Slow upload speeds in Cape Town

[1geoff99]

Not good

[URL=http://www.speedtest.net] [/URL]

 

[1geoff99]

It has never really recovered for me. It's still incredibly hit and miss, mostly I get a stable connection but it's so dog slow it's barely usable. :/

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1185273613.png

What is your location?

 

[morkhans]

Still rocking in Edgemead

 

[ajax]

Loevenstein area, when connected to 3G, I can not download anything. On 2G, at least getting some throughput.

What is your signal on 3G? If good then report to onlinesupport AT cellc.co.za. I got a call from them some 3 hours after emailing a complaint about poor speeds through to them.

 

[1geoff99]

Still rocking in Edgemead

I think I must move to Edgemead.

 

[Professor Farnsworth]

Same here. Speedtest.net gave me a license error after a while

I found this too and found that you can't have more than one instance of speedtest open at the same time, even if they're not actively running. Close all speedtest tabs except one and try again.

 

[ginggs]

Still getting poor upload speeds.
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/258764?p=5692599#post5692599

An improvement today.
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/showthread.php/258764?p=5696299#post5696299

 

[fjplotter]

Loevenstein, Cape Town 2G speed via MF190 modem

 

[kingdong]

Map Coordinates - http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...pe+Town,+Western+Cape+8001,+South+Africa&z=16

 

[1geoff99]

New speedtest.net. I now also think there it is a capacity issue in my area. I get good results before 8 am but significantly slower speeds later in the day.

 

[1geoff99]

New speedtest.net. I now also think there it is a capacity issue in my area. I get good results before 8 am but significantly slower speeds later in the day.

Still not too bad at 10 am....

And my router has remained connected for over 13 hours. Maybe things are looking up.

 

[1geoff99]

Still not too bad at 10 am....

And my router has remained connected for over 13 hours. Maybe things are looking up.

Midday result still not too bad...

I know some of you are getting better speeds, but this is streets ahead compared to what I was getting the first two months of this year.

Incidently, speedtest.net now has some nice features if you register, including keeping a history of all your speed test results.

 

[1geoff99]

Bad again at 8 pm...

 

[jroux]

http://www.speedtest.net/result/1188987120.png

 

[Vee]

Now work with this!!!
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1189007034.png

 

[1geoff99]

 

[1geoff99]

I've just received a technical report from Cell C explaining that my upload problem is due to interference at my tower (only affects uploads). They also say "once the interference is found in the area the upload speed will be back to normal". No indication given as to when and how this will be resolved.

One positive aspect - the report includes a map showing all the towers in my area.

 

[ginggs]

I've just received a technical report from Cell C explaining that my upload problem is due to interference at my tower (only affects uploads). They also say "once the interference is found in the area the upload speed will be back to normal". No indication given as to when and how this will be resolved.

Interesting, thanks for the feedback.

I have been trying to think what could be the cause of such bad upload speeds. The way I understand it, the backhaul links are all symmetrical, so say for example your tower has 10Mbps of backhaul capacity, there will be 10Mbps available on the downlink and 10Mbps available on the uplink.
Most people are downloading and 3G/HSPA modems can download faster than they can uploads, so there should always be spare capacity for uploads.

I guess it could happen that the downlink may be so saturated that the requests for more data from the speedtest.net server are being delayed.

The other thing that occurred to me was back when MTN rolled out 1.8Mbps HSDPA in 2006 they had to switch a section of the upload off in order to fix a problem, they only fixed this during the roll out of 7.2Mbps HSDPA at the end of 2007. During that time it was faster to upload on EDGE than on 3G/HSDPA!

 

[1geoff99]

I've just received a technical report from Cell C explaining that my upload problem is due to interference at my tower (only affects uploads). They also say "once the interference is found in the area the upload speed will be back to normal". No indication given as to when and how this will be resolved.

Cell C contacted me again today and told me that the interference issue has now been corrected. When I asked why then was I still getting slow speeds (downloads and uploads), he said that must now be a different problem. So while I had the techie on the line, I logged another complaint to be investigated.

 

[ajax]

Cell C contacted me again today and told me that the interference issue has now been corrected. When I asked why then was I still getting slow speeds (downloads and uploads), he said that must now be a different problem. So while I had the techie on the line, I logged another complaint to be investigated.

Wonder when they will be fixing "the interference" in the rest of the Western Cape.