I’ve had Vumatel fibre at my home for 3 years now and all this while, have used Cool Ideas as my Internet Service Provider. This article is intended to share my experience with Cool Ideas.
My neighbours and I were courted and wooed by various ISPs as Vumatel completed their fibre rollout in my neighbourhood. Cell C was the most aggressive. They had tents, distributed flyers, made telephone calls and even went door to door. The choice of Cool Ideas was, however, an easy one for me.
The Good
Contents
Cool Ideas has been very good in a lot of ways. They advertise and deliver an uncapped/unshaped service. I have listed some of their other goodness below.
Pricing
Being a tech-savvy person, I balanced their price with their speed offers. More so, I had heard and read nice things about them in my tech circle. I was not interested in the cheapest fibre broadband offer. While they are not the cheapest, they are by no means the most expensive either. Their pricing is decent.
Fibre only
The biggest deciding factor for me was the fact that they were solely a fibre ISP. They don’t offer Internet connectivity over 4G LTE mobile broadband, xDSL nor any fixed wireless technology. Just fibre. My reckoning was they would be better at this since they are focused on fibre. Their entire business focus would be on improvements since there are no distractions with other business units.
I also didn’t want a big multinational provider for whom I might only be a number.
Delivery
I didn’t opt for their “free” router. I’m too savvy for a basic router. I had already bought the specific router I felt could meet my technical needs, before subscribing to Cool Ideas.
Getting online was easy and straightforward once Vumatel’s contractors had installed the fibre into the house.
I was online shortly after choosing Cool Ideas from Vumatel’s customer portal.
Peering
One other deciding factor for me was their extensive peering relationships which they have since increased since I joined them in 2017. They currently peer on 11 Internet Exchange Points (IXPs): all 6 of the major ones in South Africa, 2 in London (UK), 2 in New York City (USA) and as far-flung as IX.br in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Peering is an important factor that can influence network speeds positively.
Speed
In all the years of usage, the speed has been super stable though one can attribute this mostly to the efficiency of fibre broadband technology and Vumatel’s quality infrastructure.
However, I can say confidently that Cool Ideas has delivered their end of the bargain. I started with 100 / 100 Mbps and later upgraded to 200 / 200 Mbps once that option became available. I have never experienced a lower speed than I paid for when running a speed test from a laptop or desktop using an ethernet cable connected directly to a router. I always got slightly higher than 200 Mbps with the uploads speeds being even higher. The same applies to speed test servers outside South Africa as you would see below. All the tests were conducted using speedtest.net
The speeds are relatively consistent despite the higher latencies to the international speed test servers. The effect is that all my video content stream with no buffering: Netflix, YouTube, YouTube TV, Showmax etc.
The Bad
It hasn’t been super rosy. I list some slight inconveniences so far.
Support
I had opened a support ticket to complain about a critical problem in February 2020 and got no response for over 48 hours. I had to call Cool Idea’s customer care with the ticket number, to get some action. The problem was actually from Vumatel and I am happy they escalated and followed-up even after Vumatel had fixed it.
Other cases
- Ticket opened in August 2018. They responded in less than 4 hours.
- Ticket opened on a Friday evening in July 2017 with a non-critical query. I got a response after 50 hours on the next Monday morning.
No IPv6
IPv4s are running out rapidly. Many ISPs outside Africa already support IPv6 aggressively, to varying degrees. There is some complacency about this from South African ISPs. I am not aware of any local ISP, big or small, that supports IPv6.
In fairness to Cool Ideas, they own a large IPv6 block and seem to have an IPv6 transit relationship with a leading carrier, Internet Solutions.
Fun Fact
According to public records, they own a /32 IPv6 block. This translates to 79,228,162,514,264,337,593,543,950,336 IPv6 addresses.
In English, seventy-nine octillion two hundred twenty-eight septillion one hundred sixty-two sextillion five hundred fourteen quintillion two hundred sixty-four quadrillion three hundred thirty-seven trillion five hundred ninety-three billion five hundred forty-three million nine hundred fifty thousand three hundred thirty-six IPv6 addresses.
This is slightly beyond Cool Ideas but I am placing this here considering they can influence Vumatel to upgrade and support IPv6. It is the unavoidable future.
Peering
Yes, they are peer extensively on 11 IXPs but their presence on those IXPs does not automatically guarantee they can peer with all the “big boys” – being a mid-size ISP.
The complications around the politics of peering are beyond the scope of this article.
It is only slightly annoying that traffic to two Kenyan networks I have noticed so far go through Europe thus at higher latency when I can reach those Kenyan networks through a more direct route when I test from major South African networks.
This is not an important factor for 99% of regular internet users.
The Ugly
Cool Ideas experienced a number of Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks in 2019. They were in 2 major waves and massive enough to cripple their network for days. International traffic was mostly affected while content that could be accessed within South Africa were okay. While the attacks were no fault of theirs, they rose to the occasion by increasing their international bandwidth and enforcing more rigorous IP security measures to mitigate the industry-wide nuisance.
The Ugly path was their initial poor communication when the mess started. They did not proactively send any communication via email nor SMS. There were only a few updates on Twitter.
They, however, sent a detailed apologetic email after the DDOS attacks had abated or their DDoS mitigation worked.
Conclusion
While Cool Ideas offers good prices, focus exclusively on fibre broadband technology, deliver excellent network speed when they are not under attack, their customer service and communication could use some improvement. Would I recommend Cool Ideas? Absolutely, yes. The will to identify inadequacies and seek to improve is what counts.
Are you a Cool Ideas subscriber in South Africa? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.
