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Afrihost MTN Fixed LTE-A Thread
- Thread starter dotcat
- Start date
Hi there,
Not a problem as it was short-lived which I saw was the case about an hour later.
In the past, have been affected by not knowing closer to midnight (at end of a month) where you stand with capped ADSL data because figures weren't being updated by the ISP quickly enough - can't even remember which now, but possibly Vox or Axxess.
Axxess tend to have that still ongoing these days, with Telkom LTE data usage delayed (by a few days at a time, sometimes) at various times during the month.
Was the case when last with them a few months ago.
Only reason I mention them in particular now, is because of your association as owner/s.
It's a reason I really like your interface for MTN so much ; usage usually updated every few minutes.
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Hi @AfriNatic ever since the power cut in my area last night my fixed wireless is not working.
The B618 router has 5 full bars signal but says disconnected!
System information shows RSRP -90db, etc but no wan address allocated. So it's connecting to tower but no internet from tower...
Tried rebooting, made no difference.
Logged a call this morning at 11.15am and haven't had a call back since either.
First time this has ever happened, although have moved to a new area recently, so wondering if last night's power cut is the problem ( first power cut since I've been here)
The B618 router has 5 full bars signal but says disconnected!
System information shows RSRP -90db, etc but no wan address allocated. So it's connecting to tower but no internet from tower...
Tried rebooting, made no difference.
Logged a call this morning at 11.15am and haven't had a call back since either.
First time this has ever happened, although have moved to a new area recently, so wondering if last night's power cut is the problem ( first power cut since I've been here)
Hi,
Can you drop me a pm with your email address again so I can double check for you.
Check your inbox , thanks
Jason-ZA
Expert Member
@AfriNatic the MTN network gives insane speeds during load shedding!
I must be literally the only person using the tower tonight.
I must be literally the only person using the tower tonight.
Very nice speeds. Yes as you can imagine not everyone has backup battery for their routers so most data intensive users will likely also be off suring loadshedding.
Also saw similarly during the night on some WiFi downloads (MTN via Air Mobile).
One peaked on my phone at 16.4 MB/s, so approx 130 Mbps, but I wasn't quick enough to get a screenshot.
This was quite a few hours after load shedding in my area.
Slamz
Expert Member
My Niece moved into an apartment in Parktown East, and doesnt have fibre so looking at getting Afrihost or Rain LTE...
Which would you guys recommend?
Which would you guys recommend?
Your tower actually has battery backups... lucky. Some MTN towers remain dark during rolling blackouts. Our area serves well over 3000 people but they can't be bothered. Extremely annoying, so much for being No. 1 eh MTN?
Suffice to say; not MTN, Afrihost, or Supersonic, gives a damn to try and fix the issue by providing battery backups during this time, tried them all.
Communication is important, for business and security reasons, but hey, let's keep people in the dark to give criminals an upper hand.
Dis mos nou net te lekker nê?
Afrihost, as you might know, provide both Telkom & MTN SIMs.
AFAIK, on MTN, they have their own infrastructure, whereas with Telkom, it's just like getting your data through Telkom directly, to the extent you need to check data usage for Telkom directly as well.
CORRECT ME IF WRONG, ANYONE.
Best for her is to get a SIM for each (Telkom, MTN and Rain) and test the waters.
Don't know if Rain still do 7 days free, so if they do, best to first go that route.
Where I am their LTE was & still is shockingly terrible.
elf_lord_ZC5
Honorary Master
I've not noticed much difference between Telkom prepaid LTE vs Axxess or Afrihost fixed LTE, nor with MTN direct vs. MTN on those where I am in the past (when last tested prepaid from the networks directly).
Had to go out so didn't mention Rain 5G but that might be an option if budget is min R500 I think, and that area might be covered for it.
@Slamz - just ensure the T's & C's are read through as there are or were certain restrictions (speeds & torrent downloads if I recall) on that cheaper 5G option.
Slamz
Expert Member
It is generally very good.
I had cut out issues - numerous times a day - late 2020 into early last year (MTN on Afrihost) which they only resolved after others started complaining.
Came back after a Telkom LTE stint at Axxess, only due to more data on MTN & fact the night data also rolls over for 30 days if unused (on Axxess only the MTN Anytime does).
So far, it's been excellent.
With our controlled usage it's much better value than fibre is, which I can also get through Frogfoot, but that's been unreliable in the south of the country, so kept away from it.
Another thing to consider, with this load shedding business going on now, is how quickly the LTE recovers.
Again, for where I am, I generally get significantly faster Telkom LTE download speeds, but after power outage, it takes 2 to 3 hours to recover to full signal strength, sometimes sitting on 1 to 2 bars for ages at a time.
However, Telkom will give you 3G fallback if the router is set to "Auto" for the Network selection.
My MTN through Afrihost (now primary connection) is barely affected by the most recent power outages, maintaining a full 5 bars.
