Neotel network speed degradation update

Last edited:
...bleak.....my ****ty rain soaked dsl line manages a bit more than that :p hehe

but anyways....only thing u can do is wait it out.am sure they will get better as soon as they sort out their base stations.

got a mate on neoflex up here in JHB (sandton) and he is LOVING neotel at the moment

will ask him bout speeds....
 
I have been following this thread for some time now as I have also been experiencing horrible service/speed on my Neotel Prime.

I have been with neotel since Jan 2009 and loved every moment it, until two weeks ago when my connection became unstable and I had an average speed of 39kbps. I am currently situated in Clydesdale Pretoria and I have always had excellent connectivity.

Current:
RSSI: 85
PN: 320

I have contacted neotel about the problem a few times now, and every time I hear my query has been "elevated", yet I have not been contacted by a technician after 144 hours after my last call.

I am unable to do a speed test lately because the connection times out before the test can begin. This afternoon when I tried to make a call I received no dial tone and hoped that neotel was working on the problem, but tonight when I tried to connect the Manager instantly switches to Disconnected after the connection has been established.

I want to believe in change and the adds all over the streets sends out a message of hope, but with such poor service and lack of technical support I am forced to cancel my contract as paying for a service I am not receiving is not fair.
 
Cameronkk said:
I am in Valhalla, Pointing the antenna towards Thabashwane or what eva the spelling is (Voortrekker Hoogte) in the direction of Radio Uitkyk. If that helps.
Click to expand...

Ah i see yeah you basically very close iam quite a bit further in eldoraigne iam connecting to the same tower i think its suppose to be close to the absa dunno if its the same one but its also in valhalla. Anyways on a rare day i can maybe get 500-600 kbps max generally its at 100-200 kbps.
 
Cameronkk said:
I Connected a Standard Aerial F-Type Connector UHF Yellow band antenna with standard ellies coax.

Did speed tests until I found the optimum direction to point it North North West! Speedtest.neotel.co.za : 1154kbps
Mounted it under my TV antenna and what an improvement!

RSSI: 70
DL: 130 KB/s
UL: 14 KB/s

Average DL speed over 48Hrs: 66KB/s

Did not even know the phone could show 4 bars always thought 3 was the norm as I am supposed to be in a excelent coverage area!
Click to expand...

It is surprising that the Ellies Yellow Band TV antenna improves your reception so much as it is designed for UHF frequencies between Channels 37~52 (i.e. between 600~720MHz). CDMA 800 employs frequencies between 824~896MHz which is ~200MHz higher than the Yellow TV Band. Usually the performance of a Yagi antenna deteriorates rapidly after exceeding the maximum design frequency. Take a look at these typical gain plots for Yellow (B Group) and Green Band (C/D Group) Yagi antennae. Notice how the performance of the Yellow Band Yagis drops off around Channels 60~63 (785~810MHz). It's possible that the Ellies antenna performs slightly better at higher frequencies. It will be interesting to see if anybody else has similar success.
http://www.aerialsandtv.com/atvstockaerialtests.html#Bgroup

Have you mounted the antenna vertically or horizontally?

The Green Band antenna (Channels 53~68: 730~850MHz) should be a better match although another user who tried it did not apparently have good success. See the Neotel antenna thread for more details ...
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php?t=121138&highlight=Neotel+aerial

List of channel frequencies
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/terrestrial/tuning/
This DIY design apparently works very well ...
http://www.perite.com/vk7jj/NextGYagi.htm
 
Last edited:
Yea I know its not suppose to work but we al know theory and practical are never the same, surprised me quite a bit. If I can get better reception with another antenna I will go for it but not until it is proven.

I have mounted it Horizontal.
 
gdiza said:
Last Result:
Download Speed: 69 kbps (8.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 34 kbps (4.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Click to expand...
There is definitely something going on with the towers in the cpt city bowl. Since last friday, I am averaging between 100-200 kbps. Use to be 400-800.
 
Has anybody had a visit from Neotel technical? I just want to know if it's worth going through the effort, or should I just cancel the contract and get it over with?
 
Nope, even after the Rep said somebody would.
Last night for an hour I got 50KB/s was thinking that just maybe, however it went down to 4KB/s after that and this morning was between 0 and 4KB/s as well.
 
I had a Tech come to my place, as promised,

He Tried an external antenna, tried with his own phone. No Luck

Still had the same issues I have currently. Speeds betweeb 8Kbs and 30kbs

When before 5 Feb, everything was 100%
 
so what was the recommendation of the techie after all of this failed?
 
I hate neotel with a passion I thought at one time was only reserved for telkom - now I would do anything to be able to get my telkom line back, but woe is me, that is not happening (cable theft for the zillionth time, so no more cables).

Anyhow after I eventually manage to connect, because neotel now takes 20 attempts before managing to even connect, these are my speeds:

Last Result:
Download Speed: 39 kbps (4.9 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 26 kbps (3.3 KB/sec transfer rate)

Oh yeh, I'm also waiting for someone to connect me, it is on their system, no they don't know why there is a problem, blah blah blah blah
 
@neotelrep - Why do you insist on sending a techie out when it's obviously a network issue. Everything worked fine. There is very little chance that we all stuffed up our settings at the same time and in the same way. What do we have to do to get this resolved?
 
nk1 said:
so what was the recommendation of the techie after all of this failed?
Click to expand...

He said they would need to check out the base station etc,

There is supposed to be maintenance in my area beginning of April, to upgrade the base station,

They have also given me an antenna, which does nothing to my connection.

So still waiting to see, since this however, the coverage maps have changed me from excellent to good.

Which I would never have signed up for GOOD.

I expect they just want me to cancel my contract, and get another person to deal with issues, but I want them to stick to their contract.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X