For the last week or so, 3G coverage from Vodafone has been VERY spotty in my area, after being almost perfect since my switch from Telstra a couple of years ago.
Despite the cries of “Vodafail” from many customers, I’ve not experienced any significant issues in my time with the carrier.
With respect to the current issues, I gave them a little time to address the problem, as there were outages already listed in my area linked to the apparent problem, so I figured they must be onto it.
Noting yesterday that the fault listed on their website had changed status from “Open” to “Closed”, I found it curious that the problem was apparently not resolved at all.
I queried this with Vodafone’s Twitter service account, and I’ve been providing them with descriptions of the problem, screen shots, and other observations to help them along.
It has been showing all the classic signs of a congested cell. The phone dropping to “SOS Only” quite often, and not being able to make or receive calls.
There are times when you seem to have five bars of service, but not being able to make or receive a call, send or receive SMS messages, and unable to use 3G data.
There are times when there a no signal bars at all, but the service appears to be connected – (the “3G” indicator being shown, as below) – but still not being able to do anything in 3G mode.
From time to time, things seem to work okay – so it definitely appears to be a congestion issue, else it would a problem all of the time.
For the record, 2G services appear functional, but that’s no good when you’re paying for a 3G service.
The issue was referred to their network guys for investigation – one of whom contacted me this afternoon to advise that it was indeed a cell congestion problem, and that three new towers were to be deployed in the area.
They decided that since yesterday huh?
He confirmed that “an increase of subscribers in the area” was the root cause of the problem.
Given the rate at which Vodafone has been losing customers of late, an “increase” in subscribers should be something they are celebrating – but I digress.
Here’s the kicker though – he said it would take until April to rectify.
April? Four months?
That is 16% of my 24-month contract period, and I can’t have a properly functioning service whenever I’m home?
I’m usually relatively even-tempered when it comes to problems with telecommunications services. Given I work in the industry, I appreciate that things do go wrong, and they can be difficult to resolve…
…but FOUR months?
I really hope this doesn’t turn into a long running saga, but I’m putting this out here now – because it could easily become one.
The most curious thing to me is that yesterday they declared the issue resolved, yet today they need three more towers. Given that subscribers in the area are apparently “increasing”, surely they already knew this was coming? It wouldn’t – (or shouldn’t) – be perfectly fine one day, and this bad the next.
Apparently, the network was upgraded in the area a little over 12 months ago:
Given the current status of services in the area, I’m somewhat less than convinced.
Somewhat a lot.
It doesn’t seem to add up.
Lease some coverage from other carriers perhaps?
You’re being watched Vodafone – so you better come up with something a little better than your current response.
And before April, thanks.