Spark rural broadband on 700 MHz

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Spark rural broadband on 700 MHz

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dickytim

2514 posts

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#1322771 11-Jun-2015 12:44

silly question, I live in a rural area, our ADSL is usually around 6mbps down and 1-2 up. As we can get broadband does that exclude us from looking at the 4G broadband option?

For not a lot more it looks like we could potentially get a lot better speeds.

I have my Vodafone mobile and I am usually seeing 40-50mbps down and 10+ up

So can I choose to fork out for this service even though I have access to broadband?

kaihoka

164 posts

Master Geek

#1322806 11-Jun-2015 14:12

i hope you can.
i live in a remote rural area at the northern tip of the south island and i do better than you with 3G mobile broad band RBI
i just did a test at 9 down /2.5 up and ping of 91
you would do much better for ping, wireless has a lot more latency.
but 4G should fix that.
i think once 4g is up and running the digital divide will not be between town and country but between those in valleys and behind hills and up long rural roads those not.

grant_k

3539 posts

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#1322811 11-Jun-2015 14:20

Vodafone have a policy of not connecting people in urban areas, but I don't know about Spark. It would be best to ask them. Several of my friends who live in semi-rural areas on congested cabinets have connected to Vodafone RBI in recent months and will never go back. The evening slowdown still happens to some extent but it's nowhere near so bad, even on the 3G service. My speed drops from 27 or 28Mbps down to about 23 but I expect both of those numbers to go up dramatically once 4G arrives on our local cellsite.

davsri

26 posts

Geek

#1327560 18-Jun-2015 22:14

Does anyone here know as to whether Spark have their L700 4G equipment on the Vodafone RBI tower in Te Miro or if they are operating out of their own tower in the area? . We have Spark 4G 700 cell phone coverage in the area already.Just keen to know how this will work once the rural wireless service starts in the coming weeks.

coffeebaron

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#1327564 18-Jun-2015 22:21

I think there are two separate towers there. And yes the Spark one is 4G.

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hotrok

71 posts

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#1330005 23-Jun-2015 15:40

Anyone on spark 4g 700hz in Timaru? Need some latency results if possible. The other thing is whats the best external antenna? is this the gold standard ? https://www.telcoantennas.com.au/site/telco-xpol-mimo-3g-4gx-13dbi-panel-antenna-700-900mhz

coffeebaron

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#1330086 23-Jun-2015 17:27

hotrok: Anyone on spark 4g 700hz in Timaru? Need some latency results if possible. The other thing is whats the best external antenna? is this the gold standard ? https://www.telcoantennas.com.au/site/telco-xpol-mimo-3g-4gx-13dbi-panel-antenna-700-900mhz

No, it's missing the upper frequencies, so no good for carrier aggregation.

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davsri

26 posts

Geek

#1330102 23-Jun-2015 17:39

Check with Cellutronics NZ and see if they have anything suitable - not sure if they have anything for L700 though

davsri

26 posts

Geek

#1345064 15-Jul-2015 22:55

I get the feeling that Spark's rural wireless broadband may end up being a better product than the government regulated RBI as the latter is plagued with installation failure issues. Spark seems to be able to pick those cases up and provide the service at least in the cases that I know of. I am talking about the Waikato at this stage. There are people currently on the customer trials who are seeing speeds of 50 mbps down and 20 mbps up and i am talking about the original zone 4 areas and who had no broadband at all before and they also seem to be living in fair coverage or limited coverage areas in some instances as per their own 4G 700 coverage maps and do not have any externally installed antennae. Ironically these people reside in so called full RBI coverage areas but cannot connect to the service due to what is deemed installation failure even with the yagi antenna. I wonder how this is all going to pan out in the coming months if Spark just run away with this completely.

kaihoka

164 posts

Master Geek

#1345071 15-Jul-2015 23:20

what are the data plans. are they the same as vodafone RBI

grant_k

3539 posts

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#1345072 15-Jul-2015 23:24

kaihoka: what are the data plans. are they the same as vodafone RBI

Spark have matched Vodafone's 80GB for $105 deal but after making a lot of noise at Fieldays, they have gone all quiet regarding this product. I wonder how much longer until they officially release it to the market?

Jaxson

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#1345092 16-Jul-2015 00:49

Test case scenario, what would the options be for an area such as this one?:

https://www.google.co.nz/maps/place/Waiinu+Beach/@-39.860705,174.7461813,16z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x6d1568b4bccab5bb:0x500ef6143a32460

There do not appear to be any landline internet services available here, other than dial up?!

grant_k

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#1345095 16-Jul-2015 00:55

Jaxson: Test case scenario, what would the options be for an area such as this one?:

https://www.google.co.nz/maps/place/Waiinu+Beach/@-39.860705,174.7461813,16z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x6d1568b4bccab5bb:0x500ef6143a32460

There do not appear to be any landline internet services available here, other than dial up?!

Looking quickly on Spark's coverage map, there is no 4G anywhere within cooey, and minimal 3G. Vodafone also show minimal coverage. Depending on your exact location, you might get lucky with an external antenna, but not a hope in hell with internal antenna only.

wellygary

8328 posts

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#1345532 16-Jul-2015 15:25

Jaxson: Test case scenario, what would the options be for an area such as this one?:

https://www.google.co.nz/maps/place/Waiinu+Beach/@-39.860705,174.7461813,16z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x6d1568b4bccab5bb:0x500ef6143a32460

There do not appear to be any landline internet services available here, other than dial up?!

This map

https://koordinates.com/set/936-rural-broadband-initiative-coverage-5-mbps/seems to indicate that you will eventually get something....

Jaxson

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#1345582 16-Jul-2015 16:13

Thanks all.

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