Wireless 4G broadband vs fibre: do you really need fibre?

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#2194546 9-Mar-2019 16:09

Hi thanks Rikkitic for the reference to Netspeed. That sounds like a good service so it makes you wonder why Spark are so concerned about people who move about the country with their 4G modems that they may cancel their contracts!

hio77

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#2194547 9-Mar-2019 16:13

frednz:

Thanks for your reply, yes I can see your point, but "adding tons of load" might be a slight exaggeration? If I were to take my Wellington address approved modem and run it in Lower Hutt, would this really upset other Lower Hutt users? Wouldn't you have to have dozens or even hundreds of other Wellington users all doing this at the same time before you got any problems in Lower Hutt?

This article is of interest when considering whether your broadband is good enough to allow you to stream the forthcoming Rugby World Cup broadcasts. It's headed :

"Around 40,000 rural households' broadband won't be good enough to stream Rugby World Cup"

I wonder whether 4G broadband modems will be able to cope with Spark's Rugby World Cup coverage and whether perhaps you really need Fibre broadband for this event?

That media article slightly misconstrues the details.

The network can see when you move a modem.

When i say tons, many towers are getting double to quadruple the bandwidth by that time.

Rural towers can be a bit more difficult as in some cases, L700 is the only vivable band for customers.

The new modem that is default with all spark plans supports CA and is a lot more efficient than the B315s too, which all adds up..

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pctek

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#2194713 9-Mar-2019 19:06

wireless 4G connection as an alternative to fibre

Everyone should have fibre. Fibre rules.

Installs can be a PITA in some cases, but it's worth it.

I had the wireless meantime (long story), and I can tell you it's not great. Congestion is common and extreme. I got worse speeds most of the time than adsl.

Laggy, as well. Sucks.

If you can't get fibre, and you are limited in choices OK, fair enough, otherwise forget it and get fibre.

Linux

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#2194719 9-Mar-2019 19:23

I have just connected to Spark 4G today on a 60GB plan and it's working great so far

I could walk at a slow pace to the serving site in 2 minutes

hio77

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#2194723 9-Mar-2019 19:34

frednz:

Hi thanks Rikkitic for the reference to Netspeed. That sounds like a good service so it makes you wonder why Spark are so concerned about people who move about the country with their 4G modems that they may cancel their contracts!

Netspeed use Vodafones RBI network for this.

There are some places where VF may have a better network, but in general spark leave VF in the shadow completely.

If you look at it on paper, Spark's max configuration is off the top of my head (For a currently deployed bands) around 135mhz across all the bands. VF is 80mhz.

I keep a close eye on LTE networks as a bit of a hobby, I'm always dumbfounded by VF's lack of even 2CA around places. The only reason their network isn't crying is, the use of RBI and Fixed wireless in comparasion to spark is actually quite small.

I would question if Vodafones choice of RAN has held back their growth a tad unfortunately. It's no secret that Hauwei is far more cheaper to roll out, Normally i'd go ew. Cheap chinese Sh!t, but honestly in RAN.... They do know what they are doing. If you look at the 5G space, the difference in trials is light and day.

2D are in an even worse place, simply because they own far less spectrum. But they really do fight with what they have, Being the largests pushes of refarming 3G to 4G.

I expect when we see network wide adoption of VoLTE and providers can start refarming their 3G to 4G further, we will see 2D at the forefront of this.

In rural areas, I'd love to be able to say, just convert everything to LTE, get that CA going and spread the load. 900 and 850 both layer reasonably well with L700.

However, believe it or not, Voice is still quite heavily dependant on 3G. so that can't really happen.

#include <std_disclaimer>

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hio77

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#2194724 9-Mar-2019 19:35

Linux: I have just connected to Spark 4G today on a 60GB plan and it's working great so far

I could walk at a slow pace to the serving site in 2 minutes

You poor sod though, Skinny is still on the B315s!

The northshore is quite insane with the capacity over there.. New towers popping up everywhere.

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frednz

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#2194743 9-Mar-2019 20:02

pctek:

wireless 4G connection as an alternative to fibre

Everyone should have fibre. Fibre rules.

Installs can be a PITA in some cases, but it's worth it.

I had the wireless meantime (long story), and I can tell you it's not great. Congestion is common and extreme. I got worse speeds most of the time than adsl.

