General observations on Vodacom LTE

I played some Diablo 3 RoE on Voda LTE this weekend. Pings were around 235ms and I didn't have any issues. Rocking. :)
 
General observations on Vodacom 4G/LTE

I ran out of Telkom Mobile data at the start of the weekend so popped my VC 3GB SIM - which normally does duty in my iPad 4 - into my new B593s-601.

I've run two households the whole weekend - Tapatalk, Internet, YouTube, email - and it's been flying. Even on only 3 bars signal strength it performs really well.


851620695.png
 
General observations on Vodacom 4G/LTE

Azimuth said:
Location: Sandown
Device: iPad 4
LTE signal: 5 bars/full
3G signal: 5 bars/full

LTE Test 1:

905178969.png


LTE Test 2:

905179299.png


LTE Test 3:

905179740.png


3G Test 1:

905182942.png



3G Test 2:

905182942.png



3G Test 3:

905183769.png


Conclusion:

VC 3G remains unusable after 14 months due to a crippling upload speed. If your device supports LTE, turn it on and get the LTE VAS added to your profile. Forget 3G download speeds because with the above 3G uploads, you will have a miserable time.
Click to expand...

And 3G is still completely worthless in Sandown. I lost 2GB prepaid data as a result because I simply could not face browsing on a 3G connection. VC LTE continues to perform well and is super stable.
 
Vodacom LTE with some severe lack of spectrum making it a just a battery drainer....

LTE/3G/2G tower right next to me I can feel the signal :D

5d7b05bd-fe53-4cbf-86c3-f462b053aaccphoto.JPG



LTE

907949958.png



3G

907952205.png
 
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General observations on Vodacom 4G/LTE

Nice photo, mind correcting the orientation? :p

Great results. I'll personally take the LTE connection any day. ;)
 
Azimuth said:
Nice photo, mind correcting the orientation? :p

Great results. I'll personally take the LTE connection any day. ;)
Click to expand...

lol yeah I was in the car :)

I am abscessed with LTE and when I see LTE coverage I ALWAYS have to do a quick test to see how how fast I can go so in a month I actually might spend like 1GB just on LTE speedtests...... :(


Vodacom should actually thank me cause I am bringing the average speed up so they can keep on claiming "the best network for smartphones" :p
 
cavedog said:
Vodacom should actually thank me cause I am bringing the average speed up so they can keep on claiming "the best network for smartphones" :p
Click to expand...
No, they can't. Their counters are regularly updated many hours after the last usage. It creates lot of mess if want to control usage.
It is the best network for OOB, no question about it :-(
 
General observations on Vodacom 4G/LTE

Azimuth said:
I started logging tickets with Vodacom and basically stopped using the service between July 2013 and December 2013. This was also partly due to both SIM cards going into a "No service" mode on our iPads.
Click to expand...

Wow. Or not wow. One year later I get a call from Vodacom following up on this. You must be kidding me. I told them that switching over to LTE was the silver bullet. I also asked them to add my solution to their knowledge base to enable others to also benefit. They still want to try and fix 3G here.

Azimuth said:
Location: Sandown
Device: iPad 4
LTE signal: 5 bars/full
3G signal: 5 bars/full

LTE Test 1:

905178969.png


LTE Test 2:

905179299.png


LTE Test 3:

905179740.png


3G Test 1:

905182942.png



3G Test 2:

905182942.png



3G Test 3:

905183769.png


Conclusion:

VC 3G remains unusable after 14 months due to a crippling upload speed. If your device supports LTE, turn it on and get the LTE VAS added to your profile. Forget 3G download speeds because with the above 3G uploads, you will have a miserable time.
Click to expand...
 
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General observations on Vodacom 4G/LTE

Azimuth said:
It's been a week since I've been on prepaid and no LTE. Vodacom also cannot fix it (S3-0C92Q-QWV0K). They've given me 500MB data in lieu of a SIM swap. This is not the first time I've had to do a SIM swap to fix LTE. :(
Click to expand...

I left this SIM in a drawer and forgot about it. I never bothered to do a SIM swap. I ended up losing 3GB data in the process due to the rollover rules.

All this time later and LTE is suddenly working. :) Needed to use my TM multi-SIM so popped the VC SIM in the one iPad - so it has at least some form of mobile data. Boom, LTE signal!!

All this after struggling my butt off to get LTE on prepaid, and giving up. This will be great for VC LTE testing at client sites going forward. :D
 
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I've previously complained about poor YouTube on VC LTE. So today I'm hitting up a few videos and noticed that the buffer line is running miles ahead. This continues through a few videos. So I decide to do a speed test and see if anything has changed.

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Yikes! No wonder all my videos are all in HD and I had to top up with 1GB yesterday. :)

I'll test over the next few days to see if this speed is sustainable or if I'm just lucky today. Worth noting is that we have a VC base station in our building and I'm about 15m away from the omni DAS. :p
 
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Vodacom LTE has never worked for me, not much faster than 2G.

Too much congestion in my area.
 
While I revel in the widespread LTE from Vodacom, I found a place void of LTE signal; 3G and Edge there's no throughput.

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There's a base station close by but it sorely needs an upgrade. It should cover the whole area easily.
 
So at the office, it definitely seems like VC LTE is going from strength to strength. This is a sight for sore eyes!

Off peak period, today.

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Peak period, yesterday.

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Per this post, I'm considering renewing my contract (I'm chewing through more data and 3GB per month isn't lasting).

Dear Azimuth

Our telephonic conversation today on XXXXXXXXXX at 14:59pm refers.

As discussed, I have advised that the monthly subscription for the MyGig 10 Promo Data Contract is R499.00 per month, including Night Owl.

Kindly note that the Double Your Data Promotion, which is the deal you were referring to and advised that you would receive 10GB for R399.00 has ended on the 31st August 2014.
Click to expand...

A 10GB+10GB (half of which is midnight data) isn't too bad. You're almost there Vodacom, one final push is needed! ;)
 
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Past the infamous 9am 3G crash time. In prior years no-one could use 3G after 9am. LTE takes no prisoners.

950389603.png
 
After what I assume was a big upgrade, both LTE and 3G are broken at the office now. Broken!

LTE:

970103521.png


3G:

970100539.png


I hope this doesn't last long.

Edit: things were fixed after 4 days or so.
 
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So according to the Vodacom LTE Leaderboard thread, general LTE speeds on the VC network are much faster than ever before. At the beginning of 2014, peak speeds were less than 10Mbps and now we're seeing 30-50Mbps!

Thank you Vodacom for a truly great LTE network. I use it everyday and can't imagine going back to 3G!
 
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Vodacom LTE in Sandown is still going strong. :)

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Yesterday both the 3G and LTE APN were broken the whole day. Today we're back in business.
 
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