Cell-C Roaming on Vodacom EDGE

[Garethooper]

Yes, I get this on my BlackBerry.
When 3G signal on vodacom is limited it changes over to Cell C, doesn't actually connect but nevertheless it changes.

In Randburg as well. Been going on for a long time.

 

[Jer1cho]

I tested my vodacom sim in my modem last night, as Cell C is giving me nothing but horrific slow speeds and constant disconnects. With the Vodacom sim, I was not disconnected at all, and the modem doesn't seem to get as hot as when it has the Cell C sim in it. So, I pretty much have a useless 5GBp/m sim card that does nothing but waste my time. Having to use a sim card from a different cell company in Cell C's own device is quite a fail if you ask me....

 

[The_Unbeliever]

CellC EDGE roaming in the boondocks

So I'm in the boondocks. Stuck with CellC EDGE at the moment. Telkom 8.ta (what a disappointment) just wouldn't.

In the CellC dashboard you can see a 2-bar CellC EDGE signal, but when you do a manual search and register on the dashboard, you can force the modem/sim to use voda EDGE which have a 5-bar signal.

CellC EDGE is problematic, but Voda EDGE roaming feels a bit better speed-wise.

Interestingly, the CellC dashboard also picked up a voda WCDMA signal, which disappeared after a few seconds Thought I'd get lucky and be able to surf at a slightly faster speed.

Modem in use is the Huawei E220 as the E1820 is not happy-chappy in situations with low signal.

Bleh. At least I can stay up to date with email, facebook and a bit of myBB...

Now the question :

@CellC rep - do you have your own infrastructure in place in the boondocks (out of the cities) or do you have a roaming agreement via other ISP's? If so, which ISP's do you have a roaming agreement with?

regards


Ook

 

[MickeyD]

ISPs? You mean network operators?

 

[ebendl]

CellC has always had a roaming agreement with Vodacom, but as far as I know it is only for EDGE (which by all accounts is completely useless, unless you're a Vending Machine).

 

[ajax]

CellC has always had a roaming agreement with Vodacom, but as far as I know it is only for EDGE (which by all accounts is completely useless, unless you're a Vending Machine).

I had a very good experience with a Cell C E1820 roaming on Voda EDGE in Kleinmond this past weekend. Had speeds consistenly above 150 kbit/sec and peaking at 220 kbit/sec.

 

[Terencek]

As I understand it the deal has always been that when Cell C piggybacks on a Vodacom tower, even if that tower can do 3G or better, the Cell C data traffic will only be carried at EDGE speeds.

In practice however it's often far worse -- right now as an ongoing post in a different thread confirms, Cell C data users in our area are absolutely struggling (and have been for more than a month) with a very intermittent GPRS/EDGE data signal from our local Vodacom tower, which appears to become unusable when there are latency drops or perhaps too many users access it.

 

[The_Unbeliever]

As I understand it the deal has always been that when Cell C piggybacks on a Vodacom tower, even if that tower can do 3G or better, the Cell C data traffic will only be carried at EDGE speeds.

In practice however it's often far worse -- right now as an ongoing post in a different thread confirms, Cell C data users in our area are absolutely struggling (and have been for more than a month) with a very intermittent GPRS/EDGE data signal from our local Vodacom tower, which appears to become unusable when there are latency drops or perhaps too many users access it.

And if you use a voda SIM but restrict it to GPRS/EDGE?

The tower I was connecting to is almost in the middle of nowhere, there's only farms and a very low population count.

Unless all the farmworkers were carrying smartphones and Blackberries...

 

[Terencek]

Hmmmm.... Interesting experiment! OK, I did that, put a VC SIM into my modem and restricted it to GPRS/EDGE, same tower. There is a marginal improvement but not much -- it's still an appalling 20 kbps average right now as I type, as opposed to an average 10 kpbs at the moment for the Cell C signal from the same tower! (And this is with a fancy Poynting antenna which normally gets 3G+ on Vodacom from the same tower.....)

