Poor cell reception during load-shedding

J

JJ23

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During the last rounds of load-shedding, it took a number of days before my cellular reception started to be affected by the towers' batteries running out of power.

Now, it seems, whenever load-shedding starts, I instantly have near-unusable data signal.

I am on Cell C. Is anyone else experiencing this?
 
Yes. I'm on Cell C as well. Previously it would probably go very slow with intermittent connectivity issue. Was still able to get a Whatsapp message through. Now, it immediately goes dead the moment the power goes.
 
We instantly see a drop in bars on MTN too, and family on Cell C loses all reception with load shedding. They definitely seem to drop the range of their towers regardless during load shedding but Cell C does seem to be worse.
 
Same issue on MTN, reception very poor if there's no power. Sometimes a simple SMS and WhatsApp doesn't even go through.
 
Battery banks degrade or get stolen (even from towers in the burbs). With the financial trouble Cell C has the maintance and replacement of those battery banks are probably not happening.
 
This is because they're reticent to put batteries at the base stations. Because certain people steal the batteries.
I live in an area where the power goes out... landline is dead, completely dead
 
Don't forget the sudden rush of phones switching from wifi to mobile data will also affect the towers. In any given suburb I would guess that most people's phones are connected to a fixed internet connection of some sorts via wifi. Just imagine what happens the moment the power goes off and all those phones all activate their mobile data connection at once.
 
aren't femto cells legal in SA?
if they are, why not have at the base station a femto cell connected and ready to activate should load shedding happen.

as a backup of sorts.
 
JJ23 said:
During the last rounds of load-shedding, it took a number of days before my cellular reception started to be affected by the towers' batteries running out of power.

Now, it seems, whenever load-shedding starts, I instantly have near-unusable data signal.

I am on Cell C. Is anyone else experiencing this?
Click to expand...
Yup, Cell C goes down instantly. I assume they haven't replaced stolen batteries. I agree with them here, why bother.
 
JJ23 said:
During the last rounds of load-shedding, it took a number of days before my cellular reception started to be affected by the towers' batteries running out of power.

Now, it seems, whenever load-shedding starts, I instantly have near-unusable data signal.

I am on Cell C. Is anyone else experiencing this?
Click to expand...
CellC doesnt have the money to put batteries at their sites. so if the power goes, so does the site. Depending on which region you are in will determine your experience. for example in KZN all MTN sites have double rectifiers, wheres as Vodacom sites have single rectifiers mostly, resulting in MTN having superior network performance during load shedding in KZN. your experience will vary region to region depending on how the network is managed. if vandalism and theft was not such a big problem, you would have a better experience.
 
TowerGuru said:
CellC doesnt have the money to put batteries at their sites. so if the power goes, so does the site. Depending on which region you are in will determine your experience. for example in KZN all MTN sites have double rectifiers, wheres as Vodacom sites have single rectifiers mostly, resulting in MTN having superior network performance during load shedding in KZN. your experience will vary region to region depending on how the network is managed. if vandalism and theft was not such a big problem, you would have a better experience.
Click to expand...
My local MTN tower has generator backup on the MTN part. Runs throughout load shedding.
 
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