Vodacom / MTN GPRS.

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mc721221

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I have seen one or two posts in the past stating that MTN's GPRS was "faster" than Vodacom's.

I just did a test a few minutes ago (in Elardus Park Pretoria) and MTN gave me a 56k while Vodacom could do not better than 42k :(
 
MTN has an advantage in that their entire network consists of Ericsson equipment, thus the rollout of services (especially data) is generally easier and more consistent. Voda uses a mixture of Siemens and Alcatel AFAIK.
 
ic said:
Is it the mixture that aparently slows things down, or is Ericsson better than Siemens & Alcatel?
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I don't really know :) ...but generally it is simpler and easier to roll out services and software on a single hardware platform. It is also easier to find someone to blame...when there are multiple technology partners, bugs are always the fault of the someone else ;)

ic said:
What about Vodacom GPRS possibly being somewhat more contended than MTN's?
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I don't think that this is the case. With the ridiculous pricing model for GPRS, I think that is is unlikely that you will get *ANY* contention on either network. Even so, MTN has marketed their data offering a bit better than Voda in the corporate market, so I wouldn't be surprised if they actually have more GPRS users.

I tried to find out some info on GPRS on the vodacom site, but they only show tariffs, no technical info and definitely no speed indication. MTN quotes maximum speed using HSCSD of 57.6kbits/sec.
 
MTN does more research and testing into implementing new technologies.
Why is MTN 3G not available? They are still testing it. They prefer to bring a good product to market. Vodacom tends to rush things to market to be first.

I think MTN's 3G will be better. Hopefully a better package etc.

BTW.... GPRS has never made money for MTN since it was implemented. Doesn't make sense to implement something that only your company employees abuse.... i mean use
 
ic said:
:eek: I would've thought most people would use Vodacom for GPRS regardless of marketing, but it's my impression vs the impression of people who pay attention to adds.
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Not really advertising, but rather in terms of offering businesses real solutions. Although Voda has the most subscribers and is constantly trying to increase their number of connections, MTN concentrated on profitable subscribers - i.e. business users. Athough Voda spends HUGE amounts of money on advertising (and wastes most of it IMO), MTN does very good marketing through their partners and directly with corporates.

But then again I'm a bit biased towards MTN. I refuse to pay Telkom twice for every cellphone call I make to a landline...once is more than enough.
 
Crash said:
MTN does more research and testing into implementing new technologies.
Why is MTN 3G not available? They are still testing it. They prefer to bring a good product to market. Vodacom tends to rush things to market to be first.
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If I recall correctly, MTN was first to release GPRS. Vodacom has been able to roll out 3G faster because of its International backing, IE Vodafone, who have the experience of implementing succesfully overseas. Thats IMO anyways.

Although i'm not arguing Vodacoms rush to be first. They could prepare a little better for things before launches. I remember the first couple of weeks with GPRS. Their staff did not even know what it was. Infact I would not be surprised if some of them were still a little confused. (guess thats the hellkom part of them)
 
i see that in the last week or 2 my mtn phone is saying on the screen " yello broadband". so i call the helpdesk, they know nothing about it. call mtn advanced support and they say should be up and running by april and better than voda 3g.... but wont give me details... anyone with inside info???
 
I am an existing MTN contract subscriber.

Just got a Pay-as-you-go Vodacom Starter Pack ( wife got it with her phone ). New Vodacom sim card works fine in my old phone.

MTN GPRS = R 50 / Mb
Vodacom GPRS = R 10 / Mb

Guess speed difference is not such an issue anymore !!

I am prepared to carry a second phone on the occasion when I know I will need internet access via GPRS.

But if Vodacom can supply GPRS at R 10 / Mb, what is MTN's excuse for charging 5 x more ?

Just my 2c's worth.

Dave
 
DaveO said:
But if Vodacom can supply GPRS at R 10 / Mb, what is MTN's excuse for charging 5 x more ?
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Capacity? When Vodacom dropped there MMS charge to the same as a SMS I struggled with GPRS connections (fine once connected thought). Price is the easiest way to maintain service levels. Notices some very interesting things on the Vodacom radio network - seems their radio planners are way infront of the rest.
 
arf9999 said:
I don't think that this is the case. With the ridiculous pricing model for GPRS, I think that is is unlikely that you will get *ANY* contention on either network.
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The GPRS price will have little to do with contention, you are contending with ALL the GSM users on the network (Voice and GPRS) The more voice users on the network in an area, the fewer channels available for GPRS to use, hence lower transfer rate.

arf9999 said:
I tried to find out some info on GPRS on the vodacom site, but they only show tariffs, no technical info and definitely no speed indication. MTN quotes maximum speed using HSCSD of 57.6kbits/sec.
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HSCSD is not the same as GPRS - per definition HSCSD is Circuit Switched Data, whereas GPRS is a Packet Radio Service. You can accomodate more users on a Packet switching architecture on a cell moving a set amount of data than you can on a Circuit switched architecture as circuit switched, by its nature, will hold the channel(s) open for the duration of the session whereas the packet switching only uses the channel for the time taken to send the packet, allowing channel sharing amongs multiple users.
 
