Cell C 3G/HSPA – Please rate your broadband connection

[ciruis]

Hi there

Can you please rate your CELL C 3G/HSPA connection on speed, stability and reliability? Do you get what you expected, or is your experience better or worse than what you expected?

It will be great if you can also tell us:

• In which area/s you use your connection?
• What can CELL C do to make you a happier customer?

Please post your comments in this thread (by posting your views you will stand a chance to win an iPad 2).

Speed - brilliant never below 21mbs
Stability - solid, has an off day once month tho. No complaints on this.
Reliability - Pretty solid, i can always count on my two cell c 5gb promo bundle's to work when telkom is all fubar.

Beyond my expectations as i actually download at a transfer rate of 2.2mbs on daily basis.

Area of Use: Paulshof only.

Nothing at this stage as i am quite a happy camper with my two 3G Bundle's.

 

[warrena]

Please rate your broadband connection
It was initially very fast but with time it is now very bad. Moved on to 8ta

Speed - Poor to excellent depending on the area.
Stability - Nearly always unstable.
Reliability - I can always trust my Cell C data to fail right when I need it the most. When I don't need it... it doesn't really work either.

Do you get what you expected, or is your experience better or worse than what you expected?
Far worse than I expected in my home area. Speeds fluctuate wildly depending on the time of day/alignment of the planets/strength of the wind + direction blowing. Ping was also very poor for the most part.

At work the speeds are poor, though the ping is often all over the place.

In which area/s you use your connection?
Home -CapeTown - Ravensmead
Work - CapeTown - WaterFront

What can CELL C do to make you a happier customer?
Offer a more consistent service, even at the cost of ultimate speed. I would gladly deal with half the speed and ping as long as the service it remained stable. They are currently not very competitive in terms of price.

 

[DanielM344]

I purchased the Cell C data deal for R999 (excluding a modem) where I get 2GB data p/m for 12 months. I agree that it is super fast.... when it is actually working. That was R999 down the drain.

I get so frustrated when I want to use it and it's either stuck on 2G or shows "SMS only". Needless to say I will NOT reniew with Cell C when the year is up.

People complain about Telkom's ADSL service a lot, but my ADSL line has NEVER let me down. Mobile is suppose to be the future, but it's got a long way to go before it can match the stability and reliability of the good old ADSL line...

Area: Port Elizabeth (where it all started)

 

[DanielM344]

I am so glad to hear that I am not the only one with Cell C reception issues in the Westering/Linton Grange area (also Greenacres). When I complained to Cell C they looked at me as if I was mad. In the beginning the speed was great, but not anymore. I now mostly get 2G or "SMS only". My problems started in July/August 2011 when they fiddled with the tower near Metlife Mall. It got so bad that I cancelled my Cell C voice contract as well. Now very happy at Vodacom.

 

[koeksGHT]

Absolutely terrible.

0/10

Only have 2G signal in Grahamstown.

Won't stay connected for more than 5 minutes with throughput. Have to roam on Vodacom just to get to google. Disconnects from vodacom roaming every 30 minutes and have to reconnect.

Waste of money, can only use 2GB a month if I force it.

 

[Waansin]

"your CELL C 3G/HSPA connection on speed, stability and reliability"

I typically get between 1MB/s to 2.5MB/s symmetric and it is almost as reliable as my ADSL. Stability can vary depending on whatever mojo is affecting the radio waves at the time. Sometimes forcing a redial solves any issues.

"Do you get what you expected, or is your experience better or worse than what you expected?"

Definitely what I expected. The fact that this technology works at all is a miracle and taking into account my distance from a tower, then anything over 1MB/s is groovy.

"In which area/s you use your connection?"

Westering, Port Elizabeth

"What can CELL C do to make you a happier customer?"

Sell higher quality data modems. The last two 7.2MB modems they gave me both died. I now use my phone tethered to my PC. I probably got unlucky with the data modems they gave me, but that doesn't help me.

I'm also going to miss the R999 for 24GB data over 24 months special. That was a great deal and I hope they can bring something similar back. Maybe a R500 for 12GB of data over 12 months - now that would be tailored for my smart phone usage.

 

[T-Man]

Montgomery Park, Johannesburg, CellID 1076x

No problems, would like higher speeds though.

 

[TheMightyP]

I'm in Port Elizabeth and I find the quality of the signal can vary vastly. But mostly the quality is poor where I need it to be good, i.e. away from other infrastructure. I.e. I don't need a good cellc signal at home because I have adsl. But I do need a good cellc signal in remote areas, and there is none. Generally where the signal is good, I have managed no more than 2 or 3mb speeds (on a 7mb stick). I have also noticed a deterioration in signal quality over the past year probably due to over saturation.

So I would say that cellc need to improve their network coverage. More towers, more bandwidth.

