Coverage Map Inaccurate???

[Iam3G]

I just had a customer who came in absolutely frustrated and fed up with the E220 Modem. She says she has had it for more3 or less 3 months, and hasnt been performing as it should. Intermitently dropping connections. Emails taking ages to come in, and go out.

My first thought was... check the coverage in her area. Upon doing so, i found that her area(As shown on the coverage map) is BLOOD red. So i thought ok. Cant be that right?

I test the modem here, and its flying faster than Superman! She was even flabbergasted herself.

V3G, how accurate is that Map?

The other thing she complained about is that Vodacom never follows up with her. She had logged a call with 155 for the call-out voucher, and she followed up with VODACOM to find out where things are standing. And they still havent gotten back to her yet.

Is there any way you can follow up with her V3G? I have her contact details.

And what is up with the queque for the callout voucher? People do wait like more than 2 weeks over here.

 

[PsychoR8der]

In my area too im in the center of a blood bath, nowhere close to any white pixel, but for some reason the signal also finds its way past my house

 

[ic]

@Iam3G, your customer needs to compare outdoors to indoors - most likely her own abode is causing the problems, and she will have to find a better spot indoors where the signal quality and signal strength is better than where she has been trying to use it.

Best to run speed tests indoors & outdoors or use ginggs' app.

 

[Iam3G]

I did run a test indoors for my own modem earlier. I got some pretty impressive speeds:

Download Speed: 1423 kbps (177.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 348 kbps (43.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

And i work in a Mall.
I tested her modem here as well.

So i doubt it would be that. A possibilty yes, but i doubt it.

what's ginggs' app and where can i find it?

 

[vodacom3g]

I did run a test indoors for my own modem earlier. I got some pretty impressive speeds:

Download Speed: 1423 kbps (177.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 348 kbps (43.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

And i work in a Mall.
I tested her modem here as well.

So i doubt it would be that. A possibilty yes, but i doubt it.

what's ginggs' app and where can i find it?

Signal attenuation will vary widely from building to building. It's a function of how it is constructed. A shopping mall typically is quite a large trellis roof structure with very few, thin walls between shops.

Depending on the house, it could have a massive amounts of steel in the structure that will limit the signal tremendously.

I see this in my own house. I get no 2G or 3G signal in parts of the house and I can spit further than what my WiFi signal travels. With 4 AP's I still don't get proper coverage.

That's why the external 3G antennas work so well. Because they're mounted outdoors they remove the 8dB+ attenuation the building causes plus they give a gain of, say, 7dB's. A nett gain of ~15dB's.

The coverage map is produced by the radio planning software and normally err on the conservative side. But some local anomalies can cause a small dead spot, a dip in the landscape or a horrible big office block or something similar.

 

[xrapidx]

Download Speed: 1423 kbps (177.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 348 kbps (43.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

Are those results accurate? Maybe it time to move back to Vodacom... Virgins 6KB/s suck.

 

[vodacom3g]

Download Speed: 1423 kbps (177.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 348 kbps (43.5 KB/sec transfer rate)

Are those results accurate? Maybe it time to move back to Vodacom... Virgins 6KB/s suck.

Well the theoretical max is 1800/384, so you'll find people that'll say 1423/348 is not good enough...

My personal best is 1720/384 !