Is Vodafone giving up on UltraFast HFC /FibreX? (Not offered to new customers)

Forums › One NZ (including Farmside) › Is Vodafone giving up on UltraFast HFC /FibreX? (Not offered to new customers)

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177 posts

Master Geek
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#2583377 13-Oct-2020 05:43

A more important question would be how did you get hold of the "Retention" team. I have never managed to identify it in the IVR rabbit hole, and once I get to India I am lost and generally get blocked.

JayJWLH

40 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#2584026 14-Oct-2020 01:08

Distorter:

So how much are you paying per month for 1gb hfc?

I haven't received my latest bill yet, but I'm guessing about $79 (or maybe $74 since they made the BestMates free). This would include a phone line of about $10 a month. They of course don't offer it to anyone though, because I've been with them for years and keep going into new contracts. Even new customers get some kind of signing bonus.

The speed is more around 700-900 down, 70-90 up. For some reason I can only get 700 and 70 in speed tests. But I think I've seen it go a bit higher sometimes.

prevaljo:

A more important question would be how did you get hold of the "Retention" team. I have never managed to identify it in the IVR rabbit hole, and once I get to India I am lost and generally get blocked.

Usually I just talk to someone in billing, and say that I'm looking to renew my plan and explain that I usually talk to someone in the retention team. All they have to do is verify my account and they usually redirect me to the right person. Once you start trying to negotiate deals such as getting $20 off a month like you just had then even the sales team can't do that for you. I wish it could be a quick process, but usually I take up to an hour of someone's time just to make sure everything is going smoothly. They even checked with billing (didn't even need to pass me back and force in this case) just to credit me the difference for the month that I wasn't getting a deal. I don't want to oversell it though, because I always try to be chill with them and they are helpful, all without setting unreasonable expectations. As such, I can't guarantee that your experience will be the same. Even if you do end up talking to someone in India, I do my best to be respectful and try to communicate clearly. Does help to use a phone line (and phone hardware) that is clear, even if it gets encoded horribly further down the line over the internet.

quickymart

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#2584129 14-Oct-2020 09:35

Slixious:

Usually I just talk to someone in billing, and say that I'm looking to renew my plan and explain that I usually talk to someone in the retention team. All they have to do is verify my account and they usually redirect me to the right person. Once you start trying to negotiate deals such as getting $20 off a month like you just had then even the sales team can't do that for you. I wish it could be a quick process, but usually I take up to an hour of someone's time just to make sure everything is going smoothly. They even checked with billing (didn't even need to pass me back and force in this case) just to credit me the difference for the month that I wasn't getting a deal. I don't want to oversell it though, because I always try to be chill with them and they are helpful, all without setting unreasonable expectations. As such, I can't guarantee that your experience will be the same. Even if you do end up talking to someone in India, I do my best to be respectful and try to communicate clearly. Does help to use a phone line (and phone hardware) that is clear, even if it gets encoded horribly further down the line over the internet.

God what a pain in the neck, I would rather deal with a company who can do it promptly while I'm talking to them - my time is quite valuable.

danza

112 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 45

#2585937 15-Oct-2020 14:23

quickymart:
Cable? Better than fibre? Not in a million years - and I used to work for TCL too.

Yes, it was great when all that most people could get was ADSL, but times have changed a lot since then. There was a thread a while back where someone got better performance on their VDSL connection as opposed to their cable one.

Once fibre came along, it basically overtook cable for performance, and that's still true today.

HFC is kinda hard to maintain too where you have to ensure your downstream and upstream power levels being below the maximum. Say if you are closer to the node near the ends, the power level coming in might be too high and you need to attenuate with a splitter or attenuator. But then you might be decreasing your signal levels too.

Or if your neighbour has a bad termination and introduced noise into the network and it will affect the signal level for others too.

Also with DOCSIS 3.1, even with gigabit download, you might still be getting a minimum of 8~10ms latency to the first hop, compare to the low single digits of fibre.

The future of DOCSIS 3.1 is DOCSIS 4.0. Similar to 3.1 but a lot more OFDM channels for 4.0. It also requires new modem and better signals using frequencies up to 1.8Ghz. It also means you need to replace the splitter, since they usually have a cut around 1.1Ghz, and ensure the cables are properly done.

