Too many fingers?

[Harley79]

My question is :

Are Vodacom not trying to do too much as once, instead of getting one thing right?

3G service is good. But it appears most people outside the greater jo'burg area, is battling big time. Inside the greater Jo'burg area I have notice a serious degradation of service across the vodacom network in general, voice & data. Are Vodacom not trying too many things (GPRS+, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA, etc etc) instead of getting there main line working??

Vodacom made a business decision to go with 3G, and not EDGE. It now seems like they want it all, and I seriously wonder how much this has to do with reliability and stability at this point.

Now Vodacom is playing with 2MB HSDPA service. WHAT! Get 3G rocking FIRST! Yes I know you need to keep abreast of the times, but put everything into 3G, then move on. Vodacom (in my opinion) is not able to support the current 3G speeds, as last night again I noticed serious delays compared to normal and I wonder how their uplink is doing to the ISP of choice.

I have been a staunch supporter of 3G, and am on the verge of getting a big client of mine to roll out a VPN on 3G, I think the 3G service rocked in the early days (perhaps this was when 3G was the only thing on Vodacom's mind) but things have gone down hill. Vodacom proberly put some blame on Vodafone cause it is their card and software, but SURELY there is some kind of service level agreement?

Please Vodacom :

1.) Concentrate on my 3G service which you made me sign a contract for (or cancel it then)

2.) Get me my speeds and stability and reliability going

3.) Roll out to other centres and give them the same reliability and speed as in Jo'burg.

 

[Inov8]

I agree totally with Harley79. I am in Durban and was in East London the passed few days. This 3G/GPRS service is shocking! I've been (trying to) working on line for the passed 3hrs and have lost count of the times I have had to re-dial (some where around 15-20 times). This is especially frustrating when you have to log in to a service like Internet Banking or Instant Messaging.

It can't be signal, cos my phone keeps a mostly full reception, the dashboard shows 2-3 bars, I'm even using the external antenna. I've upgraded and tweeked everything I can. now instead of focussing on my 3G needs, Vodacom is already moving on to the next exciting connection.

I "upgraded" to 3G from an ISDN connection. It looks like Vodacom/AutoPage are going to eat their card and I'm going upgrade back to ISDN. I can't run my business with an unstable internet connection. Just this morning alone I've waisted over an hour connecting and reading forums and making calls to support a faulty internet connection.

When I do eventually stay connected, I can't disconnect or close applications on my computer without doing a hard shutdown.

Vodacom, please get this connection sorted or I want out!

 

[ic]

Harley79, this was discussed & covered in Pieter Uys' presentation, my apologies for not mentioning it.

Vodacom's stated strategy is to concentrate more on the 3G network, continue with the 3G tower rollouts, phase 2 is in progress, and phase 3 will start later this year. HSDPA will only happen towards the end of the year when all the other stuff has been done - that was my understanding of Pieter Uys' presentation.

Debate like this thread is great though for forumites as well as for Vodacom - it gives Vodacom an insight into what's important to its own customers.

 

[magus]

I think we also need to show a little understanding for the difficulties that Vodacom face, many of which they have no control over. For example, I have been impatiently awaiting the commissioning of a new tower in my vicinity, which willgive me real 3G coverage. This is awaiting permission from the local municipality since October last year. My Councillor informs me that the committe in question only meets every six moths, and even then does not finish all the business on the agenda.

It is not easy to provide first world service in a (largely) third world environment.

 

[Harley79]

magus, fair enough, but even when the towers are 3G capable, there are issues which did not exist in the past. i.e. new issues

 

[magus]

magus, fair enough, but even when the towers are 3G capable, there are issues which did not exist in the past. i.e. new issues

LOL, you are, of course, right. However, I eagerly await the opportunity to deal with those 'new issues'. I am, after 13 years of ISDN, kinda bored with the 'old issues'.

 

[alchamy]

LOL, you are, of course, right. However, I eagerly await the opportunity to deal with those 'new issues'. I am, after 13 years of ISDN, kinda bored with the 'old issues'.

A valid point, everything comes with its own unique problems and it takes time to iron out all the wrinkles.

If I think back to my days with a 14400 zoom modem and BBS frustrations not much has changed, still having problems and still paying a fortune for it.

Oh and ISDN was the most "fun" I ever had. Although I did manage 3GB a weekend quite easily.

 

[vodacom3g]

Vodacom is focusing on 3G and (just about) nothing but 3G.

Phase 1 (end of December 2004) rolled 480 base stations.
Phase 2 (end of May 2005), another 400 base stations.
Phase 3 (October 2005), another 600 base stations.

HSDPA will only happen after Phase 3, to be ready by December 2005.
EDGE is done where resources are available. As is CS3/4.

So, all focus is on 3G.

What we need to resolve are these instability reports popping up every now and then. The fact that they are few and far between does not make it any easier for the victims (Like Harley79!) but makes it a bit of a bi*ch to trace and debug.

Purely an observation: It might be a cyclic thing as the network grows. You might recall similar stability issues around January that subsequently got resolved. It might be the network has entered a new capacity point.

The 3G community has been very patient when gremlins do strike and always help to identify and debug. This is tremendously helpful. The Engineering department is continuously busy with upgrading and tweaking the network. As always, the more detailed information we can give them, the better they can find and iron out any bugs.

If you do have a problem, please PM me with as much info as possible on the problem, your observations, etc.

As an aside, one common problem (not Harley79's) seems to be certain laptop/datacard combinations, the single biggest support issue at the moment.

We cannot determine a pattern here and it's very frustrating. I've got a Taiwanese takeaway and recently switched from Option to Novatel to try and get a feel for the Novatel issues. Guess what, it's as stable as can be.....

 

[Snowolf]

I'll stand up for vodacom on this aspect. I did complain (something that i'm good at) and the very next day I had a connection that zoomed, this is the reason why I will use vodacom and my main data provider. just give them some time and you will also be impressed with the service