starlink in satellite internet race, let’s talk about it