3G shutdown: check your phones

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#3446111 20-Dec-2025 22:33

boosacnoodle:

Spark appears to have launched their SA+NSA network at The Plaza shopping centre, Palmerston North. Speeds are around 500/50, which seems similar to NSA.

<iPhone screenshot snipped>

I would take Apple's data with a grain of salt. That same app reports that One NZ has 80MHz LTE so there is obviously some bad data handling going on under the hood.

boosacnoodle

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#3446120 21-Dec-2025 07:47

Maybe so; however, I have never seen this showing before. It also showed on a separate phone and following a restart.

boosacnoodle

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#3447116 25-Dec-2025 11:51

Spark appears to have reconfigured their network in Manawatu (as above). Never seen speeds this high before. Taken in Ashhurst.

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#3447244 26-Dec-2025 10:19

2D L900 seems to have been adjusted a bit in urban areas now.

have a spot through Swanson that fairly consistently roams from neighboring tower over to L900+L700 on entry, flips to L700+L900 and then a combination of L2100 + L1800.

Work phone primarily camps on L2100/L1800 + NSA 3500.

Looks like for the time being that L700 has it's power level turned down a tad overlaps nicely with L900 though.

Given how uncommon B28+B28+B28 combos are i'm hoping to see B8 or B5 getting picked up on RCG towers, hopefully with a preference to anchor on B28 still to make better use of the smaller spectrum

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Geektastic

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#3447278 26-Dec-2025 15:38

boosacnoodle:

Spark appears to have reconfigured their network in Manawatu (as above). Never seen speeds this high before. Taken in Ashhurst.

I just ran Speedtest using 4G at our house.

Download 9.56 mbps

Upload 3.26

Somewhat slower than yours!

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#3447279 26-Dec-2025 15:45

@Geektastic of course cause you have mentioned many times you live in poor / weak 4G coverage area, if faster speed is what you after you might need to move closer to the local serving cell

I don't know why you would expect anything close to the above speedtest considering it was actually done on 5G.

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#3447281 26-Dec-2025 16:00

I note now more fixed wireless coverage for fixed line broadband on two degrees.

boosacnoodle

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#3447282 26-Dec-2025 16:01

Snuck onto 3G for the first time in a quite a while earlier today which made me remember - didn’t the carriers promise when they got their 5G spectrum allocations that they would prioritise the rural roll out of 5G too? Are there even any live examples of 5G available on RCG towers? I am yet to see any.

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#3447283 26-Dec-2025 16:05

boosacnoodle:

Snuck onto 3G for the first time in a quite a while earlier today which made me remember - didn’t the carriers promise when they got their 5G spectrum allocations that they would prioritise the rural roll out of 5G too? Are there even any live examples of 5G available on RCG towers? I am yet to see any.

@boosacnoodle No RCG towers have 5G yet but rural could just mean rural towns like where I live and have 5G

boosacnoodle

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#3447286 26-Dec-2025 16:11

Linux:

@boosacnoodle No RCG towers have 5G yet but rural could just mean rural towns like where I live and have 5G

Do you know if the RCG hardware can simply have 5G switched on, or is it going to require widespread hardware replacements?

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#3447288 26-Dec-2025 16:28

boosacnoodle:

Snuck onto 3G for the first time in a quite a while earlier today which made me remember - didn’t the carriers promise when they got their 5G spectrum allocations that they would prioritise the rural roll out of 5G too? Are there even any live examples of 5G available on RCG towers? I am yet to see any.

Spark have tons of n5 around rural Waikato, I have it in pokeno and get it quite often in places like Whatawhata and Temple view in Hamilton. But still non-standalone and can't be paired with b28 on 99% of phones so pretty useless really as it's only 10mhz worth

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#3447297 26-Dec-2025 16:55

boosacnoodle:

Snuck onto 3G for the first time in a quite a while earlier today which made me remember - didn’t the carriers promise when they got their 5G spectrum allocations that they would prioritise the rural roll out of 5G too? Are there even any live examples of 5G available on RCG towers? I am yet to see any.

Just because you saw 3G doesn't mean it's the only tech available. Plenty of places I see phone dropping down to 3G but in fact 4G is fine.

Good example was a recent trip I took up to Cape Regina. I had two phones on the same network -- one stayed on 4G all the way from Auckland to Cape Regina (only two drops to 3G for a couple of seconds each) while the other phone kept switching between 3G/4G every 5-15mins including a amazingly stupid drop to 3G right in front of a 4G tower.

Shitty phone firmware that prefer 3G over 4G is one reason why I am so glad 3G is being ripped out. Will mean UEs have no choice but to stay on 4G or better even at the edge of coverage. Will improve the network experience for a lot of people near the edge of coverage.

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#3447354 26-Dec-2025 18:26

boosacnoodle:

Snuck onto 3G for the first time in a quite a while earlier today which made me remember - didn’t the carriers promise when they got their 5G spectrum allocations that they would prioritise the rural roll out of 5G too? Are there even any live examples of 5G available on RCG towers? I am yet to see any.

I’ve certainly noticed none on my travels.

Plenty of areas where there’s nothing at all though!

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#3447361 26-Dec-2025 19:30

grantius:

boosacnoodle:

Snuck onto 3G for the first time in a quite a while earlier today which made me remember - didn’t the carriers promise when they got their 5G spectrum allocations that they would prioritise the rural roll out of 5G too? Are there even any live examples of 5G available on RCG towers? I am yet to see any.

Spark have tons of n5 around rural Waikato, I have it in pokeno and get it quite often in places like Whatawhata and Temple view in Hamilton. But still non-standalone and can't be paired with b28 on 99% of phones so pretty useless really as it's only 10mhz worth

N5 NSA? is that anchored on a L2100 carrier? seems more like token usage of NSA to get that 5G icon

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boosacnoodle

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#3447362 26-Dec-2025 19:38

KiwiSurfer:

Just because you saw 3G doesn't mean it's the only tech available. Plenty of places I see phone dropping down to 3G but in fact 4G is fine.

Good example was a recent trip I took up to Cape Regina. I had two phones on the same network -- one stayed on 4G all the way from Auckland to Cape Regina (only two drops to 3G for a couple of seconds each) while the other phone kept switching between 3G/4G every 5-15mins including a amazingly stupid drop to 3G right in front of a 4G tower.

Shitty phone firmware that prefer 3G over 4G is one reason why I am so glad 3G is being ripped out. Will mean UEs have no choice but to stay on 4G or better even at the edge of coverage. Will improve the network experience for a lot of people near the edge of coverage.

This is an iPhone 17 Pro. This is an area in a valley that either gets no service or 3G with any UE

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