vodafone new zealand may have to upgrade their network from gprs to EDGE to support iphone?

Forums › Apple iOS and devices › vodafone new zealand may have to upgrade their network from gprs to EDGE to support iphone?

stacey1122

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#11249 11-Jan-2007 14:53

seems as though, to get any decent web browsing on the iphone a cellphone carrier will need to have edge because gprs is just too slow,vodafone new zealand may have to upgrade to edge right? it should be pretty cheap to upgrade to edge if you read this article here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDGE

teltra australia have upgraded to edge but vodafone australia don't have edge,but other vodafone countries around europe do have edge.

tonyhughes

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#57610 11-Jan-2007 15:05

A colleague asked the same thing over lunch today, and I dont personally believe that VFNZ will (or even should, for that matter), upgrade/downgrade its network, based on one phone thats not even available here, and by the time it is, in 2008, will probably have 3G built in.

Edge is slower than the current technology Vodafone New Zealand has got deployed. There just isnt a business case to do it here now. There might have been when GPRS was still their fastest network, but they seem comfy with GPRS being their nationwide data, and serving the more built up (and more valuable areas) with increasingly higher capacity / bandwidth 3G services.

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#57613 11-Jan-2007 15:08

There is absolutely NO chance at all of ever seeing EDGE in New Zealand. Period.

3g

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#57614 11-Jan-2007 15:14

Can't see Vodafone doing this myself.

I suspect it would be more likely that by the time the phones are officially available in New Zealand, Apple will have:
(1) Switched to a newer technology (eg UMTS or HSDPA)
(2) Renamed the phone after settling the lawsuit with Cisco 8-).

The only reason why US telcos went with EDGE is because it's effectively a software upgrade on their network, whereas rolling out a new technology such as UMTS or HSDPA requires a network upgrade.
In New Zealand we were lucky that Vodafone jumped over EDGE technology and went straight to UMTS (and then HSDPA shortly afterwards). Because of our relatively small geographic size, it definitely made sense for Vodafone to do this.
Doing a similar thing in the US would have been extremely costly and explains why UMTS/HSDPA technologies are only available in a small percentage of locations in the US (so far).

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#57619 11-Jan-2007 15:24

Do you think VFNZ will have to make a network change to support the iPhone-offered feature of a text-based listing of voicemails or is this already built in?

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tonyhughes

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#57622 11-Jan-2007 15:32

Why would they spend a single cent to accomodate the upcoming iPhone? With a tiny number of parallel import users, its not worthwhile.

Once the phone launches here officially (if at all) in 2008 (or later), one would then assume that those features would either be optionally turned off during operator customisation or enabled on the network, but only if it makes financial and technical sense, which will only happen if Vodafone NZ themselves are selling the phone on contract.

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#57626 11-Jan-2007 15:36

3g:
In New Zealand we were lucky that Vodafone jumped over EDGE technology and went straight to UMTS (and then HSDPA shortly afterwards). Because of our relatively small geographic size, it definitely made sense for Vodafone to do this.

I don't think we are lucky at all. EDGE in NZ would be great however the Vodafone Group have always been anti EDGE and have never deployed an EDGE upgrade on any network they are own. Currently Vodafone are suffering in the data market because the drop from 3G back to GPRS is nowhere near as competitive as the CDMA EV-DO drop back to CDMA 1X for mobile data customers. Vodafone will make a big comeback with theirUMTS/HSDPA 900Mhz network, the big question will just be how long it takes to roll out the upgrade - I've heard a few whispers about this being done at breakneck speed once work does start later this year with the goal of essentially duplicating GSM coverage by the middle of 2008. Whether or not this can be done is anybody's guess but if you look at the speed Telstra rolled out their Next G network anything is possible.

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johnr

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#57643 11-Jan-2007 16:59

stacey1122: seems as though, to get any decent web browsing on the iphone a cellphone carrier will need to have edge because gprs is just too slow,vodafone new zealand may have to upgrade to edge right? it should be pretty cheap to upgrade to edge if you read this article here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDGE

teltra australia have upgraded to edge but vodafone australia don't have edge,but other vodafone countries around europe do have edge.

Stacey I have no Idea how you come up with the info you blurnt out on here!!

You think Vodafone would spend millions upgrading to edge for one handset!!

What are you taking!!!

Speak to apple and get the phone to support 3G WCDMA/HSDPA or CDMA EV-DO REV A

Roll on WCDMA/HSDPA 900mhz

juha

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#57651 11-Jan-2007 19:16

Not upgrading...

Downgrading.

Juha

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#57655 11-Jan-2007 19:31

Breaking news: Vodafone may need to upgrade to the wireless version of WCDMA (read the link to understand).

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BrentR

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#57662 11-Jan-2007 20:32

I doubt VF would even get the iPhone as a ranged handset TBH. VF have their own music library etc. to support let alone having to support an iTunes device also.