Vodafone and 3G

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#7787 17-Aug-2004 16:17

3GSM calls have been in NZ between Auckland and Wellington

taniwha

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#7788 17-Aug-2004 16:24

so there's at least one cellsite - but that might be in a workshop :-)

right now i can't get GSM to hold a call from waterloo, round the harbour to the airport.
it drops the call near the stadium, and again near the airport. :-(
hope the handover works better now they're 3G-ifying the cellsites.. might be a coverage issues too.
any improvements planned in that field while they're out there?

johnr

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#7789 17-Aug-2004 16:26

The issue is black spots for sure,

taniwha

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#7790 17-Aug-2004 17:10

Patchy coverage in WGTN is understandable considering the terrain...

lots of GSM black spots in wellington CBD - railway station, stadium, parts of the terrace.
telecom seem to do much better.
Is that something to do with CDMA, or purely more cellsites?

johnr

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#7791 17-Aug-2004 17:16

Just rollout of cellsites

kiwisteve

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#7792 17-Aug-2004 17:18

I have noticed some of these new TRI band phones with internal antennas
dont do as well as the older single band 900s with the stubb antenna .
For difficult areas I have an external magnetic base antenna and patch cable that fits
in the ext car antenna socket on top rear of the Nokia 6310i It works really well.

Steve

Jama

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#7793 17-Aug-2004 17:21

Better coverage characteristics, more capacity and a greater number of cell sites on CDMA. Thats the difference. I have a friend who couldn't use her GSM phone for 12 months in Mirimar, each time she phoned Voda they told her excuses like 'Peter Jackson is using all the capacity for data' - funny that when he is on CDMA. Finally 12 months later she can use her GSM phone!

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sbiddle

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#7794 17-Aug-2004 17:34

test

sbiddle

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#7795 17-Aug-2004 17:37

Hey Freitasm what words are not allowed to be included in a posting? I got an error msg then whenever I typed my reply again keep getting an error trying to post! Maybe johnr has stopped us from saying anything anti-vodafone! :-)

Microsoft VBScript runtime error '800a01c9'

This key is already associated with an element of this collection

/i_utils.asp, line 95

taniwha

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#7796 17-Aug-2004 17:38

I talked to 777 about GSM coverage at my house and they've told me my address has been added to a list of places they'll be reviewing...
it's been about a year now. coverage hasn't improved, but i've upgraded phones several times since and it always improves marginally in each new phone. It went from no coverage on a T39, to a single bar near the front window on a 3650. .and now patchy spots randomnly in the T630...

it does flick between 4 different cellsites.. it's not enough to hold a call, but i can sms.

so the science of RF antennas and signal processing etc is still improving.

sbiddle

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#7798 17-Aug-2004 19:24

Vodafone have always had coverage issues in Wgtn and have still never spent the time or $$ to do a proper job. There are deadspots now that never existed in the old BellSouth days, SH2 between the gorge and city is one example where a panel swap 3 years ago on the rossmore house thorndon site resulted in poor RF performance on in the north facing sector and a 99% chance you'll get a dropped call.

sbiddle

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#7799 17-Aug-2004 19:26

Lower Willis St inbuilding coverage is poor despite a both 900 and 1800 panels 1/2 way up The Majestic Centre and it's impossible to hold a call going around the bays to the airport despite their being adequate signal from no less than 3 sites - Kaiwhara, the new Oriental Bay one and the one at Fort Dorset which is simply bad optimisation. Wellington probably needs another 10 or so sites in key areas now but I fear isn't going to happen now that all the money and technical resources are obviously going to be spent deploying the 3G network.. For the first time ever I think you can honestly say Telecom have better coverage in Wgtn that Vodafone, they can manage to put a site in at Baring Head for proper South Coast coverage!

alasta

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#7800 17-Aug-2004 20:09

I also found the coverage to be pretty pathetic when I was staying in Newlands a while ago although, admittedly, Telecom didn't appear to be much better.

However, one of the key reasons why I have considered switching to Telecom recently is the fact that they have good coverage on the Wairarapa Coast where Vodafone has absolutely no presense at all. This is particularly irritating as I have family in Masterton, and I enjoy spending time in Riversdale and Castlepoint over the summer. Other places where I've always wanted better coverage are Spencer Park and Taylors Mistake in Christchurch, and I recently received a mail drop from Telecom stating that they have recentlly improved coverage in these areas.

Of course, many people will jump into this thread and point out that Vodafone has coverage in plenty of areas where Telecom does not but, for me personally, I think that Telecom definitely has the upper hand.

Nraged

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#7801 17-Aug-2004 20:34

This topic gets a lot of interest. Having used a 3g phone for more than 14 months in the UK, its not all that great (in the UK) 3 is a walled garden and does not allow access to WAP. In OZ they do , but I'm not sure about NZ ???? The signal drops all the time, and the 2g network is O2. The good news it the devices they have are excellent eg the Z1010 and the new LG are teh best on the market and their price planes are excellent. The free mobile java games are excellent and video calling is better than expected apart from that 2.5g is just as good and you can download more java mobile phone games

Cheers

kiwisteve

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#7802 17-Aug-2004 20:37

Another very bad area for Vodafone is Highway 3 between Wanganui and Waverley.
Coverage is Non Existant for several Kms . Have made calls to 777 and email for the last 24 months, still
nothing has been done so No SvC along SH3 at Kai Iwi . Telecom has very good coverage
on 25 and 27 in the same area.

Steve

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