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Interesting, thanks.

 

[|tera|]

CellC Local Roaming

So I was visiting my mom in Sabie last week and the weekend and I came to an unknown question.

The CellC signal is quite poor where my mom lives so I chose Vodacom on my phone (and CellC modem) and it connected full bars on Edge.
My question is though. Why was I unable to connect at all to the Vodacom 3G network?

Does CellC only have roaming agreements on Edge with Vodacom and if so why?
I see a huge market here for CellC if it could be possible to roam on either MTN or Vodacom on their 3G/HSDPA networks?

 

[ginggs]

Does CellC only have roaming agreements on Edge with Vodacom and if so why?

Cell-C only have a roaming agreement with Vodacom, and only for GSM/EDGE (2G).

I remember hearing about the roaming agreement around the time Cell-C started up, Cell-C were putting up 1800MHz towers in the cities but you could use Vodacom's 900MHz towers in the sticks. There might be some historical reason that the agreement was only for 2G, but another factor is probably cost.

 

[|tera|]

Cell-C only have a roaming agreement with Vodacom, and only for GSM/EDGE (2G).

I remember hearing about the roaming agreement around the time Cell-C started up, Cell-C were putting up 1800MHz towers in the cities but you could use Vodacom's 900MHz towers in the sticks. There might be some historical reason that the agreement was only for 2G, but another factor is probably cost.

Thank you for the merge, I didn't even think of searching for the thread.

I think cost is a factor, but it would be really great if the roaming agreement could be extended to 3G as well. It will help with folks who travel with their CellC sticks as well.

 

[Terencek]

I think it is highly unlikely Vodacom would agree to any 'upgrading' of their EDGE-only roaming agreement with Cell C.

Indeed a Vodacom technician told me recently that the entire sharing agreement could be under threat given the degree of (public) acrimony between the two operators, through the various advertising spats etc. Certainly now that Cell C is rolling out a credible network of its own towers covering a reasonable proportion of the country, there would be every reason to simply let the agreement lapse soon -- and certainly not to upgrade it. Which would be bad news for those of us in rural areas whose only Cell C access is through VC towers.

 

[ajax]

The initial roaming agreement signed with Vodacom when Cell C launched around 2000 was for 15 years. I doubt if Vodacom would risk litigation through unilateral cancellation of the contract if they can just wait a few more years.

 

[Dean01]

cell c rep? I was on holiday this past weekend. Only vodacom signal. But as previously noted, i am unable to establish an internet connection whilst roaming. Please re provision.

 

[Cell_C]

cell c rep? I was on holiday this past weekend. Only vodacom signal. But as previously noted, i am unable to establish an internet connection whilst roaming. Please re provision.

Good Day Daiyaan

Please can you PM your details, well have a look for you.
and help you resolve issue.

Regards
~AM~

 

[blunt]

Bit of necrophilia with an old thread here but its linked from the "Read first" thread so here goes..

I lost Cell C connectivity on my iPhone 4s today and it hopped over to Vodacom EDGE, I didnt check SMS/Phone calls but I could not use any internet data. I have roaming enabled on the phones settings but still nothing.

Anyone have any idea how to fix it so that Vodacom roaming works with data?

 

[ginggs]

I lost Cell C connectivity on my iPhone 4s today and it hopped over to Vodacom EDGE, I didnt check SMS/Phone calls but I could not use any internet data. I have roaming enabled on the phones settings but still nothing.

Anyone have any idea how to fix it so that Vodacom roaming works with data?

Cell-C disabled roaming in Cape Town:
http://mybroadband.co.za/news/cellular/42415-cell-cs-cape-town-vodacom-roaming-disabled.html

I've also lost connectivity in Cape Town today; Southern Suburbs, Century City, N1 City. I see full signal on the phone, but cannot make and calls or connect to the internet.

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Just what is going on?

Is this the prelude before switching over to roaming on Voda 3G?