It seems that CellC realised that 900MHz network capacity in such areas as Johannesburg is not sufficient and situation cannot be improved by 42Mbps roll-out, because demand for bandwith grows faster. It is why we see that CellC decided for the more expensive option and began installing 2100MHz transmitters. But why a hell they start in not so dense developed areas?
I must confess I never switched to CellC due to their attitude of offering more and more instead of fixing existing issues first. I don't use Internet much, so I use VC 100MB ISP (which is not enough for browsing MyBB, BTW). Hovewer I used CellC network through Virgin, it was fine, but in June last year I was kicked out by CellC 3G roll-out, which made my EDGE connection 10 times slower and unworkable. So I didn't switch, but my neighbour did (by my recommendation)....
I was helping him on many occassions and I must say his connection was acceptable only few weeks in November and the first decade of December. We are on the farm near Diepsloot, almost on the top of the hill, the slope facing south between Dainfern, Fourways and Kyalami. There is an external antenna (LDPA-A0021), it should be theoretically choice between various towers, but for some reason it picks-up one tower with strong signal between -61dBm and -69dBm, 2G LAC/CellID 104/41614 or 41356 and holds it even the antenna is moved away 150 degrees. It reports odd as "MTN KYALAMI COUNTRY CLUB ESTATE MTN-4".
With the external antenna we could rarely register to 3G in the past. Using the internal antenna K3565 picks-up more stations including 3G. In the case the registration is successful there are problems with attaching to the network (dialing) and stability of the connection. Few weeks ago it was in reverse; it couldn't register to 2G, but 3G worked fine. Few days ago it failed attach to 3G, but registered fine. In result of such frequent changes I am being called for help, as default automatic setting rarely works. 4 days ago I saw my neighbour hanging on the support call, the first time since purchasing promo. During the call the modem suddenly attached to the very weak 3G station (-105dBm) using nternal antenna, connection was stable and speed was similar to usual 3G signal (in -89dBm boundaries). The call was escalated to the tech department with a reference number, but so far but nobody called back.
I found that when chosing Mobile Partner option "GSM900/GSM1800/WCDMA2100" instead of "All band" and doing search in manual mode, modem shows a new item WCDMA CellC, but it fails to register. So there is a new 2100MHz 3G trasmitter in the area, which possibly confuses modem that it stops searching for 3G in 900MHz band. To verify this I selected option WCDMA900 and made a manual search. It was able to register and connect for few hours and then it eventually stopped, but it was too late night to investigate a reason. Modem was using internal antenna. Yesterday the same procedure didn't work neither in "WCDMA2100 nor "WCDMA900" mode.
How to find out strenght of the signal when if fails to register? There is a program MWCONN which can be used for signal strenght determination of foreign networks. With external antenna attached It shows 60% for CellC 3G - very strong (-75dBm), but sometimes 30% (-93dBm). We don't know in which band, because MWCONN will reset modem settings to "All Band". However there is a spare modem E160G with external antenna connector laying around, it is WCDMA2100 capable, but not WCDMA900. It shows 3G signal 26%, so it looks like 60% is for 900MHz.
Be careful when using MWCONN. Firstly results are not always valid. When modem hangs on accessing network, program will display the same (repeated) signal strenght for remaining networks. Secondly it will always leave modem locked in manual search mode on the last network accessed - and it is _not_ a home network, I promise.
Bottom of line is that in the past we had to fiddle with "WCDMA only/GSM only" settings to stay connected, now we need to force particular band setting too. It gets too complicated to enjoy benefits of CellC offer.
