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

1722 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 993

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3470952 16-Mar-2026 17:37

The priority may have been converting exisiting Samsung sites. Quite a lot of Samsung-to-Nokia activity happening here in Auckland over the last couple of month. Could be Spark wants to get rid of Samsung ASAP.

boosacnoodle

1278 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 861

#3470967 16-Mar-2026 17:52

Yep, appears to be a decision they've made that they would rather let a site lie dormant than operate it with Samsung - even when they've clearly spent the money on Samsung gear for brand new sites. I don't think the Samsung gear was even that old from when they started rolling it out - it's only been like 3-4 years isn't it? You'd be lucky if the gear is even fully depreciated or if it's just straight up being written off. I wonder what went wrong.

Aucklandjafa:

You can add the Botanic gardens and Aro valley - both sites were nearly installed 12 months ago and are still not live

Do you mean Wellington's Botanic Gardens? Wow - this must be costing them a pretty penny!

Aucklandjafa

522 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 249

#3470974 16-Mar-2026 18:13

Yeah, corner of Glenmore and Garden

boosacnoodle

1278 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 861

#3471932 20-Mar-2026 10:04

Aucklandjafa:

Yeah, corner of Glenmore and Garden

It's live now, as is Wigram. Just look at that upload - it's beautiful! In-building coverage is greatly improved, too.

I'm not sure how this works exactly as there is no n78 (3.5GHz) license for this location, yet the tower is certainly active - there was no service at all here before, now I have high-performance 5G.

Just two more to go from my list...

grantius

88 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 53

#3471981 20-Mar-2026 13:33

boosacnoodle:

Aucklandjafa:

Yeah, corner of Glenmore and Garden

It's live now, as is Wigram. Just look at that upload - it's beautiful! In-building coverage is greatly improved, too.

I'm not sure how this works exactly as there is no n78 (3.5GHz) license for this location, yet the tower is certainly active - there was no service at all here before, now I have high-performance 5G.

Just two more to go from my list...

Check the field test mode, it's possible it uses n40 instead of n78

boosacnoodle

1278 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 861

#3472028 20-Mar-2026 16:01

I did and it just said n78. It may be the case that it's just not accurate. Both the 4G and 5G cell ID showed as the same.

Lego

Shop now for Lego sets and other gifts (affiliate link).

Oblivian

7345 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2117

ID Verified

#3472095 20-Mar-2026 23:02

boosacnoodle:

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.

It would appear not only GZers unhappy in hornby and the hub.

Action! (Hopefully can see if don't have facey) https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CXFxCytfS/

Essentially a councillor taking credit for passing on a petition from paper plus and the mall, and already scoped for internal cells.

quickymart

14940 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 13954

ID Verified

#3472115 21-Mar-2026 08:08

Andib:

I experienced this today at Costco, decent 5G coverage in store but could get zero data throughput (phone calls went through on VoLTE without issue, I even restarted twice to make sure it wasn’t my iPhone.
Meanwhile my wife on OneNZ could get 300mbps (which conveniently made her responsible for price checking).

I'm going to Costco today so will check it out as well.

boosacnoodle

1278 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 861

#3472128 21-Mar-2026 10:17

Hornby still it’s same bad self on 5G. At least it seems to have improved upload somewhat since Wigram was switched on.

boosacnoodle

1278 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 861

#3472256 21-Mar-2026 17:05

Found another “empty” Spark site at corner of Epsom Street & Riccarton Road to add to the list

KiwiSurfer

1722 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 993

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#3472259 21-Mar-2026 17:15

There are three in East Auckland:-

Spark/2deg Highbrook Park Coloation - 2degrees has been live for a few weeks but no sign of Spark - they have a equipment cabinet but no antennas on top of the monopole - this one dating back to Nov 2025
Spark site near 2deg Ormiston Road - new Spark site but not yet live - only just saw this one today so not sure how long it's been there for
Spark site near One NZ Murphys Bush - new Spark site but not yet live since Dec 2025 at least

AliExpress

Shop now on AliExpress (affiliate link).

Linux

12185 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 8480

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3472263 21-Mar-2026 17:31

@KiwiSurfer new site in Kaiwaka as well up for many months no 5G panels on top and not live

Spyware

3818 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1366

Lifetime subscriber

#3472273 21-Mar-2026 19:28

boosacnoodle:

Found another “empty” Spark site at corner of Epsom Street & Riccarton Road to add to the list

Euston Street not Epsom.

Spark Max Fibre using Mikrotik CCR1009-8G-1S-1S+, CRS125-24G-1S, Unifi UAP, U6-Pro, UAP-AC-M-Pro, Apple TV 4K (2022), Apple TV 4K (2017), iPad Air 1st gen, iPad Air 4th gen, iPhone 13, SkyNZ3151 (the white box). If it doesn't move then it's data cabled.

Aucklandjafa

522 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 249

#3472275 21-Mar-2026 19:38

New site on Jackson Street, Petone outside of Woolworths - still not live

boosacnoodle

1278 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 861

#3472280 21-Mar-2026 20:23

Linux:

@KiwiSurfer new site in Kaiwaka as well up for many months no 5G panels on top and not live

Based on a sample size of one, no panels at top = no equipment in the cabinet either. If you want to be really nosey, the most recent cabinet design has the smart meter and DIN rail visible so you can check through the window to see any meter pulses or RCD’s switched on.

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