Telecom mobile - Dunedin speeds

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skewt

597 posts

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# 129389 13-Sep-2013 16:16

Are there any plans to fix issues with telecom mobile speeds in Dunedin?
Parts of Dunedin South and the university can be shockingly slow to the point of being completely unusable

Recently I was sitting in South Dunedin with 3 other people, 3 of us on telecom and 1 person on 2 Degrees
All the Telecom phones struggled to connect and load a webpage, but the 2 degrees phone had no issues, I spend around 10 minutes trying to load the page along with the other telecom users, the 2degrees phone worked straight away with no delay.
Today when testing, I was lucky to even get a speedtest to start, it usually locked up trying to ping the speedtest server

All examples below were performed in South Dunedin on 13/09
APN: tried both wap and internet
Tested on iPhone 4

Isn't this meant to be the 'smartphone network'?

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# 895333 13-Sep-2013 16:16

Hello... Our robot found some keywords in your post, so here is an automated reply with some important things to note regarding broadband speeds.

If you are posting regarding DSL speeds please check that

- you have reset your modem and router

- your PC (or other PCs in your LAN) is not downloading large files when you are testing

- you are not being throttled by your ISP due to going over the monthly cap

- your tests are always done on an ethernet connection to the router - do not use wireless for testing

- you read this topic and follow the instructions there.

Make sure you provide information for other users to help you. If you have not already done it, please EDIT your post and add this now:

- Your ISP and plan

- Type of connection (ADSL, ADSL2, VDSL)

- Your modem DSL stats (do not worry about posting Speedtest, we need sync rate, attenuation and noise margin)

- Your general location (or street)

- If you are rural or urban

- If you know your connection is to an exchange, cabinet or conklin

- If your connection is to a ULL or wholesale service

- If you have done an isolation test as per the link above

Most of the problems with speed are likely to be related to internal wiring issues. Read this discussion to find out more about this. Your ISP is not intentionally slowing you down today (unless you are on a managed plan). Also if this is the school holidays it's likely you will notice slower than usual speed due to more users online.

A master splitter is required for VDSL2 and in most cases will improve speeds on DSL connections. Regular disconnections can be a monitored alarm or a set top box trying to connect. If there's an alarm connected to your line even if you don't have an alarm contract it may still try to connect so it's worth checking.

I recommend you read these two blog posts:

- Is your premises phone wiring impacting your broadband performance? (very technical)

- Are you receiving a substandard ULL ADSL2+ connection from your ISP?

I am the Geekzone Robot and I am here to help. I am from the Internet. I do not interact. Do not expect other replies from me.

sbiddle

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# 895349 13-Sep-2013 16:42

I've seen a few other people comment about poor XT performance in Dunedin recently.

lxsw20

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# 895353 13-Sep-2013 16:48

I can't stream Spotify normal quality walking around the Dunedin CBD anymore, it's getting a bit painful.

Why do your screenshots just say 3G, and not Telecom NZ?

Shoes2468

699 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 895354 13-Sep-2013 16:55

sbiddle: I've seen a few other people comment about poor XT performance in Dunedin recently.

With the current promos from Telecom "prepay Daze" and the competitive pricing at skinny ($16 monthly combo) I can only imagine it will get worse before it gets better. I am currently in the process of switching from 2d to telecom, in christchurch I hope this isn't the kind of service I can expect otherwise I will be quickly switching back. If you are using an Iphone 4 it might be worth considering moving to another provider 2d or vodafone. Vote with you wallet.

scheduler

263 posts

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# 895356 13-Sep-2013 16:58

I was going to post a similar thread asking for advice. I am in Conifer Grove Auckland. I have a Sony Tipo with a Telecom sim in it. It is a secondary data connection so get barely used. However I have being experimenting with Speed tests lately. My results vary from 2333kb at 5:30 in the morning to being unable to complete a speed test. I recently tested it Ngongotaha where speeds varied from 350kb to 1800kb which is usable. At all times I was showing 5 bars of signal.

