Always Connect Contact Details

Always Connect runs a public WiFi hotspot network, advertising more than six hundred hotspots nationwide. It publishes a single product support number and one mailbox, and no branch or regional contacts, which fits a network that is operated centrally rather than site by site.

Official contact details

• Product support: 087 330 3095
• Email: support@alwaysconnect.co.za
• Website: alwaysconnect.co.za, which carries the contact form and the hotspot information

No physical address, sales line or accounts number is published. Everything routes through product support, so a billing question and a connection fault go to the same place.

Before you report a fault

Hotspot problems divide into three kinds and the support line will ask which it is, so work it out first. Either you cannot see the network at all, which is a coverage or hardware problem at that site; or you can see it and cannot connect, which is usually authentication, a voucher or a device issue; or you connect and have no usable throughput, which is a backhaul or contention problem. Note the hotspot name or location, the time, and what your device actually showed, because a report without those cannot be traced to a site.

• The hotspot name or venue and the approximate time the problem occurred
• Your voucher or account reference if you bought access
• Whether other devices at the same place had the same problem, which separates a site fault from a device fault

Using public WiFi safely

This applies to any public hotspot, not only this one. A public network is shared, so treat it as untrusted: avoid internet banking and anything requiring a card number, and be sceptical of a login page that asks for more than the network needs. Look-alike hotspot names are a known trick, where a network is set up beside a legitimate one to capture what people type into it. If a captive portal asks for a banking password or a one-time password, close it and disconnect.

If a query is not resolved

• Escalate in writing to support@alwaysconnect.co.za, quoting the hotspot, the date and any reference given on the phone
• For an internet service complaint the operator has not resolved, ICASA regulates electronic communications services
• For a billing dispute on a voucher or subscription, the National Consumer Commission handles complaints against suppliers