Mid-November is the ETA for Cell C to upgrade JHB and Pretoria broadband speeds...

I must be one of the most ardent followers of this one - for years now South Africans have been sitting on Cell C to upgrade their outdated EDGE data network, to one that can compete with the likes of Vodacom and MTN.

While some South African cities have already been upgraded to the HSPA+ 900/2100 network in recent weeks, users inland in JHB and Pretoria have been left waiting...
Finally, though it seems that the moment we have been waiting for so patiently, is almost upon us.
The News section of the Cell C website, today reports that Cell C have won the 2010 Mobile Broadband Service of the Year award (congrats Cell C!), at the Annual MyBroadband Conference held at Vodaworld yesterday.

In there somewhere it mentions that the JHB and Pretoria upgrade is scheduled for mid-November... I hope that means November 2010... :)
Watch this space... the second that my Nokia N97 indicates anything even hinting at a quicker data connection, I will be jumping on here to post about it.
On the other hand, Cell C could maybe just give me a call beforehand, offering a free tryout of their new "4Gs" data network? ;)

Come on Cell C - you know you wanna!

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Dear Cell C - is Johannesburg one of South Africa's less important cities?

Here comes some more Cell C ranting from my corner of the world...
Every few days now I am hearing news of another South African city being upgraded to Cell C's new "4Gs" network.

The order in which they are rolling out though, seems rather odd I have to say.
One would reasonably expect that Cell C would want to address the bigger centres in the country first - unless they were just scared that their network may not take that kind of strain as they launched their "4Gs" data offering...

So as I continue my rant, let me first tip my virtual hat to the fine folk in Port Elizabeth.
Lovely as it is though, why was P.E. chosen as the launch city for Cell C's 4Gs network?
I don't really get it at all - maybe somebody with knowledge of the inner workings of Cell C would like to comment here and fill me in...?
Surely a launch of such huge importance for Cell C would have been better suited to one of our larger cities?
Some justification of the launch city choice is offered here, but I am still not convinced...

So far these are the South African cities that Cell C has upgraded to the "4Gs" standard:

- Port Elizabeth
- Bloemfontein
- East London
- Cape Town
- Durban & Pietermaritzburg
- George (announced today)

That's great for them, but how about coming inland a bit guys?
JHB is only the commercial hub of the country you know, and your loyal fanbase here is crawling along at painful speeds.
I bet that if I go onto www.cellc.co.za and "Tell Trevor", my comment will just get ignored anyway...

p.s. Cell C - perhaps if you offered ME some kind of free try-out of your new 4Gs data package when it actually reaches JHB, I may just stop ranting so much and instead start raving...! :)

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Cell C "4Gs" rollout has started...

According to the Cell C website, the first of many South African cities (Port Elizabeth) has now received the long-awaited "4G" network upgrade that Cell C has been promising for so long.
An update at this link on the Cell C site claims that this is the very first of its' type in Africa...

Man oh man, Cell C's "4G" better be rolling out in JHB very soon... and trust me, when (if!) it does ever arrive in JHB, I am going to be reporting back here on it regularly.

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...and still Cell C keeps on yapping but not delivering...

For ages now I have been following the Cell C 3G (now supposedly 4G) debacle, initially with great interest, but of late more with sarcasm and doubt.

Having been in touch with customer liaison officers, retentions departments etc. etc. blah blah at the company, all I ever seem to get from this rather dodgy company is empty promises and a whole lot of nonsense.

Back in February 2010 I was hopefully blogging away about the prospect of Cell C getting 4G - and here we still sit waiting (not so patiently) 6 months later.
In that time, not much if anything has happened to change or improve the dire state of affairs that is the Cell C data network.
Instead, a lot of hogwash hype has been generated for the media to willingly lap up:

- Comedian Trevor Noah has been appointed as the company "CEO" (that's Customer Experience Officer... how clever of you Cell C); He will be hearing from me soon when I send him a link to this post...
- Cell C now sports a new look and a new logo;
- The "4Gs" logo adorns the Cell C site all over the place, although in reality there is no such offering as yet on the Cell C network.
Personally I still crawl along at barely-EDGE speeds on a phone which is capable of a lot more...
Clicking on the "Internet - 4Gs" link on the Cell C site, takes you to a page which boldly proclaims:

"The future of mobile services is here, thanks to Cell C. We are proud to announce that Cell C is the first cellular operator in the country to roll out a 4Gs network..."

Ok Cell C - your customers are now just fed up. You claim that 4Gs is here... WHERE???

Is it only available to a few selected square metres of barren land somewhere in the Karoo? 

How about a real rollout in major metropolitan areas like ummm.. JHB maybe? Cape Town? Durban? Have you heard of those places?

All it takes is a bit of communication with the same people who actually pay the Cell C salaries at the end of the day. A countdown to 4G launch, an ETA of some kind, ANYTHING to give us an idea of what the heck is going on and when we can expect to have access to data speeds that are at least close to first world!

Cell C - your customers are getting tired of waiting for your empty promises to be fulfilled...

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