Vodacom Network Problems

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Well, I am close to the point of throwing my 3g card out of the window. Last night I had some connectivity for a while, but today is useless again.

The whole reason I got 3g was because I need to get onto the web a lot for work purposes, doesn't matter what time etc. so I need something I can take with me.

Where is the 3g upgrade that we have been about for so long anyway? A Vodacom technical support person told me it was supposed to be finished end of July or something like that.

I'm don't want to sound so agitated but I am extremely irritated, I've managed about 5 mins of uptime this morning so far!
 
V3G

3G seems to still be dead but GPRS is working :confused:
This morning I can connect in 3G but then nothing happens, so I tried GPRS and it works fine.

Perhaps others with 3G problems should try GPRS(only) while Vodacom sort out the problems.
 
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Veroland said:
I'm don't want to sound so agitated but I am extremely irritated, I've managed about 5 mins of uptime this morning so far!
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I'm with you Veroland! I've managed to connect without a hitch this morning, but the data throughput is a big fat zero. Can't read or send mail, can't open a website, can't even get Skype to log on. So I'm back to dial-up too.

I also work for myself, and due to the nature of my job I have to spend lots of time online, doing research. The idea of 3G, where I pay for data rather than time thus makes sense. But only if it works! Now I have to load a page, disconnect, read/print the page, reconnect, blah blah blah. It sucks.

The worst, to me at least, is the hard line Vodacom takes in terms of paying for the service. Loads of people have had massive problems the last few days, but will Vodacom give us some extra data to make up for this, or refund a couple of days' fee pro rata? I rather think not.

If I have an unhappy client (as a writer and photographer), I either redo the job at no charge so that my client is happy; or I don't charge at all (luckily this seldom happens). But a massive company like Vodacom doesn't seem to understand that without clients, they wouldn't exist. Sure, there's no way AL of their existing clients wil move to another provider, so in the end we are powerless against the might of yet another huge machine. Pity.

Anyway, in terms of network up-time and stability, I have seen zero improvement since yesterday over here. Dial-up seems to be the way forward at the moment!

Oh, and to make matters worse, I cannot connect on GPRS AT ALL the last week or so. When I choose the GPRS Only connection, I immediately get a message that says "connecting failed". Great, so now I can't work where there is no 3G coverage. Come to think of it, I can't work where there is no phone socket!

V3G has been great in trying to calm us down and help work through the problems, but the amount of frustration currently felt by all of us must amount to about 20 on the Richter Scale. I just want to get on with my job, and not worry about spending R600 odd per month on a connection that is currently useless!

Sorry for the extra rant - I'm sure nobody really wants to hear yet another forumite whine and moan about the situation, but I DO feel better now. Thanks.
 
I am not here to moan about Vodacom on this site but I would like to state my opinion. So here goes, like with any new service that comes out there are bound to be some problems. This does not excuse the fact that you are paying for service when there is none or hardly any currently. We have to remember that Vodacom is the pioneer when it comes to 3G in South Africa and I am sure it is a learning experience not only for Vodacom but for us forumites as well. We should start working together to make sure that all problems are resolved effeciently, the root of the problem fixed not just the symptoms. I do beleive that all forumites contribute in a great way to ensure that this happens. V3G has been a great help to many with regards to their other problems in prvious posts and I am sure... no I know that he is doing everything he possibly can to sort this one out. All I can say is great service from V3G. So thats my 2c cents worth.. wait 2c not in production so thats my 5c worth....
 
The situation improved last night and by around midnight it look all up and stable. This morning the wheels came off again.

Will keep you posted.

I'm getting general feedback that people can work on GPRS but not 3G, although you can connect on 3G there's no data throughput.
 
Just a report from KZN, Pinetown, 3G is currently non-functioning. Zero throughput, gateway is not responding. GPRS, same story.

And here I thought everything was going to be okay. Life has a way.
 
TigerTael said:
Just a report from KZN, Pinetown, 3G is currently non-functioning. Zero throughput, gateway is not responding. GPRS, same story.

And here I thought everything was going to be okay. Life has a way.
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Thats cos I'm stealing all the GPRS I can get :D
 
GPRS works sometimes but does loose connection. 3G is useless. Using my Sone Ericsson V800. Cape Town
 
I'm just boggled why we can't get consistent service. It's not like I've been running smooth and now hit by this problem, I've had this problem for a long long time now. Every single time I called the customer care, all they seemed to want to do was send me the OTA settings for 'wap' and 'internet'.

So last night, when everybody else was having trouble... there I was... cruising with no problems. Hah, how does that work?

I am speechless.

-- No speeches --
 
Odd things happening

I recently started doing contract work at a Denel devision. For the first 2 weeks I could get GPRS, very stable, running at sometimes 80% capacity. No 3G though.


Then this week things started getting weird. GPRS would disconnect. Same problem I had before. Connected for a few bytes/minutes and then either no data received or the green LED would be flashing, indicating a disconnect.

This morning I could not get any GPRS at all. I have 3 to 4 bars but can only send, not receive. So I dusted off my '3G only' profile and tried. Suddenly got 2 bars and excellent 3G.

Is anybody working on the Centurion Irene tower???

VMS
 
TigerTael I just hope that when every1 else gets back on you will still cruise with no problems. I will say a prayer for you.
 
It does seems that GPRS is working a bit better than 3G, but I still get the same problem as with 3G now then, GPRS connects fine, but after the initial 2.8k there is no more data coming down.

At least I can get to my mail etc now.
 
Ashendran said:
I am not here to moan about Vodacom on this site but I would like to state my opinion. So here goes, like with any new service that comes out there are bound to be some problems. This does not excuse the fact that you are paying for service when there is none or hardly any currently. We have to remember that Vodacom is the pioneer when it comes to 3G in South Africa and I am sure it is a learning experience not only for Vodacom but for us forumites as well. We should start working together to make sure that all problems are resolved efficiently, the root of the problem fixed not just the symptoms. I do believe that all forumites contribute in a great way to ensure that this happens. V3G has been a great help to many with regards to their other problems in previous posts and I am sure... no I know that he is doing everything he possibly can to sort this one out. All I can say is great service from V3G. So thats my 2c cents worth.. wait 2c not in production so thats my 5c worth....
Click to expand...

As usual, you guys are all correct in your opinions.

It is a new service and with new technology (Vodacom pretty much rolled out 3G with the rest of the world) there are bound to be problems as the network grow. It's obvious that the current problems are caused by loading of some elements. Even with capacity planning this would not have been foreseen as there is no baseline.

Having said that, it is a paid service and you guys are entitled to get the service you expect and paid for and I WILL pick up this point with the commercial people....
 
Its about time that Tigertael got some service, when every1 else was working fine he was stuck with all the problems.
 
Vodacom3g said:
Having said that, it is a paid service and you guys are entitled to get the service you expect and paid for and I WILL pick up this point with the commercial people....
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this i fully agree with ... it is impossible for me to get my 1 gig this month ... i just havent had enough uptime. Thus i lose money there , plus money for work I'm not able to finish etc etc etc. If we had Gigabyte rollover , this would have been easier to take, but now im just losing.

Lets be fair here ... this service is not cheap , and running with a big company like vodacom , i expect ... well demand more professionalism. i want uptime at least 90% of the time ... (obviously 100% will be better)

This isnt aimed at you v3g , you do try. I also worked at vodacom , so i know it can sometimes be an uphill battle.
 
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