MTN Data Technical Thread

motoman - What package did you take it on ? Amount/m. I'm also very interrested in getting the best card around at the best price. I don't want to get a card (like vodacom datacard) and get stuck overseas because it's locked. Have you tested with rival network sims ?

MTNDD - Have you got info on the operating times (week + weekends) of MTNSP Century City ? I work in the Paarl/Wellington area and only get home at about 6 at night. As far as I know one can't phone them because it is a walk-in centre. Also would the MTN earpiece/antennas work with the vodacom cards and vice versa? According to my knowledge they should (as it is technically the same card) Thanks!

debug
 
debug said:
LaRoosTa - Just keep in mind the "Connected at 480Kbps" which your pc reports is a bit missleading in terms of your actual download speed. Remember this only means that your PC and your phone are connected to each other @ 480Kbps (Which is the standard speed of USB2.0)
Your actual downloading speed depends on coverage - If you connect on 3G (384Kbps) your effective top download speed should be 48KB/s (384kbps/8).

For example we have a 128k diginet line at work and my top download speed is about 15-16 kb/s (128k/8 = 16)

If I'm wrong about this anyone can correct me.

debug
Click to expand...


That is not right. USB 2 transfer @ rate of MBit :) yes
 
Indeed -typo- 480Mbps not kbps - I suppose LaRoosTa meant 480Mbps. ;)

PS: 480Mbps = 60MB/s - which should be more than enough for any broadband connection -

debug
 
debug said:
Indeed -typo- 480Mbps not kbps - I suppose LaRoosTa meant 480Mbps. ;)

PS: 480Mbps = 60MB/s - which should be more than enough for any broadband connection -

debug
Click to expand...


:)
 
Sorry about that, though. I didn't realise that it was connecting at USB speeds and not 3G speeds (384Kbps).
 
Laptop locking up when using E620 Fastlink card

After connecting to Internet / Mail from my Laptop by using my N6630 and N70 phones as modems, and continually being disappointed with the slow speeds at home (which is shown on the MTN coverage map as being well inside a 3G area (Bouvet Ave, Bellairspark, Randburg), I talked the SP who runs all my office broadband (sic ..) to do me a favour ....

So they gave me a F@stLink E620 Data card to try at home .... for a 4 week period, no cost to me, no cap on download :D

It does not connect at above GPRS / EDGE speeds at home, in the above-mentioned neighbourhood, but I expected that, due to grossly exaggerated 3G and HSDPA coverage claims by the GSM mobile operators here in SA ..

My problem is that my laptop (HP OmniBook XE3 running XP Pro SP2) hangs up when I use the E620 data card .... requiring the 'ol paper-clip forced re-boot:eek:

Sometimes I can be connected for hours (I have to be, given the ridiculous download speeds we are fobbed off with here in SA) with no hanging-up .... but sometimes I can be connected only a few minutes, or even seconds, before reverting to the paper-clip solution ...:o

I tried uninstalling the FastLink software, with the intention of re-installing, to see if that would be a fix, but I can't even do that via Add/Remove programs, as I get a message "Install.log" file not found.

Does anyone here know of (in)compatibility issues with certain laptops, or know of any possible conflicts (IRQ, COM port, etc) I may be having on my HP OmniBookXE3.

The result of my (as the Boss) trials, and findings (read: autocratic decision) will determine with whch SP (i.e. MTN / VC / Virgin) I will enter into a contract with to issue HSDPA data cards to my staff .... so far I am not impressed with the MTN card (although I concede it may be an incompatibility issue).

Hints gratefully received ...:cool:
 
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MTNDD (and anyone else),
Looks like I will go with a Nokia N80. No data card yet.
Is the N80 HSDPA compliant? I know it is 3G, but is it HSDPA?
Can you tell me if the Bapsfontein and Kempton Park towers can carry HSDPA? The usual answer to this question is "what is your street address". I live on a farm, no one has yet thought of a name for the gravel road.
 
Rural - N80 has not got HSDPA but it has got 3G and Wi-Fi (WLAN), 3.15mp Camera + mem card slot. Impressive!

debug
 
Rural said:
MTNDD (and anyone else),
Looks like I will go with a Nokia N80. No data card yet.
Is the N80 HSDPA compliant? I know it is 3G, but is it HSDPA?
Can you tell me if the Bapsfontein and Kempton Park towers can carry HSDPA? The usual answer to this question is "what is your street address". I live on a farm, no one has yet thought of a name for the gravel road.
Click to expand...


No Dude

If your into Music and things like that, Rather go for the N91
It also has 3G for connection 4GB Hard drive for MP3's

The headset is a boom box of it's own....

Just a little info .... use it dont use it....:D
 
Pitbull said:
No Dude

If your into Music and things like that, Rather go for the N91
It also has 3G for connection 4GB Hard drive for MP3's

The headset is a boom box of it's own....

Just a little info .... use it dont use it....:D
Click to expand...
Thanx 4 the advice. I am not that into music that I need so much capacity. Anyway I am a little bit dubious about moving parts, ie the mini hard drive, in a phone that I tend to drop every now and again.
 
Rural said:
MTNDD (and anyone else),
Looks like I will go with a Nokia N80. No data card yet.
Is the N80 HSDPA compliant? I know it is 3G, but is it HSDPA?
Can you tell me if the Bapsfontein and Kempton Park towers can carry HSDPA? The usual answer to this question is "what is your street address". I live on a farm, no one has yet thought of a name for the gravel road.
Click to expand...


