txts not sending on XT network

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jmore

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#56556 16-Jan-2010 18:22

I was at the big day out last night and more often than not my txt messages would not send on the first or second try and I would not recieve txt messages for ages awell, and then all of a sudden i would get 7 or so through all at the same time (even though they had been sent be different people at various times over the last hour).

Was this likely just caused by network congestion? If so thats pretty rubbish because the BDO is not that big that to many telecom txt messages are being sent at once

johnr

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#290582 16-Jan-2010 18:28

Of course its congestion and its not rubbish its to be expected and a mobile network does more than send sms

richms

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#290597 16-Jan-2010 19:50

a couple of my friends were trying to ustream some of the acts on vodafone and it was total failure. wonder if they would have got on any better on XT with 850 on the iPhone instead.

Whatever the case, that many people in one place is hard for the networks. I am sure when they allocated the bandwidth that mobiles got in the dark ages at the end of last millenium they had no idea what the demands would be at events like that.

Richard rich.ms

Behodar

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#290600 16-Jan-2010 20:04

Yeah, congestion will do that. I was in the US a few months ago and was at an event with 20000 people and the phone was pretty much unusable. I could sit there looking at the screen and watch it switch between AT&T GSM, AT&T WCDMA and T-Mobile every 20 seconds :P

freitasm

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#290603 16-Jan-2010 20:21

I was talking to sbiddle yesterday about this. Both networks (Vodafone and Telecom) are very good. But then you get 20,000 people on a single event and any infrastructure will collapse.

It's not even worth in terms of investment putting new gear there, to be utilised only once every six months or so - an investment that would make no return.

While additional capacity can be brought in with temporary cell sites, I'd expect any large event to bring problems for any of the networks.

johnr

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#290611 16-Jan-2010 20:57

Vodafone NZ had extra capacity in way of 1800mhz 2G COW and 3G 2100mhz

jmore

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#290615 16-Jan-2010 21:06

Ok I understand its a big event but its not as if all 20,000 people are using their phones at once. And it seems silly how the old network can cope but the "new and improved" network cant

richms

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#290617 16-Jan-2010 21:08

new network has people doing cool things like ustream and similar on it, old network had a bunch of crap handsets that could only really talk and text.

Richard rich.ms

johnr

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#290618 16-Jan-2010 21:15

If people were only sending SMS it might be OK

Voice calls
Video Calls
SMS
PXT
Internet browsing

Just cause its a new network does not mean it cant get congestion a new motorway can get congestion

sbiddle

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#290622 16-Jan-2010 22:04

jmore: Ok I understand its a big event but its not as if all 20,000 people are using their phones at once. And it seems silly how the old network can cope but the "new and improved" network cant

There were around 45000 people at the event. I'd put money on a minimum of 30000 handsets in use at the venue. That is a massive number in one area.

Vodafone and Telecom both deployed additional mobile cellsites to the venue to cater for the additional capacity, Vodafone also suffered capacity issues with the large number of users.

The reality is you've got a large population of people who were engaging in heavy activities including a lot of data intensive applications. Delays will occur, there is very little that can be done about it.

Like congestion on the roads every public holiday it's a fact of life that network congestion will occur from time to time at big events. The problem can't simply be fixed - there are limitations that apply in cellular networks and if you understood a technical level how WCDMA worked you would understand why such limitations exist (google Noise Floor & Noise FLoor if you have a few hours to spend).

openmedia

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#290623 16-Jan-2010 22:04

jmore: Ok I understand its a big event but its not as if all 20,000 people are using their phones at once. And it seems silly how the old network can cope but the "new and improved" network cant

If the phone is on then there is network traffic.

Generally known online as OpenMedia, now working for Red Hat APAC a Technology Evangelist and Product Manager. Still playing with MythTV and digital media on the side.

jmore

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#290636 16-Jan-2010 22:58

As a guess based on people I know, most young people are still using cellphones that run on the old telecom network so how is it that that network was still fully functional throughout the event.

I know it is only an assumption based on people i know....

boby55

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#290638 16-Jan-2010 23:18

Just looking at the facebook pages of most of mates I went to BDO with, they all like me were uploading pictures and updating there status's as well as twittering.

the reality is mobile networks aren't just for phone calls and texts anymore, as phones get more features and easier to browse the web on the go people do hence causing more network usage.