Cell C Signal Issues. Help needed

L

Luckywill

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Feb 28, 2009
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Location
Centurion
Hi all,

I am looking for some advice. Recently a friend of mine purchases the Cell C WHOOOOSH.

Before purchasing it we noticed on the Cell C's coverage page that where we stay there is a light red signal (Irene, Gauteng), but not white(no coverage afaik).

Over the weekend we installed the dongle and all it picked up throughout the house was EDGE. Now this is quite a bit bubble burst.

We have been looking through some antennas etc to possibly get a better reception and possibly something better than an EDGE connection.

Can anyone give a recommendation for a specific antenna or advice regarding this?

We will be testing signals outside either this afternoon or tomorrow.

Feedback would be appreciated.
 
We tried to do that. But it's the 5gb p/m package. When in your settings it only gives you the option for WCDMA preferred. The rest is grayed out
 
The Cell C dialler is crappy. Rather use MDMA. Remember to read the documentation (you need to set-up a dial-up connection with the name "MDMA") to be able to connect.
 
I will give it a go later today. Thanks. Just another thing too. We checked on saturday night for mobile networks that it can pick up etc. It picked up 3g on mtn and vodacom. But only 2g on CellC. which is the big problem. Im not really in a huge rush on it though. I just need it to be funcional when SWTOR comes out :D
 
Try outside yes, best is with a laptop running MDMA which will give the dBm signal strength. If you get anything in the -90's or better (-80's) then putting up an antenna will solve your problem.
 
Last night I got about -85dBm if I remember correctly. But I will have a check tonight on MDMA and see how it goes. Got the 60Gb package. Want to use it :) thanks
 
Ok I tried the program. It goes about -83dBm when on edge. When I put it to 3g only it goes down to -113dbm and disconnects. Would an antenna solve this for me? if so what antenna would I need? I never had to use one before so I would need all steps please :D lol thanks
 
DazedSa said:
When I put it to 3g only it goes down to -113dbm and disconnects. Would an antenna solve this for me? if so what antenna would I need? I never had to use one before so I would need all steps please :D lol thanks
Click to expand...

Where did you test? Outside on the roof? If you got -113 dBm on the roof forget it. AFAIK -113dBm doesn't mean anything. Your signal could even be lower than that.

Send a mail to [email protected] with your location, maybe they're planning more towers. You are quite near Centurion after all.
 
DazedSa said:
Ok I tried the program. It goes about -83dBm when on edge. When I put it to 3g only it goes down to -113dbm and disconnects. Would an antenna solve this for me? if so what antenna would I need? I never had to use one before so I would need all steps please :D lol thanks
Click to expand...

Just because you pick up EDGE at -83 dBm doesn't mean that same tower has 3G or belongs to Cell C. It might just be Vodacom's tower.

3G at -113 dBm means your 3G Cell C tower is far from you. Even if you got an antenna it would give you the most 11 dBi gain. Which wouldn't give you a good signal and download speeds.

Rather be patient and wait for Cell C to upgrade in your area. I was on EDGE 2 months, before Cell C upgraded in my area.
 
Luckywill said:
Hi all,

I am looking for some advice. Recently a friend of mine purchases the Cell C WHOOOOSH.

Before purchasing it we noticed on the Cell C's coverage page that where we stay there is a light red signal (Irene, Gauteng), but not white(no coverage afaik).

Over the weekend we installed the dongle and all it picked up throughout the house was EDGE. Now this is quite a bit bubble burst.

We have been looking through some antennas etc to possibly get a better reception and possibly something better than an EDGE connection.

Can anyone give a recommendation for a specific antenna or advice regarding this?

We will be testing signals outside either this afternoon or tomorrow.

Feedback would be appreciated.
Click to expand...


Hi "Luckywill"


Is it Irene in Centurion, there are still work being done in the Centurion area with regards to base stations, hence there are certain areas that are not fully covered.

Please PM or email [email protected] with your physical address, and will access the coverage in your specific location.

Regards

Cell_C
DM
 
Madhawk said:
3G at -113 dBm means your 3G Cell C tower is far from you. Even if you got an antenna it would give you the most 11 dBi gain. Which wouldn't give you a good signal and download speeds.
Click to expand...
Assuming you mount your antenna indoors next to your modem then yes, but most people would mount it on a mast outside.

I've seen increases in signal strength of over 30dBm when using a Poynting LPDA-A0044 11dBi antenna and ADPT-026 inductive coupler.
 
Hi Cell_C,

Thanks for your response. "Dazedsa" will be sending you a pm with our physical address.

Your assistance regarding this would be greatly appreciated.

Also an update, last night after 23h00 we where able to pick up HSPA+ on -99dbi with a stable connection for a few minutes, but the d/l speeds was still very bad (peaking at 4.6kbps).
 
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Don't forget what was briefly mentioned above, something that far too many people are not aware of when signing up for the Cell C packages: that if you don't have an actual dedicated Cell C tower within reception range, your device will fall back on Vodacom -- which only offers Cell C users EDGE (and not 3G, even from a 3G-capable tower) under their 'roaming' agreement.
 
also as said. We got HSPA+ the one night on -97 dBm. So there is definately a tower in the near area. I wanted to know after that what antenna's and devices would i need to get the best possible reception for it
 
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