Coverage [Jeffreys-St. Francis]

[diabolus]

I had to resort to MTN just to get GPRS. Im rather surprised there is -no- data reception for Vodacom [GPRS/3G] in these rather popular Holiday areas [isn't it where you would expect it this time of year?. ] . I assume Jbay got some coverage in the central areas, but all the shops in St. Francis have nice big MTN signs all over suggesting Vodacom missed the areas completely.

At least, the Novatel card [i got on the Vodacom contract] works prefectly with an MTN prepaid sim.

Maybe sometime Vodacom might look into covering holiday resorts/towns over the festive season? [At least with GPRS] .

 

[vodacom3g]

Can you give a more detailed location?

The area must, at least, have GPRS. Did you look on the 3G map for 3G coverage?

 

[diabolus]

Cape St. Francis , No GPRS or 3G (just regular voice reception). The 3G coverage map show there isn't any 3G coverage (didn't expect any either, but however thought there would be GPRS).

Not really a big deal, just rather surprised to find MTN GPRS reception all across Cape St Francis/St Francis Bay at 5 bars and struggling to get Vodacom. I think there might be something in St Francis Bay though as the Voda map shows 3G coverage there [under the name "Sea Vista"] . Probably a case of the Voda GPRS capable tower being on the farside hill and the MTN on the nearside hill or something.

 

[vodacom3g]

I asked the local guys to look into it. Can you PM or post some cell-ids?

 

[diabolus]

Not getting any CellIDs on my cell. How else do i look? [i can however give you MTN Cellids, doubt that will help though].

 

[nextstep]

I cannot find a GPRS coverage map on the Vodacom site?

We are going down to PE (should have 3G in the area that we plan to visit), then further south to Humansdorp (which is close to St Francis)) and Kareedouw ...

 

[diabolus]

Got some Cellids, most do have GPRS, seems i am simply in a bad spot or something.

[Could get GPRS going]
Humansdorp 2
St Francis Bay 3

[Had trouble]
St Francis Bay 1

Now the issue is, if i come in from outside (humansdorp) i seem to "lock" onto a tower all the way to our house where everything works fine, at some stage [when i turn things off/tower switching?] i loose the tower and get stuck with a different tower which just give me the "service not available" error on my phone. On the dash it simply do not pick up any Vodacom network at all, just MTN SA.

So i believe i'm probably in some blind spot between towers? Any way to force a lock onto a specific tower which are further away [no idea how these things really works though].