Screw RAIN - B618 Router with Telkom LTE?

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nmccullo

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I have finally given up on RAIN and Webafrica. I have decided to move back to Telkom. (Yes, that's how desperate I am and how k.k RAIN is.)

Webafrica told me I should look for an alternative product. Geez, a company basically saying "It's to much effort to fix our network and give you "LTE" speeds higher than 2mbps, so we are just going to tell you politely to f-off". What's one unhappy customer in the bigger scheme of things? I've only spend like R4 800 over the last 3 months on a product worse than a 2008 Telkom 4mb ADSL connection.

Can I use my B618 with the telkom network? I think they operate at 2300mhz? Can I use the band tool to change it? If not, any router recommendations?

Edit: It's not necessarily the less than stellar download speeds, it's the inconsistency. 30ms - 999ms local latency even during off-peak hours.
 
N

nmccullo

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I think it's my local RAIN tower that's congested or something, so changing to Afrihost won't help...
 
bromster

bromster

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It seems to show what it likes. It changes regularly for some reason.

Edit: Just tried to do another test to change it, but it seems I'm on Neology for the night.
 
A

Aquadyne

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nmccullo said:
I have finally given up on RAIN and Webafrica. I have decided to move back to Telkom. (Yes, that's how desperate I am and how k.k RAIN is.)

Webafrica told me I should look for an alternative product. Geez, a company basically saying "It's to much effort to fix our network and give you "LTE" speeds higher than 2mbps, so we are just going to tell you politely to f-off". What's one unhappy customer in the bigger scheme of things? I've only spend like R4 800 over the last 3 months on a product worse than a 2008 Telkom 4mb ADSL connection.

Can I use my B618 with the telkom network? I think they operate at 2300mhz? Can I use the band tool to change it? If not, any router recommendations?

Edit: It's not necessarily the less than stellar download speeds, it's the inconsistency. 30ms - 999ms local latency even during off-peak hours.
Click to expand...
You have a PM.
 
cavedog

cavedog

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nmccullo said:
I have finally given up on RAIN and Webafrica. I have decided to move back to Telkom. (Yes, that's how desperate I am and how k.k RAIN is.)

Webafrica told me I should look for an alternative product. Geez, a company basically saying "It's to much effort to fix our network and give you "LTE" speeds higher than 2mbps, so we are just going to tell you politely to f-off". What's one unhappy customer in the bigger scheme of things? I've only spend like R4 800 over the last 3 months on a product worse than a 2008 Telkom 4mb ADSL connection.

Can I use my B618 with the telkom network? I think they operate at 2300mhz? Can I use the band tool to change it? If not, any router recommendations?

Edit: It's not necessarily the less than stellar download speeds, it's the inconsistency. 30ms - 999ms local latency even during off-peak hours.
Click to expand...

The B618 from rain and cellc will work on Telkom band 3 and if the Telkom tower supports B1+B3 LTE-Advanced.

I would suggest testing with a prepaid simcard and using a bandtool to force the bands. 2300MHz or band 40 will unfortunately not work with that router but does not mean you are out of luck.
 
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nmccullo

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cavedog said:
The B618 from rain and cellc will work on Telkom band 3 and if the Telkom tower supports B1+B3 LTE-Advanced.

I would suggest testing with a prepaid simcard and using a bandtool to force the bands. 2300MHz or band 40 will unfortunately not work with that router but does not mean you are out of luck.
Click to expand...

Thanks Cavedog. I have ordered the B315. I will try and use the B618 if the B315 doesn't arrive in time...

I just had an online gaming session with multiple disconnects. I got over the fact that they were throttling between 68 and 11, but this "congestion?" and lag spikes are just too much.

I previously had Telkom LTE. I was getting speeds of around 35mbps, but then RAIN came along with it's initial speeds of 70 - 80 and I cancelled my Telkom LTE...
 
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TheSuperSonic

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nmccullo said:
Thanks Cavedog. I have ordered the B315. I will try and use the B618 if the B315 doesn't arrive in time...

I just had an online gaming session with multiple disconnects. I got over the fact that they were throttling between 68 and 11, but this "congestion?" and lag spikes are just too much.

I previously had Telkom LTE. I was getting speeds of around 35mbps, but then RAIN came along with it's initial speeds of 70 - 80 and I cancelled my Telkom LTE...
Click to expand...

what signal were you getting on RAIN ?? did you ever use the Huawei Band tool !?
 
