MTN is so SLOW

Ajax, follow the setup instructions I posed in that same thread. They worked for me.
 
OK, so i saw the new prices on their site and gave them a call on 808 to add the 1 GIG package and - "Ish - Sorrry Sir, it won't be available till the end of the week."

I hope the coverage and bandwidth overshadow the *** client service.
 
I thought this was a complaint about download speed.

A few months ago I had to use GPRS to send a mail - I was (almost) surprised that GPRS was faster than MyWireless.

But now, I wait forever for a page to open, get a burst of 6kB/s every once in a while.. SIGH. Is MTN EDGE/GPRS only a toy?
 
mc721221 said:
OK, so i saw the new prices on their site and gave them a call on 808 to add the 1 GIG package and - "Ish - Sorrry Sir, it won't be available till the end of the week."

I've got an open query with Clive at MTNSP, he assusres me that the packages will be working today and can be added. He'll call me when they are working properly and I'll post it here.

D
Click to expand...
 
MTNSP GPRS Packages

I could activate mine today, bit of a hassle because of my dual SIM giving them unexpected problems, but all active and working.

Funny thing is I activated 100MB package and got 166MB!
 
Where is the EDGE speed ??????

I tested my MTN EDGE connection from Monday 11-04-2005 (with BWMeter). So far most of the time I only get GPRS or dial-up speed. (50 - 60 kb/s)

I can only remember one session where I managed to get 160 kb/s average with about 200 kbs/s peak.

I live in Pretoria and do have a strong signal. My cellphone does display the "YELLO BROADBAND" message.

I have a Nokia 6230, whice is EDGE enabled.

Can MTNbb or anybody tell me if this would be the norm or can I expect better bandwidth in future ? Otherwise what is the problem ????

:(
 
BloemGuy said:
I could activate mine today, bit of a hassle because of my dual SIM giving them unexpected problems, but all active and working.

Funny thing is I activated 100MB package and got 166MB!
Click to expand...

How does that work? :confused:

Are you sure you haven't just used 166MB and paid for the extra 66MB out-of-bundle?
 
zaphod said:
I tested my MTN EDGE connection from Monday 11-04-2005 (with BWMeter). So far most of the time I only get GPRS or dial-up speed. (50 - 60 kb/s)

I can only remember one session where I managed to get 160 kb/s average with about 200 kbs/s peak.

I live in Pretoria and do have a strong signal. My cellphone does display the "YELLO BROADBAND" message.

I have a Nokia 6230, whice is EDGE enabled.

Can MTNbb or anybody tell me if this would be the norm or can I expect better bandwidth in future ? Otherwise what is the problem ????

:(
Click to expand...
Hi Zaphod,

MTNbb is probably the best one to answer, but I do have a possible explanation-
Maybe not all the towers in your vicinity are EDGE enabled. MTNbb also said that the "Yellow Broadband" message is not displayed all the time, so that makes it difficult to make sure you are always on an EDGE tower. You probably are picking a few towers up with more or less equal signal strength, so depending on where in the house you are and where you place the phone, it switches between EDGE and non-EDGE towers.

MTNbb said they are working on a way to make handsets automatically select only EDGE towers when they are in range, but this may still take a while.

In Stellenbosch, I can pick up only one tower with EDGE, and about 3 others equally strong without EDGE, so I use an external antenna connected to my phone that I point to the EDGE tower to ensure I always connect to only the EDGE tower.

This obviously defeats the whole idea of mobility, but I find GPRS a cheaper connection than dial-up, and actually faster! I downloaded RPM's presentation last nite at 6.7 kByte per sec. This is with a Nokia 6310 that only has GPRS, but if you use an EDGE tower, GPRS is also faster.

I hope MTN can make quick work of those EDGE coverage maps! Maybe send MTNBroadband a private message and ask him which towers in your area have EDGE.
 
Hi mc721221,

I am in the Lynnwood area.

My cellphone is currently displaying, "Lynnwood" and alternate it with "Menlo Park". I do get a strong signal.

I first thought that my cellphone modem properties was the limiting factor. The connection speed was set to 115 kb/s but I increased it to 460 kb/s. I still only get GPRS or dial-up speed.

My cellphone is connected to the PC via Bluetooth. Its maximum rate is 723 kb/s.

I just read the message of Ajax. The fact that my cellphone is switching between towers could be a problem. As I mentioned, I do get the "YELLO BROADBAND" message. As I also mentioned I did get EDGE speed, (only once if I recall), that proves to me that there is nothing wrong with my settings.

:confused:
 
Last edited:
zaphod said:
I tested my MTN EDGE connection from Monday 11-04-2005 (with BWMeter). So far most of the time I only get GPRS or dial-up speed. (50 - 60 kb/s)

I can only remember one session where I managed to get 160 kb/s average with about 200 kbs/s peak.

I live in Pretoria and do have a strong signal. My cellphone does display the "YELLO BROADBAND" message.

