The recent Vodafail coverage that helps rival telco CEOs sleep well at night, might be finally coming to an end soon – that is, if their latest press statement has any bearing on actual network coverage.
The important part of the news is that Vodafone have agreed to a massive ‘rebuild’ of their ailing network, including $1 billion in investment money procured from the recent 3/Vodafone merger going towards the overall network refresh and 2500 sites to be built or upgraded over the course of this year.
While it’s hard to know where to point the finger exactly, the statement reveals that Vodafone place much of their recent service woes down to the “explosive growth in the popularity of smartphones and mobile broadband” in 2010. But wasn’t just your iPhone and Android smartphone getting in the way of progress. Michael Young, Chief Technology Officer at Vodafone Hutchison Australia had another explanation for the drop-outs: interference from neighbouring sites and unstable software.
“We also discovered that some of the new and upgraded sites were either resetting autonomously or interfering with other neighbouring sites – causing intermittent and immediate disruptions to voice and data traffic for some customers” – Michael Young.
In addition to confessing their recent sins, Vodafone hope to make amends by fast-tracking plans for a new 3G network (originally planned in October 2010) with 386 new sites already added and 1,500 additional sites planned for 2011. And in what may surprise some, the company have also been experimenting with better-than decent speeds across their 4G network. Those trials successfully saw speeds as high as 73Mbps – not too shabby when you consider the average 3G speed is but a fraction of that figure. But don’t get too excited: the real-world figure will be much lower than that in practice.
Still, when it comes to major Vodafone bugbears, much hate is directed at the Vodafone customer service centre – or lack of service to be blunt. Talk to any Vodafone customer and they’ll tell you exactly how excruciatingly difficult it is to get in contact with anybody when it really matters. To counter these complaints, Vodafone have also hired 300 extra customer service staff to assist with the load.
We’ll let Nigel Dews, Vodafone’s Aussie CEO have the final word on this:
“We’ve been working hard to improve our network and service but still have work to do. We have a very clear picture of what needs to be done and it’s already well underway. Our plans have been accelerated and we have the teams and resources in place and the right focus to deliver for our customers.”
If you’re one of the many Vodafone customers left out in the cold, let us know in the comments section below.
Ben H
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 11:07 AMAdelaide vodafone user here.
No problems in the city, but no coverage at all in the Adelaide hills just 20 minutes from the CBD.
Tony Tang
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 11:08 AMI gave them 4 months to improve their services or I’m cancelling my contract and moving to another carrier. My iphone 4 has a 1.5gb data plan on it. I’m struggling to get 50-100mb user per month because I simply cannot connect for mobile data.
Sam O'Donovan
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 11:13 AMUpper Mount Gravatt no signal probblems, cant say that for the most of northern Brisbane, and the entirety of the Sunshine Coast. I’ve been a happy vodafone customer for the past 5 years. It’s only in the last year or so that I’ve noticed major issues.
Tim
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 12:28 PMI’m in Nathan, just a good stone’s throw from upper mt gravatt, and I get no service for most of the dayl. Data connection speeds are a joke too…
Trjn
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 1:36 PM3 customer in Sunnybank, 3G coverage in and around my house is next to non-existent, with a few pockets where I can get a bar or two of reception. Same situation in some friends’ houses around Macgregor, where I even lose non-3G coverage.
I honestly don’t know why I’ve stuck with them so long.
mark
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 11:18 AMWell Optus/Virgin CEO’s shouldn’t be sleeping to well. The service (Armidale, NSW) has been shocking. Missed calls, late txt, unusable data speed and can hardly use the phone for voice at peak times.
Andrew
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 11:24 AMI was with vodafone for three months, coverage in Canberra is disgraceful. I complained to voda and they told me they are upgrading, but thats doesn’t help me now. So I went to the Telecommunications Obudsman (http://www.tio.com.au/) within 10 days Vodafone rang me and released me from my 24 month contract without any fees. I would suggest that course of action to anyone that isn’t happy with Vodafone.
nick
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 11:24 AMToo little too late…I lodged a complaint 2 months ago with the TIO , 10 days later I was let out of my contract with no fees to pay other than to unlock my iphone from the vodafail network for $25, Wouldn’t consider going back as for far too long they blamed me and my phone not their network.
Dan Miller
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 11:39 AMTo little to late for me. I got my contracts canceled by the TIO 3 weeks ago. I will never recommend Voda to anyone.
Martin Smyth
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 11:51 AMIm with Vodafone and the coverage is so bad and i get such a slow connection and i asked to cancel the contract and they gave me the option to go on 3 and its much much better for now so anyone who wants to get off Vodafone quickly ask to be transfered to 3
Daniel
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 12:12 PMHmmm, Interesting. My 3 broadband plan is so slow that at night I measure my bandwidth in bytes per second when trying to browse the net. It not usable at all and pages usually time out before they even load. Early morning are usually better but still not great.
I have complained to 3 customer service and they offered to transfer my service to Vodafone or cancel my contract without cost, opposite to Martin from above who gets told the go from Vodafone to Three.
Nads
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 11:56 AMI get great 3G near the airport in Canberra where I work, but at home just north of Canberra CBD I get barely any data speed if I get data at all. When I go to Sydney CBD area I get piss poor data connections too.
I also have problems where friends on other networks cannot send me MMS messages (they never appear on my phone) though when I call Vodafone they say it must be other the carriers fault, though my friends can send MMS to other friends on Vodafone fine etc so its clearly a problem with my connection. But since I can only get through to idiots in India (after waiting 30-60 minutes on hold) , they refuse to help as they just go through their scripted responses.
