Telkom LTE frequency/bands

cavedog

cavedog

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So I have been seeing more and more towers getting refarmed 2100MHz frequency for LTE and have posted it before but just thought that a new thread with updated info would be nice for people searching.

Telkom now has LTE on:
Band 1 (2100MHz)
Band 3 (1800MHz)
Band 40 (2300MHz)

Telkom runs LTE-A (4G+) on 2 setups now.

Band 40 + Band 40 (40MHz spectrum)
Band 1 + Band 3 (15MHz spectrum)

In cases where Telkom roams on Vodacom there might be a mix of bands and spectrum. Band 8 might come into play once the roaming with Vodacom is fully implemented. Vodacom refarms up to 15MHz spectrum in Band 1 so that can also be decent once that comes into play.

Now let's talk routers. Most LTE-A (4G+) routers can do B1+B3 LTE-A (4G+) so those routers will now work on Telkom. For B40+B40 LTE-A which would usually be the fastest purely based on device support and obviously the larger amount of spectrum you would need a Telkom supplied B525 or B618.
 
What are the exact model numbers for the b525 or b618 that I would need? My 315 is giving trouble...
 
tefago said:
What are the exact model numbers for the b525 or b618 that I would need? My 315 is giving trouble...
Click to expand...

Huawei B618s-65d
Huawei B525s-65a

These two models support both LTE-A combinations Telkom runs.
 
How do we know that telkom is refarming their 2100mhz? We know that they're switching over from MTN to Vodacom in stages over the next few months, could it be that the 2100mhz spectrum that's being used now is Vodacoms?
 
Lishen23 said:
How do we know that telkom is refarming their 2100mhz? We know that they're switching over from MTN to Vodacom in stages over the next few months, could it be that the 2100mhz spectrum that's being used now is Vodacoms?
Click to expand...

It could be I guess but tests I've done with the B618 shows that LTE on B1 still has the same cell id except for the last 2 digits than LTE or LTE-A on band 40 and B3 so I know it's a Telkom tower.

Then we need to figure out if Telkom would allow their high cap and uncapped users to actually roam on Vodacom. I don't think that is going to happen. We are going to see the same thing with Telkom that happened with Cellc Fixed LTE.
 
I switched my B315 to B1 - 2100 Mhz and the whole thing crashed.
I had to do a factory reset to get the modem going again :(
 
ProAsm said:
I switched my B315 to B1 - 2100 Mhz and the whole thing crashed.
I had to do a factory reset to get the modem going again :(
Click to expand...

I was wondering why it crash each time I select B1, does this mean I need to upgrade to a new router? Also using the B315

Regardfs
 
ahf said:
I was wondering why it crash each time I select B1, does this mean I need to upgrade to a new router? Also using the B315

Regardfs
Click to expand...
No, basically it means there is no provider available on 2100 Mhz on your tower and the modem does not know what to do with itself so it crashes.
 
@ProAsm....very strange I can remember when the upgrade was done to allow the 1.8Ghz and 2.3Ghz bands I could switch without any problem.
 
cavedog said:
So I have been seeing more and more towers getting refarmed 2100MHz frequency for LTE and have posted it before but just thought that a new thread with updated info would be nice for people searching.

Telkom now has LTE on:
Band 1 (2100MHz)
Band 3 (1800MHz)
Band 40 (2300MHz)

Telkom runs LTE-A (4G+) on 2 setups now.

Band 40 + Band 40 (40MHz spectrum)
Band 1 + Band 3 (15MHz spectrum)

In cases where Telkom roams on Vodacom there might be a mix of bands and spectrum. Band 8 might come into play once the roaming with Vodacom is fully implemented. Vodacom refarms up to 15MHz spectrum in Band 1 so that can also be decent once that comes into play.

Now let's talk routers. Most LTE-A (4G+) routers can do B1+B3 LTE-A (4G+) so those routers will now work on Telkom. For B40+B40 LTE-A which would usually be the fastest purely based on device support and obviously the larger amount of spectrum you would need a Telkom supplied B525 or B618.
Click to expand...
I also wanted to test this.

But I see telkom sells the b315s-936.

But from huawei site:
B315s-936 FAQ
https://consumer.huawei.com/za/support/lte-router/b315s-936/
1551427695676.png

I don't see 2300MHZ band or am I blind?
 
I have the B315s-936 and it sits on 2300 Mhz permanently, thanks to sajunky ;)

Ltemon1.jpg
 

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popadong said:
how do you get such fantastic signal ? :D RSRP -67 RSRQ -3 RSSI -61 SINR 30
Click to expand...
Lol... long story, but the short story is I live 2.2 km from the Telkom main Tower and only had -92 dBm signals so got a Poynting Xpol-6-10M antenna and that brought my signals up to around -86 dBm.
Then on the 2nd January 2019 Telkom activated 2300 Mhz on our local Mini Tower which is about 400 meters away and with the antenna I got flooded.
This is without the antenna and the speed drops quite a bit:

Ltemon2.jpg

Peak time speeds with builtin antenna: https://speedtest.co.za/result/107867

Peak time speeds with external antenna: https://speedtest.co.za/result/107870
 
ahf said:
@ProAsm...would it be possible to share that info here, so that we can test 2.3Ghz?

Regards
Click to expand...
1. Download the 'E5186 Toolbox 0.9' and install it somewhere and backup the config.xml file
2. Download this file: http://www.proasm.com/other/config.zip and unzip it to where you backed up the xml file.
3. Execute 'E5186 Toolbox.exe'
4. Connect - Network Band: and select '2300 Mhz / B40' - Apply

If this is all Greek then check out sajunky's topics here:

https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/threads/toolbox-for-new-huawei-hilink-devices-e5186-b315s.798330/

https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/thr...vices-e5186-b315s.798330/page-4#post-20002292

** Edit: If you cannot find the Toolbox: **

http://www.proasm.com/other/E5186_Toolbox_09.zip (new config.xml included)
 
Last edited:
For what it is worth.

Migrated , after many years on ADSL , to Telkom SmartBroadband LTE/LTE-A [20+20+20 GB] deal.

Modem is Huawei B525. Did all the setups - speeds great but day later gone down drastically with the network mode set to "Auto".

Played around with all the different network modes in the settings [Auto / 4G&3G / 4G only / 1800 Mhz / 2300Mhz].

Best speeds achieved , using network mode 1800MHz , is +-30 Mbps down and +-15 Mbps up. Sometimes higher but depends on the time of day.

PS: on 1800 Mhz the signal strength is always on 5 bars [Not complaining :giggle:]

Greetings
 
+- 30 Mbps is pretty good for 1800 Mhz, I'm lucky if I see 20 Mbps there.
 
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