Cell C HSPA+ not all it is hyped to be in Polokwane?

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bundudata

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I am in Polokwane. In the dark red zone for the coverage (three blocks from the store). I checked out the speed etc in store to confirm the coverage and speed. Looked like a killer deal!

BUT...after spending the R2999 I get HSPA+ only sometimes. Mostly edge and mostly on roaming with Vodacom. When I do get HSPA+ it will disconnect in the middle of a download, browsing, emailing etc. When I was trying to complain to Trevor I had to use my MTN connection because the CellC Edge connection stopped working.

Got the usual automated answer from Trevor and that is it. I am so F!@#$ing unhappy I can s!@t a brick!!!!!!! Seems the old saying is true " You get what you pay for"

Anybody else who have similar problems? Anybody with advice on how to resolve locally (at home)?

I will appreciate normal 3G speed with RELIABILITY! Can't even play a simple Facebook Texas Hold 'em game at this stage.

BTW I am posting this using my MTN (UGGGH!!) 3G connection.
 
Same here. I am in Nelspruit and posting from ol' faithful Vodacom. HSDPA worked for a week until the money back guarantee expired, and from there on it is EDGE (if I am lucky). It took me 15 minutes to update Flashplayer of about 2Mb the other day.

When I bought the modem, I was in the high red zone. I have noticed yesterday that the coverage map for Nelspruit has been updated. Now I am in no coverage zone. WOW, that was an easy way to take my R2999.

And don't call the call center. They are useless. The shops even more. I have a feeling many people has been taken for a ride. Should have stuck with Vodacom...
 
I was told they have a return policy in place if you find you dont have coverage. Take it back to the store. the store does not refund you though but the Cell C rep said that within 2 weeks you will be contacted by Cell C asking for details to refund your cash, there is a handling fee though, but not a total loss then.
 
If the service sucks early enough!

Sneeky said:
I was told they have a return policy in place if you find you dont have coverage. Take it back to the store. the store does not refund you though but the Cell C rep said that within 2 weeks you will be contacted by Cell C asking for details to refund your cash, there is a handling fee though, but not a total loss then.
Click to expand...

Sorry dude the return refund policy only cover seven days. As per the post above. First couple of days OK, but then.....
 
Will suggest getting an antenna (just make sure it is compatible with 900Mhz frequency) with inductive coupler in that case.

Personally I had a weakish HSPA+ signal, -101 to -95dBm (1-2 bars), which was unstable and did not get DL speeds over 2Mpps.
I bought an indoor window mount antenna which did not show significant improvements.
I exchanged this with the nice guys at Poynting with a outdoor antenna, which upon some optimization w.r.t. signal strength (obtained from MDMA), now gives me a -77dBm to -83dBm signal (corresponding to 5 bars on the Cell C dash). My connection is now stable and getting the whoosh speads of around 5Mpps.

@memyselfandi: If you are stuck on Edge you might have this problem: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/272499-Stuck-on-EDGE-unable-to-switch-to-3G
Best solveable using the latest beta version of MDMA and setting to "3G only"
 
wndrbees said:
Will suggest getting an antenna (just make sure it is compatible with 900Mhz frequency) with inductive coupler in that case.

Personally I had a weakish HSPA+ signal, -101 to -95dBm (1-2 bars), which was unstable and did not get DL speeds over 2Mpps.
I bought an indoor window mount antenna which did not show significant improvements.
I exchanged this with the nice guys at Poynting with a outdoor antenna, which upon some optimization w.r.t. signal strength (obtained from MDMA), now gives me a -77dBm to -83dBm signal (corresponding to 5 bars on the Cell C dash). My connection is now stable and getting the whoosh speads of around 5Mpps.

@memyselfandi: If you are stuck on Edge you might have this problem: http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/272499-Stuck-on-EDGE-unable-to-switch-to-3G
Best solveable using the latest beta version of MDMA and setting to "3G only"
Click to expand...

The issue is not signal. For the five minutes allowed on HSPA+ the signal is full on the dashboard. Halfway through whatever I am busy with it will show HSPA+ but nothing will happen. Disconnect/reconnect, reboot. PC/laptop reboot, nothing works. Full signal strength until the third or so attempt and then only edge until tomorrow when I will get HSPA+ for five minutes again. Are they rationing me?
 
Maybe...instead of using a board like tell trevor on a website you can try phoning the customer support and requesting to speak to technical department. Thier "useless" customer service solved all my problems when I called in. The one time I had my signal falling out like you they sent a Techinician to check the tower and it was fixed. All 3 times I sent in a complaint (2 by telephone and one by e-mail) I was called back by cell c.

If you don't try than you won't get help. According to the OP you didn't contact technical support yet? Using your own data cell which is free?
 
bundudata said:
The issue is not signal. For the five minutes allowed on HSPA+ the signal is full on the dashboard. Halfway through whatever I am busy with it will show HSPA+ but nothing will happen. Disconnect/reconnect, reboot. PC/laptop reboot, nothing works. Full signal strength until the third or so attempt and then only edge until tomorrow when I will get HSPA+ for five minutes again. Are they rationing me?
Click to expand...


Does it always drop to edge at the same times during the day?does it do the same thing at like 3 or 4am?
 
