3G/GPRS Handover....

Amckenzie

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Jun 4, 2006
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We all know by now that when you are using 3G with vodacom and the phone decides to randomly switch to GPRS that the connection is dropped right.......

Well I have a Vodafone UK prepaid sim card that I bought when I was in the UK, anyways I decieded to put it in my phone today and see if the same problem occurs as with my Vodacom sim....and to my surprise it didnt the phone switched between 3G and GPRS more than 5 Times without 1 drop and yes it was roaming on Vodacom's network. So the problem that Vodacom subscribers have must have to do with either the sim cards or the APN's....

anyways just a thought....... :)
 

AirWolf

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Aug 18, 2006
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We all know by now that when you are using 3G with vodacom and the phone decides to randomly switch to GPRS that the connection is dropped right.......

Well I have a Vodafone UK prepaid sim card that I bought when I was in the UK, anyways I decieded to put it in my phone today and see if the same problem occurs as with my Vodacom sim....and to my surprise it didnt the phone switched between 3G and GPRS more than 5 Times without 1 drop and yes it was roaming on Vodacom's network. So the problem that Vodacom subscribers have must have to do with either the sim cards or the APN's....

anyways just a thought....... :)

very interesting:confused: the only solution using a vodacom sim is locking your network on 3G
 

Amckenzie

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lol I dont consider locking my phone to 3G a Fix you loose the signal to much the only good fix is to lock your phone to gprs and forget about the 3G, but its even worse because of the lack of EDGE in gauteng....
 

AirWolf

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lol I dont consider locking my phone to 3G a Fix you loose the signal to much the only good fix is to lock your phone to gprs and forget about the 3G, but its even worse because of the lack of EDGE in gauteng....

VC gprs is really slow - posted elsewhere on this forum - around 0.5KB/s
 

broken1

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Jul 25, 2006
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Its sad when my Dial Up (yes I said dial up) is Faster....

I don't think I've dialed up in 3 years... sad how reliant I am on "always on" constant connectivity.

One good thing, I haven't had a day where 3G and ADSL are both not working at the same time.
 

blunt

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May 1, 2006
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When im in plumstead in the evenings I get probably 10 minutes of 3G for every 2 hours I'm connected and GPRS is _painfully_ slow I can barely check my gmail, takes a good 5 or so tries to even connect to MSN messenger.

It's unbearable I placed my order for iBurst yesterday.
 

ajax

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Oct 29, 2003
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We all know by now that when you are using 3G with vodacom and the phone decides to randomly switch to GPRS that the connection is dropped right.......

Well I have a Vodafone UK prepaid sim card that I bought when I was in the UK, anyways I decieded to put it in my phone today and see if the same problem occurs as with my Vodacom sim....and to my surprise it didnt the phone switched between 3G and GPRS more than 5 Times without 1 drop and yes it was roaming on Vodacom's network. So the problem that Vodacom subscribers have must have to do with either the sim cards or the APN's....

anyways just a thought....... :)

What phone model are you using and what is the software version? For Nokia type *0000#
 

Amckenzie

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Nokia N90 - V5.0607.7.3 16-02-06 RM-42....which to my knowledge is the latest firmware
 

ajax

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Nokia N90 - V5.0607.7.3 16-02-06 RM-42....which to my knowledge is the latest firmware

I have (had) the same disconnect problem using a 6680. Haven't used 3G for a while so I don't know if the problem is still there.
 

LandyMan

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I constantly have the disconnect problem when switching different cells, especially when it is 3G to GPRS. And yes, Nokia 6680 :D
 

Nickste

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Yup, same here. Nokia 6680 :( I generally have it locked on GSM. It's so irritating. Could vodacom please comment on this, as it seems to be to do with them (as Amckenzie suggested).

Cheers, Nick
 

Amckenzie

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Yes it still happens but its not the network because why would a roaming sim card be able to make the switch fine but a vodacom sim card can't....and when I was in the UK the vodacom sim card also coudnt switch on the vodafone UK network but the vodafone sim card could so I dont know what the problem is...
 

Amckenzie

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Jun 4, 2006
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I wish I could solve it....what bothers me is that vodacom seems to be completly oblivious of this problem
 

ajax

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Yup, same here. Nokia 6680 :( I generally have it locked on GSM.
Why not lock to 3G? I have locked mine to 3G as I have good coverage everywhere I go mostly.
Besides, the 3G frequencies don't penetrate so deeply into your brain as the GSM ones do :rolleyes:

Yes it still happens but its not the network because why would a roaming sim card be able to make the switch fine but a vodacom sim card can't....and when I was in the UK the vodacom sim card also coudn't switch on the vodafone UK network but the vodafone sim card could so I dont know what the problem is...

There could be an incompatibility between some VC simcards and the network. Like with the Virgin and the 64k simcards in the VC datacards issue. When they changed to 128k sims the problem was resolved. So I do think it is a Vodacom problem. As for using a Vodacom sim in the UK, AFAIK you have to be provisioned for roaming for this to work.

However, I wasn't very impressed with pre-paid roaming in the UK. Both me and my wife could only call/sms South African numbers. Customer services couldn't help us.
 

Amckenzie

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Jun 4, 2006
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Yes my contract was "provisioned" for data roaming in the UK and it worked so thats fine....and if the SIM cards are Incompatible why havent they done anything about it?
 

Nickste

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Hmmm... I'm on a normal 32k sim, so I wonder if switching to a 128 will help? Maybe I'll do it this weekend.

I haven't locked to 3G, because I find that in my area, the 3G signal drops completely for a few seconds, and then comes back. This is fine for browsing, but not for apps that need a constant connection (IM, etc.).

Vodacom, any input please!?

Cheers, Nick
 

Amckenzie

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Jun 4, 2006
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I have a 64k 3G Vodacom SIM and it didnt fix anything, kinda a waste of R100but oh well

I still wonder why vodacom isnt saying anything about this?
 
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