You're breaking up!

[koffiejunkie]

This is more about the quality of cellular network service than phones per se, but I don't see an appropriate forum.

I was on the phone to a friend in Jo'burg yesterday. I don't generally make calls to South Africa - if I do it is almost always via Skype, so I've lost touch with the cellular quality of service. I was rather disappointed that the three most used words in our conversation was "you're breaking up."

I've lived in the UK for about six years now, and have not had the "breaking up" nonsense happen to me once. My work involves speaking to clients on the phone - I spend about half my day on the line to people who are on mobile phones (although on my end I'm on a landline), so if this was a common problem, I would have encountered it.

I'm curious if anyone here knows exactly what causes the "breaking up" phenomenon. Given that call volume is already artificially restricted by the cost in South Africa (compared to UK, for example), I cannot imagine capacity problems to be at fault, unless they're seriously oversubcribing.

Is this something to do with the implementation used in South Africa?

 

[Sinbad]

Capacity problems, plain and simple. The volume isn't artificially restricted by the cost of calls - firstly there's lots of bundled free minutes and secondly a lot of people just don't have the option of calling from a landline.

 

[SteveO]

This is more about the quality of cellular network service than phones per se, but I don't see an appropriate forum.

I was on the phone to a friend in Jo'burg yesterday. I don't generally make calls to South Africa - if I do it is almost always via Skype, so I've lost touch with the cellular quality of service. I was rather disappointed that the three most used words in our conversation was "you're breaking up."

I've lived in the UK for about six years now, and have not had the "breaking up" nonsense happen to me once. My work involves speaking to clients on the phone - I spend about half my day on the line to people who are on mobile phones (although on my end I'm on a landline), so if this was a common problem, I would have encountered it.

I'm curious if anyone here knows exactly what causes the "breaking up" phenomenon. Given that call volume is already artificially restricted by the cost in South Africa (compared to UK, for example), I cannot imagine capacity problems to be at fault, unless they're seriously oversubcribing.

Is this something to do with the implementation used in South Africa?

I would say that it is probably an interconnect problem. Remember the route from the UK to SA is say BT -> International interconnect service -> Telkom -> Vodacom/MTN/Cell C -> vocoder -> cell phone.

I have actually done some Voice quality tests on the 3 major networks here in SA.These were cell phone to cell phone, all scored at the international average for good quality.

 

[MickZA]

I would say that it is probably an interconnect problem. Remember the route from the UK to SA is say BT -> International interconnect service -> Telkom -> Vodacom/MTN/Cell C -> vocoder -> cell phone.

I have actually done some Voice quality tests on the 3 major networks here in SA.These were cell phone to cell phone, all scored at the international average for good quality.

Disagree, do you listen to phone-in radio programs at all (specifically SAFM)? ... voice breakup and dropped calls are the order of the day.

 

[koffiejunkie]

I would say that it is probably an interconnect problem. Remember the route from the UK to SA is say BT -> International interconnect service -> Telkom -> Vodacom/MTN/Cell C -> vocoder -> cell phone.

Like I said, I spend 4+ hours on the phone to clients all over the world. S.A. and India are the only countries to where calls really suck. I get consistently better call quality from Uganda, Nigeria, Iraq and Myanmar. So I struggle to believe that the problem is external.

I have actually done some Voice quality tests on the 3 major networks here in SA.These were cell phone to cell phone, all scored at the international average for good quality.

I was talking about quality of service, not voice quality. A stable low voice quality call is much better than a high voice quality call that keeps breaking up.

Disagree, do you listen to phone-in radio programs at all (specifically SAFM)? ... voice breakup and dropped calls are the order of the day.

Exactly. Ditto 702.

 

[deweyzeph]

The problem is also regional in South Africa. Joburg and Pretoria for example have much bigger problems with poor quality calls and dropped calls.

 

[Sinbad]

The problem is also regional in South Africa. Joburg and Pretoria for example have much bigger problems with poor quality calls and dropped calls.

Much higher population density - therefore, capacity.