Telkom Uncapped LTE Deal - My Trials So Far...

[oldtimerZA]

So I received all my stuff for this yesterday.
Without connecting or installing the antenna I'm getting +-15mbps.

I was wondering how does one go about installing the antenna?
I'm renting at the moment and I'm not allowed to drill any holes in the walls(don't ask).

So I was planning on making a tripod that I could mount the antenna onto then Put it onto my balcony and adjust the height and angle to connect to the nearest tower.(about 500m away) does anyone think this'll work?

Problem is my property is surrounded by massive trees and I'm not allowed to put anything on the roof(body corporate). I'm on the second floor and these tress still tower above me. Will this affect the signal significantly?

 

[nicbst]

If the company that delivers your parcel scans it in fast enough you should be good to go.

1.So phone Courier IT which is probably the company who delivered.
2.Ask if the parcel has been scanned as delivered,if yes phone telkom.If no ask the staff to please assist.
3.Phone telkom mobile and say your parcel was delivered 2 days ago,seems like they dont have a place to check because i lied through my teeth.
4.They will activate/Rica and then guide you through the setup
5. Bobs your uncle

Mine was delivered on a Friday...And only activated the following Wednesday at around 10pm...

 

[jcheek]

Now I think my antenna is pointing exactly between the 2 cells. There is nothing I can do about that because of my location to the tower. As you can see Telkom pointed these cells to the areas that has the most houses.
I suspect my router is switching between the two cells I circled.

Apologies if you already know this and this is insulting your intelligence, cavedog, but ..
Those two antennas are part of a set of three sector antennas that each service one 120° arc (one sector) of a cell. They're not pointing to any one area or group of houses in particular, rather the three antennas together provide omni-directional (360°) coverage for one cell.
Have a read here for more background.

The sector antennas are quite directional with a high front-to-back ratio, ie high gain from the front (the part facing outwards) and low gain from the back. For that reason it's unlikely that you would be connecting to the "back" of one and to the front of another from one location.
Unless of course you did the test(s) from different positions near the station itself ?

It's been suggested that on some networks, the Cell_IDs for different sectors of the same cell might bear similar numbers. If you have a device that reports Cell_ID (B315s or E5186), then you might be able to verify this by doing tests from three positions around that base station.

One of them gives me 42Mbps the other one max out on 23Mbps. Once the router switches the RSRP increases to 109dBm then I get 23Mbps but when it switches to the other one I get 42Mbps and the RSRP is 97dBm....

I think it's more likely that your position might be such that there's more than one station lying approximately in a line from where you are, ie one more or less behind the other.
As suggested above, with the right router you could verify Cell_ID (and station performance) by doing tests right at the relevant station(s).

 

[Gtx Gaming]

I would like to find out whether KODI will count towards to FUP limit? We are exclusively using KODI to stream and I'm concerned that this may be seen as torrent download. Appreciate any feedback.

Will test it ,but pretty sure kodi streams via HTTP.

 

[cavedog]

Apologies if you already know this and this is insulting your intelligence, cavedog, but ..
Those two antennas are part of a set of three sector antennas that each service one 120° arc (one sector) of a cell. They're not pointing to any one area or group of houses in particular, rather the three antennas together provide omni-directional (360°) coverage for one cell.

The sector antennas are quite directional with a high front-to-back ratio, ie high gain from the front (the part facing outwards) and low gain from the back. For that reason it's unlikely that you would be connecting to the "back" of one and to the front of another from one location.
Unless of course you did the test(s) from different positions near the station itself ?

It's been reported on some networks that the Cell_IDs for different sectors of the same cell sometimes bear similar numbers. If you have a device that reports Cell_ID (B315s or E5186), then you might be able to verify this by doing tests from three positions around that base station.


I think it's more likely that your position might be such that there's more than one station lying more or less in a line from where you are.
As suggested above, with the right router you could verify Cell_ID (and station performance) by doing tests right at the relevant station(s).

No problem I'm not clued up with how towers works at all so thanks for the reply. I wonder what would cause the fluctuation. Maybe it's just the distance and interference from trees because I have no LOS at all and the tower is a massive distance from me.

I will try and tweak my antenna bit this weekend. Sad part is when I open my back door I see a tower with all 4 networks on it but the Telkom only has 3G on this tower so I'm forced to use a tower that is about 3.9km away according to google maps distance.

Well it's fast no doubt and look at the speed I'm getting from someone that has NO coverage at all according to the map....

 

[scud]

Send Bal or Blance to 188 and you will get your usage smsed to you.