They pretty much ran out of tricks to increase speed on coax and are just cramming more channels into the spec. And it really doesn't seem to be worth their trouble if they already have fibre laid right next to it.

quickymart

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#2586010 15-Oct-2020 18:26

I wonder about that too, but then again they have invested a lot of money into it, just to walk away from it all and start paying someone else to use their network, instead of their own.

pom532

150 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 52

#2586056 15-Oct-2020 21:20

quickymart:

I wonder about that too, but then again they have invested a lot of money into it, just to walk away from it all and start paying someone else to use their network, instead of their own.

Don't fall into the trap of sunk costs. They should only compare future benefits and future costs. If the ongoing costs are greater than the potential revenue, then it should be shut down.

New World

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richms

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#2586057 15-Oct-2020 21:24

The only decision they have to make is either to use their pole access and other equipment in the field to upgrade to their own fibre network, or else pay chorus for access to theirs. There is no future in copper when you have fiber available. If they cant make their own fiber to compete then the best option is to sunset it.

Richard rich.ms

nztim

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TEAMnetwork

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#2586068 15-Oct-2020 21:45

richms:
The only decision they have to make is either to use their pole access and other equipment in the field to upgrade to their own fibre network, or else pay chorus for access to theirs. There is no future in copper when you have fiber available. If they cant make their own fiber to compete then the best option is to sunset it.

Vodafones pole access would allow them to install a premium fibre service in their HFC areas

We use Vital (formally Citylink) dark fibre to connect our premium customers directly back to our core - in almost all cases this is not just for broadband access but also access to our IAAS services as well.

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

doubletop

62 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 8

#2586141 16-Oct-2020 08:25

quickymart:
Slixious:

Usually I just talk to someone in billing, and say that I'm looking to renew my plan and explain that I usually talk to someone in the retention team. All they have to do is verify my account and they usually redirect me to the right person. Once you start trying to negotiate deals such as getting $20 off a month like you just had then even the sales team can't do that for you. I wish it could be a quick process, but usually I take up to an hour of someone's time just to make sure everything is going smoothly. They even checked with billing (didn't even need to pass me back and force in this case) just to credit me the difference for the month that I wasn't getting a deal. I don't want to oversell it though, because I always try to be chill with them and they are helpful, all without setting unreasonable expectations. As such, I can't guarantee that your experience will be the same. Even if you do end up talking to someone in India, I do my best to be respectful and try to communicate clearly. Does help to use a phone line (and phone hardware) that is clear, even if it gets encoded horribly further down the line over the internet.

God what a pain in the neck, I would rather deal with a company who can do it promptly while I'm talking to them - my time is quite valuable.

Well they do need to maintain their worldwide reputation for appalling online customer service. They rolled out the standard which others are now trying their best to follow.

kiwipeso

4 posts

Wannabe Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#2586310 16-Oct-2020 14:52

I just organised a resign up in store at Vodafone Cuba Street, worked out quickly and easily for a complex setup.

Got the technician here this morning to remove 3 TBoxes, and install 2 Vodafone TVs.

They are now using the Vodafone TV version 2, as they no longer have version 1 (ethernet only) models.

I'm still on gigabit cable, and apart from the technician initially not knowing how my Asus router worked for Wifi WPS, no problems.

The salesman did get my old home account merged with my mobile account, and that's the only real difference.

I can only recommend that if you have a tricky account setup, go see someone in store.

quickymart

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#2586394 16-Oct-2020 17:25

Not always possible though, and with a setup as complex as yours - I'd keep an eye on your next month's invoice to make sure it's correct.

Dyson

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doubletop

62 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 8

#2586412 16-Oct-2020 19:00

In country store fronts are OK.

The real issue is when you try to wade through the web pages to find who to call. You then end up with somebody has no idea where in the world you are, has no understanding of the problem, or is incapable of trying to understand it. They then spend the time trying to upsell a new product rather than fix the problem.

quickymart

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#2591514 24-Oct-2020 20:19

Just tried a previous address in Wellington where I know cable was installed in the early 2000s, and it only shows fibre available.

Oddly, it doesn't show ADSL or VDSL either though - or wireless.

Distorter

242 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 40

#2591515 24-Oct-2020 20:36

quickymart:
Just tried a previous address in Wellington where I know cable was installed in the early 2000s, and it only shows fibre available.

Oddly, it doesn't show ADSL or VDSL either though - or wireless.

That's the point of this thread. Cable plans no longer show up on Vodafone's website. But there is still plenty of customers sill on cable.

quickymart

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#2591535 24-Oct-2020 23:14

I know, I just saw a comment from Jason earlier saying they were working on updating the website and was trying it to see if it had been fixed.

I wonder what the percentage is these days still on cable? 10%? 20%? 50%?

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