Questions for Vodacom3G...

S

sjpslabbert

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 11, 2006
Messages
229
Reaction score
9
Hi,

I have been using GPRS for more than 2 years now as my only means of connecting to the internet. Started on a Nokia 6100 over an infrared connection, and later upgraded to an Nokia N70 over bluetooth. I have always been happy with the connection... it was faster than Telkom over a modem. :D

December last year I upgraded to one of those specials at Incredible Connection. A 3G card with 500MB of data and a Toshiba Notebook over 24 months :cool: . I always made use of a small program named Netmeter to get an idea of the data I used. The last few weeks I saw a visible drop in my connection speeds (sometimes reaching an average of on 0.7 Kb/s). I usually connects to the same sites during different hours of the day and most of the times I must reload the page I am trying to access a few times before it opens. :confused:

I live in the Delareyville area in the North West province.

Here is my questions:
1. Am I only imagining the slower connection speeds, or is Vodacom unable to continue offering me the service I became used to? My connection is now slower than my friends Telkom connection and I usually blew him away.:mad:

2. There is quite a few GPRS users in our area. When will Vodacom upgrade the towers to Edge or 3G? I currently have a Huawei E620 data card with 500MB HSDPA contract stuttering along at between 0.5Kb/s and 6Kb/s.

3. Is it possible for Vodacom to examine the towers in our area to confirm that everything is up to speed?

4. What kind of upgrade possibilities will be available to me near the end of my two year contract (since my contract included a data card, laptop and data bundle)?

Hope to hear from you....
thanks
 
sjpslabbert said:
Hi,

I have been using GPRS for more than 2 years now as my only means of connecting to the internet. Started on a Nokia 6100 over an infrared connection, and later upgraded to an Nokia N70 over bluetooth. I have always been happy with the connection... it was faster than Telkom over a modem. :D

December last year I upgraded to one of those specials at Incredible Connection. A 3G card with 500MB of data and a Toshiba Notebook over 24 months :cool: . I always made use of a small program named Netmeter to get an idea of the data I used. The last few weeks I saw a visible drop in my connection speeds (sometimes reaching an average of on 0.7 Kb/s). I usually connects to the same sites during different hours of the day and most of the times I must reload the page I am trying to access a few times before it opens. :confused:

I live in the Delareyville area in the North West province.

Here is my questions:
1. Am I only imagining the slower connection speeds, or is Vodacom unable to continue offering me the service I became used to? My connection is now slower than my friends Telkom connection and I usually blew him away.:mad:
Click to expand...
I'm sure you're not imagining things, but to give it some emperical weight, run the test on http://speed.vodacom.co.za to get a point from where we can work.

There's been a spate of performance problems over the last few days. Also there were big problems in Gauteng/Kzn today. I believe those have been resolved.

sjpslabbert said:
2. There is quite a few GPRS users in our area. When will Vodacom upgrade the towers to Edge or 3G? I currently have a Huawei E620 data card with 500MB HSDPA contract stuttering along at between 0.5Kb/s and 6Kb/s.
Click to expand...
Speeds that low indicate something is broken, but ingeneral towers get upgraded as soon as they get loaded and upgrade capacity is available. Sometmies we wait a long time for bigger capacity on the transmission links.

sjpslabbert said:
3. Is it possible for Vodacom to examine the towers in our area to confirm that everything is up to speed?
Click to expand...
Of course, that's what we do for a living (making sure you spend as much bandwidth! :)) PM me your physical addr, contact details and maybe the name of the 2G tower you see on your cell phone Cell-ID.

sjpslabbert said:
4. What kind of upgrade possibilities will be available to me near the end of my two year contract (since my contract included a data card, laptop and data bundle)?
Click to expand...
You're still 18 months away, so I'd guess at least a 7.2Mb/s data card (and a quad core lappy!)
 
Thanks for replying

vodacom3g said:
I'm sure you're not imagining things, but to give it some emperical weight, run the test on http://speed.vodacom.co.za to get a point from where we can work.

There's been a spate of performance problems over the last few days. Also there were big problems in Gauteng/Kzn today. I believe those have been resolved.
Click to expand...

OK, I did the test and here is my results: 28Kbps Download, 9Kbps Upload. Seems a bit slow.:(


Speeds that low indicate something is broken, but ingeneral towers get upgraded as soon as they get loaded and upgrade capacity is available. Sometmies we wait a long time for bigger capacity on the transmission links.