Laurie

skewt

597 posts

Ultimate Geek

# 895360 13-Sep-2013 17:09

lxsw20: I can't stream Spotify normal quality walking around the Dunedin CBD anymore, it's getting a bit painful.

Why do your screenshots just say 3G, and not Telecom NZ?

Jailbroken so removed the 'Telecom NZ' that was taking up most of the status bar (They should make a logo)

mjb

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# 895423 13-Sep-2013 19:25

Aha, that would explain why I had absolutely dismal service in South Dunedin at lunchtime - didn't get decent data back till almost back at work in Green Island.

contentsofsignaturemaysettleduringshipping

nitrotech

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# 895425 13-Sep-2013 19:32

Not just Dunedin was getting less than 1mbps in Rotorua mid afternoon - in general performance has been poor of late.

sbiddle

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# 895426 13-Sep-2013 19:41

2 people support this post

It really does show the problem of how easily congested 3G networks can become, and why it's simply not possible to give everybody 10GB data plans for $9.95 per month.

Australia is also starting to experience issues with LTE networks slowing down considerably, and the reality is things will only get worse. At the end of the day radio spectrum is a finite resource, and products have to be priced accordingly.

michaelmurfy

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# 895438 13-Sep-2013 20:04

^^ Well said Steve

I've noticed /some/ issues around areas with tonnes of people (Wellington CBD) where I can't even Twitter. Congestion is getting rather serious on Telecom.

sbiddle

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# 895457 13-Sep-2013 20:44

michaelmurfy: ^^ Well said Steve

I've noticed /some/ issues around areas with tonnes of people (Wellington CBD) where I can't even Twitter. Congestion is getting rather serious on Telecom.

It's been getting very bad. Even a lot of my testing has shown significant slowdowns while VF have improved hugely.

It's much like coverage at big events these days, during the recent All Blacks Game in Wgtn there was a complete meltdown of all 3 networks in the stadium. No amount of equipment and capacity can deal with so many people in such a confined area, and infrastructure that coped fine with the RWC simply choked 2 years on.

Behodar

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# 895475 13-Sep-2013 21:58

Had "fun" at TechEd with almost constant micro-outages but at least I did better than a coworker who was actually having to reboot her phone every ten minutes!

firewire

86 posts

Master Geek

# 895487 13-Sep-2013 23:41

Slow in Auckland today as well. Pages not loading properly or at at all.

Seemed to come right in the afternoon.

eXDee

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# 895499 14-Sep-2013 01:08

Generally okay in hamilton, population density is pretty low. But you still get congestion hotspots. Eg the university can get pretty overloaded, particularly at the start of the year before all the new students learn how to use the wifi instead, then it frees up a bit.
The Base shopping centre can get a bit slow too on certain very busy shopping days.
I'd like to see more 2100mhz around hamilton, i only know of 3-4 2100mhz sites in the region, and the base and the uni aren't included. Unless somethings changed since the start of the year which it may well have.
And then mystery creek events centre used to get congested, but has for a while had some very high capacity towers from telecom, with vodafone moving in recently with some massive capacity and a top notch network for this years event, compared to them falling over most years.

If possible, I'd like to see some extra carriers and some more 2100 coverage as they do the 4G upgrades, like how vodafone has been doing.

sbiddle

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# 895514 14-Sep-2013 07:38

At the end of the day even multiple carriers on both 850/900 and 2100 bands won't be enough to fix the problems at big events. I see phone networks and more and more medium to large size events imploding due to the addiction with mobile data.

Physics also imposes a noise floor which is something many people can't comprehend. I find the best way to describe this is to compare it to a noisy room. If there are 10 people in a room talking you can easily have a conversation with the person next to you. If there are 500 people in a room talking you'll basically find it very difficult to have a conversation with the person next to you because of the noise floor. Mobiles (infact all wireless) works in exactly the same way.

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