Heads up - it's that date, and a whole bunch of people are out to get you today.

Don't be fooled though - we're not one of them.

The only thing we are out to get are some April specials that are no joke - keep an eye on our Facebook page and WhatsApp channel this month. We may even pop in a quick competition here and there.

There's a lot of important info in this month's newsletter. Buckle up and keep reading.

Meet the Team

Over the past few months' newsletters you've met members of both our admin and our on-site tech teams. This month it's my turn.

Born in East London (South Africa), my first 12 years of life were spent in Rhodesia / Zimbabwe (war years were fun...), but have been back in South Africa since then.

I am one of the three founding members of the Cape Connect team, and am the CEO.

My words to live by are "follow the open doors, and don't bash your head against the closed ones" - which is why I have ended up with a variety of jobs! Prior to running an ISP, I qualified as a Food Technologist, and have had careers as a cheese maker, educational institution admin assistant / personal secretary, websites and manuals developer, technical writer and electronic waste recycler.

Fortunately this has provided insight into a wide variety of industries, leading to a clear understanding of how their internet requirements would tie into their processes and structures. From manufacturing to technical to administrative businesses and home users, we've got you covered.

I've been hands-on with Cape Connect development since day one, doing wireless and fibre installations, handling accounts, sales queries, site builds, tower climbing - you name it. I hold both work at height and fibre optic technician certifications.

Should I ever find spare time, I enjoy oil painting, photography, hopping on a motorbike for a quick roadtrip, or spending time far away from city lights in nature's absolute quiet, well out of range of cell notification beeps.

Tech Talk

Why upgrade your router? After all you've had it for years and it still works. Mostly...

Technology advancements move very very fast. Moore's Law states that the transistors on a chip double every 18 months - and in practical terms this means technology is outdated more and more quickly.

As an example, in recent years we've seen cell signals go from 2G to 4G, LTE, 5G (5th generation LTE), now 6G, 7G, with wireless going from 2.4GHz to adding in a 5GHz signal for dual-wifi devices such as many phones, and then Wifi6, Wifi7... and so it goes. (As an aside, these signals are not going to fry your brain - they can't even make it through two walls properly without dropping)

Along with changes in cell and wifi delivery, the internet itself has changed. Back in the 90s a website was mostly text with a few dodgy graphics. Now everything is image rich, streaming, data hungry.

So too with your router. We have always supplied the best option for our clients at time of sign up - but we also have clients who have been with us for many many years, without changing their equipment. We've increased speeds on our network over time, matching these to current online requirements and conditions. As connectivity needs change, this is one aspect of your service that can make a major difference to your online experience.

We have a thorough knowledge of the products that will work best for your service on our network and can easily advise you on router upgrades, improved wifi coverage, speed vs equipment and how to get the most trouble-free experience out of your connection. Have a chat to our support team and let's sort you out!

From the Archives

Here's an absolute blast from the past - way back to our first wireless site.

Building a tower always starts with knocking in a peg. This spot, this is where we'll build. On the slopes of Helderberg mountain, that peg was knocked in between scraggly trees.

Way back then there were fewer towers, less infrastructure. We started by flattening a portion of the slope to make a platform for our site and cashing out my retirement policy to fund the build.

Then the fun started. Carting cement, stone, water up a mountain. Digging a very large hole. Supplying power, provisioning pipework for future expansion.

Our first tower was constructed in our home's front yard - actually through the house, past the kitchen to the back yard when the longest poles needed manufacturing and we ran out of front yard. We carted it all up on a 1970s Land Rover's roof. And then one day, there it was - ready for antennas, ready to start providing service to our very first clients.

A few years later a massive fire came through and our little tower survived it - but the uprights had twisted ever so slightly in the intense heat. We started work on a bigger, better replacement to handle the increased equipment we needed, still secured to the same solid foundation installed in 2008, on the same footprint. 5 years ago our new tower went live - with fibre supplied to the tower, multiple redundant wireless links, redundant backup power and all sorts of goodies not available to us when we were just getting going so long ago. Many of our wireless clients have moved to fibre connections, but this spot still forms an important part of our network, feeding other towers if their fibre links go down to make sure our client's service stays seamlessly online.

(wide angle view - the tower is actually straight)

Ask Me Anything! Days

Keep an eye out for our resident expert Aldo, who will be manning a few "ask me anything" pop-up stations this month. Feel free to stop by to ask about internet, fibre, wireless, speed tests, home and business services, routers, networking, or whatever your heart desires. But no - you can't ask him for a date, he's taken.

Competition

We have a Cudy AX3000 Wi-Fi 6 router up for grabs. To be in the running, find Aldo at our "Ask Me Anything!" Days. Take a selfie with him, post it online and tag us (https://www.facebook.com/cape.connect). Shoot us a message on our page or email hello@cape-connect.com with a link to make extra sure we have you listed. Competition closes 25 April.

Ajax Systems

We've been talking about Ajax security systems regularly - but do you know what they are? We've updated our basic info page with a quick video here.

Manage your account

There is a "View Document" link in every invoice or statement you receive by email that will take you to an online summary of your account, showing all invoices issued and payments received via tabs at the top of that page.

Please double-check this to see if you have an outstanding balance. If you do, and you have paid any invoice we have not receipted or allocated, please send your proof of payment to our accounts email so we can sort this out chop-chop and get your account back in balance.

If there are missed unpaid invoices, we need your payment urgently.

Please make sure your account is zeroed by the end of April, as we will be moving to a new client management system this year that will suspend any accounts with historical outstanding balances until cleared. (Note: debit order payments take two business days to clear to us - this may reflect as an outstanding balance until then)

Queries? Email accounts@cape-connect.com so we can assist.

Third Party Networks

We were one of the first ISPs to offer service on the Frogfoot network as a reseller, way back in 2017 when they first started negotiations to fibre up Constantia. Over the years we have offered services on Openserve, Vuma, Octotel and many others. We have watched as prices on these networks increased and service levels decreased. Vandalism, aggressive corporate competition and exorbitant costs of replacing backup power have led to many of the third party networks regularly experiencing outages that take days or weeks to resolve - well outside our control.

In March this year we made the decision to halt new sign-ups on all third party networks and will only be providing service on our own fibre and wireless network to new clients going forward.

Here's how this impacts our current clients:

We will continue to support all our current clients on third-party networks for as long as you choose to have us as your ISP and remain at the same address.

We're doubling down on our own fibre and wireless networks - the part of your internet that we have absolute control over. We'll be continuing to do what we do best. No gimmicks, no cheap-and-nasty anything, just solid reliable quality of service and end to end support.

If you move to a location that is not covered by our own Cape Connect fibre or wireless services, we will unfortunately no longer be able to provide you with internet. Previously we would have looked at alternative third-party services but this has come to an end.

And while on the subject of third-party services....

Octotel price increase

Octotel has informed us of a price increase effective 1 May. Your next invoice and debit order will reflect their new amounts, which will also be published on our website once finalised.

Shot of the month

We're often out on site at very odd hours and in very strange places - but this means we get some awesome views. Here's this month's picture perfect shot.

Have a fool-free day and fantastic month.

Michelle Bainbridge

Chief Internet Artisan

Cape Connect Internet (Pty) Ltd