Wow - if 1-2 bars gets 2mbps, I'm in ;)
 
where in nelspruit are you? i'm currently testing the reliability on my touch diamond before jumping in. i'm in west acres ext. 6 by the way.
 
MightyMuffinMan said:
Maybe...instead of using a board like tell trevor on a website you can try phoning the customer support and requesting to speak to technical department. Thier "useless" customer service solved all my problems when I called in. The one time I had my signal falling out like you they sent a Techinician to check the tower and it was fixed. All 3 times I sent in a complaint (2 by telephone and one by e-mail) I was called back by cell c.

If you don't try than you won't get help. According to the OP you didn't contact technical support yet? Using your own data cell which is free?
Click to expand...

Aaahh an employee of cell c perhaps, or a VIP?

I have a contract with them for voice as well (for the daughter) and have always said their call center is the best of all mobile providers (never said their customer service is useless, only the so called 4Gs), friendliest staff etc etc. But claiming all the rewards and advertising something that does not provide is not right.

As for boards, if the service is provided then at least you expect some sort of reply after say...24 hours (and not the automated reply). Otherwise what is the purpose of the board, internet complaint avenue etc.

But just for you I will phone their service center and post the response as well as the result here within 24hours.
 
bundudata said:
Aaahh an employee of cell c perhaps, or a VIP?
...
But just for you I will phone their service center and post the response as well as the result here within 24hours.
Click to expand...

Not an employee of cell c or even one of the competition members chosen,lol . Just one of the happy customers. I think you should actually called them to have a technician call you and try to trouble shoot the problem. btw took tem 7 days to "fix" the tower and thier tech support called me 1 day after phoning in and laying my complaint. And he spent half an hour trouble shooting it via phone.

I'm in Durbs and as luck would have it thier tech support is based in Westville, which surprised mee when the guy told me.
 
I had the same problems the night I got it but simply just forced it to 3G. It would go to HSPA then EDGE etc.. Im more than happy with it now
 
Just lost all our Telkom ADSL lines at work (Sandton), and now the whole office is running on Cell C 3G via a 3G Router - whooshhh !

I have in general had good results from Cell C, my daughter has had bad reception in East London, though, had to switch her back to VC - will retry Cell C later.
 
bundudata said:
Aaahh an employee of cell c perhaps, or a VIP?

I have a contract with them for voice as well (for the daughter) and have always said their call center is the best of all mobile providers (never said their customer service is useless, only the so called 4Gs), friendliest staff etc etc. But claiming all the rewards and advertising something that does not provide is not right.

As for boards, if the service is provided then at least you expect some sort of reply after say...24 hours (and not the automated reply). Otherwise what is the purpose of the board, internet complaint avenue etc.

But just for you I will phone their service center and post the response as well as the result here within 24hours.
Click to expand...

Sorry it took so long to respond..the call centre experienced high call volumes (probably due to the poor service) and then I had to wait two days for cellc edge to open this page (ROFL). Here is their response. And I quote from Trevor;

Thank you for contacting Tell Trevor.





Some usb dsl/cable modems may get disconnected after a little while. A possible reason that could cause this problem is that in windows xp there is an option that allows the computer to turn off a usb device to save power. To disable this option:



"1) click start, highlight my computer, right click and select properties and a window will pop up with the system properties

2) click on the hardware tab and press the device manager button

3) expand the universal serial bus controllers

4) Double click on the USB Root Hub.

5)Select the Power Management tab and UNTICK the "allow the computer to turn off the device to save power"



If you have more than one USB Root Hub, then you should apply the steps to each one of them

That's it, you won't need to restart the computer!



For further assistance contact us on 084140 to be transferred to our technical department."

on Win7! with the modem not powering down once unless I reset it with MDMA!

From the contact centre I got a "Please send me your contract number to assist" mail but that was included in the e-mail as below;

"Hi,

I bought the 4g dongle and the service is poor to say the least. The dongle keeps on disconnecting in the middle of a download, browsing, email etc. I only get 3G in my lounge and no where else in the house, although according to your coverage map I am situated smack in the middle of coverage! At times I do not even get 3G but only EDGE which is completely useless. At least I expect a stable service for the money I paid. CellC number is 07427^%!@#, and I am in #$%*&!@#, @%$#^&*(%. Please assist with this problem. I have previously logged the problem with the tell Trevor route as well.

Since you are experiencing high call volumes the voice suggested I email you"

So far no joy!
 
I had the same problem, which was solved by other members in previous posts. Firstly, you must download the latest MDMA Beta version.(MDMA 10030a). I then opened the Cell C Data monitoring application, and in the network settings, manually selected vodacom 3g, even though it doesn't allow you to connect. Then manually select cell c. Close the application and open MDMA 10030a and connect from there.
 
Touch wood, its working like a bomb this evening. The whole day I could not get off edge, but I am now getting download speeds of 4.5mbps. My upload speeds are a bit dodge tho. 0.15mbps.
 
ryan_black13 said:
Firstly, you must download the latest MDMA Beta version.(MDMA 10030a).
Click to expand...
MDMA 1.0.0.30a is not the beta version.

The latest beta version of MDMA 1.0.0.31 (currently beta 5) which can switch the E1820 into '3G Only' mode is available here.
 
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