XT Network down (outage 14 DEC 2009)?

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#282327 14-Dec-2009 14:52

I don't know much about RNCs, but if 1 can handle 10 million +, why can't have the two the're using set up so that if one falls over, the other one temporarily picks up the slack?

Basically along the lines of dual redundant power supplies. I guess it's not as simple as that, and even then, IBM couldn't get that right... :-P

sbiddle

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#282328 14-Dec-2009 14:53

k1wi: I don't know much about RNCs, but if 1 can handle 10 million +, why can't have the two the're using set up so that if one falls over, the other one temporarily picks up the slack?

Basically along the lines of dual redundant power supplies. I guess it's not as simple as that, and even then, IBM couldn't get that right... :-P

It's not quite as simple as that.

zonky

62 posts

Master Geek

#282329 14-Dec-2009 14:59

sbiddle:
zonky: arguably the achillies heel on not having 2G is handset choice.

Why? Every WCDMA handset supports GSM, there would be no handset issues.

Ahh, but the flavour of W-CDMA, is not the prevelant flavour in europe is it- there are many handsets that are 2100 W-CDMA and gsm only, which XT is unable to support. Persisting with CDMA for so long was a stupid decision, but they've hardly solved the handset issues.

sbiddle

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#282330 14-Dec-2009 15:04

zonky:
sbiddle:
zonky: arguably the achillies heel on not having 2G is handset choice.

Why? Every WCDMA handset supports GSM, there would be no handset issues.

Ahh, but the flavour of W-CDMA, is not the prevelant flavour in europe is it- there are many handsets that are 2100 W-CDMA and gsm only, which XT is unable to support. Persisting with CDMA for so long was a stupid decision, but they've hardly solved the handset issues.

But every handset whether it be 850 or 900 WCDMA also supports GSM.

Telecom didn't have a choice with CDMA. When they made the option to with with CDMA in 1999 it was the best option. They couldn't deploy GSM 850 because the standard had only just been ratified and no handsets or networks existed, and rolling out a new nationwide 1800 or 1900 GSM network made no sence compared to upgrading their AMPS/DAMPS to support CDMA.

Felix

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#282332 14-Dec-2009 15:16

I Woke up This Morning Looked at my nokia mobile phone and there was no signal showing Witch Basicly Means "No Service"

Not to detract from your frustration, but that is not actually true (AFAIK).

The bars on your phone indicate signal strength, not quality, and since each manufacturer uses their own scale you can appear to have zero reception, but actually see a base station. As the bars do not indicate quality, you may in fact have a a very good connection (but not necessarily).

This is why you may appear to have no "reception" but indeed be able to make a call. As the signal strength is estimated when the device is idle, but accurate once you have connected to a base station you may see the "reception" bars jump up (or down).

Not that this matters to you, I just thought I'd mention it.

Happy to be corrected on any of the above, this is my basic understanding :-)

Felix

Felix

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#282334 14-Dec-2009 15:20

Ping: Wellington CBD Just went online - Phones all around me sprung into life.

Ironic My WM device detected an O2UK sim card when it came back online however.

That is most likely to be to do with the Roaming solution... If you power cycled your device, when it came back on, if there was no network, it would search for a roaming network... depending on a couple of things, once the network was back up, it should only take 30 seconds to find XT again (though it may take 5 minutes).

Hope this helps :-)

Felix

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exportgoldman

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#282336 14-Dec-2009 15:24

bbman:
johnr: Vodafone NZ already have 6 RNCs in service the latest is in the Waikato

John

So the obvious conclusion is that Telecom has opted for a 2 RNC system, which has now cost them serveral million in compensation, millions in lost client revenue and various other costs. Seems the added investment may have reduced the fall out and produced a more stable network.

This does not put the investment decisions made by Telecom in a good light.... Vodafone will certainly & rightfully hold there heads a little higher as the foresight & past experiences have lead them to invest more heavily in there core network than Telecom

So I wonder how much a fully configured RNC costs, or say 3 more of them, less than this one outage cost? Hmmmm. I'm quite shocked Telecom went live with only two RNC's. Cheapskates, spent too much on the Advertising eh?

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codyc1515

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#282338 14-Dec-2009 15:24

XT Network: Faster In More Places - How can it Be Faster if we can't even get Network Coverage??

All the people who didn't recieve a credit should file an advertising complaint at the Broadcasting Standards Authority..

Spuddy

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#282339 14-Dec-2009 15:26

BaaaaD: Yay... Telecom just given all prepaid and on account XT network users $10 credit.

Has this been seen anywhere as I haven't seen it anywhere and I haven't received any credit.

k1wi

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#282340 14-Dec-2009 15:28

I won't believe it until I see it. that's 80% of my monthly usage.

zonky

62 posts

Master Geek

#282343 14-Dec-2009 15:33

sbiddle:

and rolling out a new nationwide 1800 or 1900 GSM network made no sence compared to upgrading their AMPS/DAMPS to support CDMA.

Er- it did make sense, but the board took the cheap option and have largely regretted it every since. They gambled, and have paid the price many times over: both in sales and forgoing large swathes of roaming cash. The fact is CDMA handsets were desperately uncool, and so was Telecom by association. The decision was obviously made internally, but it went against advice from both senior insiders and external telco consultants advice at the time.

No obligation to beleive me, obviously.

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Felix

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#282347 14-Dec-2009 15:40

zonky:
sbiddle:

and rolling out a new nationwide 1800 or 1900 GSM network made no sence compared to upgrading their AMPS/DAMPS to support CDMA.

Er- it did make sense, but the board took the cheap option and have largely regretted it every since. They gambled, and have paid the price many times over: both in sales and forgoing large swathes of roaming cash. The fact is CDMA handsets were desperately uncool, and so was Telecom by association. The decision was obviously made internally, but it went against advice from both senior insiders and external telco consultants advice at the time.

No obligation to beleive me, obviously.

Well that's a very simple analysis. In fact there was pressure from the govt as well to encourage competition between technologies, and many other factors.

CDMA was a better technology than anything else available at the time. Granted the CDMA camp didn't have the marketing / cool devices etc but no one could have predicted which technology would win (though many claim they did now).

They are generally the same people that claim they knew VHS would beat Betamax, BluRay would beat HD-DVD etc... but I'm yet to meet one that wins lotto every week ;-)

Ping

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Master Geek
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#282350 14-Dec-2009 15:53

Felix:
Ping: Wellington CBD Just went online - Phones all around me sprung into life.

Ironic My WM device detected an O2UK sim card when it came back online however.

That is most likely to be to do with the Roaming solution... If you power cycled your device, when it came back on, if there was no network, it would search for a roaming network... depending on a couple of things, once the network was back up, it should only take 30 seconds to find XT again (though it may take 5 minutes).

Hope this helps :-)

Felix

Oh it found XT straight away...butt WM said it had detected an O2 Sim...I disregarded the message and everythings working fine. Although my node was under a bunch of strain-but that was to be expected. Atleast we're up and running again.

Pat

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funnyfela

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#282355 14-Dec-2009 16:05

I haven't got a $10 credit :(

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codyc1515

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#282359 14-Dec-2009 16:08

funnyfela: I haven't got a $10 credit :(

Neither :(

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