Cell C has lost patience with Vodacom: Knott-Craig

So Vodacom was telling the truth when they said that nothing had changed in the last 12 years. However they left out the important bit of info that Cell C are requesting them to change how things are currently done and that they are refusing to do so.

Is that correct?

I've seen the lack of roaming in Constantia area where the Cell C signal is weak (stupid sods who live there likely won't allow any more towers to be put up: idiots). Even though I've allowed national roaming on my phone it just wont switch over, even if I try to do the switch manually. Everywhere else in Cape Town seems to be fine though.
 
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AlmightyBender said:
Even though I've allowed national roaming on my phone it just wont switch over, even if I try to do the switch manually
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True and when it does switch manually it's hardly usable (in my case I get gprs)
Good thing though I rarely have Cell C problems anymore
 
AlmightyBender said:
I've seen the lack of roaming in Constantia area where the Cell C signal is weak (stupid sods who live there likely won't allow any more towers to be put up: idiots). Even though I've allowed national roaming on my phone it just wont switch over, even if I try to do the switch manually. Everywhere else in Cape Town seems to be fine though.
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Cell C started deactivating roaming in Cape Town. To what extent this was done I dont know. I do know that up here in Joburg when I switched the phone manually to Vodacom roaming I would get EDGE
 
Ockie said:
Cell C started deactivating roaming in Cape Town. To what extent this was done I dont know. I do know that up here in Joburg when I switched the phone manually to Vodacom roaming I would get EDGE
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You most likely are correct here Ockie, I do recall something along those lines
 
Alan knows how much he charged cell C, now he is cell C, and he must now change his ruling at voda around so that it fits him this side.
 
hrm.. this actually makes a lot of sense, without radio network management 'knowing' about the other foreign network elements it essentially has to do a extra hard handover..i.e. failover to CellC then failback to Vodacom maybe..thing is.. CellC should have known something like this would happen if they don't entirely cover an area with the particular radio technology used as pockets of zero coverage = fail over conditions. Surely their network quality guys would have preemptively seen this happening?
 
AlmightyBender said:
So Vodacom was telling the truth when they said that nothing had changed in the last 12 years. However they left out the important bit of info that Cell C are requesting them to change how things are currently done and that they are refusing to do so.

Is that correct?

I've seen the lack of roaming in Constantia area where the Cell C signal is weak (stupid sods who live there likely won't allow any more towers to be put up: idiots). Even though I've allowed national roaming on my phone it just wont switch over, even if I try to do the switch manually. Everywhere else in Cape Town seems to be fine though.
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Um no, you have your networks confused. I live in Constantia, have been here for a long time. CellC have better coverage here and MTN and Vodakak are the ones that have poor coverage.

CellC are getting a lot of heat lately, people forget they are the main driver of why prices have dropped as far as they have. Vodacom are clearly bullying them. People complain to CellC is not providing them the good service levels which is fine but then the berate CellC for complaining that Vodacom are not giving them good service levels - bit unfair.

At the end of the day, as far as I am concerned, each network is *** and you get dropped calls, bad connectivity etc etc. I have been on Vodacom, MTN and CellC and they all have problems. At the end of the day, CellC take considerably less money from my account every month, and for that I am grateful to them.

Support the underdog, help the competition...or stop complaining that monopolies are ripping you off.

Edit: Not directed at you although I quoted your post, just talking in general as to what I have read on these forums...
 
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theJonster said:
Um no, you have your networks confused. I live in Constantia, have been here for a long time. CellC have better coverage here and MTN and Vodakak are the ones that have poor coverage.

CellC are getting a lot of heat lately, people forget they are the main driver of why prices have dropped as far as they have. Vodacom are clearly bullying them. People complain to CellC is not providing them the good service levels which is fine but then the berate CellC for complaining that Vodacom are not giving them good service levels - bit unfair.

At the end of the day, as far as I am concerned, each network is *** and you get dropped calls, bad connectivity etc etc. I have been on Vodacom, MTN and CellC and they all have problems. At the end of the day, CellC take considerably less money from my account every month, and for that I am grateful to them.

Support the underdog, help the competition...or stop complaining that monopolies are ripping you off.

Edit: Not directed at you although I quoted your post, just talking in general as to what I have read on these forums...
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You know... I shared your exact sentiment a while back. But it has become so bad that I can literally almost get nothing done on my phone. I had dropped calls and what not here and there with Vodacom, but my phone on Cell C is completely useless during the day (Sandton) and at night (Pretoria North), I at least get calls, but that's about it. I can rarely use data, and must connect to Wifi to send whatsapps and so on.

I run around like a clown in my office daily to try and make calls or even send whatsapp messages. I have a lot of understanding for Cell C and the state of their network at the moment, the problem is where it leaves me, I am locked into a 24 month contract with a phone I can actually not use for anything, so then that sentiment of being a champion for the underdog changes slightly.

I know those nagging types who like logging complaints everywhere usually have this little tune they whistle, but I have literally lost out on a ****load of business because I am not getting my calls, where I would get voicemails emailed to me and when I get back to clients eventually when I get the message, they have made another plan... Or they need help now and I cannot even make calls to them. And I don't have cash at the moment to just get a second phone and pay one that is useless...

