3G Speeds in Cape Town South Africa - False Advertising

About 7 months ago I decided to upgrade to a Blackberry, not knowing much about them I did my research and was also advised by many store sales exec's that the Bold is the way to go as it is 3G! I coughed up and financed the other portion for the hand set (still paying monthly) to get this great device.
I will mention it is a great device and I love it, BUT I cannot accept that it is advertised as 3G, I pay for 3G but do not DO NOT get the benefit if it.
The Blackberry.net APN is useless. It is so slow it is actually not usable!
The worst part is that when I switch over to the general 3G network on the internet APN and use the device as a modem (which I pay for) the speed is magnificent.
Question: How can Blackberry / Vodacom advertise 3G, charge a premium for the device and then not deliver the service?
I paid for 3G and want 3G speed or I may as well have bought a Curve.
All I get from Vodacom is that you are aware of the speed issues and are looking into it? Mean while I have very limited usage and I am paying for something I cannot effectively use!!!
I am not even sure this is the correct forum to voice this but do not know where else to turn? I have mailed Blackberry and RIM endlessly and never get a response or get a mail telling me to come to this site? (or call an international number?)
Sorry to be so negative on my openeing post, but i LOVE my phone and am very fustrated by the poor service in this country. PLEASE can i be pointed in the correct direction?
Thanks
Marcus
[email protected]
Second,
Marcus
Cell: +27 82 9284022
Mail: [email protected]

badach1980 wrote:
I am not even sure this is the correct forum to voice this but do not know where else to turn? I have mailed Blackberry and RIM endlessly and never get a response or get a mail telling me to come to this site? (or call an international number?)
It is not the correct forum.. This is a RIM and BlackBerry community support forum. Volunteers here provide device and RIM software help to other users... peer-to-peer, if you will.
RIM has no control over the Vodafone network and what they provide as 3G signals across their territory.
The device is 3G, and in my experience on the Bold with 3G in my area, it is absolutely great.
Your issue is with Voda, not RIM.
Good luck, and please do enjoy the forums here for issues we can assist with.
1. If any post helps you please click the below the post(s) that helped you.
2. Please resolve your thread by marking the post "Solution?" which solved it for you!
3. Install free BlackBerry Protect today for backups of contacts and data.
4. Guide to Unlocking your BlackBerry & Unlock Codes
Join our BBM Channels (Beta)
BlackBerry Support Forums Channel
PIN: C0001B7B4   Display/Scan Bar Code
Knowledge Base Updates
PIN: C0005A9AA   Display/Scan Bar Code

Similar Messages

  • Connecting a Community Center in Cape Town, South Africa

    Hi,
    I'm working with a team of students in parternship with the One Laptop Per Child initiative.
    We will be traveling to Cape Town, South Africa to distribute ~100 laptops.
    I am the "tech guy" of the group of three and am in charge of networking the community center.
    What router would you suggest?  What else should I be thinking about?  I've only worked with routers in a home/small business environment.
    Thanks for the help.  It's for a good cause.
    Cheers

    Kindly provide additional information...
    Are you planning to provide Internet Connection for all the Laptops wirelessly ?
    What range(in feet) are you expecting from a Wireless Router ?

  • Skype Number: No area code for Cape Town, South Af...

    On the drop down for skype number area code selection for south africa, Cape Town does not appear, only Joburg, Pretorai and Durban.  
    Cape Town is the 'mother' city - the legislative capital of SouthAfrica.  There should be no pronvicial restrictions like with US states, so why no area code?
    please...

    Hi, Darwal, and welcome to the Community,
    Unfortunately, if the particular exchange you wish to have for a Skype Number does not appear on the list, then it is truly not available for any number of legitimate reasons.   Check back periodically to see if the exchange becomes available; Skype does not announce when a fresh batch of Skype Numbers are newly added.
    Regards,
    Elaine
    Was your question answered? Please click on the Accept as a Solution link so everyone can quickly find what works! Like a post or want to say, "Thank You" - ?? Click on the Kudos button!
    Trustworthy information: Brian Krebs: 3 Basic Rules for Online Safety and Consumer Reports: Guide to Internet Security Online Safety Tip: Change your passwords often!

  • South africa trip

    I am going to Cape Town South africa in March. Does my Ipad have a converter to change from 220 volts to 110 volts or do I need to purchase a converter?

    You just need an adapter kit to work with the charger to have the correct pins.

  • Hi I am in south Africa and wifi is very restricted so I have a 3G card with 5gig cap but when I want to download applications for iPad larger than 20meg it says I must use wifi is there a setting I can change to increase the cap on 3G downloads

    Hi I am from south Africa  and wi fi is very restricted so I have a 3G  card in my iPad and it has a 5 Gig capacity, however when I want to download applications bigger than 20meg it asks for a wifi connection.Is there a setting I can change so to allow a higher capacity 3G downloads?