I have a Nokia 6230, whice is EDGE enabled.

Can MTNbb or anybody tell me if this would be the norm or can I expect better bandwidth in future ? Otherwise what is the problem ????

:(
Click to expand...


Unfortunately, I think its your phone dude. Its only a class 8/9 device as far as i am aware (iow 4+1 or 3+2). I checked their web site : http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,8764,47676,00.html
It lists it as class 10, but even their quoted channels are more akin to class 8 or class 9. A true class 10 device support 4 download and 2 upload.
What i suggest you try - set download slots to 4, upload to 1, and see if it makes any difference. Also try the cable connection - bluetooth is not too lekker with GPRS type connections.
I have the 6630 - and frequently get ovr 200Kbs on downloads, depending on the time of the day. Obviously, if the cell is really busy, you will only get one slot, and that could also be why you are only seing single slot speeds (60kbs) - the basestation could be really busy.
Hope this helps!
 
ScrnScrm said:
Also try the cable connection - bluetooth is not too lekker with GPRS type connections.
Click to expand...

ScrnScrm, where did you get your cable and what did you pay? Last time I asked around for a DKU5 cable I got quoted in excess of R300.

I agree, the towers in Zaphod's area might just be real busy. Zaphod, set your alarm for 3am and do a speed test, dude. (Speed tests available on this site.) It's the only way to be sure if its a busy tower giving you such low speeds.

Nevertheless, on Friday afternoon around 16h30, a busy time I'd guess, I compared GPRS speeds on Vodacom and MTN with my Nokia 6310i (only GPRS and only 3 slots down). I got 51.2 kbps on MTN and 55.7 kbps on Vodacom for local (my phone can't do more than 60kbps), and for international 42.4 kbps on MTN but no result for Vodacom. :rolleyes:
 
the 6630 ships with a usb data cable dude - so you dont need to buy one. i find that both edge and 3g perform much better through the cable than via bluetooth.
i am still battling to understand why vodacom wont release the 6630 - its a great phone, and 3g works great with it!
 
ajax said:
Hi Zaphod,

MTNbb is probably the best one to answer, but I do have a possible explanation-
Maybe not all the towers in your vicinity are EDGE enabled. MTNbb also said that the "Yellow Broadband" message is not displayed all the time, so that makes it difficult to make sure you are always on an EDGE tower. You probably are picking a few towers up with more or less equal signal strength, so depending on where in the house you are and where you place the phone, it switches between EDGE and non-EDGE towers.

MTNbb said they are working on a way to make handsets automatically select only EDGE towers when they are in range, but this may still take a while.

In Stellenbosch, I can pick up only one tower with EDGE, and about 3 others equally strong without EDGE, so I use an external antenna connected to my phone that I point to the EDGE tower to ensure I always connect to only the EDGE tower.

This obviously defeats the whole idea of mobility, but I find GPRS a cheaper connection than dial-up, and actually faster! I downloaded RPM's presentation last nite at 6.7 kByte per sec. This is with a Nokia 6310 that only has GPRS, but if you use an EDGE tower, GPRS is also faster.

I hope MTN can make quick work of those EDGE coverage maps! Maybe send MTNBroadband a private message and ask him which towers in your area have EDGE.
Click to expand...

Thanks, Ajax. You has spelled it out precisely.

The basic problem is that GSM used to direct which handset connected to which cell. With GPRS, the standard for packet switched data changed to give more responsibility to the handset to select cells. That makes the network more efficient but does raise the problem of 'forcing' the handset onto a particular cell. We had hoped to implement the service which directed users to specific towers but unfortunately all our solutions have to work on all 2 million legacy GPRS handsets do this is proving quite a challenge.
 
Switching between towers

Hi,

I did some test with my Nokia 6230.

As I mentioned before, I seldomly get EDGE speed at home. I noticed that my phone switches between towers all the time.

My question for MTNbb is this:

If all the towers in my area are EDGE enabled, will switching between towers reduce the effective data throughput?

By the way, I did some speed tests at work and there I have EDGE speed (> 100 kbits/s) all the time. At work, my phone is not switching between towers all the time.

:confused:
 
zaphod said:
Hi,

I did some test with my Nokia 6230.

As I mentioned before, I seldomly get EDGE speed at home. I noticed that my phone switches between towers all the time.

My question for MTNbb is this:

If all the towers in my area are EDGE enabled, will switching between towers reduce the effective data throughput?

By the way, I did some speed tests at work and there I have EDGE speed (> 100 kbits/s) all the time. At work, my phone is not switching between towers all the time.

:confused:
Click to expand...

Switching between towers should not affect radio speeds because the switch is done in the gap between transmissions.

In the case that the towers are served by different base station controllers then there would be break as your incoming data packets were redirected from the one controller to the other. I need to confirm but I believe the handset would not change towers as often during an actual download as it would when idle.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X