Laggy, as well. Sucks.

If you can't get fibre, and you are limited in choices OK, fair enough, otherwise forget it and get fibre.

Thanks, that sounds like good advice! But do you think this was just due to your particular location? In other words, if you were running a mobile phone from the same location, would you get the same poor performance?

Overall, is the wireless 4G performance for mobile phones satisfactory in New Zealand? I don't have any real complaints about using mobile data on my mobile phone, that's why I thought it might be a good idea to subscribe to Spark's wireless 4G connection for all the devices at our place. But, because I'm a keen rugby man, based on the comments in this thread, I'm fast going off this idea if there's any possibility that internet rugby broadcasts could be interrupted / congested if I opt for a wireless 4G connection!

In other words, do you think fibre might be a better idea if one of the aims is to watch sports on Spark's internet broadcasts?

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hio77

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#2194745 9-Mar-2019 20:15

Yes. Fibre would be a better idea if your aiming for sports streams.

The posters experience is certainly locational.

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Linux

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#2194750 9-Mar-2019 20:24

hio77:
Linux: I have just connected to Spark 4G today on a 60GB plan and it's working great so far

I could walk at a slow pace to the serving site in 2 minutes

You poor sod though, Skinny is still on the B315s!

The northshore is quite insane with the capacity over there.. New towers popping up everywhere.

@hio77 It's 2 hours North of Auckland in the holiday home

House can also be connected to fibre

quickymart

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#2194806 9-Mar-2019 22:09

My 2c...if fibre and 4G were both available, even if I was using 4G I would still get fibre installed (while the install is free) as it can (potentially) increase the value of the property.

hio77

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#2194828 9-Mar-2019 22:40

quickymart:
My 2c...if fibre and 4G were both available, even if I was using 4G I would still get fibre installed (while the install is free) as it can (potentially) increase the value of the property.

An ont is one of the first things I look for in trademe properties. Even before I check maps...

I'd pay the extra for it personally over the hassle of an install.

#include <std_disclaimer>

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nzlogan

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#2194848 10-Mar-2019 00:47

hio77:

You poor sod though, Skinny is still on the B315s!

Isn't Spark though too? Ordered a 200GB plan in December and was given a B618 in store but had to drive back and get it exchanged for a B315 because the B618 wouldn't work on that plan.

hio77

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#2194849 10-Mar-2019 00:51

nzlogan:

hio77:

You poor sod though, Skinny is still on the B315s!

Isn't Spark though too? Ordered a 200GB plan in December and was given a B618 in store but had to drive back and get it exchanged for a B315 because the B618 wouldn't work on that plan.

I have to apologize for the experience there, that's not true at all. The agent you had must have missed the internal notifications...

In december the stores were doing the B618s as part of a staged rollout, pretty sure it was Jan (may have been feb..) when everything except fault replacements switched to B618.

Highly likely the issue you actually had was a sim issue, without looking i'd suspect there was an error in the initial sale..

Skinny may be part of spark, but they are still doing the b315s. they have their own firmware etc, it's not the same stock.

I can't speak for when or if they will switch modems.

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alasta

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#2194919 10-Mar-2019 09:06

It looks like the modems page on Spark's web site needs to be updated because it currently only lists the B315.

1024kb

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#2194921 10-Mar-2019 09:14

I have both Spark on B315S & Skinny on B618S. The SIM cards are transferable, you just have to create a new profile.

The performance of each SIM is identical in both modems - there's no apparent premium performance delivered by the premium rate Spark account.

I wanted a better modem than the B315S that Spark provided originally, as well as an upgrade from the 120GB plan. To get a B618S from Spark at the time seemed like an avaricious corporate money-grab - the fees were ridiculous just to let me have better performance, upgrade my plan & spend more money with them. If they could do it, that is. If.

Skinny had B618S available in stock, at Spark finding a B618S was like chasing ghosts through mist.

So I bought the B618S from Skinny, upgraded my plan & spend less money with them. In a couple of weeks the Spark contract expires & I shall look upon that experience as an example of a corporation driving it's own interest without having the agility that customers often require.

I'd have been quite content paying Spark more money each month for an upgraded modem & plan. Due to their inability to do this in a timely manner, I will now be even more content paying their subsidiary less money for the modem & plan I wanted.

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