Network problems in Pretoria

vodacom3g said:
I know only about two areas, Centurion and Moreletta, where we've tested lower throughput than expected.
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Thanks V3G, that is all I wanted to know. :D

How long will it take to get this fixed?
 
The cells are not completely broken, which is always easier to fix. Rather they exhibit about a 30% (25Kb/s vs 35+KB/s) drop in expected performance so Vodacom and Siemens guys are investigating.

So I don't have an exact time, except ASAP.
 
I’m been having problems in the Centurion area since Sunday, last night I had to work on GPRS for 3 hours as the 3G just drop, and it's not the software, had been working for the past three weeks 10 hours on 3G without any drop or reboot or software errors after V5 dashboard.

The towers seem to be very slow, Ping to smtp.vodacom.co.za has about 60% pass rate and the times are all high above 1500ms. Hope you can get this fixed before the weekend as this are the only communication I have back to the office and currently working on a deadline project.

Please if there are problems just get it fixed as to try and argue it away and please follow-up on estimated completion times and dates as we never know if its been fixed or just patched to be running condition for now.
 
I am so glad but actually so sad to realise that there are so many problems with 3G. in Pretoria. I am located in Riviera, Pretoria and I cannot count the number of times that my connection dropped or it is so slow that I started advertising how poor Voda 3G is . I am so frustrated.
 
jbad said:
I am so glad but actually so sad to realise that there are so many problems with 3G. in Pretoria. I am located in Riviera, Pretoria and I cannot count the number of times that my connection dropped or it is so slow that I started advertising how poor Voda 3G is . I am so frustrated.
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jbad, welcome to MyADSL :).

Please could you post the cellids of the 3G Enabled towers in the places you are experiencing problems...
 
vodacom3g said:
Rather they exhibit about a 30% (25Kb/s vs 35+KB/s) drop in expected performance so Vodacom and Siemens guys are investigating.
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Sorry but I can NOT agree with this statement. I know if you download a file from smtp.vodacom.co.za you get about 25kb/s. But nobody surfs on smtp.vodacom.co.za. Once you go beyond the Vodacom network you only gets about 8kb/s. It seem more like 70% drop in performance :mad:

Trying to under play the problem is really not helpful !!!
 
BBSA said:
...
Trying to under play the problem is really not helpful !!!
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BBSA, I sympathise with you - consistently slow speeds are horrible, and you've had this problem for a while now, it should not be taking so long to sort out...I don't think that anyone is trying to underplay the problems you are experiencing...
 
Agreed, but understanding WHERE the problem is, is critical. There are currently two bottlenecks affecting the Centurion area.

One, that actually affects everyone, is the international throughput. There's are upgrades currently happening to address this with a massive increase planned.

The second one, more specific to your area is some local (radio and/or transmission) problem that's causing intermittent drops in performance. Although this is less severe (30% drop in expected throughput) than the international bandwidth, it also needs to be addressed. This is what the guys are working on.

By doing multiple tests along the path, you can determine where the problem lies and thus fix what's actually broken.

For comparison, below the same speed test you're using, done by grubsner in Vanderbijl:

Download time: 13.11 seconds
Size of file: 500 KiloBytes
Estimated line speed: 311.2 (kilobits/second)
Estimated line speed: 38.1 (kiloBytes/second)
 
That speed test was taken from the Telkom Site. It is not an international site as far as I know.

Here is my test for comparison:

Download time: 57.883 seconds
Size of file: 500 KiloBytes
Estimated line speed: 70.5 (kilobits/second)
Estimated line speed: 8.6 (kiloBytes/second)
 
Thanks for the welcome - the tower is Riviera 3. "What is the meaning of connected to unknown network" It also appears that I must not complain about download speeds of 1.3Kbs. I enjoy this forum, but at this stage do not understand the full protocol.
 
jbad said:
It also appears that I must not complain about download speeds of 1.3Kbs.
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jbad, if you don't report any performance issues (read complain :) ) they cannot be fixed. So, not only is it your right, but Vodacom actually welcomes it. Certain aspects of the network are difficult to monitor remotely and user feedback is essential to quickly identify and rectify these.

Now before I get blasted about how long this problem's been around; the situation with Centurion and others areas in PTA is not acceptable, not to you guys and not to Vodacom. Just spoke to the Head of Radio Planning and they're busy with various initiatives. Some capacity issues have been identified and these are pending Telkom upgrades.

As mentioned before, in this environment, Vodacom is in the business of selling bandwidth. If you can't transfer data fast enough, there is a impact on the revenue generated. Logically, no business is going to be tardy about fixing revenue-impacting situations, or they won't be in business for long.
 
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I know very little of this bandwith stuff, but is not a matter of over subscribing and then making more money by selling by x bandwith?
 
:mad:
vodacom3g said:
jbad, where are you getting this message? At the bottom on the VMC dashboard?
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.

If it is called a dashboard not. I am not sure, but it is just above the connection bars and where it is saying acquiring connection, sometimes with out warning the green light turns purple and then the message unknown network. :confused:
 
I am assisting a company that is busy with a big project with government, and they wanted to use the Vodacoms GPRS connectivity, but after my battle with the 3G connectivity they are considering other wireless options
 
Yes, it's called the Vodafone Mobile Connect (VMC) Dashboard. From what you describe it sounds like you either lost the connection to the network or that the data card itself crashed?

Can you please check:

1) The version of the dash itself?
2) The version of the card firmware? In the dash there is a diagnostics menu.
3) Which profile are you using? Sounds like you were on GPRS if the light was green?

Sorry to hear about the problems you're having. As posted before, if you let us know we can send someone out to see what's causing the problems.

Remember GPRS is physically a completely different network with a much larger footprint than the current 3G network. All GSM towers are GPRS enabled whereas there are less than 1500 3G towers countrywide at the moment. So from a radio perspective you cannot judge the one on the other's performance.
 
I know there is a difference between 3G and GPRS. I have experienced 3G and for SA standards it is fantastic.
According to the 3G map - my house in Riviera is about 500m from 3G reception, but my feeling is that the purple light is an indication of not sure to what tower to connect?

Diagnostic info (does not mean anything to me - maybe you know?)

Model: Merlin U630 (HW Rev (0.55)
Revision: 12.0-12.0 (2005-02-09 17:22:37)
IMEI: 0
IMSI: 655014400636819
Own no: not supported

Thanks for the patience
 
A purple LED implies more than one LED is on, not a correct state for the card to be in. In the FAQ you'll see the various colours / flashes and their meaning.

Your Novatel card is on Rev 12, the current 'official' version. Some more questions, if you don't mind: :)

1) Can you check the VMC software version?

2) How do you normally recover from the 'purple LED' situation?

3) Are you using a GPRS-only profile or a 'preferred' profile?

PM me your physical address and contact details, if you don't mind. Maybe the local guys can do some fine tuning to get the 3G footprint to reach to your house. I assume you're not getting any 3G signal at home?

We're also working on some high-gain antennas for marginal areas.
 
VMC 4
I work on 3G preferred

The only way I can do recovery from the purple light is to disconnect and to end the vodafone connect.

I will PM my details :) thanks
 
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