Will 2degrees get 4G anytime soon?

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Will 2degrees get 4G anytime soon?

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#963962 9-Jan-2014 16:08

johnr:
garvani: +1 also. However im not holding my breath for anytime soon. Considering how long its taking telecom and vodafone to roll this out to regional centres outside the major area's, its going to be quite sometime before I get it here with 2degree's. Would be awesome if the roaming deal with vodafone included 4G data, as im sure they will appear here faster than 2D, then id just lock onto that 24/7 ;)

Have you looked at the Vodafone 4G coverage map?

John, I did a lot of travel around both South Island and North Island over the Xmas/NY break and I was pretty damn impressed with the 4G coverage. great stuff.

nathan

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#963963 9-Jan-2014 16:09

nakedmolerat: Ok, from unofficial source (senior network engineer) who happen to be my close friend, the 4G network will be ready for auckland, wellington and queenstown by 31st march. The switch will be flicked on exactly midnight on 1st April.

April 1 probably isn't the best date for a new product launch

NzBeagle

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#963967 9-Jan-2014 16:14

nathan: John, I did a lot of travel around both South Island and North Island over the Xmas/NY break and I was pretty damn impressed with the 4G coverage. great stuff.

This makes me think of John as being like the Fire Danger guy, goes around the country on his own switching on 4G single handedly.

thegeekboy

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#964045 9-Jan-2014 18:49

BTR:
knoydart:
Not sure what spectrum issues you speak of. They have 1800 MHz avaiable (3GPP band 3) which the other 2 carriers have built out across the country. 2Degrees just need to get the back end going, wire up the new panels and do a multitude of other things, but spectrum is not the blockage.

There were arguments between the Telcos on how much spectrum was available for purchase. One of the big telcos i.e. Voda or Telecom was trying to purchase 60% of what was available and this was causing the two remaining telcos to argue against it. It may have been solved but thats what I was told late last year.

That's all about the 700MHz frequency. The AP 700MHz frequency doesn't even have any available devices yet.
The network build-out for this frequency won't happen until late 2014 - and devices with the chipset should be available after that.

The 700MHz frequency will also be used for rural areas - not likely for Urban or CBDs.

2Degrees network has been touted as 4G ready - it just needs to be planned and switched on.
I'd expect the end of April for launch. Telecom was delayed by a month...

DjShadow

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#964046 9-Jan-2014 18:56

thegeekboy:
BTR:
knoydart:
Not sure what spectrum issues you speak of. They have 1800 MHz avaiable (3GPP band 3) which the other 2 carriers have built out across the country. 2Degrees just need to get the back end going, wire up the new panels and do a multitude of other things, but spectrum is not the blockage.

There were arguments between the Telcos on how much spectrum was available for purchase. One of the big telcos i.e. Voda or Telecom was trying to purchase 60% of what was available and this was causing the two remaining telcos to argue against it. It may have been solved but thats what I was told late last year.

That's all about the 700MHz frequency. The AP 700MHz frequency doesn't even have any available devices yet.
The network build-out for this frequency won't happen until late 2014 - and devices with the chipset should be available after that.

The 700MHz frequency will also be used for rural areas - not likely for Urban or CBDs.

2Degrees network has been touted as 4G ready - it just needs to be planned and switched on.
I'd expect the end of April for launch. Telecom was delayed by a month...

I honestly thought I heard somewhere that all 2degrees towers have built in LTE, just need something like a software license to make it happen.

andrewcnz

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#964050 9-Jan-2014 19:10

DjShadow:
thegeekboy:
BTR:
knoydart:
Not sure what spectrum issues you speak of. They have 1800 MHz avaiable (3GPP band 3) which the other 2 carriers have built out across the country. 2Degrees just need to get the back end going, wire up the new panels and do a multitude of other things, but spectrum is not the blockage.

There were arguments between the Telcos on how much spectrum was available for purchase. One of the big telcos i.e. Voda or Telecom was trying to purchase 60% of what was available and this was causing the two remaining telcos to argue against it. It may have been solved but thats what I was told late last year.

That's all about the 700MHz frequency. The AP 700MHz frequency doesn't even have any available devices yet.
The network build-out for this frequency won't happen until late 2014 - and devices with the chipset should be available after that.

The 700MHz frequency will also be used for rural areas - not likely for Urban or CBDs.

