Questions about 4G RBI

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#1361457 9-Aug-2015 11:17

kaihoka: hi
i joined in september
so is the issue of reduced speed due to the configuration of the tower
why would the collingwood tower not be as capable as grants tower

Not all RBI towers have the same capacity / speed

Towers are getting upgraded all the time

kaihoka

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#1361459 9-Aug-2015 11:19

hi
you still have not told me why you could not post one out if i brought a new modem from vodafone

johnr

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#1361477 9-Aug-2015 11:57

kaihoka: hi
you still have not told me why you could not post one out if i brought a new modem from vodafone

I don't work in sales so could not answer that

kaihoka

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#1361495 9-Aug-2015 12:54

thanks for all your info
my tower is not fibre connected , just an upgraded microwave tower so that might be part of the issue
however it does have a
LTE 700 licence that dates from may this year so maybe it will be upgraded

johnr

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#1361496 9-Aug-2015 12:57

kaihoka: thanks for all your info
my tower is not fibre connected , just an upgraded microwave tower so that might be part of the issue
however it does have a
LTE 700 licence that dates from may this year so maybe it will be upgraded

RBI towers don't need to be fibre connected to have 4G on them

Deathstroke

20 posts

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#1361532 9-Aug-2015 14:35

So just like 3g went from 3g to H to H+ speeds as time went on, will the RBI eventually be doing the same type of thing with 4g? upgrading the 4g overtime?

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johnr

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#1361538 9-Aug-2015 14:49

Deathstroke: So just like 3g went from 3g to H to H+ speeds as time went on, will the RBI eventually be doing the same type of thing with 4g? upgrading the 4g overtime?

It's already happening have you reviewed the thread?

Deathstroke

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#1362836 11-Aug-2015 13:41

johnr:
Deathstroke: So just like 3g went from 3g to H to H+ speeds as time went on, will the RBI eventually be doing the same type of thing with 4g? upgrading the 4g overtime?

It's already happening have you reviewed the thread?

sorry i get all confused with all this talk of cats etc so since my mobile is able to pick up a CA site does that mean ultimate broadband external antenna will be able to also pick it up? i say ultimate broadband because i know they resell through vodafone and vodafones direct line of sight antenna are kinda a problem for me.

Deathstroke

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#1362845 11-Aug-2015 13:48

ah ok i just read through and i missed where someone stated that current RBI modems only support cat 4 but in order for the 4g+ type of speeds you need cat 6 and above. One last thing, ive noticed most people show their latency/ping to be 40-60 even with 4g, but everytime i speedtest mine on the vodafone and spark network servers it shows me to be at 30-50 ( from my mobile phone hotspot ) how come RBI 4g seems to be slower?

coffeebaron

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#1362846 11-Aug-2015 13:51

Deathstroke:
johnr:
Deathstroke: So just like 3g went from 3g to H to H+ speeds as time went on, will the RBI eventually be doing the same type of thing with 4g? upgrading the 4g overtime?

It's already happening have you reviewed the thread?

sorry i get all confused with all this talk of cats etc so since my mobile is able to pick up a CA site does that mean ultimate broadband external antenna will be able to also pick it up? i say ultimate broadband because i know they resell through vodafone and vodafones direct line of sight antenna are kinda a problem for me.

If you pick up any kind of 4G on your Vodafone mobile, then you should be good for picking up 4G for RBI service. The 4G RBI router does not do CA (carrier aggregation), so will only use one of the 4G bands available - e.g 700 or 1800 or 2600, but not two at once. Your phone can do two of these bands at once giving greater speed.

Anyway, it's up to you to decide if suggested speeds of 20-30Mbps+ and ~50ms latency is better than what you currently use for broadband.

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coffeebaron

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#1362848 11-Aug-2015 13:52

Deathstroke: ah ok i just read through and i missed where someone stated that current RBI modems only support cat 4 but in order for the 4g+ type of speeds you need cat 6 and above. One last thing, ive noticed most people show their latency/ping to be 40-60 even with 4g, but everytime i speedtest mine on the vodafone and spark network servers it shows me to be at 30-50 ( from my mobile phone hotspot ) how come RBI 4g seems to be slower?

Test your latency by pinging an external site e.g. trademe.

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dwl

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#1363116 11-Aug-2015 19:28

I have a related question about whether availability of RBI is defined by your address or the serving cellsite. My address is well within RBI but currently limited to 3G. I was told by Ultimate that there are patches of 4G and I may be able to find locations to access those (rural property with lots of options if extending via WiFi) but I am fairly sure they are from urban sites that are not in the RBI zone.

Is the RBI service locked to a specific cellsite or can it use any Vodafone site ? I can understand it may pick the strongest but selected position and a directional antenna might get me the 4G service from outside RBI area.

grant_k

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#1363121 11-Aug-2015 19:35

dwl: I have a related question about whether availability of RBI is defined by your address or the serving cellsite. My address is well within RBI but currently limited to 3G. I was told by Ultimate that there are patches of 4G and I may be able to find locations to access those (rural property with lots of options if extending via WiFi) but I am fairly sure they are from urban sites that are not in the RBI zone.

Is the RBI service locked to a specific cellsite or can it use any Vodafone site ? I can understand it may pick the strongest but selected position and a directional antenna might get me the 4G service from outside RBI area.

JohnR will possibly pop up and tell you the official line from Vodafone, but I can tell you from personal experience just a couple of weeks ago that the RBI service works on any cellsite, urban or rural. I have driven around our area and done speedtests from Urban sites (1800 and 2600) as well as rural sites on 700MHz. Interestingly, one of the 700MHz sites was right in the middle of Kerikeri, so it goes to show that 700 is not only used in rural areas.

Spark have a different approach. In their T&Cs they state that if they become aware that your device is being used at locations other than the installation address, they may terminate the service. Those words aren't exactly verbatim, but they are near enough for anyone who can't be bothered wading through Spark's T&Cs for their rural broadband service.

coffeebaron

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#1363126 11-Aug-2015 19:41

We can not lock the RBI routers to a single cellsite, so if it happens to pick up a more dominant site that is not RBI designated, then yes it will work.

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Deathstroke

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#1365094 12-Aug-2015 22:32

coffeebaron: We can not lock the RBI routers to a single cellsite, so if it happens to pick up a more dominant site that is not RBI designated, then yes it will work.

Do you guys plan on upgrading the modem to CA in the future? if so how far do you think and if so how much does it usually cost to get older model modem replaced with a new one?

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