Good evening

Not the N80 is not HSDPA compliant, MTN and Vodacom will be looking at the Samsung ZX20 probably as our first HSDPA phone.....

Well I don't think any of Kempton Park towers are HSDPA compliant as yet.....

MTNDD
 
mtn data card e620 rebooting nc6120

Hi

I have got the MTN DATA card E620. I am using it on my HP NC6120 with WINXP.
Everytime I try to connect I get the blue screen of death and the machine restarts.
I have tried re-installing the drivers, with no luck.
Any suggestions on how to fix this problem ?
:confused:

-=ttel=-
 
ttel said:
Hi

I have got the MTN DATA card E620. I am using it on my HP NC6120 with WINXP.
Everytime I try to connect I get the blue screen of death and the machine restarts.
I have tried re-installing the drivers, with no luck.
Any suggestions on how to fix this problem ?
:confused:

-=ttel=-
Click to expand...


That's strange,

Sounds like you might have to reimage you machine

so you've removed the software and reloaded and get the same error have you tried the Data Card in another pc?

MTNDD
 
MTN_Data_Dude said:
Good evening

Not the N80 is not HSDPA compliant, MTN and Vodacom will be looking at the Samsung ZX20 probably as our first HSDPA phone.....

Well I don't think any of Kempton Park towers are HSDPA compliant as yet.....

MTNDD
Click to expand...
Vodacom has the Samsung ZV50 HSDPA phone.They had it for over a month and the Z560 will be available SOON
 
MTN Data card 3G/HSDPA

Hi MTN Data Dude, perhaps you could help with some advice?
I received my E620 HSDPA card, but I have a query about it....
I should be right smack in the middle of HSDPA coverage, but when I connect the speeds I get are between 350kbps and 370kbps consistantly. (this very urly in the morning, so there shouldnt be many other user online), and WITH the external antenna.
Why the speed so s-l-o-w? I know there could be many reasons, but could it be that it's only connecting at 3G? In the control panel it shows 3G/HSDPA, but there is only a setting 3G prefered, not HSDPA prefered, or HSDPA only....
Is there an update to give the option of HSDPA prefered/HSDPA only?
It's quite bad having a modem that 'can' connect at HSDPA's 1.8Mbps, but only gets about a third of the speed... might as well just use a normal 3G phone - same speed :-(
Could it be, even though there should be HSDPA here, it and 3G are 2 different signals, 3G a bit stronger and so chosen by the card? How can I 'force' it to attach to HSDPA, surely even a poor HSDPA signal should be faster than good 3G???
Any advice?
Keep up the good work with feedback from MTN's side
 
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CeeBee said:
Hi MTN Data Dude, perhaps you could help with some advice?
I received my E620 HSDPA card, but I have a query about it....
I should be right smack in the middle of HSDPA coverage, but when I connect the speeds I get are between 350kbps and 370kbps consistently. (this very urly in the morning, so there shouldnt be many other user online), and WITH the external antenna.
Why the speed so s-l-o-w? I know there could be many reasons, but could it be that it's only connecting at 3G? In the control panel it shows 3G/HSDPA, but there is only a setting 3G prefered, not HSDPA prefered, or HSDPA only....
Is there an update to give the option of HSDPA prefered/HSDPA only?
It's quite bad having a modem that 'can' connect at HSDPA's 1.8Mbps, but only gets about a third of the speed... might as well just use a normal 3G phone - same speed :-(
Could it be, even though there should be HSDPA here, it and 3G are 2 different signals, 3G a bit stronger and so chosen by the card? How can I 'force' it to attach to HSDPA, surely even a poor HSDPA signal should be faster than good 3G???
Any advice?
Keep up the good work with feedback from MTN's side
Click to expand...

Good day,

Well HSDPA should be anything from 300 to 700kbps, I’ve only received 1.4 at max thus far, my minimum ranging from 384 which is 3G to about 500 to 700 being my average, when you say you should be in the middle of HSDPA could you please advise where you are and then we can see. The software doesn’t allow for HSDPA preferred or HSDPA only which is a suggestion we’ve asked Huawei to look into putting that into the software interface, but I find normally if I select 3G only it logs onto a HSDPA switch if that current 3G switch has been upgraded to HSDPA so not sure if there’s much of a need for that but none the less something to look at.

In terms of your speed what are you using to measure your speed? If it’s a online broadband test or what are you using to check this?

Please let me know

Thanks MTNDD
 
3g/hsdpa

Hi MTNDD
Thanx for the reply... When in an area where there is both 3G AND HSDPA will the datacard attach to HSDPA signal first by default, since the software doesn't have a choice to prefer HSDPA???
If the speed is 350-380kbps (and assuming that HSDPA is available) how do we know if it is connected to 3G or HSDPA, since 3G speed also goes to 384? (which I have been achieving easily with Nokia 6680)
I was under the impression that HSDPA is a better quality connection, not just faster?
Still, 500-700kbps average is quite bad considering the marketing / advertising(and impressions) being made by MTN regarding the HSDPA abilities, if realistically you shouldn't even expect 40% of the speed most of the time :-(
Do you know if there are any plans to improve this?
I use several of the local (some international) websites that have bandwidth meters, to check the speed.
 
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