Vodacom is 4G ready

At our family beach house at Haga Haga on the Wild Coast - we have a Vodacom tower which only has EDGE. 4G? We have been begging them to upgrade it to 3G for years but they do not care to listen. MTN installed a tower there last year and we get lightning fast 3G.

Someone has incorrectly stated that "every tower is equipped for 4G"
 
End of the day, all they are saying is that all the equipment in the towers has been replaced but doesn't make comment about:

1.) Backhaul capacity - alot of sites are still running on microwave transmission, some even on multiple E1's (2mbit/s each) and while it might work for 3G it's not going to work for 4G (LTE-A). You really need fibre for 4G.

2.) Spectrum - this they have mentioned as a bottleneck and is applicable to the city centres but not really in the more rural areas.

3.) Antenna's - last I check Vodacom uses Tri-Band antenna's so 1 band for 2G, 1 band for 3G and maybe another band for 4G in an ideal world, but I have no doubt that they vodacom uses more than 1 band per generation.
 
FlashSA said:
At our family beach house at Haga Haga on the Wild Coast - we have a Vodacom tower which only has EDGE. 4G? We have been begging them to upgrade it to 3G for years but they do not care to listen. MTN installed a tower there last year and we get lightning fast 3G.

Someone has incorrectly stated that "every tower is equipped for 4G"
Click to expand...

Maybe Vodacom is skipping 3G on 2G towers and going straight to 4G for those. Could save them on hardware costs I would imagine? Or maybe what was meant is all 3G towers upgraded to be 4G ready (awaiting spectrum for switch on)
 
genetic said:
Maybe you're in a dead spot?
Click to expand...
Yes I am.
But I am in a fairly normal, fairly flat suburb, fairly close to the highway, in Centurion.
And decently covered according to Vodacom coverage maps.
Only I'm not.
Neither are any of my immediate neighbours.
 
Updated the article with information from Delport's presentation before their LTE-Advanced demo.
 
LOL, what?

I'm still getting EDGE from my home, the only reason why I went the ADSL route was because my Vodacom internet was that terrible.
I even complained about it a couple of years ago to Vodacom. I still receive random SMS's saying Vodacom will look at the issue with my tower.
 
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Jan said:
Updated the article with information from Delport's presentation before their LTE-Advanced demo.
Click to expand...

Jan, can we get clarity on what is meant by "capable"? Does it mean that there is space for new compatible hardware to be slotted in to convert it to 4G or does it mean all the hardware is there, but just waiting switch on?
 
tsume said:
LOL, what?

I'm still getting EDGE from my home, the only reason why I went the ADSL route was because my Vodacom internet was that terrible.
I even complained about it a couple of years ago to Vodacom. I still receive random SMS's saying Vodacom will look at the issue with my tower.
Click to expand...

You're lucky - you're in the minority.
The majority of sites are 2G.
 
Ockie said:
Jan, can we get clarity on what is meant by "capable"? Does it mean that there is space for new compatible hardware to be slotted in to convert it to 4G or does it mean all the hardware is there, but just waiting switch on?
Click to expand...

Well spotted.
 
FlashSA said:
At our family beach house at Haga Haga on the Wild Coast - we have a Vodacom tower which only has EDGE. 4G? We have been begging them to upgrade it to 3G for years but they do not care to listen. MTN installed a tower there last year and we get lightning fast 3G.

Someone has incorrectly stated that "every tower is equipped for 4G"
Click to expand...

It's Haga lol. No offence, but a village with a few hundred people can't get priority over urban sites surely. Again, the majority of all sites in SA are 2G.
 
Between Potchefstroom and Parys we only have 3G. When I saw all site upgraded I got excited. I have a 4G router but unfortunately no 4G signal at all when forced to 4G. I even got an SMS indicating that LTE is enabled on my SIM.

Well 18ms to JHB with 13.5 Mbps down and 7Mbps up is not bad compared to my usual Safricom high latency and sub 2 Mbps uncapped with a FUP of 20 GB, puke!

Well done Vodacom! I will be returning my household mobile contracts to you in the near future! Cell C has made me a daily swearing person over the last 18 months.
 
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Arietans said:
It's Haga lol. No offence, but a village with a few hundred people can't get priority over urban sites surely. Again, the majority of all sites in SA are 2G.
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I hear you, but why did MTN go full 3G then? And at Xmas time, the Voda tower is unusable for data due to the influx of people which swamp the tower.
 
Ockie said:
Maybe Vodacom is skipping 3G on 2G towers and going straight to 4G for those. Could save them on hardware costs I would imagine? Or maybe what was meant is all 3G towers upgraded to be 4G ready (awaiting spectrum for switch on)
Click to expand...

That is a pretty big maybe ? Like I said I am calling BS either way, no way did they manage it install 4G here as I have both the keys here for the tower and for the Telkom exchange...as the electrical cabling, ect and manholes run through my property, and I am here basically 24/7. ;)
 
Vodacom is pulling some publicity stunt to lobby people to support their proposed acquisition of Neotel. I don't believe in one bit they have upgraded all their sites to 4G. IWBIWISI!
 
wizardofid said:
That is a pretty big maybe ? Like I said I am calling BS either way, no way did they manage it install 4G here as I have both the keys here for the tower and for the Telkom exchange...as the electrical cabling, ect and manholes run through my property, and I am here basically 24/7. ;)
Click to expand...

@ Jannie ..... we have a disgruntled landlord here. Make a plan please before he starts pulling wires out of the tower!!!!!










:p
 
wizardofid said:
That is a pretty big maybe ? Like I said I am calling BS either way, no way did they manage it install 4G here as I have both the keys here for the tower and for the Telkom exchange...as the electrical cabling, ect and manholes run through my property, and I am here basically 24/7. ;)
Click to expand...

Do you have complete access to the tower?
 
Ockie said:
@ Jannie ..... we have a disgruntled landlord here. Make a plan please before he starts pulling wires out of the tower!!!!!










:p
Click to expand...

Hardly, couldn't careless about vodacom, telkom on the other hand yes !!! they still haven't installed ADSL, even after having upgraded to be able to support the service.Have direct line of sight to the tower so 3G speeds from MTN is epic ;) :p

Just suspect when they say every tower, and convenient to say we waiting for spectrum, means quietly in the background continue with apparent upgrades.
 
Ockie said:
Jan, can we get clarity on what is meant by "capable"? Does it mean that there is space for new compatible hardware to be slotted in to convert it to 4G or does it mean all the hardware is there, but just waiting switch on?
Click to expand...

The presentation today centred around base station equipment (and the LTE-A demo, of course).

In other words, the actual radio network gear is LTE-A ready.

Just add fibre (or another sufficiently high-capacity transmission system), spectrum, and demand; and Vodacom can turn on 4G. That's the impression I got anyway.
 
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