Spark - 5G Coverage + data instability (Wellington & parts of Auckland)

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Spark - 5G Coverage + data instability (Wellington & parts of Auckland)

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | ... | 8

4819 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3934

Trusted

#3469438 12-Mar-2026 12:26

boosacnoodle:

I don't think the "network is trash" - but the resolution to faults logged cannot be described otherwise. This is fine - apparently - for 5G performance in major metro areas.

I agree, that's horrible performance. While not handset testing, I can see all our 5G FWA testing and the average is over 300Mbps (hundreds of testers, all over the country, all times of day).

I'm interested to find out who told you that 1.45 down and 1.10 up is fine. Feel free to let me know that if you have a source - that needs to be addressed.

Just outside Chch, I get 80/40 on 4G (just now - I sometimes get over 100)

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

boosacnoodle

1274 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 858

#3469439 12-Mar-2026 12:30

The one above was in Broomfield. This is in Witham Street, Hornby, right next to the Spark tower thats been sitting there dormant for 18+ months.

MaxineN

Max
2049 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1663

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#3469441 12-Mar-2026 12:31

boosacnoodle:

I don't think the "network is trash" - but the resolution to faults logged cannot be described otherwise. This is fine - apparently - for 5G performance in major metro areas.

Rich's frustration is in general, however there was no invitation to do any testing to which you and I have done and have proven it's pretty bad, is where I take issue with Neil's reply.

Had I said something to Neil's response with my big green hat on I think I would have had a "please explain."

You don't need to defend any position, a simple request to ask for metrics is a better response. Professionally speaking of course, inside chats or whatever I don't think anyone can control that or those opinions, anyone can say whatever they want.

But in case anyone asks here's a netmonster cap.

I really would like to know why my UE was allowed to connect to a cell at -138dbm as a CA. L7 at -103 is in that screenshot, but I assure to anyone wanting to nitpick my integrity it was at -109 during the unscientific speedtest to spark akl :-)

Anyway I don't think I need to contribute more so I will gracefully back out and hopefully someone positive action gets taken.

Edit: oww mobile posting hurts, also if anyone wants my imsi I'm happy to supply it

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

boosacnoodle

1274 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 858

#3469448 12-Mar-2026 12:50

^ You appear to be connecting to Spark's Christchurch Airport Carpark 2 location. I was not able to positively confirm the One NZ location but looks like Christchurch Technology Park.

MaxineN

Max
2049 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1663

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#3469449 12-Mar-2026 12:54

boosacnoodle:

^ You appear to be connecting to Spark's Christchurch Airport Carpark 2 location. I was not able to positively confirm the One NZ location but looks like Christchurch Technology Park.

You've found the unfair advantage One NZ has. Yes my Contact service 100% camps on Technology park cell, whilst 2degrees will either choose Waireki road or Burnside Park. Which Spark have cell sites in those locations too and I don't see any outages for the technology park specifically.

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

richms

29099 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 10210

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3469451 12-Mar-2026 12:59

People have complained many times about onewa road dropping out. It's the busiest road on the shore. One has lamppost sites on it, works excellent. 2deg seems to be fine but I have no idea where their sites are.

Spark seem to be happy with how it is as they are not fixing it despite people I know that are forced to use spark because of their work only paying for spark mobiles complaining via their account manager. If you are happy to have anyone using a WhatsApp or messenger call to hit a dead spot and lose a call on such a busy road, you don't care. Previous Telco calls have been terrible and ended up on 3g. That's not going to be a thing soon so will see if they just drop entirely like other calling apps do.

The waipa and rangitera road place is weird because there is a giant spark tower at the old phone exchange behind the bus depot/old mobile. Close to line of sight from the top of rangitera and still data stalls out. If that's acceptable then I stand by my trash assessment. It's not some middle of nowhere place with one tower on the edge of a hick town. Not in building expectations just driving at low speeds around an urban area.

Richard rich.ms

HP

Shop now for HP laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

jordan8thepie1

73 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 18

#3469458 12-Mar-2026 13:24

Where i live in lower Hutt the signal has been poor on spark for about the last 4 years it used to be ok with the 3g but with 4g we only get about 1 or less bars of signal and no 5g. When the weather was bad i got no signal at all.

they used to be good when we had 3g but ever since 4g and 5g its been poor.

There is only 1 area on our deck that sometimes on a good day gets 2 bars max. using data was basically unusable.

I have since switched to 2 degrees and I now get 5 bars of signal most of the time.

KiwiSurfer

1722 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 993

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3469466 12-Mar-2026 13:38

As a cell tower geek I've jumped between all 3 networks for the last 20 years.

In some ways it's a bit like the old tale of the hare and the tortoise fable. Telecom used to be miles better than Bellsouth/Vodafone back in the early days of mobile in NZ.

But quietly and bit-by-bit OneNZ/2degrees have chipped away and now in many areas OneNZ/2degrees have come out ahead of Spark.

One thing I've observed is that OneNZ/2deg seem to build a cetain amount of new towers every year, and upgrade a certain amount of towers. No matter what -- they just keep going.

Whereas Spark seems to delay as long as possible before they build. Most Spark new builds I've seen in Auckland over the last 20 years has been after 2deg/OneNZ has already built their site in the same area.