DaveO said:
But if Vodacom can supply GPRS at R 10 / Mb, what is MTN's excuse for charging 5 x more ?Dave
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IIRC it was only in the last few months that Vodacom dropped the price from R75/MB to R10/MB, as of Feb 1st it will be R2/MB and so I will start using it at last. As for MTM's excuse they were cheaper than Vodacom, let the price wars begin.

Cheers
Chris
 
bosun said:
The GPRS price will have little to do with contention, you are contending with ALL the GSM users on the network (Voice and GPRS) The more voice users on the network in an area, the fewer channels available for GPRS to use, hence lower transfer rate.
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GPRS does not compete with voice. Timeslots on the radio's are dedicated to GPRS. From the radio network the packets are transferred through the switching network on a nailed up connection i.e. permanent connection.

caroper said:
IIRC it was only in the last few months that Vodacom dropped the price from R75/MB to R10/MB, as of Feb 1st it will be R2/MB and so I will start using it at last. As for MTM's excuse they were cheaper than Vodacom, let the price wars begin.
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Vodacom rate was R45/MB prior being reduced to R10/MB.
 
they can make a profit charging R1 / MB if we push them enough.
 
mc721221 said:
I have seen one or two posts in the past stating that MTN's GPRS was "faster" than Vodacom's.

I just did a test a few minutes ago (in Elardus Park Pretoria) and MTN gave me a 56k while Vodacom could do not better than 42k :(
Click to expand...

I agree. Tried Vodacom GPRS in Stellenbosch at approx. 16h00 today (Saturday 22nd) and I got about 40 kbps - a tad disappointing.

Just a sidenote, their (Vodacom's) customer service on setting up GPRS is not up to scratch. One gets different stories depending on who you talk to. If it's not something they can read off their screens they are pretty useless. One orc told me we need to contact our ISP to complete the GPRS connectivity setup!

Cell C's website is lying about their GPRS rates. From http://www.cellc.co.za/gprs/smartdata/whatdoesitcost.asp we see :" Cell C smartdata offers the most affordable GPRS
tariff options within the South African cellular market." I contacted them on their website regarding this. I told them to either remove this sentence or lower their rates to make the statement valid again. Let's hope they go for the latter!
 
I found it's easiest to go to the vodacom4me site, find your phone and download the correct settings to your phone. Much quicker than having to hold on and then not being sure they'll be able to help you.

On the flipside, I did exactly this earlier today for a new 6820, and the phone prompted me for a 'settings password'. After seaching the docs and web, I could not find it, so I called the call center. They knew the answer straight off.

So I guess, it's the luck of the draw who you get on the other end.
 
Why MTN GPRS faster?

Hi.

On attending one of MTN's 3rd party developer's forums in Cape Town, the reason for the faster GPRS relates to the fact their network is coding scheme 3 and 4 equipped. This was part of their upgrade to EDGE. Personally my Ericsson T630 manages around 75kbps over MTN GPRS in the Wierda Park Area, Centurion. However, my wife's Nokia 6320 ran a CONSTANT 225kbps over EDGE last night (don't want to see my bill end of this month:-(...). It was unfortunately a BL*KSEM to get it to work over Bluetooth.

Personally, I think if MTN could only get their ducks in a row and start pricing their data better, I would not have gone and bought a 3G One, which, though I love it, is NOT that much faster than EDGE...

K


QUOTE=mc721221]I have seen one or two posts in the past stating that MTN's GPRS was "faster" than Vodacom's.

I just did a test a few minutes ago (in Elardus Park Pretoria) and MTN gave me a 56k while Vodacom could do not better than 42k :([/QUOTE]
 
well think abt it in the next few months u can get up to 1mb+++- on the 3g network and they already think of upgrading to SUPER 3G which well the name says it all ...lol
 
Confirmed: new price of Vodacom out-of-bundle gprs

I just uploaded/downloaded 1 MByte of data on my prepaid on Vodacom. It cost R2. Much better than R10/MByte, but it can still come down I think.
 
I also started using GPRS internet since the R2/mb tarrif. Who cares about speed? Sorry i think MTN is loosing this one....they better wake up.
 
i keep calling the mtn business solutions number and asking them.... they say they have something better and better priced.... cant wait.. my phone is already running their "yello broadband" advert...
 
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