In and out of roaming without leaving the room

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › In and out of roaming without leaving the room - Palmerston North

Elpie

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Uber Geek

#105278 30-Jun-2012 23:53

Something weird is going on and I would like to know if anyone else experiences this?

I was out and about around Palmerston North today so was jumping in and out of 2Degrees, with its associated loss of data availability as I moved around town. Once I got home my phone was back on 2Degrees and working fine. I put it down in my office. Next time I looked at it, a couple of hours later, the phone was back on 3G and was roaming.

I restarted the phone and manually set the network - back came 2Degrees. Next time I look at it its back to roaming.

This has happened all in the same room of the house without the phone being moved more than the distance from my desk to my ear.

Often, when moving around town, I have to set the phone to flight mode then back in order to get back onto 2Degrees but I've never before experienced it switching over to roaming at my home. My home is well within the zone.

Any idea what could be causing this?

sbiddle

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Biddle Corp

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#648914 1-Jul-2012 10:27

In seems that in new 2d coverage areas it can take some time before they disable roaming on Vodafone, presumably to give time to complete network optimisation.

SaltyNZ

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#648934 1-Jul-2012 10:56

Depends on the phone too. I have the opposite problem: the iPhone 4S will NOT return to 2degrees when I get back into coverage without manual reselection.

iPad Pro 11" + iPhone 15 Pro Max + 2degrees 4tw!

These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

Elpie

1304 posts

Uber Geek

#649297 1-Jul-2012 23:04

Today, I again moved in and out of the zone around town. On returning home I put the phone in the same place as yesterday and, apart from it taking a long time to do so, it switched over automatically. I've got no idea why it was going backwards and forwards between 2D and Vodafone yesterday but that certainly didn't repeat today.

Salty - any idea when the whole of Palmerston North will be covered? The city is small so having 30-60 minute delays as it switches between networks is a real pain. Depending on where I am going I can be in and out of the zone half a dozen times in half an hour!

SaltyNZ

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#649298 1-Jul-2012 23:09

Elpie:
Salty - any idea when the whole of Palmerston North will be covered? The city is small so having 30-60 minute delays as it switches between networks is a real pain. Depending on where I am going I can be in and out of the zone half a dozen times in half an hour!

Coverage is not really my area; I work in core network design.

iPad Pro 11" + iPhone 15 Pro Max + 2degrees 4tw!

These comments are my own and do not represent the opinions of 2degrees.

Elpie

1304 posts

Uber Geek

#649309 1-Jul-2012 23:40

SaltyNZ:
Elpie:
Salty - any idea when the whole of Palmerston North will be covered? The city is small so having 30-60 minute delays as it switches between networks is a real pain. Depending on where I am going I can be in and out of the zone half a dozen times in half an hour!

Coverage is not really my area; I work in core network design.

Yep, I know - don't you guys get to have convos around the water cooler? ;)

nzkiwiman

2585 posts

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Subscriber

#649667 2-Jul-2012 17:08

My phone has been doing this ever since Mosgiel (Dunedin) became a 2D zone.
I am about 10m in between the coverage zone (skips right around the house) and the very strong Vodafone tower is always taking my connection.

GeoffisPure

459 posts

Ultimate Geek

#649758 2-Jul-2012 20:13

SaltyNZ: Depends on the phone too. I have the opposite problem: the iPhone 4S will NOT return to 2degrees when I get back into coverage without manual reselection.

I had this problem on my Galxaxy S2 for months and the problem was fixed when upgrading to the official telecom version of the operating system. Guess this doesn't help much - but for me it was a firmware issue.

As to the original post, I'm in Palmerston North in a suburb with not so great 2D coverage. I get messages about losing my roaming a lot.

Hatch

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Hatch (affiliate link).

Elpie

1304 posts

Uber Geek

#649826 2-Jul-2012 23:35

GeoffisPure:
SaltyNZ: Depends on the phone too. I have the opposite problem: the iPhone 4S will NOT return to 2degrees when I get back into coverage without manual reselection.

I had this problem on my Galxaxy S2 for months and the problem was fixed when upgrading to the official telecom version of the operating system. Guess this doesn't help much - but for me it was a firmware issue.

As to the original post, I'm in Palmerston North in a suburb with not so great 2D coverage. I get messages about losing my roaming a lot.

I thought it might have been the phone so I tested it. I get this problem on my Samsung Galaxy S3, the SGS2, and HTC Desire HD. All three phones go in and out of roaming and lose access to data. All three take forever to switch between networks. I probably wouldn't care too much about this changing back and forth except that each time it does this I lose access to data completely.

How do you find it when you are moving around different areas of Palmerston North? The delays in reconnecting to data drive me nuts.

RFMike

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#650661 4-Jul-2012 14:51

Hi there,
it is expected that in weaker 2degrees signal areas 2degrees mobiles will roam onto vodafone.
However when roaming onto vodafone you should still have access to data unless your phone is configured so that when roaming your data services are disabled. This can be easily fixed by changing your mobile network preferences to allow data roaming (but be careful as if you go overseas then you could be charged for this data).

The only other situation I can think of is that 2degrees data sticks have simcards that do not allow data roaming on vodafone but as you do not have a data stick then this should not apply in your situation (unless you are using a sim card from a data stick in your phone).
Does this help at all?

RFMike

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#650666 4-Jul-2012 15:03

One more thing.
It's a bit brutal but if your sure you are in a 2degrees area but your phone is on vodafone, one easy way to get back from vodafone to 2degrees is to pull the battery out & put it back in then turn on again.

Another option is to temporailly turn off data services in your phone then wait 5-10mins then it should come back to 2degrees if the signal is strong enough.

It appears that with a lot of smart phones (which do short but constant data sessions in the background) the phones don't seem to prioritise re searching for the 2degrees network, so when data services are turned off the phone then usually will find 2degrees in the next few minutes).
2degrees are investigating ways for the phones to search faster for their network when roaming onto vodafone but it is tricky as they can't do it with network messaging becasue the network messaging is coming from vodafone.

Let me know if any of this helps