I’ve had Cool Ideas as my ISP for several years. Initially their service was outstanding. However my Internet connection has become progressively worse, and it seems to be impossible to even get through them telephoncally with eternally long waiting periods. Appalling customer service and no backup.l Will be looking to finding a better service provider.
I have taken the matter up with SA consumer complaints to assist to take the matter up with the Consumer Protection Act.
Based on the reviews on Hello Peter, The -73 NPS (Net Promotor Score), the lack of response from Cool Ideas on this platform, and the queries made to them. I hope I can serve as an example of why it is so important to check company reviews on Hello Peter before signing a 24month contract with a company that does not honor what they advertise and will hold you liable for their mistakes.
My advice, If you are looking for a fiber avoid Cool Ideas at all costs (or it will end up costing you more than intended) and rather go with a 5G connection (if you have it available in your area ) that will deliver the same speeds if not more. (48 hr delivery and connection) or make sure you do proper research for a reputable ISP that does not make up their own rules and ignore the Consumer Protection Act for their own gain.
“Hi
My Compliant against Cool Ideas ISP.
I applied for a Cool Ideas Fibre contract (with R0 installation/connection fee through Vumatel on the Hippo.co.za website in June and received a confirmation that states Installation is R0.
After Cool ideas returned and asked to fill in their application form. Where the question was asked if I have an existing fiber connection which I confirmed yes and provided them with the information and pics required.
A week and a half later after not hearing from Cool Ideas, I did a follow-up call to find out what’s happening. They ask me to submit more pics of the ONT (the box that connects to the Fibre cable) and they came back informing me that my box is not compatible with their fiber and that they have arranged with Vumatel to install the correct unit at my house.
Once the unit was installed I had to follow up with them for another 7 days to get my Fiber connection activated. During this period I was informed that they activated the wrong line with Open Serve and not Vumatel. a couple of days later, this was rectified.
After the service was activated, I received an Installation fee bill from Cool Ideas of R1750. When I question why they charging me an installation fee when their advert stated R0 installation fee (They did not charge me for a connection fee as advertised), they initially kept on responding that Vumatel has an installation fee. It took me a number of calls and written queries for them to acknowledge that my order did state the R0 installation fee. To which they acknowledge that they made a mistake in advertising and that they will get it rectified, but that I am still responsible for the installation fee.
Their reason for this is that after I placed my order I stated that I had an existing Fiber installation and because they had to install a new one they charging me for installation.
The problem with their response is that when I noticed their advert and placed an order to get their Cool ideas Fiber contract with R0 installation fee there were no prerequisites that I had to have an existing fiber connection to qualify for the R0 installation. Based on the advert on hippo.co.za the installation was Free (R0) (no T&C stating that this offer was based on an existing installation)
For all intent and purposes, any reasonable person that read the advert would have read that was stated. Cool ideas did not charge an installation fee.
Their advert has been updated in the meantime to reflect the R1750 installation fee. They admitted to making an error in advertising but they refused to honor the deal that they have advertised and what I ordered from them in June.
I informed them due to false advertising that I would like to cancel, whereby they informed me that I still am still liable for the installation fee and calender month service fees. They forcing me to pay for an installation fee which they have advertised as free (R0) whether I stay with them or not.
Please assist as I am not getting anywhere with Cool Ideas. Their supervisors are never available, always responding with the same type of response that Vumatel has an installation fee and invoices with warnings that if I don’t pay the installation fee that my service will be suspended.
They made the error in advertising and now they holding me liable for an R1750 installation fee that was not part of the deal.”
I contacted cool ideads via phone i asked the agent if my address has fibre she replied yes i asked another few questions because i was interested in using the service she explain and im happy with what she said, the next day i signed up and paid for the service, two weeks went by and i decided to contact them asking them when the installation will be taking place, nobody could give me an answer or get back to me after sending several emails nobody could help me so basically after i paid everything went downhill reason for that was on the cool ideas portal my address showed that fibre is installed in my area so basically my address is ready for fibre installation but on the Mitchell’s fibre portal fibre has not yet been installed in my area and this i had to find out on my own with out any help from a cool ideas agent because they ignored me after i made payment, so now that I’ve found out i don’t have fibre in my area i then requested a refund and yet again they couldn’t assist me, i requested a refund on 26/09/2020 its now 03/10/2020 and im still waiting they told me they sent me an email asking for banking details but they sent it to the wrong client so now im not getting any response from them, i wouldn’t recommend anyone to sign up and pay for the unprofessional service they have to offer because if anything goes wrong they’ll leave you hanging, my first experience with cool ideas has been a nightmare (because once you pay you are on your own)
Do not sign up with Cool Ideas! Their service is atrocious! I was with them for 6 weeks… experienced nothing but horrible customer service. Had to cancel immediately as support was shocking
I have to say signed up with them in 2021 and from what I read above the service is extremely better now then what all these comments experienced. I ordered my internet on Friday night. I got a response on Monday morning and had to send photos. Was told within minutes of sending the photos installation will be booked and it will take two to 3 weeks. Openserve was at my door the next morning to install my network
please don not use Cool ideas. The systems and services are terrible. I moved and needed to cancel, I gave the required 30 days notice on the 1st of the month to the end of the month. Their system then decided 30 days was not sufficient so they added an additional 30days to the end of the next month. Now after being transferred to multiple departments they say it doesnt matter that you gave the required 30 days , their system decided that it would be the following month so now im liable to pay an additional month. Terrible service and attitude!!!
They’re absolute dogsh*t.
Do not under any circumstances sign up with them, you’ll regret it after days/weeks/months of internet that doesn’t work.