Cell C Network Issues: Disconnects, Coverage, Throughput Problems - Report Here

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Hi I am experiencing intermittent disconnects and it happens while I am playing online games and surfing the internet. It is very frustrating. It is in the Lotus River, Western Cape area. My number is thats my data sim 0627187075
 
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davyb said:
Hi I am experiencing intermittent disconnects and it happens while I am playing online games and surfing the internet. It is very frustrating. It is in the Lotus River, Western Cape area. My number is thats my data sim 0627187075
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Same thing is happening to me when using the internet, I basically have to disconnect and reconnect the whole day. Also in CT but in northern suburbs.
 
davyb said:
Hi I am experiencing intermittent disconnects and it happens while I am playing online games and surfing the internet. It is very frustrating. It is in the Lotus River, Western Cape area. My number is thats my data sim 0627187075
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Hi davyb

Have you been contacting regarding the matter?

^SM
 
Does anyone know how to force LTE with the ZTE router?

I got the 5GB + 15GB data package a week ago and it has been working fine for 99% of the time with LTE. Tonight however it's only on DC-HSPA+ or UMTS and switching between the two. Can barely browse and have 1000+ pings.

Edit: Ok managed to figure it out. Had to disconnect and then go to connection settings and search for networks for around a minute, then select Cell C 4G. It's a bit worrying that I only have one bar signal strength today for LTE. Is there a network issue?

I'm in Oakdene, JHB South.
 
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SaiyanZ said:
Does anyone know how to force LTE with the ZTE router?

I got the 5GB + 15GB data package a week ago and it has been working fine for 99% of the time with LTE. Tonight however it's only on DC-HSPA+ or UMTS and switching between the two. Can barely browse and have 1000+ pings.

Edit: Ok managed to figure it out. Had to disconnect and then go to connection settings and search for networks for around a minute, then select Cell C 4G. It's a bit worrying that I only have one bar signal strength today for LTE. Is there a network issue?

I'm in Oakdene, JHB South.
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Hi SaiyanZ

Does the problem still persist?

^SM
 
Cell_C said:
Hi SaiyanZ

Does the problem still persist?

^SM
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Yes, seems like a congestion issue during peak hours. Latency was jumping around a lot from when I logged on at 7pm until close to 10pm when it stabilized and was fine for a few hours afterwards.

I did have 3/4 bars of LTE signal yesterday compared to just 1 bar the previous day, but the latency spikes were actually more frequent in spite of the better signal.

I use my data mostly for gaming. So stable ping is most important to me. i.e. Must have LTE (I know how to force it now). Don't really care about speeds as long as it's 1mbps or above.
 
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Cell_C said:
Hi SaiyanZ

Does the problem still persist?

^SM
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I stay in the South of Johannesburg, 3 G in our area is none existent meaning no throughput whatsoever, pages won't even bother to load. Only solution is to use 4G to get internet access to the real world, unsure if it's your DNS servers which are causing the problem...

Today I discovered giga cards are throttled heavily and priority is given to contract users first. Please don't mention it's my hardware cause if you do will slip my wrist - have varies devices have tried them all and have done the necessary troubleshooting.

With regards to 4,G in my area have noticed that my speeds are similar to 3G, cannot exceed 8 meg download in other areas able to achieve 40, Meg's, my area is definitely congested and have spoken to the community and they feel the same way. What's frustrating when we wanna make a phone call we literally have to go outside and I refuse to roam on vodacom
 
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Just testing the Cell C 100GB sim for the first time. It's 10pm and I'm getting +1000ms pings. It feels like 2006 and 3G but it says LTE. Such a waste trying to get a low latency connection here. Want to go back to CPT because at least Telkom 8ta LTE worked flawlessly there.

The 100GB is basically useless to me at +1000ms pings. For some reason I though that the prepaid sim might be a little better than the 5GB + 15GB contract, but it's so much worse. They're definitely on different profiles.


