Vodacom: NO SERVICE

Pixual

Pixual

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I am having some major issues with my iPhone 4 and Vodacom over the past three or four weeks.

At least once a day I discover that my phone displays NO SERVICE where it should be showing me my signal strength. It never restores itself and I have to reboot the phone to pick up signal again. A few of my other friends with Blackberries on VC in Durban are reporting similar issues.

What exactly is going on here? It's not like I live in a rural area, I am on the Berea in Durban. Today I lost service three times.

Do I blame the network or the phone?
 
I guess Vodacom is having problems again. I have had this issue months ago, then it was good until recently, 2 or 3 days ago or so it started again. But it could be the update on 4.3.2 as well.
 
Well, it is not your phone.
Vodacom sucks in a major time.
I am in Johannesburg and for the past 3 years I have reported, that in our area, we have a serious problem with vodacom signal and overload of the towers.
They first blame the handset, and after we have proved to them that it is not my handset, they phoned to inform us that our area is very much overloaded and they have to erect extra towers.

Well 3 years down the line and we are still waiting.
All we get now is every month an sms saying that they are investigating the problem and will let us know when it will be rectified.

3 YEARS!!!! COME ON VODACOM, YOUR SERVICE SUCKS.

They can spend millions on new branding and parties, but they can't deliver a service to the customers. [Sounds very familiar]

That is why my company have end our contracts with Vodacom and moved on to a company that can deliver on their promises.
VODACOM DOES NOT HONOUR ON THEIR PROMISES.
 
I only updated the phone to 4.3.2 last night, so I don't think that is the issue. What does concern me about it though, is that once NO SERVICE indicator comes on it never goes off until I reboot the phone. I don't think that's normal, but then people with BB's are telling me they have the same thing on Vodacom.

I don't know whether I should port away to Cell C or not. I haven't been convinced that the iPhone works properly on their network yet.
 
I have this on my iPad daily. Never experienced this issue on my iPhone 4 (MTN) - both devices will be side-by-side, and the iPad (Vodacom) will pop-up "No service available"/"Network connection lost". TBH - have never seen this on MTN in over 12 months.
 
Funny, I thought about that, but then I am seldom holding the phone when this happens. It sits in its case on my desk. I even thought it might be the case, so I removed that and the same thing happens.

Jolly mysterious!
(and annoying)
 
Some things to check

1) Are you jailbroken and do you have any tweaks installed such as Auto3G or iPhoneDelivery which modify the comms file of the iPhone?
2) Under settings, Carrier, is "Automatic" selected? If not, then the phone will only show signal when 3G is available from my experiences.
3) Did you go to Settings, General, Reset, Reset Network settings and test it out some more?
 
I can confirm this on both iphone 3g and 3gs. Been stuck for the last 6 hours with no service. Just got woken up by 14 sms arriving all at once. Both phones are non jailbroken and run ios4.1
I think vodacom is not the right network for the iphone. I know everyone on vc experiences the bad call quality and calls that calling for 30 seconds with nothing happening and the severe audio drop outs and stuttering and the erratic slow unreliable 3g and terrible call centre with endless automated voice response and the exorbitantly expensive bandwidth and calls...
but its so much worse with an iphone on vodacom
 
Mine isn't jailbroken (I'd never do that to a local phone) and the carrier is set to automatic. I didn't reset the network settings because I am afraid I will screw something up.

So what's the recommended network for iPhones in SA? (please don't say MTN).
 
Pixual said:
So what's the recommended network for iPhones in SA? (please don't say MTN).
Click to expand...

Well you can't really say.. It depends on where you are situated and the coverage in your area I guess? I'm on Vodacom and have no problems with coverage?

Resetting network settings will reset your network settings (internet, MMS etc.) to default, and clear any entered WiFi passwords at most.. You can't really screw it up as such. You should give it a shot although don't expect miracles :p

And if you get stuck, give us a shout here or on the forums in my sig and we will assist!
 
Thanks! I'll do that. Reception in my area seems to be bad, although I can't understand why. We're on a big hill.
 
Pixual said:
Thanks! I'll do that. Reception in my area seems to be bad, although I can't understand why. We're on a big hill.
Click to expand...

Hmm yeah i'll be honest with you, from my experience, the iPhone's cellular antennas aren't as strong as you get in other phones..I've had many instances in low coverage areas where other phones have had two bars of signal and I have none..So i'm sure that also plays a role - I can only hope they address this in the next iteration of the phone!
 
Pixual said:
Mine isn't jailbroken (I'd never do that to a local phone) and the carrier is set to automatic. I didn't reset the network settings because I am afraid I will screw something up.

So what's the recommended network for iPhones in SA? (please don't say MTN).
Click to expand...

I think it depends where you are located. Although VC brags about having the best coverage, MTN has far superior coverage in the areas I frequent (i.e. Broadacres, Fourways, Cedar Square, Bryanston).

My iPad is unusable at home running on VC (4 bars, 3G icon):
Test Date: Apr 24, 2011 11:34
Connection Type: Cellular
Server: Midrand
Download: 0.22 Mbps
Upload: 0.09 Mbps
Ping: 274 ms

External IP: 41.27.33.239
Internal IP: 41.27.33.239
Latitude: -26.0028
Longitude: 28.0042

A detailed image for this result can be found here:
http://www.speedtest.net/iphone/109499119.png
 
I also have an iphone 4 and am having exactly the same problem with Vodacom. I'm also in the Durban (Berea Area) but find this problem driving around when I switch between towers, if the signal gets too weak, I get the "No Service" message and it then never picks up a new signal till I reboot.
The same thing happens to my wife's phone so I can only aqssume it's a Vodacom problem or a problem with the new updates 4.2.1 and 4.3.2, because I never had this problem previously.
 
My wife has the same problem on her iPhone 3GS. So I disabled 3G, she's at home all the time anyways and can use the wifi.
 
Yip, I dont think its the phone, just think that 3G is crappy in the area that I live. When its on edge she never has a problem. I'm on MTN with my iPhone and never had a problem
 
This is actually becoming more than just a pain in the butt. I was just in the heart of Umhlanga (Gateway) and while I was replying to an SMS I saw the signal disappear and get replaced with NO SERVICE.

Is there anyone at Vodacom on this forum who can actually provide an answer to what is going on here? Because seriously, you are about to lose a customer to Cell C if it isn't fixed post haste.
 
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