2Degs "dead spots" in Wellington

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jamesrt

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#129233 8-Sep-2013 10:41

Hi,

I know Wellington's topology makes cellphone coverage difficult; and I also know that building a cell phone network with good coverage everywhere takes time,

Having said that, is there a mechanism to feed back information on poor coverage to 2Degrees so they can at least be aware of the issue and consider the priority of infill, etc?

Without trying to name names, the particular area I'm interested in is an education establishment in the northern suburbs which is in a bit of a gully; Vodafone signal is fine (not sure about Telecom, don't have/never have had a phone so no experience of coverage there); however, the 2Degrees signal is very poor over a large majority of the site...

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#891584 8-Sep-2013 10:50

Doesn't 2degrees just roam to Vodafone if there is coverage lacking?

Behodar

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#891585 8-Sep-2013 10:54

1080p: Doesn't 2degrees just roam to Vodafone if there is coverage lacking?

Not inside cities. Areas where 2D "should" have coverage don't allow roaming (presumably so that 2D isn't paying Vodafone if a phone decides to prioritise the wrong network).

jamesrt

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#891592 8-Sep-2013 10:55

1080p: Doesn't 2degrees just roam to Vodafone if there is coverage lacking?

I believe they lock out roaming in Wellington (amongst other places).

A previous discussion

johnr

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#891611 8-Sep-2013 13:06

2degrees will have drive test data and know this already

jamesrt

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#891616 8-Sep-2013 13:23

johnr: 2degrees will have drive test data and know this already

Hi John, I'm not sure what you mean by "drive test data"; but if you're talking about the same thing as the Wikipedia Drive Testing page, then I'm not sure if they'll have accurate data on the site itself.

The reason I say this is because whilst the nearest public road is right next to the entrance to the site, it's geologically about 10 to 15 meters vertically above the site (there is a reasonably steep driveway). This is the issue, I think, in that the majority of the site is in what I would describe as a "radio shadow", i.e. blocked from line of site to the transmitter by the ground level change.

johnr

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#891640 8-Sep-2013 15:42

Any mobile carrier will be wanting to provide the best coverage to as many end users as possible and this would not mean pointing the cell site panel down a customers drive way,

Once a network is setup you generally don't make big changes to the tilts on a cell as this then upsets customers that use to have coverage and then you take it away,

jamesrt

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#891666 8-Sep-2013 15:59

johnr: Any mobile carrier will be wanting to provide the best coverage to as many end users as possible

Obviously, yes

and this would not mean pointing the cell site panel down a customers drive way,

I didn't mean to imply that; the point I was trying to make is that if they are measuring coverage based on signal levels observed when driving down the road (which is what I took to be the meaning behind "drive test data"), then they may not have accurate readings of conditions on the more "vertically challenged" site. Wellington is quite hilly, and as I said before, probably very challenging to get good coverage in.

Once a network is setup you generally don't make big changes to the tilts on a cell as this then upsets customers that use to have coverage and then you take it away,

Didn't mean to imply that either.

At the end of the day, I know of an area in Wellington with approx 1100 people there Mon - Fri, and a large number of people on the weekends during the sports seasons, which has poor 2 Degrees coverage. I have no idea if 2Degrees knows there is an issue there or not; and was simply trying to be helpful in pointing it out.

Never mind, it's not worth having an argument over.

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ajw

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#891698 8-Sep-2013 17:01

jamesrt:
johnr: Any mobile carrier will be wanting to provide the best coverage to as many end users as possible

Obviously, yes
and this would not mean pointing the cell site panel down a customers drive way,

I didn't mean to imply that; the point I was trying to make is that if they are measuring coverage based on signal levels observed when driving down the road (which is what I took to be the meaning behind "drive test data"), then they may not have accurate readings of conditions on the more "vertically challenged" site. Wellington is quite hilly, and as I said before, probably very challenging to get good coverage in.
Once a network is setup you generally don't make big changes to the tilts on a cell as this then upsets customers that use to have coverage and then you take it away,

Didn't mean to imply that either.

At the end of the day, I know of an area in Wellington with approx 1100 people there Mon - Fri, and a large number of people on the weekends during the sports seasons, which has poor 2 Degrees coverage. I have no idea if 2Degrees knows there is an issue there or not; and was simply trying to be helpful in pointing it out.

Never mind, it's not worth having an argument over.

What's wrong with advising the 2 degrees call centre about lack of coverage.

KiwiSurfer

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#891720 8-Sep-2013 18:03

ajw: What's wrong with advising the 2 degrees call centre about lack of coverage.

I've had several postitive experiences in the past of advising 2degrees about coverage issues. While the customer service guys can't actually do anything, they do seem to acknowledge the issue and put it through to whoever looks after these things. Some of the coverage issues I've reported a about have resulted in 2degrees building new sites. Not that my report had anything to do with it diectly! But I do at least hope they use the data from customer complaints at least to influence their decisions on new sites -- e.g. 100 complaints about dead zone A and 10 about dead zone B would suggest it would be more economical to build a site to fix dead zone A than B.

Quite unlike the Vodafone CSR I corrsesponded with a few years back who suggested there was a fault with my phone when I reported a coverage issue on behalf of me and 20 other people who were experiencing the same issue at the same place (several rooms at the, then, new Business School at the University of Auckland -- which I think was resolved about 2-3 years later indirectly due to new/changed sites). Never reported a coverage issue to them since. They do seem to be more proactive in recent years though so I can't complain too much.