So where do I stand... we'll I can tell you... not nearly as enthusiastic about what positive things MAY come WHO KNOWS WHEN if they improve the network, even if it is in a month or two because I have a real world problem tomorrow morning when I need my phone.
 
Funny how Alan was the bully back then and now he is one the other side of the fence. I know you are trying but maybe when you were at VC, you could've made a bigger difference rather than trying to make things right now. Maybe you should go back to VC and change the rules there.
 
Ockie said:
Cell C started deactivating roaming in Cape Town. To what extent this was done I dont know. I do know that up here in Joburg when I switched the phone manually to Vodacom roaming I would get EDGE
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They said that, but my experience in CT is there is still plenty of roaming going on and I get the "roaming bounce" a lot. The above makes a lot of sense as Krygor notes above. AKC knows VC can do it and how easily, hence getting his knickers in a knot.

I just wish Cell C could get enough towers out there to get rid of the VC roaming, but that is still going to take some time - assume it will come with 20 million odd subscribers. Pity as right now they are helping VC pay for their network while getting stiffed.
 
Bern said:
They said that, but my experience in CT is there is still plenty of roaming going on and I get the "roaming bounce" a lot. The above makes a lot of sense as Krygor notes above. AKC knows VC can do it and how easily, hence getting his knickers in a knot.

I just wish Cell C could get enough towers out there to get rid of the VC roaming, but that is still going to take some time - assume it will come with 20 million odd subscribers. Pity as right now they are helping VC pay for their network while getting stiffed.
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Ok ... I cant speak for Cape Town ... but here my phone would seldom do the switch to Vodacom unless I forced it to. I have to compliment Cell C on their signal. All places where I considered important to me .... home and work ... they had good signal. I pretty much new the little dead spots where my phone would roam. Eastgate mall and PnP @ Woodmead centre.

But lets say that this is a problem .... is this the same big problem being experienced by Cell C clients at the moment where they have full signal .... even on 3G .. but no data on dongles and smart phones? If this statement of it being Vodacom's fault ... then if my memory serves me right ... the blame for this problem have gone in this order

1. Congestion
2. IT glitch with our Vendor
3. Vodacom is to blame

I do realise that all networks have their problems .... Vodacom also have its issues....they are not a perfect network and I will never pretend they are .... but this problem that I and many others are talking about on mybb have been going on for months with the above feedback given so far.....I am not sure if this roaming statement by Cell C is meant to explain the data problem or not ... but that is the impression I am getting. I just dont see how Vodacom can be blamed for that.
 
Ockie I do remember seeing Cell C note they were having congestion in a post, but that is data. I seem to never have an issue on the data side when connecting directly on their network, so can't really say. In tests at the office their speeds have been consistently better than VC and MTN during office hours, but this is not exactly scientific testing, just us in the office comparing phones and speeds.

The handover issue as I understand is more around GSM - my desk is in a nice coverage hole where I get bounced between Cell C and VC roaming - I often find my phone showing no coverage, then after a while it comes back. This can only really be explained by the handover issue noted as there is coverage from both at my desk, but it is weak and thus the handover creates havoc.

If I turn roaming off, no issues, but in other parts of the building there is only VC coverage, so it becomes a bit of a problem to manually change the whole time.
 
Bern said:
Ockie I do remember seeing Cell C note they were having congestion in a post, but that is data. I seem to never have an issue on the data side when connecting directly on their network, so can't really say. In tests at the office their speeds have been consistently better than VC and MTN during office hours, but this is not exactly scientific testing, just us in the office comparing phones and speeds.

The handover issue as I understand is more around GSM - my desk is in a nice coverage hole where I get bounced between Cell C and VC roaming - I often find my phone showing no coverage, then after a while it comes back. This can only really be explained by the handover issue noted as there is coverage from both at my desk, but it is weak and thus the handover creates havoc.

If I turn roaming off, no issues, but in other parts of the building there is only VC coverage, so it becomes a bit of a problem to manually change the whole time.
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If that is the case then let them fight it out for sure .... and if it can be fixed ....let it be fixed I say.....but to make a statement like "The main issue behind Cell C’s recent network problems is the lack of seamless hand-over between its network and Vodacom, Cell C CEO Alan Knott-Craig recently told MyBroadband." . That is a very big umbrella. I realise it is a big problem for you ... but this is the first time that I am hearing this complaint of the whole hand over and bouncing between networks. Basically all complaints I have read .. and what I have experienced myself was calls taking about 3 attempts to go through and no data even with full signal ... and all on Cell C's own towers .... no Vodacom involved.....from my side anyway ...and I cant recall anyone mentioning they are roaming on Vodacom while having this data problem. They would not anyway as 3G roaming is not active.

Maybe for clarity sakes they should make a clear seperation between these two unrelated (in my opinion) issues?
 
The sad truth is that half of the time neither Cell-C nor Vodacom can perform a seamless handover within their own network. How can it possibly be expected for them to perform a roaming/dualband handover?
 
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