How come Cell C cannot send me an SMS straight away, but Gmail can?

My tirade against Cell C continues.
I was editing my details on the Cell C site, and before you can do anything, you need to enter a one time password that Cell C is supposed to send to your phone.

That was 20 minutes ago, and still I wait for my one time pin, the patient guy that I am.

Confusing, that.
When Gmail sends me SMS reminders of upcoming appointments, I receive them exactly 2 hours prior to the meeting itself, which makes sense since my default reminder period is, in fact 2 hours :)

So how is it then, that Gmail, sending an SMS from a UK-based number, can relay an SMS to me in a single second, yet Cell C, my very own local network, cannot.
I am actually going to point hellopeter.com to this post, in the desperate hope that Cell C may actually do something about it... watch this space.