    The R201 MiFi is really nifty. It's the size of a credit card, and a bit thicker. Costs just over R1200 and can connect up to 5 devices. It charges via USB or via the iPad adapter and will give about 3 hours use on a charge. I actually feel that with a MiFi, you don't need any 3G on the iPad.

  • FaceTime and imessage not working in South Africa

    Help! I'm in South Africa for a month and my iMessage and  FaceTime aren't working. When I try to imessage someone, the message says "turn off airplane mode or use wifi to send and receive messages" but i have full wifi strength. When I try to FaceTime, it says to check the number, it might not be complete. I've tried calling the number as usual, then the international number to ca from South Africa to the US.
    I have an iPhone 5s, My email is working fine. My phone is on airplane mode but I have full wifi strength. My date and time is set automatically to Cape Town. Please someone help me figure out why this isn't working! I can't find any other solutions on the internet. Thank you!

    backup the device with itunes.
    Restore the device with itunes and set up as new.
    Sign into the facetime and imessage to activate it.
    After that is done and activation is good.
    Restore from the backup.
    Then make sure to sign into facetime and imessage again and you should be good to go

  • Ovi Maps South Africa - Rubbish!

    All of you coming to South Africa for the soccer WC, be warned. The Nokia maps are useless, with many many errors. I tried using mine several times, and had I been a foreigner, I would have gotten hopelessly lost.   Whilst driving from johannesburg to Cape Town recently, the routing would take me off the N1 highway, and route me way off course into the countryside! This is useless to anyone!
    Nokia maps are absolute rubbish on my E72. Get a TomTom or Garmin, MUCH better.

    Hi NeilF_Mobi
    Here is a screenshot with "Online" search for Main road,cape town 7925,south africa where comma separated values are important: http://i55.tinypic.com/nyfhi8.jpg
    Happy to have helped forum in a small way with a Support Ratio = 37.0

  • I lived in london, and opened my itunes account there. I then moved to Cape Town. changed the country on Itunes and now I cannot acess my purchases? what do I do? I like to access my music in cape town

    Hi
    I lived in London, where i purchased my itunes / ipod / ipad. I moved to cape town and on itunes I changed the country to South africa. Now when I log into Itunes I can see the music/movies i had originally purchased but I cannot access it on my South African Iphone. Is this something that can be fixed? or do i need to go back to being in the uk on my devices?

    See this discussion:
    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3725712?tstart=0

  • South Africa maps for E52

    Unlike the 6110 Navigator, which can search for and find every street and place for the entire country, The E52 with South Africa Ovi Map search facility can find only items of interest (e.g. a few major airports, a few major cities, and bizarre things like B&Bs and some hospitals.) Otherwise search for a moderately small town, or a street by name - even in a major centre - and no matches will be found. It would appear that if a street is within about 5km of current position it will be found. If it is further away, it won't be found. If you search by moving the cursor over the map, you will find the street you are looking for labelled with the correct name, but you cannot search for and find it using either a partial or full match. This makes the GPS mapping almost useless, as you only really need it when you don't know where you are going. Interestingly, when the search fails, it reports 'cannot find offline'. I tried going online to see if that made a difference. Now, the response to searches is huge, but most of the matches are in the continental USA. Still none for the map in question , i.e. South Africa. I've looked for any setting that might be incorrectly set, but there are none. Until this can be sorted out, I have reverted to the 6110 which is nothing short of superb in comparison. Very disappointed with this glaring bug in the E52

    Hi NeilF_Mobi
    Here is a screenshot with "Online" search for Main road,cape town 7925,south africa where comma separated values are important: http://i55.tinypic.com/nyfhi8.jpg
    Happy to have helped forum in a small way with a Support Ratio = 37.0

  • Does the Vodafone Sat Nav upgrade work in South Africa?

    Recently got my BB and use the GPS often. Would like to have full access to features such as speed trap info. Does the upgrade work in South Africa?

    Hi there, have you come right with your question, I want to know the same.
    Thanks
    Ferdie

  • Error in South Africa Regional Settings in Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8

    Please note that the format for numbers in South Africa regional settings is incorrect. I discovered this through on of our products that would not work on Server 2012, but works from XP to Windows 7.
    Where the decimal was always a point it has now been changed to a comma, which is incorrect and most likely will cause a lot of issues for customers in south africa that use decimal data.
    I can already see spatial data breaking where decimals are used and stored with points and not commas.
    To reproduce this error set your regional settings to South Africa and execute the following code in C#
    System.Convert.ToDouble("10.1234");
    This will throw a FormatException. Change regional settings from a , to a . and there we go it works.

