MTN SIM Faulty?

[charlh]

I have a B683 router on a data contract with MTN. I never get more than one bar of signal on the interface display (approx -91-95db strength) with my MTN sim, and I frequently have problems with speed The router is set to 3G only BTW. Yesterday I put my Afrihost sim in the router, and immediately it showed a full signal (on exactly the same settings as MTN apart from the APN).
I presume as Afrihost works on MTN, I should get the same quality with both sim cards. Does that mean there is a problem with my MTN sim, or is it just coincidence?

 

[sajunky]

Does signal drop when you put old SIM back? How Cell ID compare on each case? If you can't see Cell ID, put SIM in USB modem and use MDMA on PC.
How old is contract SIM?

 

[charlh]

Does signal drop when you put old SIM back? How Cell ID compare on each case? If you can't see Cell ID, put SIM in USB modem and use MDMA on PC.
How old is contract SIM?

I did a sim swap over the weekend. The old sim was very worn out and a bit warped. I have a slight improvement with MTN, but I think I will have to get an external antenna for the router. My neighbour built a house right next to my flat in Nov last year, and it's about since then that I have been having problems.
I get signal from 2 different cell ID's- one on 900mhz and the other on 2100mhz. The 900mhz has a very poor signal about -95dB. The 2100mhz gives me about -89dB
But the Afrihost seems to be faster than MTN. Could it be that the myMTN APN is overloaded?

 

[Voldemort]

I did a sim swap over the weekend. The old sim was very worn out and a bit warped. I have a slight improvement with MTN, but I think I will have to get an external antenna for the router. My neighbour built a house right next to my flat in Nov last year, and it's about since then that I have been having problems.
I get signal from 2 different cell ID's- one on 900mhz and the other on 2100mhz. The 900mhz has a very poor signal about -95dB. The 2100mhz gives me about -89dB
But the Afrihost seems to be faster than MTN. Could it be that the myMTN APN is overloaded?

Hi there

That is odd, try INTERNET as an APN and measure results? In the meantime, please send me your details ie cell number, address etc. Il get a call logged for that antenna installation, free of charge to you, stronger signal should hopefully sort things out

 

[charlh]

Hi there

That is odd, try INTERNET as an APN and measure results? In the meantime, please send me your details ie cell number, address etc. Il get a call logged for that antenna installation, free of charge to you, stronger signal should hopefully sort things out

Thanks Voldemort Even if they can just arrange for an antenna, I will install it myself too!

If I use the internet APN I get no throughput at all.
I loaded an tower location app on my cellphone yesterday, and according to that one tower (id 24998) LOS is blocked off by the new house, and the other tower is on top of a mountain about 30km away. But I don't have 100% faith in the app though...

pm sent

 

[Voldemort]

Got it, il get cracking on that request right away

 

[charlh]

Thanks

 

[Voldemort]

Yello! these are the list of sites in the area, lemme organize that antenna, I'l keep you posted

 

[charlh]

Thanks. Ja, the TZN industrial is the one I presume is blocked by the new house. I always thought the water tower is a Vodacom/Cell C tower? The third one at gou-gou roses is also blocked by the neighbour behind me!

Thank you very much!

 

[Voldemort]

No Problem, the Water tower is a VC shared site, so then that would be your best bet.

 

[charlh]

Thanks to Voldemort I received and installed an external antenna yesterday with very pleasing results Up from ±-90dB to ±-75dB.

Proof that customer service still exists.

 

[sajunky]

Proof that customer service still exists.

Rather a proof that you did it right!
I should pick it up from the beginning.

 

[Azimuth]

Details of external antenna please? And nicely done @Voldemort.

 

[maumau]

Impressive service from Voldemort.

 

[Voldemort]

Details of external antenna please? And nicely done @Voldemort.

Thank you kind people

The 2 products I provided are as follows in the links:

http://www.antennas.co.za/Products/ProductDetails?code=325

http://www.antennas.co.za/Products/ProductDetails?code=20

 

[Azimuth]

Wow! Score!!

Voldemort, care to share how the installation was done?

 

[charlh]

Wow! Score!!

Voldemort, care to share how the installation was done?

I actually installed the antenna myself. Very simple- I already had a 5m pole for my TV aerial, and I just climbed up on the roof with my laptop and adjusted the antenna till I got the best signal according to the info from my router.
Oh, and I took a ride on my mountain bike last weekend to verify where exactly the tower was

 

[Azimuth]

Awesome, if you have the time, please post here?

 

[charlh]

Some test results:-
Without the external antenna
With the Antenna

And a weird result the day I installed the antenna Upload is about three times faster than download speed