But they only give you 4G, no 3G fallback, but to now been rock solid.
Mainly depends on the tower connecting to, because in MTNs case "fixed" is the operative word.
All the best re testing & use.
elf_lord_ZC5
Honorary Master
My MTN Pre-paid SIM expired, forgot to load data on it but still have a Telkom Pre-paid SIM. When streaming EPL football on MTN FIXED-LTE-A, in a B618, and it starts buffering, I get out my R218H, Mi-Fi router with my Telkom pre-paid SIM in it, and it invariably streams without issues. I ascribe this to it having better routing, in context of the game bring streamed.
In the same R218H router, I got same or better speeds on 3G at my location when my MTN SIM was still good, just that the data cost was very much more expensive.
stuffinabox
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2022
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 1
@AfriNatic
Ive been on Afrihost fixed LTE for 2 months now and I've not been having a good time. I believe the issues are on MTN's end so I'm not sure what can be done, if anything.
There have been two persistent issues:
1)
Loss of service throughout the day. Red dot on the router, no signal at all. Sometimes its just for a short period, sometimes hours at a time. There's no clear pattern to it. The last two weeks have been a bit better but still not great.
2)
This issue only happens at night time during a certain period, so there's a bit more of a pattern to it. Basically, every night starting from around midnight (I have noticed it happen once at 11:30pm too) up until 5-6am, my connection starts bouncing around between two towers. Or at least that's what I assume is happening based on the cell ID changing every couple of minutes. The cell ID that it swaps over to to is 1506816 (though that changed to 1506818 since Monday). Each time it swaps, there's a huge spike in latency and my signal to the second tower isn't great. Using it for anything latency dependent during that time period is pointless.
One other issue that started on Monday 31st Jan 22. The cell ID for the tower that I've been connected to suddenly changed from 532226 to 532224. Since that change, my download speeds have dropped dramatically. It used to be fairly consistent between 30-40Mbs throughout the day and even during peak hours. Since it changed to 532224 I'm getting an average of 10-20Mbs with as low as 5-6Mbs during peak. The SINR and RSRQ have also become quite erratic since that change.
Is this anything Afrihost can assist with or do I just have to accept that MTN is rubbish in my area and hope that they'll eventually improve things in the future?
Ive been on Afrihost fixed LTE for 2 months now and I've not been having a good time. I believe the issues are on MTN's end so I'm not sure what can be done, if anything.
There have been two persistent issues:
1)
Loss of service throughout the day. Red dot on the router, no signal at all. Sometimes its just for a short period, sometimes hours at a time. There's no clear pattern to it. The last two weeks have been a bit better but still not great.
2)
This issue only happens at night time during a certain period, so there's a bit more of a pattern to it. Basically, every night starting from around midnight (I have noticed it happen once at 11:30pm too) up until 5-6am, my connection starts bouncing around between two towers. Or at least that's what I assume is happening based on the cell ID changing every couple of minutes. The cell ID that it swaps over to to is 1506816 (though that changed to 1506818 since Monday). Each time it swaps, there's a huge spike in latency and my signal to the second tower isn't great. Using it for anything latency dependent during that time period is pointless.
One other issue that started on Monday 31st Jan 22. The cell ID for the tower that I've been connected to suddenly changed from 532226 to 532224. Since that change, my download speeds have dropped dramatically. It used to be fairly consistent between 30-40Mbs throughout the day and even during peak hours. Since it changed to 532224 I'm getting an average of 10-20Mbs with as low as 5-6Mbs during peak. The SINR and RSRQ have also become quite erratic since that change.
Is this anything Afrihost can assist with or do I just have to accept that MTN is rubbish in my area and hope that they'll eventually improve things in the future?
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Hi,
We usually log a coverage complaint with MTN and we take it from there. If coverage or congestion is the issue it likely needs to be addressed by deploying more towers and there isn't always an quick fix for this unfortunately.
stuffinabox
New Member
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2022
- Messages
- 5
- Reaction score
- 1
Does it make sense for it to be a coverage issue if I can see the tower and get a solid 5 bar signal all the time? The service just randomly drops without warning.
And congestion/slower speeds wasn't wasn't an issue for the entire time up until that cell ID value changed this past Monday. I'm pretty new to this so I don't really know if that change in the number has anything to do with it, it's just that the speed decrease definitely coincided with it.
These are the current stats on the router for reference.
RSRQ: -6.0dB (spikes occasionally to -12)
RSRP: -85dBm
RSSI: -61dBm
SINR: 9dB ( goes as low as 1)
Prior to the cell ID change, the RSRP value was between -79 and -81
RSRQ and SINR values were similar but without the large variations.
I've tried contacting support, and they said they'd get hold of the MTN LTE department. That was about 2 weeks ago, haven't had any feedback since. They didn't seem to really understand my issues either. I'm mostly just trying to find out why things are behaving the way they are. Specifically the random loss of service and the constant swapping between towers from midnight to 6am.
