Wi-Tribe Consumer Panel Day 5

When I reached home at 7pm, the news was good. Witribe had performed better throughout the day. The only problem was the cable getting in the way.
I embarked on another expedition in search of the golden spot. This time I found one, which although not as good as the current one, was good enough especially since the cable won’t be getting in the way.

I checked all the parameters with the speed test. For the first time, the ping rate was less than 100ms. But I do have some reservations about these tests. Even when the going is bad, these tests don’t really reflect it. The ping test, however, does a better job of reflecting the ground reality, but even that is not 100% fool-proof.

Wi-Tribe Consumer Panel- Day4

Day 4 was the worst.
When I returned from office, I was informed by the family that the performance was worse than dial-up and the modem showed remarkable consistency in getting hung up at every available opportunity. I smsed the guy explaining the situation and reminding him the need for a lengthier cable. He finally arrives at 10pm, with the wire and another device. He brought the device because he said there are only two reasons that the device ‘decamps’. Either the CPE is faulty, or the signal is too weak to provide sustainable coverage.


After attaching the new cable, he checked the old device for signals throughout my room, and finally concluded that the signal variation was too much and hence the device getting hung up, otherwise there was nothing wrong with the device.
He left me with the old device and the dilemma whether to continue with Wi-tribe or cancel the subscription for which I had only two days left.
Although the rep was polite and helpful, he left me with another problem – a not too long cable. I had asked for at least 25 feet, he brought one which was not more than 20 feet. I asked why, he said that for that long a cable, he would have to get permission which would have delayed my getting the cable. Whether that’s the truth or he just said it to get me off his back I can’t say. Only the Witribe management can answer that.

After he left, I spent the next hour running around the house with the device tethered to the PC as far as the cable would go. I finally placed the device just across from my room where the signal strength was the maximum.

It got better but then the issue of cable getting in the way of the feet arose. I was too tired by the end of this exercise to change the position again.

Wi-Tribe Consumer Panel- Day 3

Being a Sunday, I didn’t expect the Wi-tribe service to be any good. So it came as a pleasant surprise that it ran smoothly, not great mind you. The fluctuation was still too much. One minute you had the network flying like a F-117, the very next minute it was crawling like a camel cart.

Like the browsing speed, the same condition was seen in the downloading as well, only here you could see the enormous variations reflected in the speeds. Although the sales rep had said when asked about the theoretical and the actual download speed available that both the theoretical and the actual download speed was not much different- 64 theoretical, and 60-62 actual, in reality it varied from 64 to 24 in a matter of seconds.


In the evening, the overall network speed had declined dramatically. This could be the result of the rush hour traffic. But if witribe in its infancy cannot provide consistent speed at the peak hour when its users are not that much, what can we expect when the population reaches critical mass?

Wi-Tribe Consumer Panel- Day 2

I called the guy up asking him for a lengthier Ethernet cable- about 25 feet – to reach the area where the signal strength was maximum.



When I returned from the office at about 7pm I got the new that the net performed dismally throughout the day, even worse than a dial-up connection. The biggest problem was that the modem was getting hung up, ‘decamping’ as the guy said.


However, at night although the signals were still fluctuating between 2 and 3, the Witribe service was better.

Wi-Tribe Consumer Panel - Day 0

My initial contact with Wi-tribe has stretched for over 6 six months. I first made contact with them when the service was first launched, and although the service reps were courteous and friendly, the experience wasn’t very good. The reason for that was the lack of response from Witribe when they found out my area didn’t come under their coverage. I registered my details at their website as well as left it with one of their reps at the Nazimabad outlet but they didn’t even so much as send an acknowledgement note. That was six months ago.

About two weeks ago, they left a flyer in my housing society to announce their arrival in the area with the business card of one of their reps attached. Still no effort to contact me. In contrast, the Qubee rep not only contacted me on his own accord but also offered to waive off the activation charges as a special offer especially for this area. When I expressed apprehensions about the quality of service, he gave me phone number and address of two of his customers in my area to verify the quality of service. No such initiative from Witribe. So yes, they need to spruce up their sales tactics.



When I did contact the person whose card was attached with the flyer and told him about the offer from Qubee, expecting something extra from Witribe as well, he offered to waive off the security deposit only if I referred another person, otherwise nothing at all. I guess the Witribe folks are a bit too confident in the wake of their recent extravagant marketing campaign with a brand repositioning of ‘connect to change’.



In spite of all these minor glitches, I decided to give them a try. So I called the guy again and told him I wanted the connection. This was afternoon. He promised to install the very same night. Late evening I called again to verify the time he would be coming and this time he said he would arrive by 10pm. I again called just before 10 and this time he said that he wouldn’t get free until 1am in the morning, but was willing to come over even late at night. I asked him to come over the second day. However, the same thing went on for the next two days (during which I had serious doubts about whether to really go until on the night of the fourth day- the 1st of January 2010, he finally came over at 11.30pm.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t one of those ‘All’s well that ends well’. As soon as the guy installed the CPE, trouble started. First, the signal strength was low at 2 bar (maximum is five). Then the device started getting hung up which the rep called as ‘decamping’ or something.
About the signal strength, the guy assured that even 2 bar was enough to get proper coverage provided the signals were stable and not varying much.

Anyway, he reminded me that I had the option of canceling the service and getting all the money back within seven days if I wasn’t satisfied. In that case as well, the guy activated my account at 11pm on the 1st, which meant I literally had only six days left to test the service.
Not the best of starts, definitely.

What is Wi-Tribe Consumer Panel?

‘ A longitudinal study that gathers data from the same sample of individuals or households over time is called a consumer panel. A consumer panel that consists of a group of people who record their purchasing habits in a diary over time will provide the marketer with a continuous stream of information about the brand and product class. Diary data that are recorded regularly over an extended period enable the investigator to track repeat-purchase behavior and changes in purchasing and usage habits along with changes in price, special promotions, or other aspects of marketing strategy.’
-Exploring Market Research by William G. Zikmund

The Wi-Tribe consumer panel will be an unsolicited one-man team comprising of myself (it may expand as time goes on). Conventionally, a marketer from the brand team analyzes the diaries maintained by the consumer panel subjects and based on them comes up with marketing strategies. In this case I’ll be the lawyer as well as the jury. i.e I’ll be analyzing my own experience with the brand, and based on those insights offer to the Wi-Tribe marketing team ways to delve deeper into the consumer mindset. It’s going to be like the people meter (pioneered by AC Nielsen), an internet meter to be more apt.
Consumer panels and people meter surveys are an extremely secretive process unbeknownst to the general public. This is the first time in the history of mankind that a consumer panel diary is being made public, that too on the universal mass medium – the internet.

Note:
This is an unsolicited consumer panel which is neither endorsed nor influenced by Wi-Tribe or any of its competitors. It is a uniquely independent and totally unbiased review of how this brand holds up in real-life situations for a consumer as opposed to a static review of its features.