    It seems that this is development related issue, please try to submit a new post in DEV forum. Thanks.
    Thanks
    Zero
    Respectfully Mr. Xia, it looks like the OP is reporting a localization issue, not a development issue.
    For the OP, there's a
    well researched post by a South African developer describing that the decimal comma is the correct choice.  The work cites University style guides, International conference agreements, and government legislation and regulation.
    An excerpt from Mr. MacLean's post, quoting work from EEPublishers:
    English-speaking countries (plus China, India and Japan) use the decimal point. There seems to be a general tendency to formally declare its use worldwide and the International Organisation for Standardization, ISO, also tends towards using the decimal point
    over the decimal comma. In view
    of the South African law, however, the comma shall still be employed in South Africa as “the only recognised decimal indicator for all numbers” [3].
    References
    [1] DR Hendrikz: South African Units of Length and Area, Department of Lands, Trigonometrical Survey, Special Publication No. 2, 1944.
    [2] Measuring Units and National Measuring Standards Act, 1973 (Act No. 76 of 1973), Government Gazette No. 4326, 5 July 1974.
    [3] The International Metric System (SI), Guide to the use of the SI in South Africa, The Council of the South African Bureau of Standards, M 33a, 1992
    [4] Measurement Units and Measurement Standards Act, 2006 (Act No. 18 of 2006), Government Gazette No. 29752, 28 March 2007.
    [5] T Zakiewicz: “Units of Length Measure & Geodetic Standards at the Cape, 1813-1912”, History of Surveying and Land Tenure, Collected Papers,
    Vol. 2, The Institute of Professional Land Surveyors & Geomaticians of the Western Cape, May 2004.

  • Will an iPad work in South Africa?

    I spend most of my year in South Africa. I'd like to purchase an I-pad in the States and use it in South Africa. Will it work there? A guy at the Genius Bar in NYC told me if I get an ipad with the AT&T plan, it will work in South Africa via SIM card.

    I Just returned from s Africa. You can buy 2 gb including chip for US 24 from Vodacom at any mall.  Make free phone calls using a VPN into US and use data plan over google voice and talkatone app
    3g speed is ok in cities and along major roads
    lots of free wifi in hotels usually with some max 50 or 100 mb
    vpn from witopia - can watch us tv.

  • Apple update server in South Africa

    To my understanding, Software Update contacts the international server, and then redirects the connection to a nearer update server (in South Africa) when downloading. If the international update server index file is at "swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/index-1.sucatalog", does anyone perhaps know the South African address? (or Where could I find it? or Who should I ask?)
    We have very limited bandwidth in South Africa, and my blended (international and local) internet cap runs dry very quickly. I then have access to local cap that I would like to use to update OSX.

    I just checked the list of countries at the bottom of the iTunes store home page and South Africa is listed. It is only an App Store (no music and videos).
    Be sure you have the latest iTunes (http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/) and try again.

  • I have a Macbook Air purchased in 2011 in the US.  I am traveling in South Africa and am unsure if I need a step down voltage converter before I plug my laptop into the wall to charge it (using an outlet adapter).  Am I ok to just plug in?

    So standard electrical output from wall outlets in the US is 110V - 120V, and standard output from wall outlets in South Africa is 220V - 240V.  In SA I know I can plug in an iPhone using the iPhone charging cable and it will automatically step down the voltage, thus preventing my phone from overheating.  I cannot plug in a hairdryer or flat iron without step down voltage converter in SA.  Can I use the charger that came with my US 2011 Macbook Air and plug into a wall outlet in South Africa or do I need to purchase a step down voltage converter in order to charge my laptop while in SA?

    You only need a plug adaptor as long as the voltage is between 100 and 240 volts.
    (123957)

  • I lived in the US for a few years, spent a fortune on iTunes [my then local Apple ID account].  Now I live in South Africa and want to use Match.  I have a local credit card but how do I use my new / 2nd Apple ID and gain access to all my US music??

    I lived in the US for a few years, spent a fortune on iTunes [my then local Apple ID account].  Now I live in South Africa and want to use Match.  I have a local credit card but how do I use my new / 2nd Apple ID and gain access to all my US music??

    You have to be in a country to use its store - you will need to be in the US and have a US billing address on your account to be able to use the US store (that applies to buying and redownloading).
    You can use iTunes Match in South Africa, do you not have a backup copy of all of your US iTunes purchases so that you can subscribe to it and upload those that aren't in the South African store to it ?

Maybe you are looking for