Mobile operators to explain complaints

Vodacom, MTN and Cell C have been summoned to appear before the Independent Communications Authority of SA after the regulatory body was inundated with complaints from users.
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Kekekekeke!

I wonder if they're serving lunch.
 
Vodacom spokeswoman Dot Field, however, said the company had not experienced problems or “any extraordinary issues on the network”.
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It would seem that the complaints are an ordinary issue, part of the service.
:mad:
 
and what the hell is NETWORK BUSY. every time i want to make a call, FFS
 
From the article it looks like MTN was the only network to 'fess up and admit that there is a problem. One SMS sent from my phone to a Vodacom subscriber took about 4 hours to go through, so I guess that's normal :rolleyes:. Well, as opposed to all my SMS messages sent to other MTN subscribers going through immediately.
 
My only way of contact is through my Cell on the vodacom network for my factory. (A) because i dont and will never ever support Telkom again, and (B) The factory is noisy, I would never hear a phone in it anyway. So when I called the Vodacom Corporate help one day to complain that I couldnt receive calls and the line was shyte (full of static) and I had to dial 6 or 7 times to get a line out. They said there was nothing wrong with their towers... but in the same breath, told me to try phone again because they couldn't hear me properly with all the static ?!? go figure !!!
 
what is the common denominator between vodacom and mtn...telkom, both of these companies still extensively utilise telkom at most places for their backhaul traffic whilst still laying out theyre own infrastructure...and all you can really blame for the slow adaption is Icasa and they're mickeyy mouse crew that took so long in approving that mtn and vodacom lay they're own infrastructure...thus I state...in my opinion all fingers should point at telkom, ICASA and the DoC
 
As this forum likes to point out so often, the network operators make a lot of money by providing voice and data services. :)

So it stands to reason that the networks will do their utmost to make sure you can make a call or eat up your data bundle as quickly as possible. If you can't, there is a direct revenue loss.

I'm often amazed by some of the accusations thrown at the networks. For example MTN got accused of refusing to build towers in Constantia in the Cape (cellhell.co.za) and Vodacom had a similar accusation about coverage in Fishhoek.

Why would the networks intentionally not provide service? :rolleyes:

So that's a good point of departure to discuss the problems one see on these networks as these problems do occur from time to time.

Sometimes things really just break. This is the nature of IT systems and no matter how much redundancy you build in, things can go wrong. And does. But again, when something is down, it cannot generate revenue so the intention is to make sure it does not go down and to get it up ASAP if it does.

Sometimes things perform differently at certain loads than expected. This can affect not only the network but also those who use the networks to provide services. Vodacom has such a massive customer base, for example, that no amount of lab testing can simulate the real world. And often we are among the first to roll out new features. So it does catch you sometimes. But again, once its discovered, all hell breaks loose till it's resolved.

Often there are external factors that contribute to service delivery issues. As mentioned above, lack of towers can be a real issue. If residents stop the construction of new towers, how can the service be delivered? Half the residents in Constantia stop towers going up and the other half accuses the networks of not wanting to put towers up. :rolleyes:

The issues with back-haul capacity is one of the primary reasons this forum exists and the problem will be there for a long time still.

And during all of this the subscriber base keeps on growing. So it's a very difficult situation for everybody. Demand is still rising but the ability to service it cannot always grow at the same rate.

But, in general, I don't think there is a 'general network issue' at the moment. If there was, this forum would light up like a Xmas tree. :)

Can't speak for the other networks, but from the Vodacom sub-forum there is an increase in throughput complaints and we're busy looking into it. Otherwise, it's about the same as normal. Which does not mean everything is perfect.

I suspect a number of things (mostly independently) went wrong the last few weeks (from one network who did have a problem over a weekend to a bank that delivered SMS's late to the latest Idols fiasco) and the combination of these did create the impression of a 'general' problem.
 
davemc said:
It would seem that the complaints are an ordinary issue, part of the service.
:mad:
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I don't think there is a industry out there who delivers a perfect service, 100% of the time.

(Outside of some of of our fellow forumites, that is. There definitely is a couple of people here who claim they write perfect software (that's ready for any potential changes in the next 10 years), build perfect systems and never have any comebacks. ;))

But in the real world, systems do fail, so one should expect complaints. The question rather is what is an acceptable limit? While we all would love to see a 0% level of complaints, this is not going to happen. So what is deemed acceptable and are these met? (by any company, not just the networks).

A secondary question is then obviously how quickly is a complaint resolved.

So, a question to maybe think about. What is an acceptable failure rate for a system like a mobile network operated by the likes of MTN, Vodacom and Cell-C?

