Congested tower in Pokeno

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grantius

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#322786 22-Sep-2025 17:20

Hey team,

I have noticed 2degrees getting progressively worse and worse speeds and experience on the Pokeno tower over the last few years.

I have tested today at 5pm within line of site of the tower, with -77rsrp strength on my Galaxy S23 Ultra. Band 3 with CA DL+UL of b8 or b28, doesn't make much of a difference between them.

Essentially during peak times I struggle to get above single digit throughput on download (3-8mbps) to any speedtest server, and for upload the 2degrees speedtest server just times out and rejects it. Other servers for upload I get around 27mbps which is fine. Off peak is also around 27mbps for both.

I know there's some people from 2dg on here, if you wouldn't mind taking a look as the new builds here have exploded and other people I have talked to have said they are experiencing similar.

When summer kicks in I worry with the volume of people going to the ice cream shops if it's going to completely die.

For reference my Spark SIM to the tower that's on same hill 5 minutes later it will happily do 46 down 35 up during this time.

Thanks!

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Hammered
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#3417486 22-Sep-2025 18:05

I wave at you and see wifi calling is still saving me from that issue. I hoped that when they upgraded the equipment to support LTE, that maybe they'd make some other improvements, but apparently not.

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

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Aucklandjafa

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#3417497 22-Sep-2025 18:35

Yeah, Spark having band 7 would dramatically improve their performance on that site.

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#3417498 22-Sep-2025 18:42

Same issue with my local serving tower but it is getting upgraded to 5G and new Ericsson hardware this coming Wednesday to Friday

Best to watch the 2degrees status planned work page it is updated every few days

KiwiSurfer

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#3417503 22-Sep-2025 18:50

Sounds like it hasn't had it's upgrade yet.

The last time I was in the area my phone got L700/L900/L1800 off the Pokeno tower and the enb ID was in the 6xxx range indicating still on old Huawei gear. I didn't see any sign of L2100 and looks like neither have you. So quite possibly only 10 MHz L700 + 5 MHz L900 + 20 MHz L1800. Most phones can't do L700 and L900 CA at the same time so normally it's eiter L700+L1800 or L900+L1800.

Adding NR3500 and L2100 can bring that up to (10 MHz L700 / 5 MHz L900) + 20 MHz L1800 + 20 MHz L2100 + 80 MHz NR3500 to a total of 125/130 Mhz CA.

2degrees are slowly replacing every single cell site with entirely new Ericsson equipment so it'll take a while but once it's done the speeds will be much improved.

May be worth looking into One NZ/Spark if you can swap providers for a while. Always a bit of a gamble as Spark may be better here but worse elsewhere.

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#3417511 22-Sep-2025 19:15

@grantius After the new Ericsson hardware is added and upgrade to 5G speed will be in the 100's of Mbps

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#3417534 22-Sep-2025 20:47

KiwiSurfer:

Sounds like it hasn't had it's upgrade yet.

The last time I was in the area my phone got L700/L900/L1800 off the Pokeno tower and the enb ID was in the 6xxx range indicating still on old Huawei gear. I didn't see any sign of L2100 and looks like neither have you. So quite possibly only 10 MHz L700 + 5 MHz L900 + 20 MHz L1800. Most phones can't do L700 and L900 CA at the same time so normally it's eiter L700+L1800 or L900+L1800.

Adding NR3500 and L2100 can bring that up to (10 MHz L700 / 5 MHz L900) + 20 MHz L1800 + 20 MHz L2100 + 80 MHz NR3500 to a total of 125/130 Mhz CA.

2degrees are slowly replacing every single cell site with entirely new Ericsson equipment so it'll take a while but once it's done the speeds will be much improved.

May be worth looking into One NZ/Spark if you can swap providers for a while. Always a bit of a gamble as Spark may be better here but worse elsewhere.

One NZ covers the Bombay's both north and south a little better so personally for me I would be leaning towards One NZ over Spark...

One NZ also has the upper hand of having 700, 1800, 2100 and 2600 all available (surprised Spark didn't deploy 2300 or 2100 here... they absolutely could...)! Depending where OP lives in Pokeno... they're gonna have a great experience if the tower hasn't been smashed as well (noting Bombay South has the same configuration as the actual Pokeno tower, both on hills).

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grantius

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#3417661 23-Sep-2025 09:24

MaxineN:

KiwiSurfer:

Sounds like it hasn't had it's upgrade yet.

