And there was LTE (Cape Town)

B

Blackhand

Expert Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2004
Messages
1,313
Reaction score
1,541
Was just randomly browsing on my phone a few minutes ago and suddenly my phone swapped over from barely usable 3G to LTE.

Apparently CellC has no announced LTE coverage in Cape Town yet, so I was surprised. They might just be testing ofcourse.

This was in Brackenfell:


The upload seems low in that test, but I tested a few moments before that and got 2mbs upload.
 
Blackhand said:
Was just randomly browsing on my phone a few minutes ago and suddenly my phone swapped over from barely usable 3G to LTE.

Apparently CellC has no announced LTE coverage in Cape Town yet, so I was surprised. They might just be testing ofcourse.

This was in Brackenfell:


The upload seems low in that test, but I tested a few moments before that and got 2mbs upload.
Click to expand...

and how was the browsing experience on LTE compared to barely usable 3g? Did it at least work?
 
cobusv said:
and how was the browsing experience on LTE compared to barely usable 3g? Did it at least work?
Click to expand...

Massive improvement, latency also went from a very jittery 200-1000ms to 40-80 even though I only have 2 bars of signal.
 
I am getting very stable around 30ms here in Joburg, using Huawei B315s-936 router from Cell C. Signal jumps between 2 and 3 bars, the best recorded is like this:
RSRQ: -7dB
RSRP: -98dBm
RSSI: -79dBm

BTW, For Cell C MyBB is international traffic, ping around 200ms.
 
Blackhand said:
Was just randomly browsing on my phone a few minutes ago and suddenly my phone swapped over from barely usable 3G to LTE.

Apparently CellC has no announced LTE coverage in Cape Town yet, so I was surprised. They might just be testing ofcourse.

This was in Brackenfell:


The upload seems low in that test, but I tested a few moments before that and got 2mbs upload.
Click to expand...

Hi Blackhand

Thank you for posting to us.

Please note that we are yet to officially roll it out, but we do know it will be up & running by end November 2015, should everything go according to plan.

Regards
Cell C | BM
 
Cell_C said:
Hi Blackhand

Thank you for posting to us.

Please note that we are yet to officially roll it out, but we do know it will be up & running by end November 2015, should everything go according to plan.

Regards
Cell C | BM
Click to expand...

Launch some big data packages a long with that to compete with Telkom and I'm sold =D. Desperately looking for a provider that can give me 200GB+ on LTE, the more GB the better!
 
Looks like they switched it off, testing over I guess. Back to sucky 3G =(
 
Considering dumping MTN for CellC. It just depends on their network coverage where I will use it the most.
Will pop into a store this weekend and check.
 
preguru said:
Considering dumping MTN for CellC. It just depends on their network coverage where I will use it the most.
Will pop into a store this weekend and check.
Click to expand...

Hi Preguru

Thank you for posting to us.

We would recommend that you get a test SIM at any of our Cell C stores.

Regards
Cell C | BM
 
Blackhand said:
Looks like they switched it off, testing over I guess. Back to sucky 3G =(
Click to expand...

Hi Blackhand

Thank you for posting to us.

Please remember that this is testing phase.

Please note that it will only be rolled out officially by the end of November 2015.

Regards
Cell C | BM
 
Just saw now that I'm seeing a little 4G icon too!

1534598255.png


Not amazing, but more than sufficient for my needs. Upload speed could do with some improvement.
 
Blackhand said:
Launch some big data packages a long with that to compete with Telkom and I'm sold =D. Desperately looking for a provider that can give me 200GB+ on LTE, the more GB the better!
Click to expand...
Prepaid Giga200 (50+150) is on sale R999.
Important to note: It is very old stock - when you get this package, do immediately SIM swap for a blue prepaid SIM.

From my experience there are 3 types of prepaid SIM cards currently in circulation:

1. Black, printed "128K Power SIM" with no pre-cut for micro size. This one is not USIM type, it cannot be enabled for LTE. SIM swap is a mandatory. The old stock prepaid Giga200 SIM I bought few days ago comes with this type.

2. Black, printed "128K Power SIM" with pre-cut for micro size. Not enabled for LTE by default, but it might be USIM type and can be enabled by phoning the customer centre. This type comes with very recent starter packs with a big printed "99 cents" and "100% Supa Charge" things.

3. Blue, printed "128K Power USIM" with pre-cuts for micro and nano sizes. It is the latest "SMARTPHONE READY" starter pack with a large Copyright-like character (Cell C logo).
 
sajunky said:
Prepaid Giga200 (50+150) is on sale R999.
Important to note: It is very old stock - when you get this package, do immediately SIM swap for a blue prepaid SIM.

From my experience there are 3 types of prepaid SIM cards currently in circulation:

1. Black, printed "128K Power SIM" with no pre-cut for micro size. This one is not USIM type, it cannot be enabled for LTE. SIM swap is a mandatory. The old stock prepaid Giga200 SIM I bought few days ago comes with this type.

2. Black, printed "128K Power SIM" with pre-cut for micro size. Not enabled for LTE by default, but it might be USIM type and can be enabled by phoning the customer centre. This type comes with very recent starter packs with a big printed "99 cents" and "100% Supa Charge" things.

3. Blue, printed "128K Power USIM" with pre-cuts for micro and nano sizes. It is the latest "SMARTPHONE READY" starter pack with a large Copyright-like character (Cell C logo).
Click to expand...

The Trace Mobile staterpacks are "trio simcards" It's essentially a normal big sim cut into micro and nano size. Printed on it is LTE on the big size and LTE on the inner of the simcard. You can get these simcards at Cellc stores and do a sim swap to them too for prepaid or contract. Don't think it's anything different to the blue sim but kinda cool that it's a trio sim. Cellc also now supplies trio simcards with all new contracts.

Pic of 3 sims below. Top one is a 128k USIM micro cut out. Middle one is a Trace Mobile Trio sim with LTE printed on it. Bottom one is the older complete black 128k power sims with micro sim cut out.

P51031-130445.jpg
 
Blackhand said:
Was just randomly browsing on my phone a few minutes ago and suddenly my phone swapped over from barely usable 3G to LTE.

Apparently CellC has no announced LTE coverage in Cape Town yet, so I was surprised. They might just be testing ofcourse.
Click to expand...
I'm also picking up a Cell-C LTE signal near N1 City with my LTE SIM card from the 2013 "LTE Launch".

It doesn't want to register on the network though. :cry:
 
ginggs said:
I'm also picking up a Cell-C LTE signal near N1 City with my LTE SIM card from the 2013 "LTE Launch".

It doesn't want to register on the network though. :cry:
Click to expand...
It was the same behaviour on my Giga200 SIM (type 1). Swapped for a blue SIM from a latest starter pack (type 3), it registers.
BTW, in JHB, but also not under official coverage map. I think maps will be updated on November 15th.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X