Is Vodafone Testing in Outer Malborough Sounds?

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › Is Vodafone Testing in Outer Malborough Sounds?

rurally

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#260177 14-Nov-2019 15:55

On 10 November I was walking around a remote property 19 km from the Bulwer Vodafone tower, checking connectivity with my Nokia TA-1050 mobile. Everywhere was showing 3G, about 13 Mbps down and 2 Mbps up, as I expect when in line-of-sight of the tower. In one location at 12:05 PM I was suddenly looking at an Ookla Speedtest showing LTE at 68 Mbps down and 15 Mbps up. I was able to repeat the reading immediately after, but 30 minutes later when traversing the same site it was back to 3G. Does anyone know if Vodafone is working on the Bulwer tower (the only one within reasonable range)? If so and I can soon expect fibre-like speeds then I will be very happy. The Bulwer tower has 3G on 900 MHz and 4G on 700 MHz (Band 28). Conditions at the time were steady rain and thick fog (a weird effect from the Wellington coast 70-90 km away not to be repeated ever?). Exact location and Ookla readouts can be sent by PM to anyone who can assist. Thanks in advance- my first post after lurking around for some time as a guest on this awesome forum.

wratterus

1687 posts

Uber Geek

#2353399 14-Nov-2019 16:11

Can't tell you if there is work going on there, but FYI...

https://rrf.rsm.govt.nz/smart-web/smart/page/-smart/domain/licence/LicenceSummary.wdk?id=194657

That is the RSM license for 700MHz at Bulwer

https://rrf.rsm.govt.nz/smart-web/smart/page/-smart/domain/licence/LicenceSummary.wdk?id=195574

That is the backhaul to the tower - they've got 30Mhz so assuming they're using all of that that is decent backhaul, but they do only have 15Mhz for the LTE.

Could you try with a different phone, or try setting LTE only on the phone to see if that tends to get you more reliably on the 4G?

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rurally

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2353421 14-Nov-2019 16:32

Thank you. Is 15 MHz for LTE backhaul bandwidth significantly below average? That may explain a few things elsewhere around the site. Unfortunately further testing will be a month away (seriously remote location) but I will try to lock LTE and look at another phone also as you suggest.

wratterus

1687 posts

Uber Geek

#2353422 14-Nov-2019 16:40

Not significantly - 20MHz is pretty standard I think.

There are others here with much more knowledge than me who might be able to offer some more insight.

Edit - The backhaul is 30mhz, not 15.

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#2353424 14-Nov-2019 16:43

rurally:

Thank you. Is 15 MHz for LTE backhaul bandwidth significantly below average? That may explain a few things elsewhere around the site. Unfortunately further testing will be a month away (seriously remote location) but I will try to lock LTE and look at another phone also as you suggest.

It's not the backhaul that's 15MHz - it's VF using 15MHz for their 700MHz 4G network. That is pretty standard for a 700MHz 4G site.

They have 30Mhz allocated for their backhaul DMR link. Unfortunately in some of these remote areas getting backhaul to the sites will always be the biggest bottleneck.