People in the stores just tell me to call customer service..
There is no customer service!
Lucas Brown
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 12:23 PMIt seems I’m one of the few people here who can positively comment on vodafone. I’m on an unlimited plan that includes 3gb download that I can happily tether to my laptop – I get a steady ~120kbps and its perfect for playing WoW on the move. :P
Cam
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 12:26 PMI tried to have a phone conversation with a friend (on voda, i’m on telstra) who was stationary at mt gravatt (qld) last week. 4 disconnections, about double that in retried phone calls later (half of which just didnt connect) and we gave up.
Meanwhile I (telstra) can talk with a friend (also on telstra) for 30+ minutes while we both drive home of a night without a single dropout.
Mitch
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 1:14 PMYeah that’s why I love Telstra. I’m 21 and have always lived well out of town until a few weeks ago, so I’ve always had no choice but to go with Telstra. But even now living in town, I still stay with them because their network is so much better (partially because they don’t allow other providers to use their networks), calls never drop out and are always crystal clear.
My Optus prepaid wireless internet randomly drops out for no reason, randomly switches from 3G data to crappy 2G data and can be sitting in the same spot as my Telstra phone and have no signal.
Long story short: It’s great Vodafone is doing this, but I’m staying with Telstra.
Caesar Wong
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 12:36 PMWith all these people quitting Voda, it might just become the best network around ‘coz there will be so few people using it. Hahaha…
Elio Ross
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 12:38 PMThank god! It is about time!!!
cal
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 1:01 PMCurrently sitting in my office waiting for a Telstra rep to drop off 3 new iPhone’s to port over from three. Good riddance 3/Vodafone!!
James
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 1:25 PMI’ve been with Vodafone for about 6 months after previously being with 3. I get good coverage but the internet is ridiculously slow and sometimes won’t work at all. It makes a smart phone almost useless. Am considering getting out of the contract via the TIO soon and going to another carrier.
Luke
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 1:51 PMI decided to give Vodafone another chance about six months ago. To this day I have not had any acceptable data speeds (on the mobile or via tethering). I’ve also experienced calls dropping out on numerous occasions.
I’ve began to see the “value” (unfair monopoly) in Telstra’s decent coverage and data speeds.
Melbourne CBD & South East Melbourne
Bob
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 2:01 PMDo vodafone even know what the issue is?
was it software? not if they’re going to rebuild the network.
was it smartphones? not if they’re going to rebuild the network.
In October they were going to added 386 new sites and 1,500 new in 2011.
Now in 2011 the numbers have changed, they going to rebuild 5500 sites and add 2200 new sites.
Do they even have a clue?
Do they have until 2012 ?
j.a.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 2:14 PMVodafone network is becoming awful since last year. My Blackberry 9700 lose its 3G data connection quite frequently, especially when I’m returning home from Brisbane CBD. Even at home, I must use WiFi because otherwise it won’t work smoothly. 2G network works continuously but it’s quite slow.
3 network is better in the city because it’s still shared with Telstra, however at 20 minutes from the city, there is no coverage and roaming charges apply.
Have you used Lara, Vodafone’s automated service? She tries to be nice but she never understand what you say. When you are upset and pretty close to hang up, finally she transfers you to a real operator.
Dave
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 2:28 PMJust called and had a chat with the coverage people from vodafone. I am traveling internationally from tomorrow avo so I don’t really want to cancel my contract just yet, but I did get them to make my contract only cost me half for the next 3 months. A good start.
Greg
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 2:48 PMTalk is cheap. The network is still rubbish.
It doesn’t matter how many times they apologise, they’ve already destroyed any hope of regaining customers’ trust and business in the future.
Why don’t they just go the way of Ansett and die already.
Dazza Harding
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 3:06 PMI just moved from 3 to Vodafone cause I didn’t get any coverage in and about my home. Vodafone was nothing but helpful (when I got through to them), and now I have okay speeds and connection all the time, the only time I’ve lost connection is when I’ve been in the Adelaide Train Station.
Think I might stay with them for a very long time.
David Heseltine
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 3:11 PMI happily left vodafone last week. Ported 2 iphones over to telstra. They kept trying to tell me they were investigating the issues, or try resetting your iphone etc. Terrible customer service, finally decided to go straight through to cancellations. Threatened them with the TIO and was eventually released from a 2 year contract. So happy to be with Telstra now and finally have 3g coverage, inside my house! Used to have to stand on one leg on top of the roof to get 1 bar of 2g coverage with vodafone!
Nads
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 3:21 PM@Greg Vodafone is one of the worlds biggest mobile telco’s they are just being tight in Australia not spending any money on their network… they are not going to disappear anytime soon but.
Greg
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 4:09 PMAs insightful as your reply would seem, yes, I am aware of the fact that Vodafone is a global brand. Perhaps they should pack up their horrible Australian operation, though.
Hel
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 3:30 PMI had good service for 2 years but issues since December. Customer service were ok but I’d be an ex-customer IF they didn’t botch my billing and owe me $400 credit which I’m slowly clawing back each month… Hmmm.
Michael Pengilley
Tuesday, February 22, 2011 at 3:33 PMOur business (50+ employees) got out of our business contract by complaining to the telecommunication Ombudsmen. Never had coverage and we are in the middle of Canberra… go figure. The business and I personally will never return to Voda, Even with the upgrade Telstra will just smack em with LTE soon enough.