Of course, that's what we do for a living (making sure you spend as much bandwidth! :)) PM me your physical addr, contact details and maybe the name of the 2G tower you see on your cell phone Cell-ID.
Click to expand...

So maybe it is possible that there could be something wrong. Could you please check for me? I live in Delareyville in the North West in 34 Mark Street. Postcode 2770. My Cell ID show Delareyville 1 and Delareyville 2.

You're still 18 months away, so I'd guess at least a 7.2Mb/s data card (and a quad core lappy!)
Click to expand...

Yep, I know it is still far, but I was just wondering what the future for my upgrade could possibly entail. I like the idea of another notebook. The 7.2 MB datacard is actually totally useless to me since I am struggling to get above 60 Kb/s. But the laptop seems very nice.;)
 
just make sure nothing is comprimising your connection...like spyware/trojans uploading/downloading...

but most prolly you would have picked this up.

just a thing 2 look out for.

also..since it is a laptop - do a bit of testing...go outside .. check if the speed varies...

all just to get more detail to the case.

cheerz.
 
='[OUPA]MrNutz;993276']just make sure nothing is comprimising your connection...like spyware/trojans uploading/downloading...

but most prolly you would have picked this up. just a thing 2 look out for.
Click to expand...

Nope, scan my computer a few times a week for those baddies. Spybot SD, Avast Antivirus, AVG Antispyware and Zonealarm. Netmeter is a very nice (and free) little program showing a nice graphic of your upload and download speed. My problem is not something hogging my data, but almost no data at all. Sometimes my average total download speed is about 0.7 Kb/s. If it was this slow from day one I would not mind, but I am using GPRS for more than two years now... the last few months have been slooooowww. Spyware or other programs downloading would show up in Netmeter.


also..since it is a laptop - do a bit of testing...go outside .. check if the speed varies...

all just to get more detail to the case.

cheerz.
Click to expand...

I have tried it some time ago, but I will try it again. Will keep you posted. I tried the speedtest again http://speed.vodacom.co.za/speedtest/ , but got the following error: "The license for this speed test is either expired or invalid. Please contact the Webmaster of this site to let him know" O Well, could not test the speed this morning.
Thanks for the reply
 
Moderator note...

sjpslabbert said:
It took me almost 2 minutes just to open this page. Come on, what is going on. THe net is becoming slower and slower. Has Vodacom bitten of more than it could chew? My connection is the worst it has been in 2 years. :mad:
Click to expand...
Your post moved to [post=932410]this thread...[/post]
 
sjpslabbert said:
OK, I did the test and here is my results: 28Kbps Download, 9Kbps Upload. Seems a bit slow.:(
Click to expand...
Diplomatic understatement of the year! It's cr*p. Unless you're on GPRS? What colours do the LED's indicate?

sjpslabbert said:
So maybe it is possible that there could be something wrong. Could you please check for me? I live in Delareyville in the North West in 34 Mark Street. Postcode 2770. My Cell ID show Delareyville 1 and Delareyville 2.
Click to expand...
Won't you PM me all your contact details? Don't post here.

sjpslabbert said:
Yep, I know it is still far, but I was just wondering what the future for my upgrade could possibly entail. I like the idea of another notebook. The 7.2 MB datacard is actually totally useless to me since I am struggling to get above 60 Kb/s. But the laptop seems very nice.;)
Click to expand...

We'll I'm speculating but I'm sure laptops will be 4C in two years time. Also, everyone should be on 7.2M by then (I hope)
 
V3G,


Diplomatic understatement of the year! It's cr*p. Unless you're on GPRS? What colours do the LED's indicate?
Click to expand...

I am on GPRS, but I have been for the last two years and I have never seen speeds this slow for such an extended period. That is why I am complaining. I am used to much better average speed than this.

If I was new to GPRS I had nothing to complain about, because with what would I compare my throughput? But I know the average speeds I used to get. In the beginning I made use of a Nokia 6100 and an infrared port, and even with those setup I got better speed than currently with my Huawei E620 datacard.

Won't you PM me all your contact details? Don't post here.
Click to expand...
How do I PM you? I am new to this forum.

We'll I'm speculating but I'm sure laptops will be 4C in two years time. Also, everyone should be on 7.2M by then (I hope)
Click to expand...
Of course I will not hold you to this :D , but it is something nice to look forward to:cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X