No cell reception at house; worried about moving to fibre & having issues with Landline

Forums › New Zealand Broadband › No cell reception at house; worried about moving to fibre & having issues with Landline

Tomahawk66

181 posts

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#240418 7-Sep-2018 08:34

Hi all,

Brand new member here with some very basic questions about moving to fibre from my totally reliable copper adsl broadband. And yes, I do realise that copper is old and on the way out.... but....

Some relevant details of my situation:

There is no cell phone reception at my house so I no longer have a cell phone. I am at home for 90% of every day. I have only a desktop computer and laptop and I use an ethernet cable to connect to the internet. I have no intention of ever enabling wifi as there is no need for it. I currently have a Spark HG659b Router. I turn the router off when I am not on the computer. I must have a land line phone available all the time. I am aware that on fibre I will need a UPS for when there are power cuts for the landline to work.

What I don't know though is; I have seen many people writing about their fibre 'dropping out' and disconnecting them. If this happens, does that mean that you then don't have your landline phone working? My concern is that if I get fibre installed, have issues with it, and those issues prevent the land line from operating I therefore can't even contact the provider to get it fixed. Is this a valid concern?

Thanks so much.

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3714 posts

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#2085333 7-Sep-2018 08:45

In your situation (zero cellphone coverage, must have landline all the time) it sounds like it *might* be a valid concern. Fibre is far less likely to "drop out" than copper though - just remember when you're reading here you're mostly only seeing people with issues come to complain, not everyone who runs fibre 24/7/365 with zero issues. And if you're on ADSL, not even VDSL, you will probably see a noticeable improvement in performance.

Do none of the mobile network cover your property at all, so you can have an emergency phone with a little prepay credit on it in the event you need to contact ISP?

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Tomahawk66

181 posts

Master Geek

#2085336 7-Sep-2018 08:58

Thanks for your reply. I've never had a problem, not once, with my copper landline and adsl broadband service.

No mobile company has decent coverage where I am. I've been to all of them. If I was lucky I could get a text message sometimes. A phone call would come through but immediately disconnect when I tried talking. My old cell phone spent all its time searching for service. My neighbour got fibre put in and I let them put it in on my side of the boundary fence. The two chorus guys, one out on street and one in my garden couldn't talk to each other on their mobiles.... I think they were even shocked.

Are you saying that if the fibre connection did drop out then, I definitely wouldn't have a landline to use?

nakedmolerat

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#2085337 7-Sep-2018 08:59

interesting, no mobile reception at all but can get fibre to home

Aredwood

3885 posts

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#2085344 7-Sep-2018 09:13

Any particular reason that you turn the router off when not using the computer? If you want to keep on doing that. You will need to sign up with an ISP that uses the ONT for voice, instead of the router. AFAIK only Spark, Trustpower, and My Republic Use the ONT for voice.

As for the lack of cellphone reception. Consider getting a Vodafone Sure Signal (small cellphone tower) Or 2degrees support calling over WiFi on some phones. Although you would still have to drive up the road to get cellphone reception if there is a fault.

I would definitely rate fibre as being far more reliable than copper. And if a fiber fault does happen, they are a lot easier to trace exactly what / where is the problem. Unlike an intermittent fault with copper.

Tomahawk66

181 posts

Master Geek

#2085347 7-Sep-2018 09:23

nakedmolerat:

interesting, no mobile reception at all but can get fibre to home

I know right!!! Our suburb, only 8 min drive to the centre of Dunedin and no proper cell coverage for at least those of us who have homes on the flat in Ocean Grove/Tomahawk.

Lias

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#2085351 7-Sep-2018 09:31

Tomahawk66:

If this happens, does that mean that you then don't have your landline phone working? My concern is that if I get fibre installed, have issues with it, and those issues prevent the land line from operating I therefore can't even contact the provider to get it fixed. Is this a valid concern?

When you get UFB, you don't have a landline as such in that you no longer have a copper phone line, and instead have a VOIP simulacrum of one. You also don't have much choice here, because even if you don't move to UFB now, the existing PSTN system is being decommissioned over the next few years, so very soon there simply won't be any "true" land lines.

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Tomahawk66

181 posts

Master Geek

#2085353 7-Sep-2018 09:34

Aredwood: Any particular reason that you turn the router off when not using the computer? If you want to keep on doing that. You will need to sign up with an ISP that uses the ONT for voice, instead of the router. AFAIK only Spark, Trustpower, and My Republic Use the ONT for voice.

As for the lack of cellphone reception. Consider getting a Vodafone Sure Signal (small cellphone tower) Or 2degrees support calling over WiFi on some phones. Although you would still have to drive up the road to get cellphone reception if there is a fault.

I would definitely rate fibre as being far more reliable than copper. And if a fiber fault does happen, they are a lot easier to trace exactly what / where is the problem. Unlike an intermittent fault with copper.

