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

[Goobie]

Similar disconnects in Bloemfontein, very frustrating.

 

[OMB]

Still having problems in Norscot Fourways, although connection seems to have been stable now for the last 10minutes and 50seconds which is a record for this week

 

[OMB]

things looking much better Norscot Fourways, have had stable connection for over 4 hrs now, but speed still not great (compared to what I was originally getting in December)



Better then iBurst and MTN tho

 

[ronbo4GS]

Hi OMB
I have a team looking into the area this evening and will get back to you on the forum>

And as Promised, the details of what we found and what we are doing:

The root cause of the problem turned out to be a bit elusive to the NOC team. We found after much investigation that one type of the IP Microwave hardware that our vendor used to connect the Cell Site Base Stations back to the main hub had a configuration setting that was not stable on the platform. When the Node B (the cell site Hardware) was reset, and sometime just on its own, the MW hardware would take the Ethernet port connected to the Node B to half duplex mode. Now what this means is around the way it deals with an IP Packet, the normal mode is full Duplex in which packets travel in both directions at once, and when only one of the ports, or one side is set to half duplex it causes all kinds of problems. It will cause packet delays due to packet loss, limited speeds, dropped connections due to lost packets and the far end system timing out, etc.

The reason it was hard to find was that type of fault did not raise any alarms on our monitoring systems and the metrics we monitored did not capture the error as well. What we are doing now is visiting each site with this type of link, checking the configuration and changing the method of configuration. We will have this task completed by Friday evening.

The longer term fix over the next month is we are replacing all of those links in the network with a new hardware type. We have added threshold alarms for packet loss on very specific parameters to monitor the Node B Data and Voice VLANS so that an alarm is raised for any site showing any packet loss for those services.

In the near term we are doing some more work to develop a reset script to help the notification on the old style links and ease in finding any sites that may revert back to half duplex due to an unplanned reset on the Node B.

Again I apoligize for the issues and we are working to give you the best network possible.

For the Cape Town users we have an MPLS fault that is being worked on the Fiber segment from Cape Town to Joburg and time to resolution is around 2 AM.

In the future we will be using Twitter Status, our Web Site, and this forum to keep our customer updated in Service Effecting outages on a fast basis. I am working with my NOC team to finalize the procedures for these near realtime updates and we hope to have it operational my mid Week next.

Regards
Ron

Ronald Reddick
CTO
Cell C

 

[Mr K]

Hi OMB
I have a team looking into the area this evening and will get back to you on the forum>

And as Promised, the details of what we found and what we are doing:

The root cause of the problem turned out to be a bit elusive to the NOC team. We found after much investigation that one type of the IP Microwave hardware that our vendor used to connect the Cell Site Base Stations back to the main hub had a configuration setting that was not stable on the platform. When the Node B (the cell site Hardware) was reset, and sometime just on its own, the MW hardware would take the Ethernet port connected to the Node B to half duplex mode. Now what this means is around the way it deals with an IP Packet, the normal mode is full Duplex in which packets travel in both directions at once, and when only one of the ports, or one side is set to half duplex it causes all kinds of problems. It will cause packet delays due to packet loss, limited speeds, dropped connections due to lost packets and the far end system timing out, etc.

The reason it was hard to find was that type of fault did not raise any alarms on our monitoring systems and the metrics we monitored did not capture the error as well. What we are doing now is visiting each site with this type of link, checking the configuration and changing the method of configuration. We will have this task completed by Friday evening.

The longer term fix over the next month is we are replacing all of those links in the network with a new hardware type. We have added threshold alarms for packet loss on very specific parameters to monitor the Node B Data and Voice VLANS so that an alarm is raised for any site showing any packet loss for those services.

In the near term we are doing some more work to develop a reset script to help the notification on the old style links and ease in finding any sites that may revert back to half duplex due to an unplanned reset on the Node B.

Again I apoligize for the issues and we are working to give you the best network possible.

For the Cape Town users we have an MPLS fault that is being worked on the Fiber segment from Cape Town to Joburg and time to resolution is around 2 AM.

In the future we will be using Twitter Status, our Web Site, and this forum to keep our customer updated in Service Effecting outages on a fast basis. I am working with my NOC team to finalize the procedures for these near realtime updates and we hope to have it operational my mid Week next.

Regards
Ron

Ronald Reddick
CTO
Cell C

Great service from Cell C.
Thanks Ron.
I assume that midrand has not been fixed as yet. I am in halfway house midrand.
I was reading this forum and i got page can not be displayed error. I checked the dash board and it is still connected.
I had to disconnect and reconnect to use internet again.

Thanks once again
kotesh

EDIT: I had disconnect and re connect thrice in last 10 minutes

 

[ronbo4GS]

All,

For OMB - Team found faulty Microwave unit Indoor box which is causing site to bounce. They are fixing now, should be corrected in a few hours.

