8ta / Telkom Mobile problems

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burisch

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Since Monday at around 10am, my internet connection has been completely useless.

I've been on the 8ta 10+10 gig package for about 2 years now, and I must say it's been great, mostly. I'm in an area with very good signal, and usually get a consistent 10mbps connection. My Huwai E367 modem is connected to the 3g USB port on my Billion 810VGTX wifi router; my desktop connects via LAN, and laptops & mobile devices connect over WiFi. The installation is static, and hasn't been moved in about 2 years.

So, on Monday morning my connection dropped. Thereafter, I could connect sporadically, but the connection usually only stays up for a few minutes before dropping. When I did manage to connect, I was presented with the Telkom out-of-bundle notification page -- which is nonsense because I still had data. Despite this, I purchased an additional 25+25 gigs; when reconnecting, same thing, telkom told me I had no more data.

Anyway so today, 3 days later, it's stopped telling me I have no data, but the connection is still entirely useless. After about 50 page refreshes I managed to get the slashdot homepage, but I can't reach my hosted exchange webmail or any other page. Pinging google.co.za fails to resolve DNS, let alone getting a ping response. Honestly I'd get better results from a 56k modem.

8ta / Telkom Mobile don't seem to have any idea what is going on. I called their helldesk to get support. Very frustrating -- spend 20 minutes talking to someone, giving all the details, going through troubleshooting steps, then you get transferred to someone else and have to start again from scratch. This happened 3 times!! Spent 50 minutes on that call.

Anyway, I can rule out local configuration issues -- this setup has been working in exactly the same way for 2 years solid. I can also rule out the wireless connection -- the modem hasn't moved in 2 years, and I am in an excellent signal area, right next to Sandton City.

What this leaves is 8ta's core network. Has anyone else been experiencing these problems? At the moment I'm tethering on my phone to Voda, and this is less than ideal.
 
Not just me

Just got off the phone from the helldesk again; they tell me that their call centre is inundated with calls from lots of irate customers. Seems I'm not the only one having problems!
 
Telkom Mobile was down in Richards Bay also - for 2.5 days, and came back online on thursday afternoon. I have been a Promo i5 customer for 2.5 years, and this was the longest outage they have had in my area.

On average, TM has gone down 3 times a year for me, usually for nothing longer than 8 hours.
 
surfs-up said:
On average, TM has gone down 3 times a year for me, usually for nothing longer than 8 hours.
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Yeah that's been my experience too -- the downtime is usually minimal. However this time it just refuses to come back on. It's still dead, 5 days on.
 
burisch said:
Yeah that's been my experience too -- the downtime is usually minimal. However this time it just refuses to come back on. It's still dead, 5 days on.
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Hi burisch


May you kindly PM us your contact number, Telkom Mobile number and physical address so that we can assist.

Regards
Telkom Mobile
 
Will do so straight away. I have called customer care more than ten times now, and it's been down for over a week.

I'm pretty sure this is an equipment failure, likely a sector antenna on a tower, which means that I'm now connecting via a far more distant tower.
 
Will do so straight away. I have called customer care more than ten times now, and it's been down for over a week.

I'm pretty sure this is an equipment failure, likely a sector antenna on a tower, which means that I'm now connecting via a far more distant tower.
 
burisch said:
Will do so straight away. I have called customer care more than ten times now, and it's been down for over a week.

I'm pretty sure this is an equipment failure, likely a sector antenna on a tower, which means that I'm now connecting via a far more distant tower.
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Hi burisch

As per our telephonic discussion, please expect a call from our Technicians to assist with your signal problem on case 7386841.

Regards
Telkom Mobile
 
Hi Telkom Mobile, same issues here in Ferndale, Randburg. Reported on 14th Jan 2014 to Trevor, Ref: 7379526, no call back to date. I called again yesterday and the "service" lady took all my details and promised to call back. You can guess the rest. I'm on my 4th 60 + 60Gig package and have really enjoyed 8ta. I have even bought 4 Sim Sonke voice and data packages for my immediate family, so far so good. My nearest tower is 65502. It would really be appreciated if you could put competent people in your service centres and not hire muppets. Thanks.
 
RainwaterHarvester said:
Hi Telkom Mobile, same issues here in Ferndale, Randburg. Reported on 14th Jan 2014 to Trevor, Ref: 7379526, no call back to date. I called again yesterday and the "service" lady took all my details and promised to call back. You can guess the rest. I'm on my 4th 60 + 60Gig package and have really enjoyed 8ta. I have even bought 4 Sim Sonke voice and data packages for my immediate family, so far so good. My nearest tower is 65502. It would really be appreciated if you could put competent people in your service centres and not hire muppets. Thanks.
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Hi RainwaterHarvester

Please be advised that we have requested the Technicians to contact you and arrange for the site visit to your address to assist. Should they not resolve the problem then we will send to the Network Department to investigate further. You should receive a call soon.

Regards
Telkom Mobile
 
Service is still down.

The service tech came out and confirmed that my signal has dropped. Apparently he has escalated to the networks department.

This has been dragging on too long now. It has been dragging on for two and a half weeks now.
 
Can you guys take your modems/routers to another location, say 10km away (a friend's place or work) and try connect there. That could rule out a local tower problem, or if it is a problem with your particular SIM or account?
 
burisch said:
Service is still down.

The service tech came out and confirmed that my signal has dropped. Apparently he has escalated to the networks department.

This has been dragging on too long now. It has been dragging on for two and a half weeks now.
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Hi burisch

An incident has been logged to Networks to investigate and provide us with feedback and we haven't received feedback as yet. We will provide one as soon as its available to us.

Incident 4360174

Regards
Telkom Mobile
 
Gaz{M} : this is very likely a tower issue. Used to have great signal, now it's unusable.
 
burisch said:
Gaz{M} : this is very likely a tower issue. Used to have great signal, now it's unusable.
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Hi burisch

That will be confirmed as soon as we receive feedback from Networks.

Regards
Telkom Mobile
 
Anyone still having problems? It was fine last night but no connection all morning. Been on and off all week. CT
 
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