No serious network problems, says mobile providers

All I can say is hogwash to "no serious problems". The networks are collapsing under the data demands.
 
Pull the other one, it's got bells on.

One of the major reasons why I'm on CellC prepaid - no issue ever since. I'm free to buy a Voda/MTN prepaid SIM if CellC's service levels start to drop.

With a contract you don't have the same freedom of movement, except when you jump through the number porting hoops.

Icasa's incompetent. :(
 
Touch wood I haven't had voice issues with MTN but their data services in Cape Town have been up and down like a yo-yo. Their billing and support processes are awful. It takes between two and three weeks to get a statement electronically or via mail and the 16202 service generally takes multiple attempts to connect to.
 
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As you can judge with the majority of complaints MTN network has been givin us hell this days,even queries couldn't be solved timeously...it would have been better if they felt that their subscribers were so important & informd us
 
davemc said:
Perhaps the real problem is that the mobile operators have no true measure of how bad the service really is.
And, like v3g said, it is in their (the operators) interests to have the service available, except for being disconnected of course.

Perhaps ICASA would sponsor a test group of 8000 people all over the country who will feedback their experiences for a month.
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There a a huge amount of measurements in place and these get reported on all the time. But it's not always a real-time process to get the stats and the stats don't always directly reflect what is being measured. So it needs post-processing and this takes time. Thus, in practise, we won't see you drop a call but we will see the trend of dropped calls in a cell over time.

Most of the core equipment can be measured directly and the tools are in place to do this. But again, we now look at the whole pipe and not individual conversations. So we cannot see if you are having a bad download speed at any given point in time but we can see if a link is congested.

You'll see and experience instantanous results (you drop a call or get a slow response) but the netwerk tends to work with longer trends as the data is collected from tens of thousands of points, anaysed, rolled and graphed.

The perfect solution would have been to have a monitoring agent on each and every device that then monitors your own network quality and report it to the network. This has been my Holy Grail for some time but it's not practical with too many different types of phones and modems out there. Think of the logistics to try and roll out 20 million agents!

So instead we 'emulate' end-users in a number of ways. In fixed locations around the country we have 'probes' (basically a PC with a modem) and these do tests 24x7.

We also have a number of mobile probes (cars driving around) doing similar tests. But obviously they can't be everywhere all the time.

You can appreciate that all these tests produce large amounts of data and multiply this by the sheer scale of the network (thousands of towers, links, cells, etc.) you end up with lots of stats.

These then get rolled up into different levels, right up to a single number for total network availability and quality. And when it's all rolled up we sit with a number way above 99%, for both quality and availability.

The way we measure and report on this has been the same for a number of years and looking at the trend lines, there is no deviation from what we normally see. Thus the statements Vodacom made to the press and ICASA that the network is not seeing any significant degradation.

But, as we know with averages, if you have any number under 100% (even 99.9%) and it's an average of many, many points, there can be low numbers in there.

And it's these low numbers that are the specific instances that just p!ssed you off, a dropped call or a disconnect.

So for you the network was 100% unavailable at that time, and you're not wrong. But on average the total network quality and availability would not even see a hiccup because you just disconnected. Obviously if many people start dropping calls, it WILL roll up in the data and we will see it.

Thus my request that you report as much as possible (use e-mail) as you help increase the granulaity of the data.

Lastly, Network Quality is probably the most sacred issue within the company. From the MD, right down to the techies in the field, they have a KPI's on network quality and if these are not met, no money.
 
superfly said:
Oh really? No problems?

Then how do you explain my 3.6 Mbps HSDPA connection having a fairly constant speed of 0.52Mbps over the last week?

Here's the proof, Vodacom: http://www.speedtest.net/result/473240696.png
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As I already posted, we've seen this problem affecting especially the Cape. It actually started about 2 weeks ago. I hope to have more info on what's causing it and the resolution.

But won't you please run the speedtest.net test from another server? Whoever hosts the Cape Town speedtest.net server is doing everyone a disservice as it produces extremely low results.

