poor quality service in wellington CBD

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › poor quality service in wellington CBD

jnawk

176 posts

Master Geek

#151727 3-Sep-2014 12:52

I'm located at the railway station end of town, and every day, several (6+) times a day my connectivity drops off.

It seems I have two options -
1) wait - connectivity reestablishes in about half an hour. During this time I have coverage but nothing works, no data, no SMS, no calls, in or out.
2) flick phone into flight mode and out again. This reestablishes connectivity straight away but my god what a pain.

First thing in the morning (7am), no problems. And by 5pm, things start to improve. This makes me suspect poor backhaull. (I'm not a cellular expert)

I'm a heavy data user who buys the 12gb pack nearly every other month, and I share the data with 5 other 2degrees customers.

This is not a device issue - it plagues me on both a S4 and an S5, and anecdotally several of my friends also have the same issues.

I love the cheap shareable data and makes jumping ship a really hard thing to contemplate, given the other options are rubbish, but every day I get closer to doing it. If I do switch, I'll likely take those I share data with with me.

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cat
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#1121095 3-Sep-2014 12:57

Wireless Congestion, it is what you get with offering cheap data.

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Batman

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#1121096 3-Sep-2014 12:58

try another provider?

jnawk

176 posts

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#1121153 3-Sep-2014 14:06

I have Spark and Vodafone SIMs and switch to them temporarily when the issues really get to me.

I would appreciate 2degrees weighing in on this - smartassery isn't helpful.

antoniosk

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#1121156 3-Sep-2014 14:08

jnawk: I have Spark and Vodafone SIMs and switch to them temporarily when the issues really get to me.

I would appreciate 2degrees weighing in on this - smartassery isn't helpful.

Pleased it wasn't just me - I have noticed the same as well, that data flows slowly or completely stops. While waiting to met up with the BDFL this morning, my apps just stopped and my battery got chewed while a lot of 'retrying' was going on.

Perhaps someone from 2D can comment?

________

Antoniosk

wongtop

545 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1121212 3-Sep-2014 15:51

My guess is that they are hoping that this will fix itself when they launch 4G in Wellington, and at least some of the data use is offloaded to LTE. In the meantime things are probably temporarily worse - I suspect that they have refarmed some of the 1800 spectrum they were using for GSM to LTE. I'm hoping that they launch LTE soon. They could probably do with another cell near the railway / parliament, there doesn't appear to be any sites between Bowen/Whitmore and Hawkestone.

timmmay

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#1121279 3-Sep-2014 16:39

I switched to Spark because of poor 2degrees coverage in the Wellington CBD, specifically up Bowen St where I was working for a large govt dept. Data rarely worked in the office, only one tower was accessible. With Spark and Vodafone 3 towers were accessible and everything worked better.

aidancopps

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1121413 3-Sep-2014 21:26

Hopefully 2degrees are planning to do some work at this end of town soon. There is no coverage all the way down Glenmore St from Karori to Bowen St and even down Bowen St, it's patchy.

michaelmurfy

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#1121436 3-Sep-2014 21:47

wongtop: My guess is that they are hoping that this will fix itself when they launch 4G in Wellington, and at least some of the data use is offloaded to LTE. In the meantime things are probably temporarily worse - I suspect that they have refarmed some of the 1800 spectrum they were using for GSM to LTE. I'm hoping that they launch LTE soon. They could probably do with another cell near the railway / parliament, there doesn't appear to be any sites between Bowen/Whitmore and Hawkestone.

The problem is providers can't keep adding cell sites to places like the CBD - all you need to do is Google "noise floor" to see why.

alasta

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#1121440 3-Sep-2014 21:53

If this is the particular problem that I have experienced in the distant past then I would be surprised if it is related to network capacity. Congestion would surely cause a drop off in performance while still retaining some connectivity, whereas the data stalling problem described here causes a total loss of connectivity until the device has its power or flight mode toggled after which it continues to work normally.

It's strange that this problem has been experienced on 3G from time to time over the last few years yet no one has ever been able to provide any insight as to what causes it or whether there is an effective permanent fix.

antoniosk

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#1121522 4-Sep-2014 08:08

alasta: If this is the particular problem that I have experienced in the distant past then I would be surprised if it is related to network capacity. Congestion would surely cause a drop off in performance while still retaining some connectivity, whereas the data stalling problem described here causes a total loss of connectivity until the device has its power or flight mode toggled after which it continues to work normally.

It's strange that this problem has been experienced on 3G from time to time over the last few years yet no one has ever been able to provide any insight as to what causes it or whether there is an effective permanent fix.

I have a strong suspicion it's the network negotiation between Edge and 3G that causes the stalling. I've noticed my connection spends a lot more time in Edge mode now, annoyingly, indicating that the 3G breathing is working very well (too many subscribers shrinking the coverage area).

Vodafone is even worse with overlapping networks - between the cheap 3G and 4G networks, vs the massive GPRS network, my widgets spent far too much time negotiating a network to connect to. Add the very limited controls in modern smartphones to force the camping on one particular network.... and you have handshake happiness....

Can't describe what Spark must be like... barely use my sim...

________

Antoniosk

RFMike

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1121711 4-Sep-2014 11:32

2degrees will be launching LTE (1800Mhz) tonight/tomorrow morning in Wellington CBD out towards the airport if all goes well. :-)
The area around Hill street (and towards train station) is a known poor coverage area & hence also has some issues with heavy traffic, LTE will help deload but 2 degrees is also actively seeking to build in the hills street east area.

RFMike

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1121714 4-Sep-2014 11:34

2 degrees LTE expected to launch tonight/ tomorrow morning (if all goes well), also 2degrees is actively looking to build another site to help congestion issues in thorndon area

indapie2000

186 posts

Master Geek

#1122363 5-Sep-2014 10:29

Now while I'm excited that we finally have 4G on 2degrees in Wellington, my mobile signal has pretty much dropped to 1/no bars at work.
I work at the railway station-end of town too (BNZ building) and I've always had fairly shocking reception at my desk (I'm right in the middle of the building surrounded by walls so not surprised the signal is weak, but luckily we have Wi-Fi at work.) I was also experiencing signal dropouts the last few weeks, thought it was my phone since I recently updated my Nexus 5 to the new build KTU84Q but glad to hear it's not just me.

I hope now that 4G is on, they can work on getting some better coverage/backhaul since I love being with 2degrees and hate the thought of switching!

RFMike

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1122364 5-Sep-2014 10:33

4G is a different technology & bars on phones do in general show as lower than for 3G, handset manufacturers need to address this but 1 or 2 bars of 4G is still very good

wongtop

545 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1122663 5-Sep-2014 16:43

RFMike: 2degrees will be launching LTE (1800Mhz) tonight/tomorrow morning in Wellington CBD out towards the airport if all goes well. :-)
The area around Hill street (and towards train station) is a known poor coverage area & hence also has some issues with heavy traffic, LTE will help deload but 2 degrees is also actively seeking to build in the hills street east area.

Thanks for the info.

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