Afrihost MTN Fixed LTE-A Thread

Clocked my highest DL speed I've ever recorded last night of 150 Mbps when updating my WoW to 0.9.8 which was 9-10Gb.

Darn impressive,even for LTE, whichever way you slice it

Why bother with fibre prices and restrictions I say ( until, if, speeds ever deteriorate to a point where one must :))


MTN WoW update speed 2.png
 
Last edited:
I seem to be experiencing something odd.

When I go about on a regular day-to-day using MTN, say about 8~12GB with no Night Time usage, everything is super -- pings are low (18~30ms locally), speeds average in the 30's in the day with a 2 hour slow down during peak hours, and reliability is tops. The day I decide to load something big, around 60~80GB via Night Time data, the next day and subsequent days are abysmal -- pings can be anywhere from 50 to 200ms locally, speeds never go above 4mbps, and it can disconnect often. DSLReports details for me that when speeds reach around 4mbps, a heavy bufferbloat of around 8000ms+ kicks in which brings the speeds down tremendously until a transfer session completes, which suggests throttling, but I've already discussed with both Afrihost and MTN and have been assured that these capped packaged are neither throttled nor shaped, and I believe them due to the nature of these packages.

This issue happened before around a month ago, and for the short while after troubleshooting with both parties to no avail, I switched briefly back to rain on Band 38 which is super in my area (no peak time speed shaping) but unfortunately I couldn't stay on it long due to extremely frequent drops in the network which is dangerous for downloading updates and video calls. So, I was off MTN for about two weeks, testing here and again for an updated situation, and it seems that after a week and few days of not touching it, performance of the service returns. I of course chalked this up to a one time problem, but I did the exact same thing yesterday and lo and behold, my performance today was dreadful. International sites were the worst and I had to get under a VPN just for standard usability to a local server, ping was all over the place etc.

I'll have to monitor if things return to normal in a soon enough manner because this issue can't seem to be resolved given my location with only a single tower. Perhaps I am being throttled for being an abuser on this single tower compared to larger areas with multiple aggregate towers, and this is the best way MTN keeps in check for the town I'm in, which is fine for me if that were the official case. While I don't like the higher price for a capped package that slows down after a night of loading, nothing comes close here for their reliability and rain just drives me crazy otherwise (no Telkom here on the 2300MHz band or I would've dipped toes in that possible path, 1800MHz is abysmally slow as well). Not gonna complain to either party too as for almost everyone else in larger / proper areas, their service is top notch.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LFX
Crumbl0x said:
I seem to be experiencing something odd.

When I go about on a regular day-to-day using MTN, say about 8~12GB with no Night Time usage, everything is super -- pings are low (18~30ms locally), speeds average in the 30's in the day with a 2 hour slow down during peak hours, and reliability is tops. The day I decide to load something big, around 60~80GB via Night Time data, the next day and subsequent days are abysmal -- pings can be anywhere from 50 to 200ms locally, speeds never go above 4mbps, and it can disconnect often. DSLReports details for me that when speeds reach around 4mbps, a heavy bufferbloat of around 8000ms+ kicks in which brings the speeds down tremendously until a transfer session completes, which suggests throttling, but I've already discussed with both Afrihost and MTN and have been assured that these capped packaged are neither throttled nor shaped, and I believe them due to the nature of these packages.

This issue happened before around a month ago, and for the short while after troubleshooting with both parties to no avail, I switched briefly back to rain on Band 38 which is super in my area (no peak time speed shaping) but unfortunately I couldn't stay on it long due to extremely frequent drops in the network which is dangerous for downloading updates and video calls. So, I was off MTN for about two weeks, testing here and again for an updated situation, and it seems that after a week and few days of not touching it, performance of the service returns. I of course chalked this up to a one time problem, but I did the exact same thing yesterday and lo and behold, my performance today was dreadful. International sites were the worst and I had to get under a VPN just for standard usability to a local server, ping was all over the place etc.

I'll have to monitor if things return to normal in a soon enough manner because this issue can't seem to be resolved given my location with only a single tower. Perhaps I am being throttled for being an abuser on this single tower compared to larger areas with multiple aggregate towers, and this is the best way MTN keeps in check for the town I'm in, which is fine for me if that were the official case. While I don't like the higher price for a capped package that slows down after a night of loading, nothing comes close here for their reliability and rain just drives me crazy otherwise (no Telkom here on the 2300MHz band or I would've dipped toes in that possible path, 1800MHz is abysmally slow as well). Not gonna complain to either party too as for almost everyone else in larger / proper areas, their service is top notch.
Click to expand...

Hey,

I see mybroadband has posted a similar article. I would like to investigate can you send me the details let me see what I can find.
 
AfriNatic said:
Hey,

I see mybroadband has posted a similar article. I would like to investigate can you send me the details let me see what I can find.
Click to expand...
No problem, it did surprise me to see that article the day after hehe, that person isn't me but at least I'm not alone. I'm just glad that today the performance has returned to normal for now, minus last night's loading.
 
