HSPA+ Speeds in Gauteng Region - Known Issue (From Cell C)

[surfs-up]

I am not for a minute suggesting this was the case for you hugos, however...

I think one of the biggest problems, is that people rush out to buy Cell C modems and data, overwhelmed by the good pricing and high speed touted, without first doing a comprehensive check to see if HSPA could be received in their home. The tx and rx of RF is not a guaranteed one, so it is difficult to predict and guarantee 100 % on a map. You might get a good signal from your open garden, but come inside your home, with all sorts of obstructions like walls, burglar guards, ornaments etc and it becomes very difficult to predict. No two homes are the same - different materials used for the walls, different roof material used, amount, thickness, height and type of vegetation surrounding the house, which all attenuate the signal horribly.

Anyone thinking of getting a Cell C data package (or from any other provider) should try and loan a modem and SIM from a friend - or even see if their local store could loan one. My local Cell C store has the service available of sending an employee out to your home first, to see what strength can be received from inside the home, before you make the purchase decision. Failing that, you should test it thoroughly for the first 7 days, and return it for a refund, should you be unhappy.

Some people are their own worst enemies......

Like they say - fools rush in.....

 

[SoTrue]

This is the sort of speed I am getting in Krugersdorp and it also frequently disconnects. Now I can see why Cell C 3G is priced at 5c/MB. What you see is what you pay.

With all this frustration of frequent disconnects I will rather pay more for an always on connection.

Cell C's 3G/HSPA is simply not worth it and to think I almost took out a contract with them!!!

I've also given up on CellC.

Sometimes there is coverage where I live (48% HSPA+ signal), most often not. This area is indicated on the map as not covered, so this I can understand. Hopefully CellC will include this later in their rollout.

Sometimes there is coverage in Sandton, where my office is. The last two times I checked (today, and a few weeks ago) there was not.

Sometimes there is coverage in Hatfield, where I work almost on a daily basis. The signal is always strong (98% on HSPA+) but speeds are mostly low - below 1 Mpbs.

The lack of coverage in Hatfield and Sandton I don't understand - thousands of people live and work there.

My conclusion is that CellC does not have a proper, reliable network, especially during working hours and one should stay away and wait a few months/years. Don't be tempted by the low cost.

 

[Pavan]

To be honest I get awesome coverage in Sandton... I only ever experienced connectivity and speed issues when they were changing their back-end during mid-February...

 

[R1ECKO]

I'm getting 3 bars HSPA in NNE pta but there is no data transfer taking place!

 

[R1ECKO]

[QUOTE= here even though their mast is 100m closer to my house and has less obstructions. Vodacom Fail (for me)

its because you fall in the Dead Space

 

[Cell.C-Guru]

Area Issues Update:
Areas Concerned: Morellata Park / Garsfontein
Issue: Constant Disconnections; Slow D/L and U L
Problem: Tower orientation issue in Garsfontein. (unaware of the cause)
Cell C is looking into the cause of the problem. NSN and Radio Planning is also being looked into for the entire area in an attempt to have this issues rectified as soon as possible.

 

[UgO]

Thanks Cell.C-Guru

I'm on the border between garsfontein and faerie glen

I connect and 10sec later my download drops to 0

Any eta on the fix?

 

[Cell.C-Guru]

@ugo No eta. The are trying to determine if the towerjust needs to be reorientated or if it needs to be moved. Hopefully the former as the latter will mean looking at the entire network to prevent interference with other towers.

Soz i can't narrow it down

 

[hugos]

Some more feedback on my issue with Cell-C.
Had a mail from David from CellC support stating that someone will call me and try and resolve.
One week later today and nothing yet.!

I will now proceed to escalate this to the Marketing Director of Cell-C, luckily i have his Contact number and E-mail addy.

 

[steve-rsa]

Still waiting for some sort of response

Please tell me when tower 21682 gets upgraded to 3G as promised by your call centre and the chap who came to my house to test the signal (which was bad)? They said 2 weeks and that time period has come and gone.....

 

[JWH]

microSIM for iPad

Hi All,
First off, thanks for the understanding, I use our data service from my flat and when it does not work as expected I notice, so I feel the pain as well.
As to the forums I did not realize we had lost the Cell C Technical Rep support, I will address this in the morning with my team to ensure we keep coverage on the forum. I will also monitor and keep in closer contact as well.

Dual Sim I know has been asked about several times, we are looking in to this, it does pose several challenges as to configuration in the USC (The database that keep the subscriber information in regards to the SIM) and also the correct information flow back to either the IN or Post Paid billing system to manage the account. It is doable, but I dare not say more with out getting my Marketing team upset on stealing the thunder. But it is a very good idea.....

The Web Portal is coming, timeline I cannot comment on, but will leave that as soon. As to the monitoring of account usage, would a daily SMS with amount used and amount left be helpful? That may be something we could do quite quickly if everyone thinks that would be a benefit.