Everyone - We had a Packet Core problem at our Esher location, as we load share across several Packet Core only some users effected depending on the connection. Time to Resolve is 1 hour, so 12 ish.

Regards
Ron

Ronald Reddick
CTO
Cell C

 

[neetz108]

@Ronald: how about cellc compensate all <Gauteng> users with free bandwidth in February for all the inconveniences caused during this January period? majority of users have already paid upfront for their service... i currently have around 3gb of data going down the drain for this month

anyway, thanks for the valuable feedback....hopefully this is resolved soon....

 

[Deckert]

The problem comes in for the guys that uses the dongle via a router.

Ah, thanks for clearing that up, Park. I was under the impression they were using the windows client app. The router guys must think of adding a USSD interface to the router's web interface, but yes, the web portal will certainly solve things.

--deckert

 

[mith]

Still no whoosh in boksburg? on Fobian street off North Rand Road near Timber city.
Also having problems over the past two months with low mobile signal, dropped calls, sometimes cant even make a call......reported it on the Cell c website but nothing has changed. Can you please investigate?

 

[surfs-up]

This feedback from the CTO is fantastic, and is a big wake-up call to Vodacom and MTN. Thanks Ron

I think the CTO for Vodacom and MTN would be too high and almighty, to deal with customers on an open forum like this !!!! But it will cost them dearly....

 

[atomcrusher]

And yes I do plan on being on here much more often and I have asked my management team to also spend some time each day on the forum to help address issues

Ron ... CellC are going to win over a whole lot more subscribers if you stick to this promise! Including myself, and my neighbours, if you sort out the signal (i.e. lack thereof) in the Bellairspark area of Randburg ..... Oh ... and in Swellendam, Western Cape, where I will move to later this year

 

[Lemoenboer]

Thanks Ron!!!!!!

One would never see this type of involvement from the other ISP's.

I'm sure your replies and involvement will pay off in the long run.

GL!

 

[NOC support]

The connection in Hatfield, Pretoria this morning was very slow, erratic, etc, even while it showed a strong signal - this has been ongoing for quite a few weeks. I had to fall back to my Vodacom service again.

Hi SoTrue,

I work in the Network Operations Centre for Cell C, & Ron has asked me to look into your issue.
Can you message me your location in Hatfield so our team can look into your problem ?

 

[Jer1cho]

Any chance you guys could look into the Northgate area? I got the following e mail in December from tech support:

Good Day Richard

There are currently coverage issues around Northgate area. However there’s site planned which will resolved this issue.

Regards

Cell C

I still don't get connection speeds faster than around 2mb/s. Also have frequent disconnects, but the worst by far occurs at night between 5-8. Sometimes my speeds don't even get past 100kb/s. Has anyone been working on the issues surrounding the Northgate area?

 

[SoTrue]

Hi SoTrue,

I work in the Network Operations Centre for Cell C, & Ron has asked me to look into your issue.
Can you message me your location in Hatfield so our team can look into your problem ?

Thanks for looking into my problem. I PM'ed you some relevant details.

Looking forward to a positive solution!

 

[Yster21]

Last night (27 January) from 8.30pm until at least 10.30pm, my internet would only work in bursts. It would be fine for anything between 10sec to 3min, and then be off for the same duration. I would actively ping a website, and you could clearly see the behaviour. I had assumed it was due to the fact that people were trying to break their caps for the month, but if it was the issue mentioned here, then I hope it is resolved by now. This morning it seemed 100%.

I live in Paulshof, Jhb.

I cannot express how awesome I find it to have a top Cell C person reading these forums and actively replying to posts! Much respect. /bow

 

[MrNeedforSpeed]

Hi Mr Ron and NOC Support

I've been having serious problems with disconnection and very slow speed since 2 January, I spoke to various tech support staff, but no joy.

Can you please check the network in Bromhof, Randburg? I am in Crow street and my neighbors complain about the same issue.

 

[steve-rsa]

Hi Ron,

Well done for coming on here to address issues.

When will Tower 21029 get anthing upwards of EDGE coverage only? Beeing at Lanseria Airport, with all the business people and tourists going through there, it seems you are missing out on a huge opportunity to advertise the speed.

Cheers,
Steve

Coverage today is abysmal with barely over 5kbps, had to reccomend 2 visitors to use Voda instead.

 

[ASR]

Hi,

Still experiencing throughput problems - can connect and authenticate without problem but no data goes through. Cell ID 12421; -81dBm; am within 600 meters of site - so doubt its a radio problem - looks like packet loss. Area: Morningside, Johannesburg - closest intersection is corner Outspan Road / Palala Close.

Service was awesome in November - since mid December absolutely usesless

 

[Alacrity]

Very slow connection (unusable) on HSPA+ (Cell ID 19971, RSSI -89dBm).

On the same Cell ID but with E1752 normal speed.

So it looks like the E1820 is busted BUT on a tower 2km from here with the same modem I get 5 to 10Mb/s.