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Willie Trombone

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nmccullo said:
Webafrica told me I should look for an alternative product. Geez, a company basically saying "It's to much effort to fix our network and give you "LTE" speeds higher than 2mbps, so we are just going to tell you politely to f-off". What's one unhappy customer in the bigger scheme of things? I've only spend like R4 800 over the last 3 months on a product worse than a 2008 Telkom 4mb ADSL connection.
Click to expand...
Well given they don't own the infrastructure and have no control over it, that's pretty reasonable. Count yourself lucky they were honest and didn't waste any more of your time.

Can I use my B618 with the telkom network? I think they operate at 2300mhz? Can I use the band tool to change it? If not, any router recommendations?

Edit: It's not necessarily the less than stellar download speeds, it's the inconsistency. 30ms - 999ms local latency even during off-peak hours.
Click to expand...
There are two different B618s. Telkom uses 1800 and 2300 - both work. 1800 works better for me right now.
 
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Willie Trombone

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nmccullo said:
Thanks Cavedog. I have ordered the B315. I will try and use the B618 if the B315 doesn't arrive in time...
Click to expand...
B618 was faster and more consistent for me. I sold my B315. Telkom have two LTE packages - LTE and LTE-A (faster). B315 does not support LTE-A afaik.
I've heard bad stuff about the uncapped packages from Telkom - as long as you're on a capped package you should be fine but LTE is all about the towers around you: Their distance and line of sight and contention ratios - if the tower is oversubscribed, it doesn't matter how good your signal, you'll get poor speeds.
 
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nmccullo

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TheSuperSonic said:
what signal were you getting on RAIN ?? did you ever use the Huawei Band tool !?
Click to expand...

3 Bars on the router display. Can't remember what the RSRQ etc. was, but all of them were in the "excellent" range. I switched between the various bands, no improvement. (At times it felt like I was getting higher speeds on either 1800 or 2600 - it felt like it varied from time to time...)

The Telkom speedtest was with my RAIN B618 router. I'm waiting for the B315 to arrive. (B315-Takealot). The one external aerial connector on my B618 broke, so I'm hoping my Poynting Antenna might give me a slight boost on the B315.

Daruk said:
B618 was faster and more consistent for me. I sold my B315. Telkom have two LTE packages - LTE and LTE-A (faster). B315 does not support LTE-A afaik.
I've heard bad stuff about the uncapped packages from Telkom - as long as you're on a capped package you should be fine but LTE is all about the towers around you: Their distance and line of sight and contention ratios - if the tower is oversubscribed, it doesn't matter how good your signal, you'll get poor speeds.
Click to expand...

I went for the capped 100gb + 100gb. (I previously used Telkom and only went with RAIN, because they were slightly faster...)

Daruk said:
Well given they don't own the infrastructure and have no control over it, that's pretty reasonable. Count yourself lucky they were honest and didn't waste any more of your time.

There are two different B618s. Telkom uses 1800 and 2300 - both work. 1800 works better for me right now.
Click to expand...

I here you, but I can't communicate with anyone from RAIN, so WebAfrica needs to serve as the "representative". And it's taken more than 2 months to finally get an honest answer. They kept on waiting for me to follow up after logging countless faults, never once giving me an update without me prompting them. When I replied to mails, I would get a response: "Your case has been closed..." and I would have to generate a new fault. Even till today I'm only speculating that the network is congested.. (Maybe a wild animal chowed a cable and all RAIN needs to do is fix it... ;P)
 
Dan C

Dan C

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nmccullo said:
I have finally given up on RAIN and Webafrica. I have decided to move back to Telkom. (Yes, that's how desperate I am and how k.k RAIN is.)

Webafrica told me I should look for an alternative product. Geez, a company basically saying "It's to much effort to fix our network and give you "LTE" speeds higher than 2mbps, so we are just going to tell you politely to f-off". What's one unhappy customer in the bigger scheme of things? I've only spend like R4 800 over the last 3 months on a product worse than a 2008 Telkom 4mb ADSL connection.

Can I use my B618 with the telkom network? I think they operate at 2300mhz? Can I use the band tool to change it? If not, any router recommendations?

Edit: It's not necessarily the less than stellar download speeds, it's the inconsistency. 30ms - 999ms local latency even during off-peak hours.
Click to expand...
Also canceled my fixed LTE-A since I could not connect to the 2600 frequency any more. Speeds were dismal. Luckily that Vodacom 110GB deal came along. Now I pay 1/2 the price with much better speeds and latency. Only drawback is the 24 month contract.
 
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deweyzeph

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To be fair Webafrica is a reseller of Rain. There is bugger all they can do about the quality of your connection to Rain's network. They don't control it or have anything to do with it besides being a reseller of the product.
 
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