2degrees National Network??!?

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Wob

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#38795 4-Aug-2009 13:47

A comment posted to sbiddle's most recent blog alighted to 2degrees having a National Network. It included a link to the 2degrees website, and what do you know:

"We've spent big dollars building a network that lets you use your 2degrees mobile in 97% of the places that Kiwis like to live, work and play."

Check out the link: http://www.2degreesmobile.co.nz/coverage

Johnr is quite right, 2degrees have not built a National Network. They have built sites in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Queenstown, and have an agreement with Vodafone for the rest of their network. (sbiddles blog post has some useful information about that arrangement too!)

I would never be one to knock 2degrees, on the contrary I think their concept and pricing are outstanding, and I am really pleased they are about to enter the NZ mobile market - it should really shake things up.

I just think that they should be a little bit careful when describing "their" network.

timestyles

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#242386 4-Aug-2009 14:48

True, but if they state that they infact use roaming, then people are going to get confused. Generally, these people have "12:00" flashing on their VCR.

sbiddle

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#242404 4-Aug-2009 15:21

My main point was that many people were under the impression that they would be able to to use their phone anywhere where there was 2degrees or Vodafone coverage outside the 2degrees coverage area.

A classic example (which I have just added to the blog post) is Island Bay in Wellington. There is currently very poor or non existant 2degrees coverage since they don't have a site there. There is great Vodafone coverage but you can't roam onto Vodafone.

Go to Taihape where there is no 2degrees coverage and you will roam on Vodafone.

bcourtney

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#242410 4-Aug-2009 15:30

It would be good to get a more accurate view of where the 2degrees coverage in the 3 big cities actually is. I'm guessing that for them to claim to cover the 97% of where we work, live and play then it must have an almost identical coverage area as Vodafone does in these centres.

The 4 cities that 2degrees covers must make up more than half the population of NZ (or close to it) so coverage in these cities would have to be almost identical to VF's in order to stand by this claim I'd have thought?

walt12

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#242429 4-Aug-2009 15:40

I live right down the end of Pt Chev Rd in Auckland. Both Telecom and Vf coverage is abysmal. Dropped calls constantly. So along comes 2 degrees and builds a cellsite halfway along Pt Chev Rd (at the intersection with Meola Rd) ... voila, problem solved and I'm a convert.

So at least for where I live, I can say that 2 degrees has better coverage than the other two!

YMMV.

nakedmolerat

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#242445 4-Aug-2009 15:54

You can check the coverage on their website which to me look similar or superimposed on vodafone coverage map ;-)

bcourtney

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#242448 4-Aug-2009 15:57

nakedmolerat: You can check the coverage on their website which to me look similar or superimposed on vodafone coverage map ;-)

yep, hence why it would be great to see a more accurate map

quickymart

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#242512 4-Aug-2009 17:19

I dunno, but I think the coverage map on their website is a little too optimistic.

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freitasm

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#242549 4-Aug-2009 17:57

I have to say I had almost 4/4 bars all the way from WLG airport to Johnsonville, with Google Maps running over their EDGE network... Quite solid.

quickymart

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#242576 4-Aug-2009 18:21

That's good. Now let's see if they can match that in the rest of the country :)

nate

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#242762 4-Aug-2009 23:55

Wob: I just think that they should be a little bit careful when describing "their" network.

What you need to remember is that to the 95% of the country who aren't technically inclined, they will pick up their phone and make a call regardless of whether it's on a 2Degrees mobile tower, or roaming on Vodafone and not really care.

If 2Degrees were to be technically accurate and mention the whole roaming thing, you would get glazed over looks, and a flood of calls to their helpdesk about roaming charges. They are in the process of building their own complete NZ wide network, but haven't finished just yet.

Fraktul

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#242768 5-Aug-2009 00:12

Also remember Vodafone use other providers infrastructure for backhaul too - bit of a question of semantics isnt it

cisconz

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#242784 5-Aug-2009 01:29

sbiddle: A classic example (which I have just added to the blog post) is Island Bay in Wellington. There is currently very poor or non existant 2degrees coverage since they don't have a site there. There is great Vodafone coverage but you can't roam onto Vodafone.

The roaming effectively has a geo-fence around those main centers. (More details on sbiddle's blog) I have seen the coverage maps and it seems solid. However agreed it would be nice to have a copy to reference to.

Hmmmm

Kezzainc

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#242785 5-Aug-2009 01:53

Wow I'm very lucky then because 2Degrees has given me near full reception at my dodgy house location in Wellington better than Voda and XT. Amazing and what a great start!

Niel

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#242793 5-Aug-2009 06:08

Here in East Auckland I'm aware of 2 sites that are on hold because people do not want to live by towers. Personally the only concern for me is drop in property value due to a perceived health risk, however the antennas are optimised to reduce power consumption so the ideal place to live is actually right under a tower - they do not waste energy straight down. I'd guess it is purely the uninformed public stopping 2D from completing their network in the cities.

You can never have enough Volvos!