@ all Neotel users, does your Internet cut out completely when recieving voice calls?

[Threepwood]

As far as I was aware on the Neotel network your internet (data transfer) would stop completely when making/recieving a voice call. AFAIK this issue was brought up in a number of threads about Neotel's service etc. (can't be bothered to find one right now though.)

In this thread, http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=134728, PeteGT mentions that his data transfer rates drop to ~5KBps when using voice on his Neotel, which is in opposition to what I previously understood, i.e. that data stops totally.

So I just want clarification from actual users on what does happen in their case (not knowing if this is normal or not), maybe some input from Neotel also?

[LabAnimal]

Yes it cuts out completely!.

[.Froot.]

It's supposed to. It works like dial-up: on one frequency/ whatever.
ADSL works as follows: voice runs on a low frequency, then data (ADSL) runs on higher frequency, thus they can operate in parallel.

[RichardG]

Yes, internet does cut out completely!

[orin76]

Same here.

[Amida]

How is a sme suppose to use the service then?

[Threepwood]

Hmmm, well then I wonder why that other guy is just getting throttled?

Maybe he has better signal and that's a factor?

Hopefully Neotel has something to say on this...

@Amida, the answer is "With difficulty."

[Neotel]

CDMA2000 1xEV-DO uses separate 1X (voice and 153 kbps data) and EV-DO (2.4 Mbps / 3.1 Mbps) RF carriers/channels - we have one of each currently. This has the advantage of providing the maximum available data capacity, without the high speed data carrier being loaded by voice, SMS etc (as can happen in UMTS). However, it also means that a device with only one radio (e.g. our NeoConnect Prime phone, or any similar device using those chipsets) can only actively transmit or receive on one of these channels at a time.

When you make or receive a phone call, the device switches from the EV-DO to the 1X channel, and suspends (note - does not drop) the Internet connection. This does mean that you're not going to get any data through while the call is in progress, but it also means that the actual data connection remains active (as far as your computer is concerned). Since the connection has not dropped, a counter that averages throughput may simply show the average throughput dropping until the phone call is terminated. Typically, then (depending on the application) data transfer will resume after the call. This is not quite the same as dial-up, and is quite seamless and instantaneous in practice.

As in any wireless device, there may be situations in which the data connection may drop (poor signal etc), so if you want the device to operate in the background without any attention, you should set it up to re-connect automatically if the data connection drops.

We do have products in the pipeline for SMEs that need multiple simultaneous connections - whether voice or data.

[remybfg10k]

Mr Neotel, being a bit busy today, could you tell me who to email for the proposed roll out sites?

[bekdik]

We do have products in the pipeline for SMEs that need multiple simultaneous connections - whether voice or data.

Do you have any kind of ETA and cost for these devices?

[PeteGT]

Mine probably does cut but in my torrent client, its probably taking a while to reflect the drop in transfer and I'm probably ending the call before it reflects zero transfer rate and picks up again...
Was just an observation by me, makes sense that it would drop the connection.

[porchrat]

CDMA2000 1xEV-DO uses separate 1X (voice and 153 kbps data) and EV-DO (2.4 Mbps / 3.1 Mbps) RF carriers/channels - we have one of each currently. This has the advantage of providing the maximum available data capacity, without the high speed data carrier being loaded by voice, SMS etc (as can happen in UMTS). However, it also means that a device with only one radio (e.g. our NeoConnect Prime phone, or any similar device using those chipsets) can only actively transmit or receive on one of these channels at a time.

When you make or receive a phone call, the device switches from the EV-DO to the 1X channel, and suspends (note - does not drop) the Internet connection. This does mean that you're not going to get any data through while the call is in progress, but it also means that the actual data connection remains active (as far as your computer is concerned). Since the connection has not dropped, a counter that averages throughput may simply show the average throughput dropping until the phone call is terminated. Typically, then (depending on the application) data transfer will resume after the call. This is not quite the same as dial-up, and is quite seamless and instantaneous in practice.

As in any wireless device, there may be situations in which the data connection may drop (poor signal etc), so if you want the device to operate in the background without any attention, you should set it up to re-connect automatically if the data connection drops.

We do have products in the pipeline for SMEs that need multiple simultaneous connections - whether voice or data.

As I understand it Mr. Neotel is saying something along the lines of "The network we are using is fully capable of not cutting off your data session when you make or receive a phone call, however our silly device is too simplistic to use more than one channel at a time"

Is that about right?

[chubster]

Well I see the same thing happen on my Nokia. Depends on which made the connection first. If I use voice, I can't connect to data, but if I get an incoming call while I'm using data, it kinda throttles... So I'm not to sure my self, appears to lean more to wards the data being put on hold. Must be a priority thing?

Interesting article that lroachl posted.

[rph72]

If I browse the web on my Nokia, I can receive incoming calls. When I use it as a modem connected to my PC via USB, I cannot receive calls.

[Chevron]

We do have products in the pipeline for SMEs that need multiple simultaneous connections - whether voice or data.

I'm curious as to why all these "special" features that most people would require as standard will only be offered to smmes?

Same thing with ethernet device, device that can send faxes and wimax.

All these thing the average consumer needs. Not just smmes.