MTN LTE Routing

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heartbreakhotel_

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Hi,

So, I'm currently with Supersonic, which is a child company of MTN if I'm not mistaken, but they offer 5G/LTE from MTN, I have the 5G package, but I switched my router to 4G only because it stabilizes the latency

My signal to the tower hovers around -80dbm, I never get packet loss, or ping spikes or any of that sorts, but I do get absolutely horrendous routing

Below is a trace route to Cape Town, it breaks out at JHB with 35ms, then something just goes horribly wrong and I end up with 60-70ms on Cape Town

Fortunate enough for me I've had fibre before in this exact spot I am, 800m from the tower. I used to get 16ms to Cape Town with that being the breakout, and 19ms to JHB also being a breakout at one stage.

Thats why I'm truly lost as to how this routing can possibly be so bad, at the least, i would get 55ms to Cape Town

My question is, is there no way I can change this? Or contact someone? Logging a ticket with Supersonic does nothing and contacting MTN directly has proven useless.
Untitled.png
 
Even though Supersonic is part of MTN their APN's are on the resellers platforms like the EPGs. There are just a few like Randburg, Germiston, Cape Town, Tygerberg, Centurion and Durban.

If a reseller like Supersonic has handset pools and their APN loaded on multiple EPGs then it's a round robin based system where you could land on any of the EPGs no matter where you are in ZA.
 
cavedog said:
Even though Supersonic is part of MTN their APN's are on the resellers platforms like the EPGs. There are just a few like Randburg, Germiston, Cape Town, Tygerberg, Centurion and Durban.

If a reseller like Supersonic has handset pools and their APN loaded on multiple EPGs then it's a round robin based system where you could land on any of the EPGs no matter where you are in ZA.
Click to expand...
I've noticed that it jumps around these you mentioned (currently on Randburg), but it has never been Western Cape or KZN, and thats kind of what bothers me, since Durban is closer than any of these areas mentioned, and it would definitely make a big difference
 
heartbreakhotel_ said:
I've noticed that it jumps around these you mentioned (currently on Randburg), but it has never been Western Cape or KZN, and thats kind of what bothers me, since Durban is closer than any of these areas mentioned, and it would definitely make a big difference
Click to expand...

So cross connects with MTN for mobile data is SUPER expensive and KZN being a very small market most resellers do not have cross connects in Durban rather receive the traffic in JHB or CPT.

With Afrihost for example there are only 2 cross connects 1 in Teraco Isando and 1 in Teraco Rondebosch then on the MTN EPGs only on Cape Town, Tygeberg, Randburg and Germiston. If you are in kzn you will fall on any of these. Not sure how Supersonic have theirs set up but they might actually have it in JHB only for all their traffic.
 
cavedog said:
So cross connects with MTN for mobile data is SUPER expensive and KZN being a very small market most resellers do not have cross connects in Durban rather receive the traffic in JHB or CPT.

With Afrihost for example there are only 2 cross connects 1 in Teraco Isando and 1 in Teraco Rondebosch then on the MTN EPGs only on Cape Town, Tygeberg, Randburg and Germiston. If you are in kzn you will fall on any of these. Not sure how Supersonic have theirs set up but they might actually have it in JHB only for all their traffic.
Click to expand...
Eish, so I guess thats unfortunate for me then at trying to get better ping to Cape Town :(
 
heartbreakhotel_ said:
Eish, so I guess thats unfortunate for me then at trying to get better ping to Cape Town :(
Click to expand...

Good 5G signal is your best bet. The routing might not be the best, but you can drop 20ms or so using 5G with relatively good signal. Looking at your trace route the latency is not bad it's just high because of LTE radio latency.

Amazon CT <> JHB = +- 22ms
JHB <> DUR = +- 10ms

So that is 32ms point to point then you factor in your distance to the MTN DC in KZN and the LTE radio it works out okay. Only fibre will give you a lower latency.
 
cavedog said:
Good 5G signal is your best bet. The routing might not be the best, but you can drop 20ms or so using 5G with relatively good signal. Looking at your trace route the latency is not bad it's just high because of LTE radio latency.

Amazon CT <> JHB = +- 22ms
JHB <> DUR = +- 10ms

So that is 32ms point to point then you factor in your distance to the MTN DC in KZN and the LTE radio it works out okay. Only fibre will give you a lower latency.
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5G made the latency more unstable, the tower is directly in the line of sight, 800 meters away, it could not have been a better setup, but the 5G signal hovers around -106dbm, now I don't know if that is bad, or average, I just know its better if I stay on 4G.

I used to have fibre in my area (Vumatel), until unfortunately some people in the area decided to vandalize it and demand money from Vumatel otherwise they would threaten engineers coming to fix it. So Vumatel just cancelled the area entirely
 
heartbreakhotel_ said:
5G made the latency more unstable, the tower is directly in the line of sight, 800 meters away, it could not have been a better setup, but the 5G signal hovers around -106dbm, now I don't know if that is bad, or average, I just know its better if I stay on 4G.

I used to have fibre in my area (Vumatel), until unfortunately some people in the area decided to vandalize it and demand money from Vumatel otherwise they would threaten engineers coming to fix it. So Vumatel just cancelled the area entirely
Click to expand...

-106dB is very poor signal. Definitely not from that tower 800m away. Lower = better btw. 5G must be coming from far away.
 
cavedog said:
-106dB is very poor signal. Definitely not from that tower 800m away. Lower = better btw. 5G must be coming from far away.
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I completely lost where I found it, but I know it was on MTN's website. That tower specifically was stated that it supports 5G, so I am not sure, could this be a configuration error that it connects somewhere else, or does it just not support 5G then?
 
The SNR or SINR on some routers is a better indication of how good your signal is. You could have a good signal but much noise, and still have a poor quality connection then. But, yes, it sounds like your signal strength is just too low.
Maybe the 5G tower does not have an antenna pointing your way, or the tower equipment is faulty.
Take your router and a UPS and drive to the tower, maybe towards the opposite side, say 100 m away, and do a speedtest there.
 
ajax said:
The SNR or SINR on some routers is a better indication of how good your signal is. You could have a good signal but much noise, and still have a poor quality connection then. But, yes, it sounds like your signal strength is just too low.
Maybe the 5G tower does not have an antenna pointing your way, or the tower equipment is faulty.
Take your router and a UPS and drive to the tower, maybe towards the opposite side, say 100 m away, and do a speedtest there.
Click to expand...
Untitled.png

This is currently what I'm dealing with on 4G, I'll do tests for 5G a bit later
 
Agree, for the LTE stats you posted an antenna for LTE probably won't make a difference. But again, you can always drive to the tower where your SINR will be excellent and compare speeds.
I played around with my Huawei B618 on Telkom LTE and the speed tests didn't show any improvement once my SINR was above 10 dB.
 
I meant in terms of the radio signal / quality / transmission capabilities, you have a good signal on LTE. But Vox, being a different ISP, might give you better routing.
 
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