Telecom WCDMA 2100Mhz coverage

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13 posts

Geek

#231379 5-Jul-2009 23:24

I tried pretty much everything with my phone - Telecom customer services could not help - they referred me to a telecom shop - st lukes - I spent 30 minutes there. They could not help in the end, ended with them telling me it is only a limited service available and as my phone was not a telecom supplied handset they were not obliged to help

davemartin

13 posts

Geek

#231382 5-Jul-2009 23:28

Mine registered fine then the service just disappeared 2 weeks later

drajk

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#231393 5-Jul-2009 23:44

drajk:
davemartin: was good for two weeks in Mt Eden and St Lukes until 1st July then disappeared.

Very interesting.

I tried to use XT today in Mt. Roskill on 2100 - could see network but wouldn't register - Network search found "NZ-05 3G" but then came up "Emergency Only".

I thought it might be the Handset so tried SIM in another 2100 handset - same problem.

I drove over to Royal Oak to a shop and still same problem.

I then thought that maybe it was the SIM so I tried it in a 850 Handset - registered fine without any problem.

Tried again in 2100 handset - wouldn't register

Does anyone at Telecom have any ideas - is there a problem with 2100Mhz handsets registering on the Network in Auckland at present ; surely if one can see the NZ-05 3G network a Telecom SIM should register.

richms: Perhaps its setup to only allow roamers to register on it, and the network will hand off any 850 phones to it when needed?
To have people putting a telecom sim in a 2100 only phone and using it will just create problems with them complaining of coverage issues. To me refusing the registration on a known non 850 handset is totally the right thing to do.

davemartin: I tried pretty much everything with my phone - Telecom customer services could not help - they referred me to a telecom shop - st lukes - I spent 30 minutes there. They could not help in the end, ended with them telling me it is only a limited service available and as my phone was not a telecom supplied handset they were not obliged to help

If you were a conspiracy theorist you might wonder whether they were trying to make people buy '850' handsets to use with SIMs which they had purchased to use on '2100' - I have no idea whether the network could be setup in such a way that 2100 was fallback only - i.e. registration on 850 necessary via same IMEI prior to attempted 2100 registration otherwise fail.

I disagree with richms - if people with '2100' phones want to use the network where it exists and they have purchased a SIM/credit why shouldn't they - Telecom certainly shouldn't change the policy on this a month after launch and should have made it clear before people purchased SIMs/credit if they planned to have such a policy.

davemartin

13 posts

Geek

#231395 5-Jul-2009 23:52

I agree fully - I checked out whether my uk phone would work on the Xt network 2100 for a week and then got rid of my loaned cdma phone - only for the 2100 service to give up a week later. If it was policy I would have hoped someone at Telecom would know about it. I used my phone all over Auckland and the only time it lost service was Howick - I could live with that and so thought I would not need a new phone. I asked Telecom if they could check whether there was a problem with the 2100 service and I was told they couldn't check just 2100 or give a coverage map for it.

jesseycy

294 posts

Ultimate Geek

#231415 6-Jul-2009 07:07

I think Telecom is well within their means to restrict their network to only WCDMA 850Mhz, they certainly haven't advertised any of their 2100Mhz services....

Is it a smart move though? Probably not...

There are certainly quite a few geeks like me, who do have a very nice WCDMA 2100Mhz phone, mostly use Vodafone (or other 2100Mhz providers).... I do top up my Telecom sim card from time to time though, and am happy enough to rely on the "marginally all-right" network coverage. Removing that option means one less group of customers....

freitasm

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#231434 6-Jul-2009 08:52

Telecom's network is advertised as 850 MHz. We know there is 2100 MHz infill for extra capacity and inbound roamers. I think in this case Telecom doesn't have to make it available to its own SIM unless more capacity is needed - that's why the cells are there...

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davemartin

13 posts

Geek

#231438 6-Jul-2009 09:01

I would be happily using Vodafone - but when your Wife works for Telecom and your Father in law runs a Leading Edge store I cannot get away with it!
Sim supplied FOC for my phone and my calls paid for on Telecom - only a fool would give that up. It still chokes me that I cannot use my all singing $700 phone! The only real equivalent on the Telecom network is the N82 - and I am not paying $1500 for the privilege....

bennyk

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

#231443 6-Jul-2009 09:09

The 2100mhz drop out is strangely mysterious. I first noticed it in Hamilton, but last week when up in the Auckland I called in at the Telecom store on Queen street. The best they could tell me was that they were "re-setting" the cell towers around the CBD and it should be back up in less than a day.

Why haven't they publicised this?

davemartin

13 posts

Geek

#231445 6-Jul-2009 09:11

When roaming in NZ on my UK sim in UMTS mode Telecom shows up but no access is allowed - pretty much the same as using my XT Sim. It is as if the service is there but Telecom do not want it used.... It is possible that Telecom do not have a roaming agreement with Orange I guess.

drajk

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#231465 6-Jul-2009 10:22

jesseycy:
Is it a smart move though? Probably not...

There are certainly quite a few geeks like me, who do have a very nice WCDMA 2100Mhz phone, mostly use Vodafone (or other 2100Mhz providers).... I do top up my Telecom sim card from time to time though, and am happy enough to rely on the "marginally all-right" network coverage. Removing that option means one less group of customers....

I agree with these two statements - definitely doesn't seem like a smart move given the other criticism which has recently been around regarding XT (including in mainstream press).

Interesting that there doesn't seem to be any official response from Telecom - is the issue not widely known, was it policy or not?, were they testing the water to see what reaction the removal of lone 2100 access would cause or did someone do this without policy decision?

Once again I think that if this was intended it should have been the case from the start and not brought in a month after the network had launched - by which time many people had bought SIMs with the intention of using '2100' devices as they knew they would work OK in limited areas in the large cities.

JaBZ

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#231484 6-Jul-2009 11:09

Hi our 2100mhz coverage is under some build and pre-launch optimisation, access is restricted due to this.

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drajk

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#231496 6-Jul-2009 11:27

JaBZ: Hi our 2100mhz coverage is under some build and pre-launch optimisation, access is restricted due to this.

Thanks for the reply - I suppose you mean 'post-launch' not 'pre-launch'?

Is it common to take a network down for such long periods to do this - the cellsites can be detected by the phone but just won't register.

Any idea when the optimisation will be finished?

johnr

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#231500 6-Jul-2009 11:34

drajk:
JaBZ: Hi our 2100mhz coverage is under some build and pre-launch optimisation, access is restricted due to this.

Thanks for the reply - I suppose you mean 'post-launch' not 'pre-launch'?

Is it common to take a network down for such long periods to do this -?the cellsites can be detected by the phone but just won't register.

Any idea when the optimisation will be finished?

The network is not down if you have an approved XT handset that works on 850mhz WCDMA you will have no issues

This issue is your own cause

John

davemartin

13 posts

Geek

#231507 6-Jul-2009 11:43

so do I have to keep swapping out sim cards between my phones to find out if there is access or will telecom let us know when we can use 2100 again?

johnr

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#231509 6-Jul-2009 11:45

davemartin: so do I have to keep swapping out sim cards between my phones to find out if there is access or will telecom let us know when we can use 2100 again?

Its this simple use an approved device and you will have no issue

John

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