Spark is also slow to add new channels to exisiting sites -- they still operates a number of 2010-era L700/1800 towers in places 2deg/OneNZ has progressively upgraded to L700/L900/L1800/L2100/L2600/NR3500.

I switched to Spark for a while early last year and was pretty shocked at the state. Countless locations in Auckland where I'd be lucky to get a data connection -- whereas OneNZ/2degrees would have 10mbits at the very least enough for YouTube/Netflix/etc.

There's some places Spark is still better - e.g. my husband's works much better on Spark than the other two. But almost everywhere else I go it's One > 2degrees >Spark.

Even rural Northland is poor. My husband is on Spark and has to ask me for my 2deg/One phone to make calls. And this is rural -- where Telecom used to be miles ahead of the competition.

My Spark experience It was so bad I gave up after 3 months and ported back to 2degrees.

2degrees/OneNZ in Auckland is exceptional -- it just works 99.5% of the time. A big credit to 2deg/OneNZ and all their work over the years to patiently chip away at coverage/capacity. Spark has a lot of work to do IMHO.

alasta

6889 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3363

Trusted

Subscriber

#3469478 12-Mar-2026 14:16

It's no secret that Spark has been under a lot of commercial pressure over the last couple of years, so maybe they're kicking the can down the road from a capex perspective.

To be fair, OneNZ has some pretty notable dead spots around Wellington's south coast, whereas my friend's phone on Spark seems to be a bit better. Otherwise I'm pretty impressed with OneNZ to the point where I'm inclined to suck up their latest price increase.

Linux

12182 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 8476

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3469498 12-Mar-2026 15:49

My work Spark handset Samsung S23+ in Auckland city around the Sky Tower / in the car park will go to ' emergency calls only ' so camping on OneNZ or 2degrees and my personal 2degrees handset very strong 5G coverage right under ground to Level 6 parking

One.NZ has good 4G coverage in the same location

KiwiSurfer

1722 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 993

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3469500 12-Mar-2026 15:56

Linux:

My work Spark handset Samsung S23+ in Auckland city around the Sky Tower / in the car park will go to ' emergency calls only ' so camping on OneNZ or 2degrees and my personal 2degrees handset very strong 5G coverage right under ground to Level 6 parking

One.NZ has good 4G coverage in the same location

Odd, I thought all three have underground coverage in the SkyCity carpark? I know all three have their BTS cabinets pretty much next to each other down in the middle level(?) of the Sky City carpark so i had assumed coverage would be good on all three.

Apple TV

Stream your favourite shows now on Apple TV (affiliate link).

Linux

12182 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 8476

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3469502 12-Mar-2026 16:00

KiwiSurfer:

Linux:

My work Spark handset Samsung S23+ in Auckland city around the Sky Tower / in the car park will go to ' emergency calls only ' so camping on OneNZ or 2degrees and my personal 2degrees handset very strong 5G coverage right under ground to Level 6 parking

One.NZ has good 4G coverage in the same location

Odd, I thought all three have underground coverage in the SkyCity carpark? I know all three have their BTS cabinets pretty much next to each other down in the middle level(?) of the Sky City carpark so i had assumed coverage would be good on all three.

@KiwiSurfer Nope unless this is very recent (last few weeks) I will be parking in the Sky City car park this Saturday night so will test again

boosacnoodle

1274 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 858

#3469524 12-Mar-2026 17:06

MaxineN:

You've found the unfair advantage One NZ has. Yes my Contact service 100% camps on Technology park cell, whilst 2degrees will either choose Waireki road or Burnside Park. Which Spark have cell sites in those locations too and I don't see any outages for the technology park specifically.

Looks like high explosives were just found in this area and very few people have received the emergency alert to evacuate, possibly due to this coverage issue.

MaxineN

Max
2049 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1663

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#3469533 12-Mar-2026 17:54

boosacnoodle:

MaxineN:

You've found the unfair advantage One NZ has. Yes my Contact service 100% camps on Technology park cell, whilst 2degrees will either choose Waireki road or Burnside Park. Which Spark have cell sites in those locations too and I don't see any outages for the technology park specifically.

Looks like high explosives were just found in this area and very few people have received the emergency alert to evacuate, possibly due to this coverage issue.

I can confirm that I was evacuated and One NZ users didn't hear anything at all! Nobody in my office got the emergency message except for 1 individual staff member who was coming back from a smoko.

edit:

Amazing job there RNZ...

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

hio77

'That VDSL Cat'
13036 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3896

ID Verified

Trusted

Lizard Networks

Subscriber

#3469538 12-Mar-2026 19:39

alasta:

It's no secret that Spark has been under a lot of commercial pressure over the last couple of years, so maybe they're kicking the can down the road from a capex perspective.

To be fair, OneNZ has some pretty notable dead spots around Wellington's south coast, whereas my friend's phone on Spark seems to be a bit better. Otherwise I'm pretty impressed with OneNZ to the point where I'm inclined to suck up their latest price increase.

i'd tend to agree, years back when I was at spark, it honestly was one of the better networks in terms of deployments.

Spark was quick to jump onto 5G deployments, lots of capex into getting it out there. As with any provider there tends to be peaks and dips in spend.

GIS alerts indicate spark has been pushing alot more N3500 deployments recently.

#include <std_disclaimer>

Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | ... | 8