Regards
Ron

Ronald Reddick
CTO
Cell C

Perhaps not the right forum, but I haven't found many references for microSIM for iPad. Further to the discussion above on dual SIM, I was advised by a Cell C consultant that buying a 2GB data card and then doing a SIM Swop to a microSIM (for use in iPad) will not provide the same speed (upto 7.2Mbps) as on the original data SIM. Indeed the speed will only be EDGE speed. Or so I was told. Aparentally the actual data speed delivered is SIM specific? Is this indeed correct? So is there then no way to get Wooooosh on to an iPad?

Re

Willem

 

[surfs-up]

The modem built into the original iPad does not operate on the same frequency band as what Cell C uses for their high speed data (900Mhz), so you will only connect at slow speeds if you place a Cell C SIM direct into the iPad.

The new iPad 2, DOES include operation at 900 Mhz (same as the iPhone 4), so you WILL get Whoossshhh on the new iPad 2

Your solution, if you are using the older iPad ? create a wireless hotspot, using an iPhone 4 or a USB router with external modem, and connect to the router wirelessly from the iPad......or buy an iPad 2

 

[Josandre53]

From December 2010 I have been reporting very bad connections in the Albertsville, Johannesburg Area.
We have 2 black speed sticks and I have reperted both of them, becausse both modems give us the same connection problems and therefore I suspect a network, tower problem.

We have been in Durban for 3 weeks since middle February and not a single problem occur.

Well I must say that while I was in Durban I have a decent surfing speed on the internet.

Back in JHB and the problem seems to be still going on.
Signal is between 90-99% RSSI is -87dBm
Connection, if we can, last for +-5 to 7 minutes before the connection come to dead stop.
We have un-installed the software, re-install it, but we seems to get nowhere.

The last time that I did speak to the technical guys at Cell-C, I was informed that the towers will be checked out on the 28th of this month.
I am slowly starting to get very annoyed with the quality of the network and also the very long delay to get through to the technical department.
last call to them, had to listen to the music for 1 hour 27 minutes before some one answered.

 

[extremist]

Experiencing non-existent international connectivity in Centurion area (@Health centre on Jean Ave., Lyttelton / Die Hoewes).

Realised (somewhat late) that my post lacked any decent detail.

I'm connected at either "strong" or "medium" signal strengths (2 to 4 out of 4 bars) on 3G and yet I was unable to browse internationally. Local sites such as MyBB seemed to load, but international content in script and iframes didn't seem to load (i.e. the site content was visible, but Chrome showed that it was loading the page the whole time).

 

[Wolfy]

Its funny I complained twice about my fathers dongle back on page 9 or 10 (About no coverage in the East Rand, about promised coverage back in Jan) to find they deleted my post, now tell me Mr Cell C rep, why on earth would you want to delete my post if what im telling is the truth? You guys are more then happy to take my cellphone contract money every month, but delete my frustrations when I stand up for an unsatisfied customer/family member. Classy Cell C very CLASSY indeed, you gonna delete this post too?

Just come clean with us people who are out of coverage and tell us there wont be coverage in your area until date X, so much for you can return your dongle in one week if your not happy when there was said there would be coverage 2 months later. Insulting

 

[dex_10]

No Cell C 3G HSPA Coverage In Krugersdorp - Problems Errors Connectivity

Experiencing non-existent international connectivity in Centurion area (@Health centre on Jean Ave., Lyttelton / Die Hoewes).

I have had full 3G-HSPA coverage for about 6 weeks here in Krugersdorp and since 2 April 2011 it just disappeared. Now I only have EDGE coverage. The worst is that I was on prepaid to test the Cell C connectivity at first and after 6 weeks of it being OK I decided to go for the 12-month contract.

I eventually went through an Autopage store in the Western Cape, seeing that customer service is non-existent in Gauteng, to assist me in getting hold of a Cell C rep. The Cell C rep from the Cape was very helpful thus far, but currently I am still on EDGE only.

 

[oronte]

I'm in Auckland Park - Johannesburg. Up and down it goes, but for the last week no 3G data (I can connect to 3G but no data downloaded). I have to use it on EDGE now to get any use out of this supposed 21mbps modem. The only time I ever saw anything like that was the first week I had it (December) since then I'm lucky to get a few hundred kb per a second, now I'm lucky to get 10kb per a second. And I was all set to port over to Cell C next year. Apparently you can't have it all: it's low prices and worthless service or high prices and decent service - both factors will never come together it seems.

 

[JacquesZA]

Is this stil a "known" issue?
My stick disconnects constantly and speeds average at abou 800kbps... problem with the constint disconnect is i have lost my 5 gig bundle as i had to re download a bunch of things after it bombed halfway.

 

[slave]

For my sins, I checked the Cell C webite and saw I was covered so I signed up. Collected my 'Speed' stick today and all I've seen of the whoosh so far is an average of 40Kbps. I can type faster than that! For those of you in the Randpark/Honeydew Ridge area be very wary before you sign up and if at all possible borrow a friends to test for a couple fo days first. I drove around my area and all I could pick up was EDGE. I heard a rumour that if you signed up and did not get any decent speeds that you could return within 7 days for a full cancellation. Is this true? Even if I'm going through Nashua?

 

[rorz0r]

You can type over 5000 characters per second???