To cell c or not...

Mobus

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I'd like to here from current cell c subscribers if they are happy with their service.

Especially voice (dropped and missed calls etc), and especially in the Pretoria and cape town areas.

My wife and I are both currently on vodacom and pretty happy. My wife's contract is expiring soon and cell c seems to be offering the best deals at the moment. She is eyeing the S3 mini at R179pm with 100min + 100 sms + 100mb data. Reliable voice is her primary concern (she's on wifi most of the time).
 
Stay with Vodacom trust me. My wife is still on Cell C, i left. She cant make a call without it dropping at least 50% of the time in JHB
 
Stay as far away from Cell C as possible! In CT and I also have dropped calls on a daily basis. I call them and complain every couple of days and then they send someone to 'come and test the network' and report that all is fine. The network tech yesterday told me I shouldn't be having any issues anywhere in the Peninsula, but it happens on a daily basis.

As far as I can see, that's why they're so cheap - it's virtually impossible to use all of your minutes/data every month due to poor network quality.

Just my 2c worth...
 
My voice signal is generally fine but It can sometimes take 30s to connect and start ringing or it would tell me the number does not exist etc etc.

I can sit and watch my data signal change from none to full and all types of connections and I will often wait for it to change before clicking on a link.

Their network is very inconsistent for me and I should have stayed with Vodacom.
 
I stay around the upper highway area in Durban (Kloof). I commute between there and Toti every so often.

Internet, Voice and SMS seem fine. Never had any call dropping, etc.

Hillcrest though - that's a different story. Reception absolutely dies there. Have no idea why.
 
Stay with Vodacom trust me. My wife is still on Cell C, i left. She cant make a call without it dropping at least 50% of the time in JHB

^^^ This. I ported to Cell C about 6 months back. My biggest regret of 2013. It's a sick joke. I am forever missing calls or getting WhatsApp messages way later than they were sent.

I'm actually hunting for a cheap sim for my iPhone 4S to go back to Vodacom with my tail between my legs. My grievance with Vodacom was the expensive data - I went to Cell C for this. Aowa - dumbest thing EVER!
 
on cell c, I cannot make or receive calls from inside my place of work. The audio is terrible. I have to go outside. I cannot run a speedtest as it cannot make a connection
 
Stay far far away from Cell C. Been with them for a year, worst decision I ever made (plus 5 mates of mine who are all switching back to MTN / VC once contracts end).

Edenvale / Morningside / Fourways, 3 locations I frequent. Calls will drop at least 2-4 times when driving between any of these routes. For example, before taking N3 N at London Road bridge, it will drop, passing Woodmead, will drop, passing Main Road bridge on N1 S towards William Nicol, will drop. These locations are not even that far apart (10 - 15 kms), so it is astonishing..
 
Stay with Vodacom trust me. My wife is still on Cell C, i left. She cant make a call without it dropping at least 50% of the time in JHB

I travel between Pta & Jhb and even on Vodacom I get a dropped call rate of one in three.
 
I am on Cell C. R300pm for 900mb data and 300minutes and other extras I don't even use. I stay in Pretoria and travel around Jhb. I've never had issues or dropped calls. Great value for money
 
i'd say get a prepaid sim and try it for a week or so on a different phone maybe? it depends if you make lots of calls while driving and where you are located. I've been on Cell C since 2010 and I have yet to experience a dropped call. Outside the major centers and biggish towns you are roaming on vodacom anyway (in fact you can choose on your phone which of the two you want), so it surprises me that they have not solved dropped calls in patchy areas. My biggest gripe is towers that are over contested versus towers that seem to completely unused. But I guess it's just a box of equipment that they can move between towers depending where the demand is greatest.
 
on cell c, I cannot make or receive calls from inside my place of work. The audio is terrible. I have to go outside. I cannot run a speedtest as it cannot make a connection

You sound like you work in the same building as me: Old Mutual HQ in Cape Town (Pinelands)
 
i'd say get a prepaid sim and try it for a week or so on a different phone maybe? it depends if you make lots of calls while driving and where you are located. I've been on Cell C since 2010 and I have yet to experience a dropped call. Outside the major centers and biggish towns you are roaming on vodacom anyway (in fact you can choose on your phone which of the two you want), so it surprises me that they have not solved dropped calls in patchy areas. My biggest gripe is towers that are over contested versus towers that seem to completely unused. But I guess it's just a box of equipment that they can move between towers depending where the demand is greatest.

Agree with this guy, get a prepaid sim and test it for yourself.
 
CT:It is with sadness I report as follows
1) I'm currently with CellC, and move around the peninsula a fair bit, I found 80- 90 % of my calls had issues, currently seems a bit better, but may be the areas I'm currently working in?
2) Check the total costs carefully, my monthly cell spend has gone up, not down!!....I have not done an analysis of why, but I suspect the way the package is structured. I expected a saving of +- R 100/ month....up by R100-R200....why??
I did the pre-paid sim test for a few weeks, seemed okay, but possibly in my haste to give VC the middle finger I lost out, I may well return to them.:cry:
 
Can those replying, please give areas, and an overall experience, in as far as you can.
I realize this is merely a vague hint of what I may encounter.
This will help me make up my mind as to cut my losses and port back to VC or to stay hoping for better days.
Thanks!!
 
Thanks for the replies thus far. I haven't heard much from PTA people (except good things - one from this post and a few in person). It seems most of the complaints come from JHB. The other problem seems to be cell handover between towers (esp. to vodacom roaming towers) which mostly happens while driving (in which case you can lock you phone to 2G only vodacom roaming - a sucky workaround but a workaround nonetheless).

My wife is mostly in PTA, maybe in CT or JHB once in 2-3 months - and doesn't really use her phone whilst driving. She is leaning strongly towards going with cell c. So PTA guys, please speak up with this is a bad idea!
 
Personally, I've had no issues technically although lately customer service are slow to get back to you. I booked my iPhone online yesterday got no arrangements made, maybe it's a stock issue not sure.
 
Personally, I've had no issues technically although lately customer service are slow to get back to you. I booked my iPhone online yesterday got no arrangements made, maybe it's a stock issue not sure.

In which area(s) are you?
 
Out in Centurion. Ported my wife and kids to CellC as wife had serious problems on VC. We live in swartkop and she could never keep a call more than 2 minutes before it dropped. Call quality was also bad. Since moving to CellC she never have any dropped calls or voice quality issues. Our average spending has also fallen by about R200-R300 / month. Where else can you get 100min/100sms/100MB for the kids for R49/month? I am on MTN and will also move to CellC soon and will update if I have issues.
 
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