2Degrees network has been touted as 4G ready - it just needs to be planned and switched on.
I'd expect the end of April for launch. Telecom was delayed by a month...

I honestly thought I heard somewhere that all 2degrees towers have built in LTE, just need something like a software license to make it happen.

Don't Huawei have some kind of singleRAN system where another card is added to the base station and then you have LTE or any another standard that is needed? That is somewhat of a simplistic explanation but 2degrees network is not that old so upgrading should be a lot more easy that an older GSM/3G network.

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Publius

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#964117 9-Jan-2014 20:31

I'd be more interested in HD Voice (wideband-amr) than 4G.
Im thinking of leaving 2d, who I've been loyal to since their launch, for Vodafone because when my business line diverts to my mobile phone it sounds unprofessional and HD Voice could help with this.

johnr

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#964123 9-Jan-2014 20:44

Publius: I'd be more interested in HD Voice (wideband-amr) than 4G.

Im thinking of leaving 2d, who I've been loyal to since their launch, for Vodafone because when my business line diverts to my mobile phone it sounds unprofessional and HD Voice could help with this.

I would like to say it would but HD voice is VF mobile to VF mobile only

ajw

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#964128 9-Jan-2014 20:53

In a recent video interview Stewart Sherriff the CEO of 2 degrees talks about 4G LTE.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/video.cfm?c_id=1503079&gal_cid=1503079&gallery_id=138596

Publius

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#964131 9-Jan-2014 20:58

John,
Won't it make mobile to pstn calls clearer than horrible gsm?

johnr

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#964133 9-Jan-2014 20:59

Publius: John,

Won't it make mobile to pstn calls clearer than horrible gsm?

As above

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eXDee

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#964140 9-Jan-2014 21:10

Publius: John,
Won't it make mobile to pstn calls clearer than horrible gsm?

The codec is only HD when between vodafone handsets (and possibly if you have an enterprise SIP trunk with them if that supports HD voice?). The handovers between different providers dont interconnect using such codecs, so will use whatever the weakest point in the chain is. So one of the other networks could enable HD voice, or you could receive a SIP call from any of the voip providers who support G722, and it would still run at the lower codec between networks.

SteveON

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#964165 9-Jan-2014 22:07

andrewcnz:
DjShadow:
thegeekboy:
BTR:
knoydart:
Not sure what spectrum issues you speak of. They have 1800 MHz avaiable (3GPP band 3) which the other 2 carriers have built out across the country. 2Degrees just need to get the back end going, wire up the new panels and do a multitude of other things, but spectrum is not the blockage.

There were arguments between the Telcos on how much spectrum was available for purchase. One of the big telcos i.e. Voda or Telecom was trying to purchase 60% of what was available and this was causing the two remaining telcos to argue against it. It may have been solved but thats what I was told late last year.

That's all about the 700MHz frequency. The AP 700MHz frequency doesn't even have any available devices yet.
The network build-out for this frequency won't happen until late 2014 - and devices with the chipset should be available after that.

The 700MHz frequency will also be used for rural areas - not likely for Urban or CBDs.

2Degrees network has been touted as 4G ready - it just needs to be planned and switched on.
I'd expect the end of April for launch. Telecom was delayed by a month...

I honestly thought I heard somewhere that all 2degrees towers have built in LTE, just need something like a software license to make it happen.

Don't Huawei have some kind of singleRAN system where another card is added to the base station and then you have LTE or any another standard that is needed? That is somewhat of a simplistic explanation but 2degrees network is not that old so upgrading should be a lot more easy that an older GSM/3G network.

This is what they mean by 4g ready. They still need the cards and possibly antenna.

scottjpalmer

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#995038 26-Feb-2014 19:03

nakedmolerat: Ok, from unofficial source (senior network engineer) who happen to be my close friend, the 4G network will be ready for auckland, wellington and queenstown by 31st march. The switch will be flicked on exactly midnight on 1st April.

Not long now! Provided said engineer wasn't critical to the project but lost his job when you posted this :-)

menabassily

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#1002143 10-Mar-2014 15:23

So the information we know so far is: it's going to be 2014 which means they are working on it. Also the frequency is 700 Mhz

http://www.computerworld.co.nz/article/487906/bnz_backs_2degrees_4g_rollout/

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