Cell C and Galaxy S4

A

Ancalagon

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Hi,

I got my Samsung Galaxy S4 (i9500) on contract via Cell C in August last year. I have had terrible service with it, but I don't know if it is the phone or Cell C's network.

Symptoms that I experience:
My phone reports full signal, yet when people phone, the network tells them that I am unavailable (happens more than once per week).
Sometimes when I phone someone, suddenly all I can hear is a crazy garbled mess. Sounds almost like a dial up modem. As soon as this occurs, I have to hang up and try again. Also happens often.
Also, sometimes when I phone someone, it just goes quiet and I cannot hear them. Don't know if they can hear me.
Sometimes I cannot make any calls and my phone reports "Not registered on network".

I live and work in Sandton, so most of the time, I am in areas with good signal. My phone does not often have to roam onto another network. Yet still, the performance is terrible.

Is there anyone else that has this combination and similar issues? Is it more likely to be my phone or Cell C?
 
I find that generally, Cellc's network isn't great. Mine isn't as bad as yours sounds, so maybe your phone has a problem. I use an iphone
 
Had similar issues, Cell C and S4. Call quality terrible, however my network varied between 1 bar, and not registered on network, all day, every day. Calls are useless garbled messes, dropping constantly, receive messages all day with missed calls (yet the phone never rings), and IM's arrive about 4-6 hours late. Logged so many complaints with Cell C, and they keep on closing calls and messaging me saying "no problems found, call resolved"

Switched to Vodacom roaming full time about 6 months back, and all of the call quality issues disappeared instantly, so I can say the problem is Cell C. I'm so happy now that I can actually make and receive calls and messages. Data on roaming is slow cause it's limited to edge (apparently you can get 3G, just don't know how to do this and Cell C don't help at all), still, the trade off between having slow data, and not being able to use your device at all is well worth it :-)
 
it could be the phone, i am experiencing the same "Not registered on network" error, no matter what sim cards i try.

did you recently update the phones software? as mines started the error after updating my software.
 
Been experiencing some of the above mentioned problems for months. There used to be a fix where you could manually select the spectrum you connect to, 2100mhz (please correct me if I'm wrong) instead of the usual 900mhz. Samsung removed the ability to manually change those settings via ussd code a while back.

I flashed a custom rom (Omega Rom) a few weeks back, signal problems have almost disappeared completely.
 
I get those "Not registered on Network" problems, but not consistently. Maybe two to three times per month.

I will probably try a custom rom. I was just waiting for the stability to improve. Time to do some digging as to what is worth using.

Next time I am going back to Vodacom. I don't want to waste the money that I am paying every month for the contract, but I must say, sometimes it is tempting.

EDIT: Yes I have the latest version of the software available, I have done 2-3 updates and not one has made any difference.
 
yes most likely the phone, only other solution is to install custom rom
 
So, I switched to a custom rom. I switched to Cyanogenmod 11 a day or two ago. Same issue still occurs. Says I have signal, but I am not registered on the network. Can't make or receive calls. The only way to fix it is to switch airplane mode on and off again, or to restart the phone.

This means it could be one of two things:
A hardware issue with the phone
Or
An issue with Cell C's abysmal network.

I think I am going to get hold of a Vodacom prepaid sim in order to test this.
 
I would say it is Cell C. I was in the Sandton area also when I was on them. Would have good signal, call quality was terrible. Sometimes had to dial numbers a few times before the call would connect (sometimes I had to actually restart the phone). Data would not work. Calls would drop constantly and so the list just goes on. This was on a motorola RAZR. It was not limited to Sandton though. Had issues at work also, especially data that just would not work. Connected to data network, but no data flow.
 
Definitely network. I get all of these symptoms, and I've used this sim card in at least 3 different phones over 20 months.
 
I've reported the issue on their website. I got no response. 6 weeks ago. Useless PoS network.
 
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