I have 5 people in my home using 2Degrees mobile.   

We get solid 3g coverage but virtually no 4g coverage - ie we may get and send SMS's when phone flips briefly from 0 to 1 bar.  (Our data is HSPA - so 3.5G).   The issue is definitely not our devices as we have no problem with 4 & 5 g elsewhere, and our phones are high end phones that are less then a year old.   When looking at the coverage maps there is a single white square (=no coverage) over our house.   Its worth pointing out that the map shows much stronger 3g coverage then 4g coverage (but at least fair coverage for most of the wider area within 3km's to the South of us.   My wild guess is this has to do with the hilly terrain and frequencies used.   (If anyone wants to check, the address in question is 91 Bawden Road, Dairy Flat, and the maps I'm looking at are at https://www.2degrees.nz/coverage)

I've tried to reach out to 2 degrees multiple times in multiple ways about what is going to happen when 3G shuts down.   Unfortunately I get conflicting answers which vary from "The site will be upgraded before the shutdown" to "use WIFI calling" (which is not an option for my use case) to "You probably should shift to another provider". 

I REALLY want to stay with 2Degrees as they have been really good to me in the past, and without going into details, OneNZ have done wrong by me and I won't touch anything related to Spark.  Also the other providers are significantly more expensive unless I want to waste my life playing "games" with NVMO's like Mighty Ape who offer attractive deals to get you hooked, then charge more then the main carriers, and I've had really bad service just trying to sign up to OneNZ with a One NZ operator straight out lying and advising that OneNZ provider the network for all the providers in NZ among other things. 

So my questions -

• I expect it wishful thinking, but does anyone know if turning off 3G will decrease the noise floor such that we will get better 4g connectivity?
• Does anyone know how I can bring our specific coverage issue to the attention of someone at 2D that can actually look at it/advise whats going to happen?  (The 2D customer facing staff's primary job seems to be to prevent matters being escallated/brought to the attention of the network people)
• Does anyone know if there is a website/resource which shows planned 2D network upgrades/changes so I can see if changes to our area are "on the cards"?