A couple of weeks back I noticed that my 2degrees mobile conection would have its data stop working in a specific area. I observed issues with data generally only within range of the Avondale Racrecourse site in Auckland. While it's not consistently off, it will stop working for some time and then come back then it'll stop working again.

Basically the phone reports good signal strength and everything looks like it should be fine. For example I osbserved the issue today even though RSRP was around -87dBm and RSRQ around -8dB -- i.e. pretty good reception and not a lot of traffic.

When data traffic stops working nothing works. Google Maps stops. Web browsing doesn't work. Emails doesn't load. Notifications gets delayed until data starts working again. Speedtests will not work. The phone still shows 4G in the status bar and as far as I can see the phone thinks it has a data connection.

Pretty much every time I go home from my workplace at that location Google Maps reports no internet connection and works out the route from memory and shows no traffic data (showing the "Internet Not Working" icon which looks like na cloud with a cross through it). As soon as I go over the hill where my phone handovers from the Avondale Racecourse site to the Avondale East site on the other side, Google Maps starts working again and shows traffic data etc. I can pretty much replicate this every time I go home.

I contacted 2degrees and they pushed back saying my phone was faulty and suggested several things e.g. reset network settings, take SIM out, reboot phone, blah, blah. Tried all that and zero difference.

I ended up getting a second SIM and putting it in a old Android phone. And yep it shows the exact same issues. Everywhere else both phones both SIMs work fine. This specific location, this specific cell site I see the data not working issues.

I reported this back to 2degrees who kept pushing back along the lines of "we don't know of any faults in that area so must be you". The tricky thing I guess is the issue comes and goes so maybe overall they're seeing normal levels of traffic -- but I am defintielty seeing periods of time when data doesn't work at all across two separate SIMs in two separate phones.

It's been almost a month and no change. I would've ported to One NZ (who my work phone is with -- excellent 5G service at home and both my two workplace locations vs 2degrees still running old legacy Huawei 4G gear at all 3 locations!) but I've accumlated a lot of rollover data I'm loathe to waste.

Any suggestions? I don't mind doing a couple more troubleshooting activities if it helps me to track down the issue.