Just as with every broadband service in South Africa, Cell C have had their fair share of unhappy customers.<\/p>\n
The unhappiness generally seems to stem from users experiencing frequent disconnections or not being able to connect to Cell C’s HSPA+<\/a> network at all.<\/p>\n Most of the users reporting these problems also say that the coverage map on Cell C’s website indicates that they should have decent coverage in their area.<\/p>\n When MyBroadband mentioned these complaints to Lars Reichelt<\/a>, CEO of Cell C, he explained that Cell C were aware of the problem and are working on correcting it.<\/p>\n He said that they made a mistake when they released their “Speedsticks” as Cell C didn’t configure them to only connect using W-CDMA<\/a> (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access).<\/p>\n A quirk in the software on the USB HSPA<\/a>\/HSPA+ modems Cell C uses could then cause it to connect to an EDGE-only (i.e. low speed) base station with a higher signal strength than the nearest HSPA+ tower.<\/p>\n Reichelt said that this behaviour could also explain the disconnections some users are complaining about. When the cell created by the EDGE-only base station becomes too full, the modem may connect to a nearby HSPA+ tower.<\/p>\n