Broadband services

[Odieone]

We have had 4G Rural Broadband (with external aerial) for the past year and up until recently this has worked well. However over the last couple of months there has been a significant decrease in speeds from ~8Mbps down to 1Mbps.

I’ve gone through the troubleshooting guides with the Vodafone hotline operator but this has not produced any improvement in the speed and finished with them recommending taking the modem/sim into a Vodafone store for checking. I don’t believe this is the problem as the box has a good signal, it just seems like the network or cell tower has run out of capacity. (Too many users?)

Basically we are now paying $155/month for an unusable internet connection. Is there any way the cell tower issue can be checked out? I believe we are connected to the West Harbour tower as from memory the technician said the Kumeu tower didn’t have 4G. 

Thanks, Mike.

[Nigel]

Hi there.

First thing make sure you have the latest firmware installed on the modem. This can make a big difference.

Retail stores are the hardware support for (urban) home wireless broadband plans.

However if you are RBI (wireless broadband) which I suspect you are since you've had a yagi installed, hardware support is done by Downer contractors.

I'd suggest if the firmware doesnt help call back and insist on having an RBI ticket (INC) logged.

Just before hitting the post message also check your device. Unsure if you have the B315 or the B525? If the former then I'd the reps resign you and sent the B525 - it's a better piece of hardware. 

[Odieone]

Thanks for the reply Nigel. When I logged into the unit (yes, it is a B315) and got it to check for a firmware upgrade, it said that there was none available or words to that effect. I took this as the firmware was at the latest state.

Unfortunately I’m away from home for the next week so will not lodge a ticket until I get back. Would be worth trying the B325 if I can get one sent in the next few days. Is that something you can organise or should I ring the helpline?

Thanks, Mike

[Nigel]

No worries.

I'm not in the service area so I won't be much help sorry. But call in or visit a store if you have a spare moment while you're away and see what options there are.

[coffeebaron]

Also please login to the B315 and post the stats that are displayed on the home tab page. Also check firmware version is 21.329 Vodafone have 3 Kumeu towers. The one in the township has L1800 and is lower down on the Spark tower. The other two towers are 3G only; one out the back of Huapai and the other at Blossoms café. There are certainly some busy towers around and still quite a few that are still only 3G. Sadly Vodafone have not been keeping up the pace with their 4G upgrades and are now significantly behind Spark's 4G efforts. Hopefully with their new CEO we might see a bit more effort this year.

[Odieone]

Firmware version is 21.329.01.00.1085 so looks like it is up to date.

screenshot of stats is below. Can’t remember why we went for the West Harbour tower in the end. We are in a valley so maybe the signal wasn’t so good to the Kumeu tower. I’m back in Auckland now so might go in to a Vodafone store and see if I can get an upgraded router tomorrow.

 

[Odieone]

Have finally made it to a Vodafone store who were helpful and gave me a new sim. They couldn’t upgrade the modem as it had to come from the Rural Broadband team so that was less helpful but not their fault.

Anyway, have just inserted the new sim and carried out a factory reset. Speed test has come up to ~25Mbps vs. the 2Mbps beforehand and so it looks promising. Will wat for another week before breaking out the party poppers though.

[Odieone]

Ok, latest on this situation is that we are back to dial speeds. This happened progressively after getting a new SIM which initially performed well.

At this point I will lodge an RBI ticket and see what comes of that.

[Odieone]

Finally had a RBI technician come out to look into the issue. No obvious problem or answer however he did install a second antenna to gain better reception.

Ultimately however we both agreed that the problem is not the RF signal but rather an over loaded network / cellphone tower (West Harbour). As there is no viable alternative tower due to our location (in a shallow valley) it appears there is no actual solution to the slow speeds. More than likely we will look to move to another provider if there is one that uses another tower/network.

ADSL is very average due to old lines/distance and there is no VDSL or Fibre on the horizon. Pretty poor considering we are less than 20km from the Sky Tower and close to some major subdivisions in Kumeu/ Riverhead.