Vodafone call quality

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#110862 15-Feb-2008 21:14

Had a few calls on VFNZ drop around Royal Oak today with echos.... full signal, never had issues in the past.

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#110867 15-Feb-2008 21:28

I encourage everybody who read this and is using GSM (ie not a 3G phone) to ring Vodafone and complain about the voice quality. It might annoy a few people but the reality is you're now being given a service that's half as good using half the voice bandwidth and still paying the same price. I did a fair bit of testing today and found you can't override the network, it's currently forcing all GSM calls to use HR no matter what you set the phone to.

The worst thing of all is hearing the ringing tone or music on hold, it's very painful. Maybe somebody from Vodafone would like to provide us with some official before and after MOS figures.

AMR will make this better but that'll depend on how it's implimented.

nzbnw

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#110874 15-Feb-2008 21:47

richms: I take back my earlier post about it being just normal mediocre GSM. I was today trying to give a password to someone over the phone and all the damn letters sounded the same.

I had the same problem today, except the person using a Vodafone mobile was trying to give me an email address. I just hope I got it right in the end after multiple attempts to get it, and to confirm.

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#110889 15-Feb-2008 22:45

Most of my calls are in 3G coverage, else patchy West Ak no coverage, so haven't really noticed the drop in call quality yet. But have definitely noticed a lot more dropped calls recently.

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#110892 15-Feb-2008 22:53

hey i have problems with crap sound quality too! i thought it was the thick glass window in the workplace then i thought it possibly was the samsung phone but now i know! we really should do something about it on facebook!

weatherman

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#110924 16-Feb-2008 08:38

Could this be a regional problem? I ask because down here in the sunny Hawkes Bay, my call quality hasn't changed - still crystal clear and no echo, as long as I have reasonable signal strength. And no dropped calls or internet disconnects.

Hmm......odd!

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#110927 16-Feb-2008 09:26

weatherman: Could this be a regional problem? I ask because down here in the sunny Hawkes Bay, my call quality hasn't changed - still crystal clear and no echo, as long as I have reasonable signal strength. And no dropped calls or internet disconnects.

Hmm......odd!

George

Since Vodafone don't seem to be making any official comment it's impossible to know whether every 900Mhz site us now using HR or just some. Remember that 3G is unaffected and I was also told (but have no way of testing this) that 1800Mhz GSM sites are not being forced to HR mode so if you're on an 1800Mhz site (the main Napier site at the stadium is dual 900/1800 from memory) then you would not notice any difference in voice quality.

Hopefully AMR isn't far away..

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#110937 16-Feb-2008 10:31

Yesterday I was using "ye ol brick" for a bit of nostalgia and experienced GSM the way it used to be.
Call quality was as robotic as I remember but maybe that was the phone.

Later that afternoon when the brick died I switched to my hacked GSM only phone and had utterly no issues! call quality was top notch.
I was in Auckland CBD at this time and used about 100 minutes on various calls.

Is AMR coming to standard GSM?

This is the list of Codecs in use that I had in a txt file... If incorrect please advise me!

GSM Codecs currently supported.

GSM Full Rate (FR This is on your Windows PC as GSM 6.10 Codec)
GSM Half-Rate (HR later introduced to handle the increasing call volumes)
GSM Enhanced full rate. (EFR 12.2 Kbps enhanced sounding codec commonly used nowdays)
I prefer GSM EFR

UMTS Codecs currently supported

AMR-NB (Adaptive Multi Rate Narroband 8Khz, an ACELP derivative offering better quality at low bitrates)
I like AMR, it seems to be rather robust.

CDMA IS95 voice codecs currently supported.

QCELP 8k The original vocoder that came about from Eudora's "purevoice" it suffered packet loss and also was not enough bandwidth
QCELP 13k A later higher bandwidth vocoder, Suffers a "turkey" effect a bit from packet loss but sounds very robust.
EVRC Enhanced Variable Rate Codec, CDMA's equivalent of AMR with good packet loss handling but suffers badly from far too much processing IMO.
I prefer QCELP 13k by a big margin.

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#110956 16-Feb-2008 13:34

I use around 1200 minutes a month on Vodafone, and have noticed in Parnell, Ponsonby (Where I live and work) and around Auckland that I now get calls which don't drop, but the voice drops away and it's a dead channel.

