Mobile network quality in SA: good enough?

[Jan]

Is SA’s mobile network quality good enough?

Mobile operators respond to Icasa’s Quality of Service report which shows that local networks failed many quality tests.

 

[marine1]

Is SA’s mobile network quality good enough?
shows that local networks failed many quality tests.

No kidding huh?

 

[Beri]

How do we compare to other countries?

 

[Sonic2k]

How do we compare to other countries?

Poorly
I have used my phone on calls in overseas countries.
Overseas, there is no such thing as a dropped call, nor do you get all this incessant distortion and audio breakup.

 

[qwertydudeza]

Poorly
I have used my phone on calls in overseas countries.
Overseas, there is no such thing as a dropped call, nor do you get all this incessant distortion and audio breakup.

Huh, what country was that?
Had it in the UK, US and France.
Have friends in Australia who moan too about quality and dropped calls.

 

[ponder]

Huh, what country was that?
Had it in the UK, US and France.
Have friends in Australia who moan too about quality and dropped calls.

+1

My brother was out here a few months ago from the UK (been there for 10+ yrs) and he reckons the uk networks suck donkey balls compared to the sa ones, that and the food

 

[SteveO]

How do we compare to other countries?

The sample size is probably too small to make an accurate comparison.

But I can almost guarantee that if you randomly tested any network world wide, in such a small area, you would probably get similar results.

 

[Hamish McPanji]

SA is a big country, things very spread out and so difficult to plan for and implement effective network roll outs. Network quality is good for a country of this size

 

[kianm]

No

 

[jannievanzyl]

Poorly
I have used my phone on calls in overseas countries.
Overseas, there is no such thing as a dropped call, nor do you get all this incessant distortion and audio breakup.

Can you please post your report that shows SA against a number of other countries please? The report I get monthly showing most European operators seems to show different results. I'd like to compare with yours.

 

[jannievanzyl]

Two of the areas tested were a nature reserve where no operator can build any towers and a few mountain passes which is rather tough to cover with any radio technology.

 

[entrepr]

“MTN has established that there was a problem with the IVR test monitoring system which is managed by MTN and used by Icasa to run the QoS tests,

Ha ha

If MTN ran a hospital I would NOT like to be one of their patients :wtf:

 

[Captain Beer]

How do we compare to other countries?

I've used Vodafone and o2 UK. Even Cell C is miles ahead compared to them. As soon as you leave the city center there your signal is gone.

 

[Dave]

I've used Vodafone and o2 UK. Even Cell C is miles ahead compared to them. As soon as you leave the city center there your signal is gone.

I'm not sure what O2 UK you think you used, but I've used O2 in the middle of national parks like Kielder Water and the Northumberland National Park and had pretty good signal. It's one reason I keep a phone on O2, as the old state incumbent network they have extensive cover in areas others can't cover (like national parks where planning permission is a problem).

I also have a phone with Three UK (the newest network in the UK) and while it cannot quite compete in really rural areas, it still covers a hell of a lot more than just the cities (the entire network is also at least 3G DC-HSDPA).

I cannot remember the last time I had a dropped call on either network.

 

[Hamish McPanji]

I'm not sure what O2 UK you think you used, but I've used O2 in the middle of national parks like Kielder Water and the Northumberland National Park and had pretty good signal. It's one reason I keep a phone on O2, as the old state incumbent network they have extensive cover in areas others can't cover (like national parks where planning permission is a problem).

I also have a phone with Three UK (the newest network in the UK) and while it cannot quite compete in really rural areas, it still covers a hell of a lot more than just the cities (the entire network is also at least 3G DC-HSDPA).

I cannot remember the last time I had a dropped call on either network.

I was in Bolton for a few weeks a couple of years ago, my O2 sim hardly ever hit 3g. My Vodafone sim was fine, and 3 mobile was a joke.

 

[Paul Hjul]

Can you please post your report that shows SA against a number of other countries please? The report I get monthly showing most European operators seems to show different results. I'd like to compare with yours.

is there a difference in dynamics explaining dropped calls etc ... My thinking is that were handover between operators and towers happen to a greater degree you can have far more frequent calls dropping as customers move about whereas in more scarcely populated areas you have a greater problem of deadspots.
So whilst CellC has a lot of calls dropped on the Vodacom network (or did) that is a product of handover problems because of CellC being cheap rather than saying anything about the network itself. I imagine much of the same throughout the EU whilst Nigeria its often crappy other stuff.

 

[Dave]

I was in Bolton for a few weeks a couple of years ago, my O2 sim hardly ever hit 3g. My Vodafone sim was fine, and 3 mobile was a joke.

Hardly relevant to current coverage if it was 2 or more years ago.

Three have even got 4G LTE coverage in Bolton now if you check their coverage map (and 3G coverage is pretty blanket going in any direction from the town)