Vodacom Network Time

Ockie said:
Thank you. Why does Android not link to NTP also? Surely that must be easy to do?
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Android being open source, Google didn't want the time stacks to be compromised by people playing around with software and changing times. However, as can be seen today, if one roots (jailbreaks) their android device, these time stacks sit at root level and can be compromised or altered for accuracy by using apps like Clocksync, which will ensure that your android device is always accurate by obtaining time via the NTP protocol. (Clocksync is on the Playstore). Mine and many others opinions are that relying on cellphone networks' time is thwarted and archeic. Google should wake up and follow suit of Apple in such an important thing as keeping accurate time. Even their latest release, Nougat relies on cellular network time and most people owning Android devices do not root their phones

So please Vodacom wake up too as our Android devices (most popular smartphones) need accurate network time.:mad:
 
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Ockie said:
Thank you. Why does Android not link to NTP also? Surely that must be easy to do?
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Presumably you would need a data connection to sync with NTP servers, whereas Network time doesn't? My S2 was also 3 minutes behind, set it on manual now. Don't use the GPS on this phone.
 
JohnDoe said:
Accurate time is most essential when using GPS.
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GPS does not specifically require time. A GPS receiver gets its time from the satellite. The problem comes in with A-GPS used in phones which uses other inputs to complement the GPS signal to improve accuracy and shorten the time required to get a GPS lock.
 
Ambo you are absolutely correct. Most of the new Android smartphones have assisted GPS by default.
 
jwdv said:
I can confirm that setting the time manually fixes the GPS issue. Setting the phone back to automatic messes up the GPS, the "re-routing" in google maps was driving me nuts until I came across this thread....
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Yip same here... common denominators are: Vodacom, Android, Google Maps
 
There are also applications that will get time from the GPS satellite signals but these also need root access. I would have thought that the assumption that a mobile SP should be able to keep the network time sync'ed with an NTP source should be a pretty fair one. I would expect that Vodacom has it's own NTP time source and that the network devices would all be configured to get their time from this. "timedatectl" is the command in Linux, "ntp server ip-address" in Cisco - I'm sure it's not too dissimilar in the network Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson, Motorola or whatever devices they have now.
 
The problem is not only that Vodacom's time is not synced, different people receive different times. The reported times variations differ between 2 or 3 minutes ahead or behind, or actual time. So that is already 5 different time values.
 
If it is VC's network time that is incorrect, would it not have an impact on billing. If someone is on a plan where they get different rates depending on the time of day? Only a couple of minutes but it still points to inaccurate billing, and a couple of minutes multiplied by a few million subsribers can be signficant. And what about if call records are used in a legal matter? Just curious.
 
Installed a app called Clocksync. Requires root, but luckily Meizu gives us a easy way to root our phones. Now it is synced to the nano second .... and subspace time so now I can find Voyager via GPS too. :D
 
Nips said:
If it is VC's network time that is incorrect, would it not have an impact on billing. If someone is on a plan where they get different rates depending on the time of day? Only a couple of minutes but it still points to inaccurate billing, and a couple of minutes multiplied by a few million subsribers can be signficant. And what about if call records are used in a legal matter? Just curious.
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I was pondering this myself earlier and wondered if the billing platform synchronised with different servers vs whatever the system that gives the time to the cellphones are using...
 
Ockie said:
Installed a app called Clocksync. Requires root, but luckily Meizu gives us a easy way to root our phones. Now it is synced to the nano second .... and subspace time so now I can find Voyager via GPS too. :D
Click to expand...

Thanks for that Ockie, sorted out my problem too. Time now perfectly synced to atomic clock.
 
Rooting one's phone should not be the option especially when it comes to warranty issues etc. With Samsung it trips Knox, not that we have Samsung Pay in our country yet.

It absolutely makes no sense why Vodacom does not synch their time with NTP and does not do regular checks with regards to this problem. What about owners of non-smartphones who have no data connections use their phones for timekeeping?

Come on Vodacom, please fix this issue!
 
JohnDoe said:
Rooting one's phone should not be the option especially when it comes to warranty issues etc. With Samsung it trips Knox, not that we have Samsung Pay in our country yet.

It absolutely makes no sense why Vodacom does not synch their time with NTP and does not do regular checks with regards to this problem. What about owners of non-smartphones who have no data connections use their phones for timekeeping?

Come on Vodacom, please fix this issue!
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Had a look at the settings of ClockSync - there is an unrooted option you can select. Download the app and try it for time being as a temp fix
 
aybbleek said:
Had a look at the settings of ClockSync - there is an unrooted option you can select. Download the app and try it for time being as a temp fix
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Unrooted option helps by giving you a notification if your clock is out by more than x seconds. You still need to update the time manually. Still a useful tool though if you have to keep your phone on manual time since Vodacoms sundial still isn't working
 
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