Anyway, just out of interest (and back on topic), is the poor service on 3G? I understand 2degrees is planning to rollout 3G at 900MHz which may improve things. However if it's 2G that's having trouble (which might be the case if phones where you are have dropped down to 2G) then the 3G 900MHz rollout may not make much difference. Could result in slightly faster data speeds and more stable phone connections though.

- James

Kyanar

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#891753 8-Sep-2013 19:44

KiwiSurfer:
Quite unlike the Vodafone CSR I corrsesponded with a few years back who suggested there was a fault with my phone when I reported a coverage issue on behalf of me and 20 other people who were experiencing the same issue at the same place (several rooms at the, then, new Business School at the University of Auckland -- which I think was resolved about 2-3 years later indirectly due to new/changed sites). Never reported a coverage issue to them since. They do seem to be more proactive in recent years though so I can't complain too much.

And quite unlike Telecom, who passed the feedback onto someone who seemed interested and went to all the trouble to go out to the reported dead spot to confirm, only to personally get a call later from another senior team member telling me that they weren't going to fix the issue and in no uncertain terms to get over it (so I'm paying Telecom for a contract that I cannot use when I'm at work, because it's a massive dead spot).

Back on topic, I've also had issue with 2degrees data coverage basically being dead the entire commute from home to work each day in Auckland (I can't imagine the issue is cell handover when it's pretty much the entire journey). I suspect that they aren't aware (and certainly hope they aren't, because the alternative is that they are intentionally providing shoddy service - which I can't see being a goal they would aspire to. They aren't Telecom after all). So with that said, what would be the correct process? Just call customer service and let them know?

KiwiSurfer

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#891770 8-Sep-2013 20:55

Kyanar: Back on topic, I've also had issue with 2degrees data coverage basically being dead the entire commute from home to work each day in Auckland (I can't imagine the issue is cell handover when it's pretty much the entire journey). I suspect that they aren't aware (and certainly hope they aren't, because the alternative is that they are intentionally providing shoddy service - which I can't see being a goal they would aspire to. They aren't Telecom after all). So with that said, what would be the correct process? Just call customer service and let them know?

Definitely not a 2degrees network issue as it would be affecting a lot of people if that was an actual network issue. Sounds more like an issue with either your SIM/account (do you have enough credit?) or your device (either faulty or configured incorrectly). I would definitely give 2degrees a call and see what they can find out from their end. In the mean time, if you can, try testing your SIM in a different device, your device with a different SIM, etc to try and isolate excatly what is causing the issue. Might save you a call if you find it's actually your device that's the problem.

- James

Kyanar

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#891784 8-Sep-2013 22:03

KiwiSurfer: Definitely not a 2degrees network issue as it would be affecting a lot of people if that was an actual network issue. Sounds more like an issue with either your SIM/account (do you have enough credit?) or your device (either faulty or configured incorrectly). I would definitely give 2degrees a call and see what they can find out from their end. In the mean time, if you can, try testing your SIM in a different device, your device with a different SIM, etc to try and isolate excatly what is causing the issue. Might save you a call if you find it's actually your device that's the problem.

- James

Ironic. You sure you aren't the Vodafone CSR you described in your post? There's nothing wrong with my device, thanks, and credit shouldn't be an issue on a postpaid account with 2-3GB of data rolled over.

In my experience, the entire North Western causeway is a dead zone for data (calls and texts are A-OK) and a very large segment of the route via Carrington Road through St Lukes Road leading to Green Lane West is basically somewhere between patchy and dead.

johnr

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#891785 8-Sep-2013 22:07

How could prepay balance impact coverage or even a SIM card?

SIM card is to only ID a subscriber onto the mobile network

KiwiSurfer

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#891800 8-Sep-2013 22:46

Ironic. You sure you aren't the Vodafone CSR you described in your post? There's nothing wrong with my device, thanks, and credit shouldn't be an issue on a postpaid account with 2-3GB of data rolled over.

The Vodafone CSR in my post implied there was something wrong with my phone even though I had explained that I was one of 20 people with the same loss of coverage issue in a very specific area in Auckland's CBD. What is the probability that 20 different phones owned by 20 different people all have the exact same fault? :)

Your post is one person complaing about data coverage issues in the several areas. As a someone who worked in tech support, usually when one user is having trouble with their devices in several locations where other users haven't reported issues then I would test the user's device to ensure it is correctly configured etc. Nearly 100% of the time it has been a device/configuration issue rather than a fault with the system (given that a system fault would affect everyone and not just that particular user).

- James

KiwiSurfer

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#891805 8-Sep-2013 22:54

johnr: How could prepay balance impact coverage or even a SIM card?

Last time I thought I had a faulty data connection it turned out I simply had no credit left for data. It's not always obvious to the end user that nil credit is the reason why they have no data since the text that alerts you have no credit sometimes doesn't go through quickly enough. So worth checking before reporting a fault I would think. It's definitely not the case in this situation though as it's a postpaid connection with plenty of data left.

As for my suggestion to swap SIMs, that is just to see whether the original device is having issues or if it's a network/account issue. Just a isolation test to eliminate the device itself as the cause of the issue. Standard troubleshooting technique.

- James

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