 

[bond007]

Good speeds (800kb/s) and has never not worked. Got nothing bad to say! Live in Garsfontein, Pretoria!

 

[jrrpotter]

Moving on From Cell C

Can you please rate your CELL C 3G/HSPA connection on speed, stability and reliability?

Speed - I live in Llandudno where there is no 3G coverage, so speeds are slow but in fairness it isn't on their coverage map, although Vodacom and MTN broadcast 3G into Lllandudno.

Stability - Its alright but when it goes down its a nightmare.

Do you get what you expected, or is your experience better or worse than what you expected?

Worse. They are a nightmare all in all. Tried complaining to them and got no response. Got a response from a complaint on Hellopeter which leaves me with the conclusion, that they are better at damage control than they are at customer service.

It will be great if you can also tell us:



[*]In which area/s you use your connection?
Llandudno, Cape Town

[*]What can CELL C do to make you a happier customer?
Sort out their call centre which is an absolute night mare at times. I have lost a phone to it in frustration.

 

[mattcremerband]

Speed: Variable, this could be improved quite a bit. I've seen some decent speed on this connection, but unfortunately its not consistently fast. I would actually say its usually quite slow, and sometimes not even use able for a few hours to several days.

Stability: My connection, as well as my wife's (I'm on the 7mbps wireless router, she has the 21mbs usb dongle) drops every 2 hours. Not sometimes...all the time...every 2 hours.

Reliability: I generally always have connectivity, but sometimes, as mentioned above, i feel like i'm back on a 56k modem.

I would rate my experience as worse than i expected.

 

[370z]

I'm in the Durban-Westville area. I can't have any complaints, excellent signal despite living in a valley and having zero MTN and Vodacom signal.

Bring us more data specials and we'll be forever loyal!!

 

[bonjerdo]

Cell C 2gig speedstick.
Strand - Western Cape
Connection is terrible. My rating is 3/10.
The connection got worse after the 1st month and what is interesting is the upload speed, very very very slow. I try uploading a photo of less that 1 meg and it takes more than 5 minutes. If it doesn't bomb out then the picture ends up being distorted with lines all over it once uploaded.
My previus 384k ADSL line was twice as fast and much more reliable. I will go back to ADSL with Telkom as soon as my contract with them ends.

 

[Saajid]

Using the prepaid speedstick with 2GB per month. Performs relatively well for a 7.2mbps modem. Will probably work faster with a higher-spec modem.

 

[AdrianS]

Best of the big 3 mobiles - particularly in Midrand. Easy to use. Just need to put the pricing back into the competitive bracket.

 

[dEaThXc0rE]

Back in the day Cell C was very bad and when I got a Blackberry 8520 with Cell C, the phone only supported EDGE so I thought to myself, yeah not like Cell C could do better anyway.

I threw away the Blackberry on account of being a horrid piece of technology, and bought an HTC Wildfire S and OMG I got HSDPA signal in Centurion. In my old neighborhood the signal was bad but I never expected it to be this good where I live.

Signal is never very stable but my mail downloads quickly and that is enough for me

 

[bjoselyn]

Cell C's 3G coverage is quite good on the 900 band but poor on the 2100 band. The speed is good.

It would be nice is Cell C could have data bundles on pre-paid via USSD.

 

[Jedijo]

I used CellC for a weekend on loan by them to check out the speeds. Although it peaked better than my 4mb Telkom, it was quite inconsistant and suffered from a poor ping. 280ms vs 90ms from Telkom to speedtest servers. BF3 pings were about 150ms on Cellc vs 65ms on Telkom.

 

[Billwill]

I bought the Cell C 2Gig-a-month prepaid almost a year ago now....I knew at the time that Cell C did not cover White River too well but Cell C kept promising that they would have 97% of the country covered by the end of 2011 so I thought I would give them a try.
I wish I knew then that I lived in the 3% of SA that would not be covered.....I have to live with pathetic Edge roaming on Vodacom.
My MTN is just as bad here though.....in a few months time I will buy some Voda pre-paid as they seem to have a good 3G signal here.

Come on Cell C....stick to your promises and improve your coverage!

 

[TidalWave]

Please rate your broadband connection on speed, stability and reliability?:

Very good. I have tried all service providers in the Ballito area and Cell C has provided the most consistently high connection rates over the last 18 months. Other service providers die from overload in December. I use the prepaid 2gig per month so have no problems with accounts.

In which area/s you use your connection?

Ballito, Durban and Pretoria.

What can CELL C do to make you a happier customer?

Like all service providers, Cell C does not advise customers when upgrades are taking place so resulting interruptions are an annoyance. An sms or email to let you know that you will experience service interruptions while your area is upgraded could turn a very negative perception into a positive expectation.