I have a CellC E1820, HSPA+ device with a CellC 128k simcard.
I have been using this dongle at my home, at my offices and on the road for the past 4 months. No complaints.
I got home on Sunday night (4th of December) and had terrible latency (100~3000ms), horrible packet loss (50% packet loss over 4000 packets). I thought I'd just wait to see if the problem cleared up on Monday. It didn't.
Signal: 100%, HSPA+
I phoned into the call centre, navigated through their automated system and had to ask to be transferred to the technical department numerous times only to be either cut off or if I did manage to get through, get put on hold whilst they "checked" for 5 minutes and then I was transferred back into the automated phone system but this time in Zulu. Not helpful at all.
Then I finally managed to get through to the tech department and was on the phone with a support guy for an hour. We spent that time uninstalling the CellC software, breaking the drivers and then trying to get it to a point where it would see the modem again (this was not the initial problem, but this troubleshooting step caused it). This is not isolated to a single machine but across 3 machines -> Work Laptop, Home Laptop, Desktop machine. I followed his instructions to uninstall the software on my Work Laptop and Home Laptop. Broke the drivers.
CellC automatically cuts you off after 1 hour of being on the phone to the tech support guys. Not helpful. I tried calling back to the call centre but of course, now the guy I just spent an hour explaining the problem to is busy on another call. So at that point I was annoyed and told the tech support guy I had enough and I didn't think they would be able to help me.
Part 2:
I came home today and started testing the connection again. Connection was stable for about 20 minutes and then the problems started. Same as before; massive packet loss, especially when trying to do anything.
Speedtest.net: http://i43.tinypic.com/1vls5.png (Yes, I know it was going to the MTN servers, but that's beside the point)
Before I started typing this up, I dialled into the CellC call centre again and asked to be transferred to the technical guys, my phone tells me I've been on hold 40 minutes already.
So I decided to stick in my MTN simcard, bad signal 30%, but still usable. No packets lost (3000 pings), latency acceptable. Perfectly usable.
Finally got someone on the other end of this CellC call and explained to her the past activity and the fact that the dongle works everywhere else. Personally I am suspected that there is something wrong with the tower.
Unfortunately this lady on the other end of the call wants me to try reinstalling the software again or try reinstallating the software without the simcard present in the device.
Apparently she's going to log a ticket with the network guys to look into this issue but who knows.
I have been using this dongle at my home, at my offices and on the road for the past 4 months. No complaints.
I got home on Sunday night (4th of December) and had terrible latency (100~3000ms), horrible packet loss (50% packet loss over 4000 packets). I thought I'd just wait to see if the problem cleared up on Monday. It didn't.
Signal: 100%, HSPA+
I phoned into the call centre, navigated through their automated system and had to ask to be transferred to the technical department numerous times only to be either cut off or if I did manage to get through, get put on hold whilst they "checked" for 5 minutes and then I was transferred back into the automated phone system but this time in Zulu. Not helpful at all.
Then I finally managed to get through to the tech department and was on the phone with a support guy for an hour. We spent that time uninstalling the CellC software, breaking the drivers and then trying to get it to a point where it would see the modem again (this was not the initial problem, but this troubleshooting step caused it). This is not isolated to a single machine but across 3 machines -> Work Laptop, Home Laptop, Desktop machine. I followed his instructions to uninstall the software on my Work Laptop and Home Laptop. Broke the drivers.
CellC automatically cuts you off after 1 hour of being on the phone to the tech support guys. Not helpful. I tried calling back to the call centre but of course, now the guy I just spent an hour explaining the problem to is busy on another call. So at that point I was annoyed and told the tech support guy I had enough and I didn't think they would be able to help me.
Part 2:
I came home today and started testing the connection again. Connection was stable for about 20 minutes and then the problems started. Same as before; massive packet loss, especially when trying to do anything.
Speedtest.net: http://i43.tinypic.com/1vls5.png (Yes, I know it was going to the MTN servers, but that's beside the point)
Before I started typing this up, I dialled into the CellC call centre again and asked to be transferred to the technical guys, my phone tells me I've been on hold 40 minutes already.
So I decided to stick in my MTN simcard, bad signal 30%, but still usable. No packets lost (3000 pings), latency acceptable. Perfectly usable.
Finally got someone on the other end of this CellC call and explained to her the past activity and the fact that the dongle works everywhere else. Personally I am suspected that there is something wrong with the tower.
Unfortunately this lady on the other end of the call wants me to try reinstalling the software again or try reinstallating the software without the simcard present in the device.
Apparently she's going to log a ticket with the network guys to look into this issue but who knows.
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