Local power failure, 2 Degrees cellsite fell over after <3 hours

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Local power failure, 2 Degrees cellsite fell over after <3 hours

Beavis

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#296377 12-Jun-2022 13:31

Saturday morning abour 6 A.M. some idiot knocked out a power pole in Otatara, near Invercargill, Southland. Power went out across a wide area, which doesn't say much for the power network (but that is another subject...). My UPS died after about 3 hours, so no phone or internet.

Tried my 2 Degrees cellphone, but no service unless standing on one leg in the window. Signal still not strong enough for data, but was able to eventually send a text to my brother who lives a KM or so down the road. His cellphone was working perfectly as he is on Vodafone. His son is on Spark and seems it was fine also.

Didn't get power restored to about 2 PM, local 2 Degrees site came up a few hours after that. I guess it could have been an upstream provider problem, not a 2 Degrees cellsite problem...

Anyway, my question is how long should the average backup power supply for a cellsite last for?

Thanks

Peter.

nztim

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#2925657 12-Jun-2022 13:41

Depends - if its a remote one it may just have a UPS, others are at exchange buildings which have a generator on site, there is no single answer as it varies site to site

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SATTV

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#2925709 12-Jun-2022 14:06

Back in the olden days. 1996/7 I installed a number of amps / damps sites for Telecim. The batteries in the smaller sites were 8 hours or so and the large site I don’t recall but probably 12 hours but maybe more.
None of the sites had a generator. If there was a prolonged outage one would be bought to site. These sadly were often stolen if someone was not babysitting them.

John

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alexx

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#2925722 12-Jun-2022 15:08

Depends on the type of site. Not sure of the type of sites deployed by 2degrees, but roadside cabinet sites and pole/tower mounted sites don't have a lot of room for batteries and in rural areas the transmit power needs to be high enough to provide decent coverage. Those 8-12 hours battery capacity examples mentioned above would most likely be for sites with a full base station equipment building with plenty of room inside.

#include <standard.disclaimer>

Beavis

159 posts

Master Geek

#2925785 12-Jun-2022 15:55

The site in question is 1 KM from me. 2 (might even be 3) double cabinets with a separate tower with a street light hanging on it. It is about 500m from the local Chorus building.

I would have thought anything less than 6 hours would be a joke. Certainly it annoyed a lot of people...

alexx

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#2925850 12-Jun-2022 22:24

I'm not familiar with the cellular base station configurations used by 2degrees, but quite often extra cabinets can mean more transceivers and/or transmission equipment and perhaps not space for more batteries.

From my understanding, telcos can install cabinets on the roadside on council land with considerably less red tape than installing a full sized building and tower.

Installing a site on private land comes with it's own set of problems, including the cost for the land/building purchase or lease and/or easement paid to the private landowner. There can often be other restrictions, which can mean less than 24/7 access.

So we often end up with roadside cabinets with less than ideal backup capacity. Depending on the age of the site, there might also be a problem with deteriorating battery performance since the temperature inside a cabinet is not as well regulated as in an exchange building.

In some areas there is overlapping coverage with other cells, so less of a problem.

There is probably no harm in calling 2degrees and asking them how long the site coverage should last in case of a power failure.

#include <standard.disclaimer>

BioNz

80 posts

Master Geek

#2926266 13-Jun-2022 22:25

I would say that a normal site should have around 6-8hrs of battery life on it.

with the correct maintenance dead batteries should be swapped out and then critical sites/rbi/ hub sites should have a backup generator plan set up ( getting a contractor on site with a back up gen with in 4hrs)

they can turn down some of the radios to reduce some of the power draw.

how ever even if you have all the battery backup in the world it doesnt mean much if the backhaul is taken out due to a damaged fibre/microwave radio dish.

hope that helps

Linux

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#2926272 13-Jun-2022 23:16

When I was at VodafoneNZ some of the batteries on sites would only lasted 10 minutes as they were stuffed a project was put in place to replace them and it was huge $$$

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Beavis

159 posts

Master Geek

#2926494 14-Jun-2022 16:01

Hi all.

Power went off again in Otatara. 2 Degrees cellsite dropped in strength after about 45 minutes, then died completely after an outstanding total of 1 hour & 6 minutes. Fortunately power came back on about 5 minutes later, and the cellsite came back up almost immediately.

Not impressed 2 Degrees. This is just the start of the power outage season. You need to sort your batteries out!

Linux

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#2926497 14-Jun-2022 16:10

@Beavis Power outages happen be pleased it has battery backup for short outages

Mahon

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#2926502 14-Jun-2022 16:37

Invercargill is not very well provided for by 2 degrees. Coverage is very patchy at best.

Beavis

159 posts

Master Geek

#2926540 14-Jun-2022 18:08

The cellsite in question has been around for about 5 years. This is the first few times that it has fallen over after a rather short time. I feel this is a case of no maintenace, not a design issue.

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#2926544 14-Jun-2022 18:38

Beavis:
The cellsite in question has been around for about 5 years. This is the first few times that it has fallen over after a rather short time. I feel this is a case of no maintenace, not a design issue.

Well with a new RAN agreement signed with Ericsson maybe they are holding off

If a power cut happens again go play a board game or something not worth stressing over so much

Beavis

159 posts

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#2926615 14-Jun-2022 22:58

I think the expression you are looking for is “Get a life” :)

nztim

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#2927642 15-Jun-2022 08:43

The expression that comes to mind is people pay SFA for phone and broadband and expect 99.99999999% uptime

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.