Is it 5%, 1%, 0.1%?
 
vodacom3g said:
I don't think there is a industry out there who delivers a perfect service, 100% of the time.

(Outside of some of of our fellow forumites, that is. There definitely is a couple of people here who claim they write perfect software (that's ready for any potential changes in the next 10 years), build perfect systems and never have any comebacks. ;))

But in the real world, systems do fail, so one should expect complaints. The question rather is what is an acceptable limit? While we all would love to see a 0% level of complaints, this is not going to happen. So what is deemed acceptable and are these met? (by any company, not just the networks).

A secondary question is then obviously how quickly is a complaint resolved.

So, a question to maybe think about. What is an acceptable failure rate for a system like a mobile network operated by the likes of MTN, Vodacom and Cell-C?

Is it 5%, 1%, 0.1%?
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I live in Germany now and we had a similar issue a few weeks ago. The whole T-mobile network was down for 4 hours and no one could make a call, BUT, and this is where things are better than in SA, they sent all 40 million users a apology sms and gave them the next Sunday free sms's to any network in Germany...

The problem in SA is that no one publicly admits that there is a problem or when they do, it's always someone else's fault.
 
Deliberate and direct theft by the mobile operators IMHO. Check your bill for how many low second calls you are billed for. I wonder if you pay for their answer service when the call cannot connect like "the person you are trying to reach is unavailable" but when I call again and get hold of the person he will confirm that he was not busy with a call, neither driving, etc.

BIG money racket, milking us cows!
 
vodacom3g said:
I don't think there is a industry out there who delivers a perfect service, 100% of the time.

(Outside of some of of our fellow forumites, that is. There definitely is a couple of people here who claim they write perfect software (that's ready for any potential changes in the next 10 years), build perfect systems and never have any comebacks. ;))

But in the real world, systems do fail, so one should expect complaints. The question rather is what is an acceptable limit? While we all would love to see a 0% level of complaints, this is not going to happen. So what is deemed acceptable and are these met? (by any company, not just the networks).

A secondary question is then obviously how quickly is a complaint resolved.

So, a question to maybe think about. What is an acceptable failure rate for a system like a mobile network operated by the likes of MTN, Vodacom and Cell-C?

Is it 5%, 1%, 0.1%?
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Nice call on the "claim" above. Touche! :p

Seriously though, for the ludicrous cost of R0.80 an SMS (Prepaid Peak) I expect 100% reliability.

And, at R2.85 a minute for a call, (Prepaid 4U Peak) that call had better be clear as crystal.

I actually expect the providers to refund for SMS's that are delayed and phone-calls that are disconnected (beyond the tower) automatically.

I don't really care about the ratio's you have mentioned in your post because I do not tell Voda about every time I get disconnected or about all the times that the network is too busy to take my PREPAID call, while the 4 people with me on contract can make calls freely.

I just grit my teeth, complain with my friends, and try my best to use my cell phone as little as possible, while cursing Telkom's slow delivery.
 
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louwtjiedt said:
I live in Germany now and we had a similar issue a few weeks ago. The whole T-mobile network was down for 4 hours and no one could make a call, BUT, and this is where things are better than in SA, they sent all 40 million users a apology sms and gave them the next Sunday free sms's to any network in Germany...

The problem in SA is that no one publicly admits that there is a problem or when they do, it's always someone else's fault.
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Zikzakly:mad:
 
davemc said:
Nice call on the "claim" above. Touche! :p

Seriously though, for the ludicrous cost of R0.80 an SMS (Prepaid Peak) I expect 100% reliability.

And, at R2.85 a minute for a call, (Prepaid 4U Peak) that call had better be clear as crystal.

I actually expect the providers to refund for SMS's that are delayed and phone-calls that are disconnected (beyond the tower) automatically.

I don't really care about the ratio's you have mentioned in your post because I do not tell Voda about every time I get disconnected or about all the times that the network is too busy to take my PREPAID call, while the 4 people with me on contract can make calls freely.

I just grit my teeth, complain with my friends, and try my best to use my cell phone as little as possible, while cursing Telkom's slow delivery.
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I think anyone would want to deliver a perfect service. Just think how it would reduce support costs for example.

But we live in an imperfect world with imperfect systems, run by humans, trying to deliver a perfect solution.

So there will be failures. The important point is how much you can contain them and how quickly you can react when they do occur.
 
vodacom3g said:
Why would the networks intentionally not provide service? :rolleyes:
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When they would rather put that profit into their own back pockets instead of into infrastructure and increasing capacity. :(

All too often top execs look after their Swiss Banc instead of their bread and butter.
 
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