Crumbl0x said:
No problem, it did surprise me to see that article the day after hehe, that person isn't me but at least I'm not alone. I'm just glad that today the performance has returned to normal for now, minus last night's loading.
Click to expand...

Can you send me all the details maybe some tests so we can figure out what is happening.

Edit: Got your pm ;)
 
Crumbl0x said:
I seem to be experiencing something odd.

When I go about on a regular day-to-day using MTN, say about 8~12GB with no Night Time usage, everything is super -- pings are low (18~30ms locally), speeds average in the 30's in the day with a 2 hour slow down during peak hours, and reliability is tops. The day I decide to load something big, around 60~80GB via Night Time data, the next day and subsequent days are abysmal -- pings can be anywhere from 50 to 200ms locally, speeds never go above 4mbps, and it can disconnect often. DSLReports details for me that when speeds reach around 4mbps, a heavy bufferbloat of around 8000ms+ kicks in which brings the speeds down tremendously until a transfer session completes, which suggests throttling, but I've already discussed with both Afrihost and MTN and have been assured that these capped packaged are neither throttled nor shaped, and I believe them due to the nature of these packages.

This issue happened before around a month ago, and for the short while after troubleshooting with both parties to no avail, I switched briefly back to rain on Band 38 which is super in my area (no peak time speed shaping) but unfortunately I couldn't stay on it long due to extremely frequent drops in the network which is dangerous for downloading updates and video calls. So, I was off MTN for about two weeks, testing here and again for an updated situation, and it seems that after a week and few days of not touching it, performance of the service returns. I of course chalked this up to a one time problem, but I did the exact same thing yesterday and lo and behold, my performance today was dreadful. International sites were the worst and I had to get under a VPN just for standard usability to a local server, ping was all over the place etc.

I'll have to monitor if things return to normal in a soon enough manner because this issue can't seem to be resolved given my location with only a single tower. Perhaps I am being throttled for being an abuser on this single tower compared to larger areas with multiple aggregate towers, and this is the best way MTN keeps in check for the town I'm in, which is fine for me if that were the official case. While I don't like the higher price for a capped package that slows down after a night of loading, nothing comes close here for their reliability and rain just drives me crazy otherwise (no Telkom here on the 2300MHz band or I would've dipped toes in that possible path, 1800MHz is abysmally slow as well). Not gonna complain to either party too as for almost everyone else in larger / proper areas, their service is top notch.
Click to expand...
Interesting and quite co-incidental that someone else is also complaining about the same issue in the other thread.
Those large DLs that you do ---- that appear to trigger this strange behaviour, do they involve long-distance international routes by any chance?

If you do not want to post the details in public I will understand. I might have a few clues as to possible reasons.
 
Geoff.D said:
Interesting and quite co-incidental that someone else is also complaining about the same issue in the other thread.
Those large DLs that you do ---- that appear to trigger this strange behaviour, do they involve long-distance international routes by any chance?

If you do not want to post the details in public I will understand. I might have a few clues as to possible reasons.
Click to expand...
yeah the only time those throttling events happen is with international routes, like US Netflix and Motortrend, mega and Google Drive(?) etc., local servers like updating Linux, Android apps etc. are full speed without fault. I don't use the torrent protocol on 4G infrastructure because I understand that may be brutal to the tower so I side step it.
 
The issue could very well be some or other throttling taking place at the other end ---- seen this before on investigation while I was involved in the SANReN network.

Nighttime here is peak hour at other places in the world, so the source of downloads is a factor, and they might be managing the severs and services and even links differently on the other end.
 
Geoff.D said:
The issue could very well be some or other throttling taking place at the other end ---- seen this before on investigation while I was involved in the SANReN network.

Nighttime here is peak hour at other places in the world, so the source of downloads is a factor, and they might be managing the severs and services and even links differently on the other end.
Click to expand...

This is a very valid point too. 7pm -10pm peak time here is peak time in EU West too. After midnight it starts getting peak time in the US too so those can also affect certain services that time.

I have taken up the task to get to the bottom of the issues. We don't throttle or shape the Fixed LTE accounts because they have a limit to the amount of data they can use. In fact the quicker it gets used up the more a client needs to top up that is more revenue for us as a company not that that is what we are doing I'm just putting the scenario into perspective. :)
 
@AfriNatic - since your (Afrihost / MTN) maintenance overnight :thumbsdown:, none of my devices will authenticate ; they show as "Connected, no internet". I tried resetting the B525 and starting from scratch.

I think my MTN cell no. has been kicked off your system - never liked the look of the SIM I was sent, in the first place. Had to purchase Telkom data just to post this.

Have wasted a lot of time over this already, so please ensure on your side my SIM is reconnected / reinstated ; sending a private conversation after this, with my details.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X