I always ask people to run the following tests in the following order:

1) speed.vodacom.co.za - this shows the 'Vodacom' portion of the network.
2) speedtest.net (JHB) - this shows the 'local' portion of the network. - as stated don't use the Cape Town server. It's broken.
3) speedtest.net (NY) - this shows the 'international' portion.

By running all three test in direct sequence (to try and keep the test environment as consistent as possible), you can get a good feel of what's happening on the network.
 
Thanks v3g.

Please let us know which email address to send the reports to.

Now, I need to know what I am allowed to put into the email.

May I report "network busy" as well as the "Remote computer did not respond" events, or are they to be sent to different email addresses?

To the forum: Vodacom Reconnect (Contract customers ONLY) = 119 [ http://www.vodacom.co.za/specificneeds/peace_of_mind.jsp ]
Sorry for the prepaid users, you don't count (with this feature). :mad:

Edit: 147 appears on that page twice. :p
 
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davemc said:
Thanks v3g.

Please let us know which email address to send the reports to.

Now, I need to know what I am allowed to put into the email.

May I report "network busy" as well as the "Remote computer did not respond" events, or are they to be sent to different email addresses?

To the forum: Vodacom Reconnect (Contract customers ONLY) = 119 [ http://www.vodacom.co.za/specificneeds/peace_of_mind.jsp ]
Sorry for the prepaid users, you don't count (with this feature). :mad:

Edit: 147 appears on that page twice. :p
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[email protected] for all reports.

You can put in whatever you want, but I'd suggest using some kind of standard template (like the one in my sig).

And don't be shy to submit as many as you want. :)
 
BeVonk! said:
First MTN acknowledged that it experienced network problems during the Idols fiasco - and then they denied it. Yesterday MTN remained silent. MTN subscribers know there are problems. What's up - or should I say down - at MTN? Is Nigeria a higher priority now?
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Yip - so many people say when they try call me they just get disconnected - I noticed last night my phone didn't have signal from about 12am till 6:30am...

Even MTN has responded to one of my complaints on hellopeter saying that they've tried phoning me and can't get through - then they emailed me saying it was probably network problems.

I think their network is shocking, constantly, when I answer a call, it goes dead immediately - when I try make a call it just dies trying, its actually a standing joke in the office, I'll tell people to watch as I try call someone - sometimes it takes 5 tries before I can make the call - the only bright side is knowing it'll be over in two and a half months :)
 
Sometimes my phone doesn't even ring and I get an sms saying that there's a voicemail message, and according to the callers the line was busy.

Other Times people call me and the call goes to some lady. Several people have told me this.
 
I am a staunch Vodacom Subscriber and i mean i was just worried about the delayed sms's. After calling the help line those consultants seemed not to know what the problem was since they asked me to check my message center number. But i am glad though this problem has faded and we are enjoying even night shift promotions
 
kekanaday said:
I am a staunch Vodacom Subscriber and i mean i was just worried about the delayed sms's. After calling the help line those consultants seemed not to know what the problem was since they asked me to check my message center number. But i am glad though this problem has faded and we are enjoying even night shift promotions
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:confused:
 
Mtn has been rubbish for the last couple of weeks.I couldnt get anyone from Mtn to explain what the problem was so i decided to Port my number to Vodacom and guess what?NO PROBLEM,i only wish the night shift could change to day shift so i can get some sleep.
 
Vodacom said that “a constructive meeting was held with ICASA where Vodacom's management team, lead by MD Shameel Joosub, assured ICASA that the Vodacom network is not experiencing extraordinary issues at present.”

Absolute rubbish!! It just shows Vodacom management is not in touch with reality - they have great message delays (often >8 hrs in simple husband / wife SMS's), lots of dropped calls, "No network", etc. Hopefully someone @ ICASA uses Vodacom and could assist in sending this lie-ing team back to the drawing board.
 
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