Thank you !

 

[Vaalboy]

Will test it ,but pretty sure kodi streams via HTTP.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm not tech savvy at all so would appreciate your findings.

 

[darrencon]

If the company that delivers your parcel scans it in fast enough you should be good to go.

1.So phone Courier IT which is probably the company who delivered.
2.Ask if the parcel has been scanned as delivered,if yes phone telkom.If no ask the staff to please assist.
3.Phone telkom mobile and say your parcel was delivered 2 days ago,seems like they dont have a place to check because i lied through my teeth.
4.They will activate/Rica and then guide you through the setup
5. Bobs your uncle

Thanks I called them earlier and they will submit a manual activation request.

 

[FireTelkom]

I would like to find out whether KODI will count towards to FUP limit? We are exclusively using KODI to stream and I'm concerned that this may be seen as torrent download. Appreciate any feedback.

Kodi is normal browsing for me. I have used more than 200GB last month all on Kodi watching BBC1 and most during the times that will be regarded as prime.

 

[DA-LION-619]

Anyone have any suggestion for a portable mifi type device that works on this LTE frequency?

Huawei E5372, got mine from Telkom.

 

[kianm]

You can also check your p2p FUP usage and total usage over all by logging into the router and sending a sms.

Send Bal or Blance to 188 and you will get your usage smsed to you.



Awesome. This helps a lot

 

[Snah85]

Hello everyone,

So I've read basically every page of this thread (skimmed through a few ) And have made a decision to apply for the service.

We are just out of the "coverage area" as indicated by the Fibrehood Rockets but we definitely have 'normal' Telkom LTE coverage (1.3km LOS to Fibrehood designated tower). After reading through all of the posts, I have ascertained that the service should work perfectly. I actually know of someone who has it within 500m from my premises and it's flawless for him.

The issue I am having is with regards to the "7 day cooling off period".

Telkom service reps keep offering different opinions on the matter.

My understanding is that I can cancel/return the service after 7 days without issue. However, I'm now being told that if I simply 'open' the modem in order to use it, that it voids the 7 day cooling off process - which seems ridiculous to me.

Has anyone cancelled within 7 days? Any clarification on this?

Additionally, I was honest about the address over the phone, and now they want me to include a letter stating that I understand I may not have coverage but I'm still willing to sign up. Has anyone else had to do this or has done it?

I look forward to your responses.

 

[CAPS LOCK]

Huawei E5372, got mine from Telkom.

Cheers mate, will check it out.

 

[herbertk]

Got a call all sounds good... they now need to "approve" it ? will follow up again next week

 

[herbertk]

Hello everyone,

So I've read basically every page of this thread (skimmed through a few ) And have made a decision to apply for the service.

We are just out of the "coverage area" as indicated by the Fibrehood Rockets but we definitely have 'normal' Telkom LTE coverage (1.3km LOS to Fibrehood designated tower). After reading through all of the posts, I have ascertained that the service should work perfectly. I actually know of someone who has it within 500m from my premises and it's flawless for him.

The issue I am having is with regards to the "7 day cooling off period".

Telkom service reps keep offering different opinions on the matter.

My understanding is that I can cancel/return the service after 7 days without issue. However, I'm now being told that if I simply 'open' the modem in order to use it, that it voids the 7 day cooling off process - which seems ridiculous to me.

Has anyone cancelled within 7 days? Any clarification on this?

Additionally, I was honest about the address over the phone, and now they want me to include a letter stating that I understand I may not have coverage but I'm still willing to sign up. Has anyone else had to do this or has done it?

I look forward to your responses.

My understanding was the you will be charged for collection of the device and you can be charged if it is damaged etc within the first 7 days.

 

[nicbst]

So just as a FYI, World of Tanks updates seem to be p2p protocol...came off my 50Gb...

 

[pinball wizard]

Hello everyone,

So I've read basically every page of this thread (skimmed through a few ) And have made a decision to apply for the service.
.

Shows you have tenacity and perseverance. Both qualities will serve you well when you start phoning the Telkom call centre to inquire after your order.

 

[Zyzzyva]

Shows you have tenacity and perseverance. Both qualities will serve you well when you start phoning the Telkom call centre to inquire after your order.

 

[Vaalboy]

Kodi is normal browsing for me. I have used more than 200GB last month all on Kodi watching BBC1 and most during the times that will be regarded as prime.

Awesome - Thanks for the feedback

 

[darrencon]

Question: Before activation and when the sim is in the router, did it say "No Service" ?