Edit: The odd thing is that browsing feels very snappy. However as soon as I move around ingame, my ping skyrockets over 1000ms. So maybe it's some settings where Cell C is fiddling with streaming data such as gaming?
 
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If you are in a LTE covered area just call Cell C. I know they can make it better for you.
 
davyb said:
If you are in a LTE covered area just call Cell C. I know they can make it better for you.
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What are they going to be able to do by chatting to me that they can't do already? Point the tower towards me and mess up other people's connection so that we end up with a constant ping pong game?
 
SaiyanZ said:
What are they going to be able to do by chatting to me that they can't do already? Point the tower towards me and mess up other people's connection so that we end up with a constant ping pong game?
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This is my last response, call them. I really believe that they have a form of throttling. So just make them aware if you are in a LTE area and you want LTE speeds.
 
I'll log a support ticket in the evening today. This is my experience with the different Cell C bundles since I've acquired them over the last two weeks.

- Giga 20: The 5GB anytime portion. Used for about 30 hours. Works ok apart from latency spikes (usually not more than 500ms) mainly during peak evening hours but sometimes even in quiet periods (between 10pm and 12pm). Didn't have disconnects with it but had only 1 or 2 bars LTE signal.

- Giga 20: The 15GB nightowl portion. Probably tested only a couple hours over several days. A lot of the time no throughput at all even though I have a full 5 bars LTE signal. Hence not being able to test it much. Latency spikes (over 1000ms common), flatlines as well as several random disconnects experienced even in that short space of testing time.

- Giga 100: tested for about 6 hours. Similar experience to the 15GB nightowl. A lot of the time no throughput even though full signal. Latency spikes(over 1000ms common), flat-lines, disconnects are frequent.


Testing was done in a online game where I always have a latency graph running. So I could always see what was happening with my connection. Also used a longer USB cable and rearranged my PC setup so that it is closer to the window. Then hung the ZTE router on the window. Managed to get an extra bar signal for the 5GB portion (2 bars LTE). Don't know why I'm getting a different signal (full 5 bars LTE) with the 15GB nightowl portion and 100GB prepaid portion. Network experience is a lot worse with those portions though. I also forced LTE with the ZTE router. Latency on 3G and 2G is much worse from my experience so there's no point in connecting with those.
 
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SaiyanZ said:
I'll log a support ticket in the evening today. This is my experience with the different Cell C bundles since I've acquired them over the last two weeks.

- Giga 20: The 5GB anytime portion. Used for about 30 hours. Works ok apart from latency spikes (usually not more than 500ms) mainly during peak evening hours but sometimes even in quiet periods (between 10pm and 12pm). Didn't have disconnects with it but had only 1 or 2 bars LTE signal.

- Giga 20: The 15GB nightowl portion. Probably tested only a couple hours over several days. A lot of the time no throughput at all even though I have a full 5 bars LTE signal. Hence not being able to test it much. Latency spikes (over 1000ms common), flatlines as well as several random disconnects experienced even in that short space of testing time.

- Giga 100: tested for about 6 hours. Similar experience to the 15GB nightowl. A lot of the time no throughput even though full signal. Latency spikes(over 1000ms common), flat-lines, disconnects are frequent.


Testing was done in a online game where I always have a latency graph running. So I could always see what was happening with my connection. Also used a longer USB cable and rearranged my PC setup so that it is closer to the window. Then hung the ZTE router on the window. Managed to get an extra bar signal for the 5GB portion (2 bars LTE). Don't know why I'm getting a different signal (full 5 bars LTE) with the 15GB nightowl portion and 100GB prepaid portion. Network experience is a lot worse with those portions though. I also forced LTE with the ZTE router. Latency on 3G and 2G is much worse from my experience so there's no point in connecting with those.
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Hi SaiyanZ

Please PM us the affected location (Physical address) and your contact details. The matter will be looked into.

^SM
 
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