{"id":217698,"date":"2017-07-13T08:58:27","date_gmt":"2017-07-13T06:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=217698"},"modified":"2017-07-13T08:58:27","modified_gmt":"2017-07-13T06:58:27","slug":"strange-cell-c-4g-coverage-problems-on-samsung-smartphones-solved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/217698-strange-cell-c-4g-coverage-problems-on-samsung-smartphones-solved.html","title":{"rendered":"Strange Cell C 4G coverage problems on Samsung smartphones solved"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Cell C user has detailed unusual problems when connecting to the company&#8217;s LTE-A network in Centurion, Midrand, and Fourways using a Samsung Galaxy smartphone.<\/p>\n<p>Tests conducted by a MyBroadband forum member using three Galaxy S8 devices in the areas suggest that they can\u2019t connect to Cell C\u2019s 4G network.<\/p>\n<p>There is also anecdotal evidence suggesting the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge had the same problem, while the Huawei Mate 9 does not.<\/p>\n<p>According to the user, Cell C customer support originally said it was a coverage issue and that the tower near him doesn\u2019t support LTE-A.<\/p>\n<p>After explaining that he had tested most of Centurion, the Cell C agent said it was a configuration issue with the devices.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Extensive testing<\/h3>\n<p>The forum member said he tested from Pierre van Ryneveld to Centurion Mall, including Die Hoewes.<\/p>\n<p>He also tested on the N1 south to Midrand, from Mall of Africa to Montecasino in Fourways, and on to Johannesburg South to Gold Reef City.<\/p>\n<p>All of these areas are shown on Cell C\u2019s coverage map as having LTE-A support.<\/p>\n<p>His tests used a Cell C data contract SIM, a prepaid SIM, and a voice contract SIM.<\/p>\n<p>When an MTN, Telkom, or Vodacom SIM was installed, it would immediately connect to their respective LTE-A networks.<\/p>\n<p>The spec sheets of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S6 Edge show they support LTE band 1 (2,100MHz), band 2 (1,900MHz), and band 3 (1,800MHz), where Cell C has deployed its network.<\/p>\n<p>Vodacom and MTN also use band 3, while Telkom uses band 40 (2,300MHz).<\/p>\n<p>The Galaxy S8 supports Category 16 LTE-A in these bands, while the Galaxy S6 Edge supports Category 6 LTE-A.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Connecting to LTE-A<\/h3>\n<p>After investigating the complaint, Cell C told MyBroadband the subscriber was connecting to its LTE-A network &#8211; even if the device wasn&#8217;t indicating it.<\/p>\n<p>Samsung told MyBroadband that by default, its devices will only show they are connected to a 4G+ network if:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The network supports Cat. 6 LTE.<\/li>\n<li>If the total combined bandwidth exceeds 20MHz.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Network operators may apply to have these parameters adjusted, and Samsung confirmed that a South African network has requested the minimum bandwidth required be reduced to 15MHz.<\/p>\n<p>The change has been approved and will be rolled out in a firmware update to non-Vodacom devices, as Vodacom has its own firmware.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Now read: <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/cellular\/213918-vodacom-vs-mtn-vs-cell-c-vs-telkom-mobile-subscriber-numbers.html\">Vodacom vs MTN vs Cell C vs Telkom \u2013 Mobile subscriber numbers<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Cell C user has detailed unusual problems when connecting to the company&#8217;s LTE-A network in Centurion, Midrand, and Fourways.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":185806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[355,35,39628,9177,645,40780],"class_list":["post-217698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cellular","tag-cell-c","tag-headline","tag-huawei-mate-9","tag-lte-advanced","tag-samsung","tag-samsung-galaxy-s8"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217698"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":219550,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217698\/revisions\/219550"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}