I turn the router off as why have it on using power and possibly getting warm when it doesn't need to be. I turn everything off if it isn't used.

Cellphone issues..... I can't afford to buy anything 'extra' just to try to get a cellphone to work at my house unfortunately. And if I did get fibre and it had a fault, surely when trying to fix it you would need to be next to your modem-router box thing that the system uses so you could do the things the technician told you to do??? Can't do that if I have to drive up the road just to be able to make the call to the tech people in the first place.

I know people find it hard to believe that a suburb in Dunedin, a city that has the Gig status ha ha ha, can't provide even basic cell phone coverage to all their residents. A neighbour who's been with Vodafone since day dot tried to get a petition started to get them to improve the reception for our suburb ...put in another cell phone mast-thing-repeater (what ever they use) and they just laughed at him. They didn't care. I kid you not!

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wellygary

8335 posts

Uber Geek

#2085355 7-Sep-2018 09:39

Tomahawk66:

My concern is that if I get fibre installed, have issues with it, and those issues prevent the land line from operating I therefore can't even contact the provider to get it fixed.

Is this a valid concern?

If your copper landline went down you would face the same issue,

Fibre is generally regarded as more reliable than the copper network.....but if you are concerned about it buy a cheap prepaid phone and keep it in your car glove box... when your hardline (copper or fibre) fails, drive until you can find coverage and call your provider.....

Linux

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#2085357 7-Sep-2018 09:40

You have choices to provide mobile coverage VodafoneNZ sells Sure Signal and 2degrees offers Wi-Fi calling

John

1cloud

164 posts

Master Geek

#2085358 7-Sep-2018 09:40

Tomahawk66:

Hi all,

Brand new member here with some very basic questions about moving to fibre from my totally reliable copper adsl broadband. And yes, I do realise that copper is old and on the way out.... but....

my old landline cable wired to fibre OTA box when i switched over with same old number , no problem at all.

Linux

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#2085362 7-Sep-2018 09:44

My parents that are in their mid 70s are on Fibre (copper was removed) and have had zero issues and don't notice any difference between having a landline delivered over fibre or copper

John

Peppery

919 posts

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#2085363 7-Sep-2018 09:49

From personal experience, we've never had a single issue with any of our 4 fibre connections once they were put in. We've had power cuts, but that's our issue, not UFB specifically.

Tomahawk66:

I turn the router off as why have it on using power and possibly getting warm when it doesn't need to be. I turn everything off if it isn't used.

Cellphone issues..... I can't afford to buy anything 'extra' just to try to get a cellphone to work at my house unfortunately.

Not a solution really if you're concerned about your connection going out, but 2degrees offer WiFi calling on iPhone & some Androids. No extra equipment, it simply connects to the network over WiFi and significantly extends the coverage area to anywhere with WiFi. It works really well, I have an Australian phone at home that's connected solely on WiFi and acts like a local mobile.

Tomahawk66:

I know people find it hard to believe that a suburb in Dunedin, a city that has the Gig status ha ha ha, can't provide even basic cell phone coverage to all their residents. A neighbour who's been with Vodafone since day dot tried to get a petition started to get them to improve the reception for our suburb ...put in another cell phone mast-thing-repeater (what ever they use) and they just laughed at him. They didn't care. I kid you not!

They're a for-profit business at the end of the day. If there is not a large amount of customers in the area I can imagine it being hard to justify the business case for one.

Tomahawk66

181 posts

Master Geek

#2085374 7-Sep-2018 09:52

Linux: You have choices to provide mobile coverage VodafoneNZ sells Sure Signal and 2degrees offers Wi-Fi calling

John

So I would have to buy this thing (which I can't afford to do) and then change ISP from Spark to Vodafone for this thing to work?

djtOtago

1153 posts

Uber Geek

#2085379 7-Sep-2018 09:54

A tower needs to be built on the Tomahawk side of the hill. Or better still on top of the hill. But the land owners, and some locals don't want it on their land or spoiling the view of the peninsular.
And give the relatively small number of people affected, it just becomes to hard and time consuming for the cell providers to fight to get a tower built.
Its been an on going issue / fight for years.

Tomahawk is a beautifully beach, I'm there quite often, and personally I enjoy not having cell coverage when visiting :)

Peppery

919 posts

Ultimate Geek

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#2085383 7-Sep-2018 09:56

Tomahawk66:

Linux: You have choices to provide mobile coverage VodafoneNZ sells Sure Signal and 2degrees offers Wi-Fi calling

John

So I would have to buy this thing (which I can't afford to do) and then change ISP from Spark to Vodafone for this thing to work?

The Vodafone Sure Signal is a physical box you'd need to buy, but it works with any ISP now AFAIK. The 2degrees option is on the phone side, you do not need any extra hardware.

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