I also get a lot of calls not making it through, or going to voicemail. This is all on 2G with a iPhone

Vodafone's network is very very overloaded, and now it seems they have introduced crap codecs to double the capacity of their network... Reminds me of when Telecom cut everyones broadband speeds in half to 3.5MBits so they could carry double the load and not have to upgrade their network.

I can't wait for Telecom to launch their GSM network, a shiny new network with bugger all traffic on it. Bring on the crystal clear calls while Vodafone goes to hell in a handbasket.

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#110957 16-Feb-2008 13:36

Oh, and I've decided to log a fault and get a credit for every call that drops with Vodafone.

I have a headpiece, and if they continue to supply a crap service and make me pay the earth for it, I'm going to waste their time and get a credit for all these dropped calls.

I did this a year ago and was logging around 5 dropped calls a day with the helpdesk. :-)

Tyler - Parnell Geek - iPhone 3G - Lenovo X301 - Kaseya - Great Western Steak House, these are some of my favourite things.

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#110961 16-Feb-2008 14:05

exportgoldman:
Oh, and I've decided to log a fault and get a credit for every call that drops with Vodafone.

I have a headpiece, and if they continue to supply a crap service and make me pay the earth for it, I'm going to waste their time and get a credit for all these dropped calls.

I did this a year ago and was logging around 5 dropped calls a day with the helpdesk. :-)

Please find one mobile provider in the world that does not drop calls! you won't

Vodafone NZ has a very low drop call rate compared to other wireless carriers around the globe!

Dropped calls/call quality is monitered very close on the network!

Vodafone does like to know about dropped calls affecting customers espically in areas that never use to drop calls,

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#110970 16-Feb-2008 14:44

I actually believe it is the mobile and nothing to do with vodafone

I sold plenty of mobiles and don't have call quality problem.I mean you get the 1 or 2 occassions

I know that with my N73 the call quality is really bad but for my N82 it is very crisp and clear

johnr

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#110971 16-Feb-2008 15:01

If you get a HR to HR call on 2G between two users the quality drop is noticable

richms

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#110985 16-Feb-2008 16:53

If its a problem with the handsets they how would you explain all my phones turning to crap at about the same time. 2 of them see bugger all use, but I have switched sims between them and used the 1100's a bit and see the same problems as on my sony ericsson.

I have not had so many dropped calls since the days of bellsouth. It also seems that something has changed and the network tried to hold onto the call rather then dropping it outright - I guess thats so you cant log it as dropped since one of you had to end it and try calling back. My neighbours must think Im weird rushing outside saying hello hello hello into my phone several times a day some days.

Richard rich.ms

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#111021 16-Feb-2008 20:22

johnr:
Please find one mobile provider in the world that does not drop calls! you won't

Vodafone NZ has a very low drop call rate compared to other wireless carriers around the globe!

Dropped calls/call quality is monitered very close on the network!

Vodafone does like to know about dropped calls affecting customers espically in areas that never use to drop calls,

OK John, As I have been reporting to Vodafone for two years now, directly as directed by our account manager to the call centre, and on geekzone previously here are a list of places which drop calls. I have replaced my phone several times, and used different brands and models with the same results.

Parnell - Birdwood Cresent. Constant dropping of calls, bad coverage
Mt Wellington - Black spot, always drop calls on State Highway 1
Heading from City centre to Mission bay, black spots, allways dropping calls.
Harbour Bridge - Drop calls, or fade in and out of coverage going over the bridge.
Citybound before the newmarket flyover, 50% chance of dropping your call.

Now, once you fix those, I'll give you a list of places which just have bad coverage, or the call goes dead but stays connected with full signal. Look up my number 021301499 in your CSR application and you will see months and months of me reporting faults day in
day out with no resolutions for years afterwards.

Oh - let me guess, you'll now look into it, and never get back to me, and these will remain current ongoing problems with your network which have been logged for years and never resolved.

You think Vodafone would be able to run a network which had coverage in the CBD of the largest city in the country, but mine (and numerous reports of others here and elsewhere) prove otherwise.

Tyler - Parnell Geek - iPhone 3G - Lenovo X301 - Kaseya - Great Western Steak House, these are some of my favourite things.

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