The last time I was in the area my phone got L700/L900/L1800 off the Pokeno tower and the enb ID was in the 6xxx range indicating still on old Huawei gear. I didn't see any sign of L2100 and looks like neither have you. So quite possibly only 10 MHz L700 + 5 MHz L900 + 20 MHz L1800. Most phones can't do L700 and L900 CA at the same time so normally it's eiter L700+L1800 or L900+L1800.

Adding NR3500 and L2100 can bring that up to (10 MHz L700 / 5 MHz L900) + 20 MHz L1800 + 20 MHz L2100 + 80 MHz NR3500 to a total of 125/130 Mhz CA.

2degrees are slowly replacing every single cell site with entirely new Ericsson equipment so it'll take a while but once it's done the speeds will be much improved.

May be worth looking into One NZ/Spark if you can swap providers for a while. Always a bit of a gamble as Spark may be better here but worse elsewhere.

One NZ covers the Bombay's both north and south a little better so personally for me I would be leaning towards One NZ over Spark...

One NZ also has the upper hand of having 700, 1800, 2100 and 2600 all available (surprised Spark didn't deploy 2300 or 2100 here... they absolutely could...)! Depending where OP lives in Pokeno... they're gonna have a great experience if the tower hasn't been smashed as well (noting Bombay South has the same configuration as the actual Pokeno tower, both on hills).

Interestingly, Ones 2600 hasn't been turned on yet on the tower, I have a One SIM in a phone I use for cellmapping.

MaxineN

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#3417664 23-Sep-2025 09:27

2600 is a high band and you'll get pushed to 2600 if you're close enough.

There's also weighting in play and 2600 is pretty lowly weighted compared to 2100 and 1800 which is where the network would prefer you stay.

It's a little complex but I ensure you 2600 is turned on and has been for a good while ;)

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grantius

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#3423732 10-Oct-2025 17:42

MaxineN:

2600 is a high band and you'll get pushed to 2600 if you're close enough.

There's also weighting in play and 2600 is pretty lowly weighted compared to 2100 and 1800 which is where the network would prefer you stay.

It's a little complex but I ensure you 2600 is turned on and has been for a good while ;)

To follow up with this, they have been working on the One tower the last couple of days and I can now see 2600 turned on sporadically which is great!

I have good line of sight to the tower so it's been interesting seeing them work on it when I've looked out the window haha

Edit: oooooh now I see n7! This is awesome

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#3423745 10-Oct-2025 18:35

All NZ carriers are getting ready for 5G in lower frequencies

2degrees 2100Mhz they are getting ready to go live

kiwifidget

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#3423750 10-Oct-2025 19:32

grantius:

When summer kicks in I worry with the volume of people going to the ice cream shops if it's going to completely die.

Fear not, no one can hold a Pokeno ice cream and a phone at the same time.

Delete cookies?! Are you insane?!

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Stu

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#3428759 29-Oct-2025 11:45

Can't even complete speed tests on 2degrees today. Absolutely hopeless.

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

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grantius

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#3428777 29-Oct-2025 12:41

Stu:

Can't even complete speed tests on 2degrees today. Absolutely hopeless.

I did a speed test on One and got 255mbps down/16mbps up - definitely the best solution at least for my location in Pokeno at the moment

Stu

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#3428779 29-Oct-2025 12:43

Nice! If it wasn't for 2degrees data sharing, I'd be moving.

People often mistake me for an adult because of my age.

Keep calm, and carry on posting.

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tripper1000

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#3428808 29-Oct-2025 15:01

Band 3 (1800MHz) is the band to aim for if LTE speed is your goal. 2DM has the same bandwidth here as competitors. (20MHz?).

According to GIS.geek, if you are only getting B28 (700MHz) and B8 (900MHz) that would indicate that you are likely seeing the Bombay South tower (or Meremere?), which lacks B3 and B1. Given it's elevation and the lower frequencies, it will cover a large geographical area/lots of people. Combined with 2DM's lesser bandwidth in these bands (12MHz for B28 and 5MHz for B8) and the fact that B8 is still shared with 3G on many towers, it has the very real potential for congestion.

Punters buying icecream in Pokeno proper will likely/hopefully be on the Pokeno cell, which has a good bit more bandwidth, with 4 bands (B28, B8, B3 & B1) so likely won't contribute too much to your symptoms, although you can't get any slower than no data!

Next time you see no data, have a play and see if switching to 3G improves it. At my place of work inside a semi-rural concrete building, I find I get much better reliability on 3G (B8, 900MHz) than LTE. (LTE mostly beats it for speed when it works, but often doesn't work at all). While 3G has narrow bandwidth, everyone is allergic to it so you might have the whole band to yourself, working out to better (than zero) speeds.

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