3G comes and goes

[daveza]

I am in Durbanville and connect via A MTN HSDPA modem.

Some days it will connect via gprs or edge and rarely via 3G.

If it is able to connect via 3G on some occassions... why not always ?
Does the 3G signal go away and then come back again ?!

Surely signal is signal or am I just uneducated?

 

[Valis]

Depends how busy the cell is. AFAIK it drops down to the lower speeds according to the contention ratio i.e. how many people are sharing the connection.

 

[diabolus]

I get it up here in Centurion too. I do however get 3G/HSDPA, but some days..and usually at VERY specific times [too specific if you ask me] ...i.e exactly 19:15 ...my connection goes poof..literally..3G coverage is gone. Now i use a 3G-only profile, so it means a disconnect. If i try to reconnect i would always get our famous "error 619" .

So yea, i think it's a contention/overloaded tower thing. Mine has become progressively worse over the past 6 months. I basically can not use MTN during certain times, Vodacom on the other hand..works great. I have a hunch alot of people moved over to MTN in my area or something. Fortunately if i DO stay connected the latency on MTN is still far better than Vodacom's.