Hailing Paul Brislen

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weatherman

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#16905 3-Nov-2007 18:32

Hi Paul,

This may not be your area of expertise, but I'm unsure who else to ask. The VFNZ helpdesk and Business Solutions staff have been helpful and sympathetic, but unable to answer my query.....

Which is this: Does the Taradale celltower (near Napier) support 3G yet? And if not, can you establish whether an upgrade is likely in the shortish term? My reason for asking is that I would dearly love to sign up for VFNZ 3G broadband, but of course, I'd need my local celltower to support this.

Any help you could offer would be much appreciated.

Cheers,

George

VFNZPaulBrislen

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#93751 5-Nov-2007 08:07

Your call is important to us... please hold while we etc.

I'll have a look this morning and let you know.

Cheers

Paul

Paul Brislen
Head of Corporate Communications
Vodafone

http://forum.vodafone.co.nz

weatherman

99 posts

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#93779 5-Nov-2007 12:14

Magic! Thanks, Paul, I'll await your reply.

Cheers,

George

VFNZPaulBrislen

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#94041 7-Nov-2007 09:04

Well, I seriously missed the SLA on that reply... sorry about that.

It seems the site isn't 3G but is slated to be part of our upgrade in the next financial year. Quite when is yet to be determined so I'm sorry I can't be more informative than that.

You can check coverage with our handy dandy new coverage tool which should always have the latest information available.

Cheers

Paul

Paul Brislen
Head of Corporate Communications
Vodafone

http://forum.vodafone.co.nz

sbiddle

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#94043 7-Nov-2007 09:21

PaulBrislen: Well, I seriously missed the SLA on that reply... sorry about that.

It seems the site isn't 3G but is slated to be part of our upgrade in the next financial year. Quite when is yet to be determined so I'm sorry I can't be more informative than that.

You can check coverage with our handy dandy new coverage tool which should always have the latest information available.

Cheers

Paul

The coverage tool is also very accurate. I spent a bit of time playing with it not long after it was launched and was surprised to see it correctly identify some well known deadspots in Wellington as having no coverage and also provide correct details for areas such as Houghton Bay that have no GSM coverage but have brilliant 3G coverage from the 3G only site that was installed there earlier in the year.

bcourtney

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#94052 7-Nov-2007 10:40

sbiddle: ...The coverage tool is also very accurate. I spent a bit of time playing with it not long after it was launched and was surprised to see it correctly identify some well known deadspots in Wellington as having no coverage and also provide correct details for areas such as Houghton Bay that have no GSM coverage but have brilliant 3G coverage from the 3G only site that was installed there earlier in the year.

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but whereabouts in Houghton bay was this 3G site installed?

I live there and both myself and my partner are resigned to the fact that we just can't use our cellphones while at home. I get zero 3G coverage and there is an area of about a half square metre in the house that gets marhinal GSM coverage...

My partner spoke to Vodafone about it investigating whether there would be any new sites put up in the area in the future and the Vodafone reply was "no, sorry". Frustrating as hell considering we are only a 10 minute drive to the CBD but I guess that's one of the disadvantages of Wellingtons "frustrating" terrain

sbiddle

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#94057 7-Nov-2007 11:18

bcourtney:
Don't mean to hijack this thread, but whereabouts in Houghton bay was this 3G site installed?

I live there and both myself and my partner are resigned to the fact that we just can't use our cellphones while at home. I get zero 3G coverage and there is an area of about a half square metre in the house that gets marhinal GSM coverage...

My partner spoke to Vodafone about it investigating whether there would be any new sites put up in the area in the future and the Vodafone reply was "no, sorry". Frustrating as hell considering we are only a 10 minute drive to the CBD but I guess that's one of the disadvantages of Wellingtons "frustrating" terrain

It's on the Sinclair Park side of Houghton Bay Rd near Hornsey Rd. It's one of the newer cylindrical 3G sites that has the panels enclosed within it. I don't have a picture of that site but it's not hard to spot, from memory there are floodlights for the park also mounted on the mast.

weatherman

99 posts

Master Geek

#94179 7-Nov-2007 22:12

Many thanks, Paul - I'll keep watching the coverage tool and keep my fingers crossed!

Cheers,

George

Equinox IT

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richms

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#94537 10-Nov-2007 01:14

That coverage thing is clearly wrong when I put in rambler cres in beach haven, it shows great for 2g, when its really bad, and it shows bad for 3g when its actually not too bad. Infact 3g is better then 2g in the basement, the 2g is losing signal all the time, 3g is on about half and video calls work. Probarbly helps being able to see the 3g only in the old airbase site tho ;)

Richard rich.ms

johnr

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#94545 10-Nov-2007 07:45

Coverage is tested to the street only not inside the property. I would say 2G coverage is OK out on your driveway by the Road.

alasta

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#94548 10-Nov-2007 08:43

sbiddle: It's on the Sinclair Park side of Houghton Bay Rd near Hornsey Rd. It's one of the newer cylindrical 3G sites that has the panels enclosed within it. I don't have a picture of that site but it's not hard to spot, from memory there are floodlights for the park also mounted on the mast.

Are 3G only sites common? This could be an advantage of having a 3G handset, since a 3G handset can fall back to 2G, but a 2G phone can't take advantage of 3G only coverage.

sbiddle

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#94549 10-Nov-2007 09:08

alasta:
sbiddle: It's on the Sinclair Park side of Houghton Bay Rd near Hornsey Rd. It's one of the newer cylindrical 3G sites that has the panels enclosed within it. I don't have a picture of that site but it's not hard to spot, from memory there are floodlights for the park also mounted on the mast.

Are 3G only sites common? This could be an advantage of having a 3G handset, since a 3G handset can fall back to 2G, but a 2G phone can't take advantage of 3G only coverage.

3G only sites are very common. There are also a couple of sites around that are 3G/1800 only with no 900MHz gear. There aren't that many places however were there is only 3G coverage and no GSM coverage.

Wob

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#94591 10-Nov-2007 19:51

sbiddle:
3G only sites are very common. There are also a couple of sites around that are 3G/1800 only with no 900MHz gear. There aren't that many places however were there is only 3G coverage and no GSM coverage.

There are a few spots in Dunedin where the 3G coverage is better than 2G - similar topography to Wellington and some 3G only sites.

VF seem to be rolling out the 3G only sites as their solution for new sites. They are quite a neat set-up really, but a real pain to work on when its raining (or snowing).

Back on topic to Paul, can you tell us what VFs policy towards new sites is? Are we likely to see any more new 2G sites?

Now based in Perth WA.

johnr

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#94608 10-Nov-2007 21:57

2G sites are still being rolled out in the 900/1800mhz band limited number though

UMTS/HSDPA sites are the go these days

pressF1

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#94612 10-Nov-2007 22:27

Wob:
sbiddle:
3G only sites are very common. There are also a couple of sites around that are 3G/1800 only with no 900MHz gear. There aren't that many places however were there is only 3G coverage and no GSM coverage.

There are a few spots in Dunedin where the 3G coverage is better than 2G - similar topography to Wellington and some 3G only sites.

VF seem to be rolling out the 3G only sites as their solution for new sites. They are quite a neat set-up really, but a real pain to work on when its raining (or snowing).

Back on topic to Paul, can you tell us what VFs policy towards new sites is? Are we likely to see any more new 2G sites?

Highly unlikely there is a definite drive away from investing any more into the 2G network, particularly with UMTS 900 not too far off (well mid year) which will address the distance issue of current 3G but still give the HSPA et al "goodies".