At the start of July, Voda said that over half the roll-out of its new 850MHz network is complete, and that users of smartphones in particular should now be experiencing more coverage and improved performance. What’s been your experience in July?
The telco also says its own data indicates that since January, it’s improved drop calls by 18 per cent, and data reliability by 66 per cent. Lifehacker recently tested 3G data on the Voda network in the Central Coast and Newcastle areas of NSW, with than impressive results anywhere north of Gosford.
As always, I’ve disabled multiple voting. [Vodafone]
The network improvements are also ongoing:
By the end of the year an additional 520 sites will have been upgraded and 500 network sites added across the country to improve coverage, signal strength, and overall network quality
…
In April, Vodafone also embarked on a project to replace network equipment and install the latest, state of the art Huawei equipment at all network sites across Australia, to increase reliability and overall network quality.
Ben H
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 5:31 PMNo worries, ever, in Adelaide. But I have had data issues in the Adelaide Hills and Darling Harbour, Sydney.
poedgirl
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 5:39 PMHA!
Pretty much all I have to say. I’ll be glad at the end of this month when my contract expires.
Kent
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 5:39 PMI have awful receptions everywhere except where there is dense concentrations of wealthy people living in an area, then my calls never have any quality, get dropped and cant use any data.
Huraah!
Andreas
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 5:44 PMFor me here in Perth it is worst when on the train during my commute to and from work. There are not hardly any tunnels but it does drop in and out on a regular basis. My Legend will often sit there with just the upload arrow locked on not getting any response while on 3G.
It is also annoying when the phone sits there constantly switching between HSPDA and 3G. It won’t make up its mind either way and no data goes through while it constantly switches between them.
Phil
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 6:49 PMTelstra drops out on the train line too, especially the Perth-Freo between Subi and Claremont.
Andreas
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 7:30 PMI don’t travel much on the Freo line and if I do mostly just to Subi. With Voda from Citywest it gets flaky and then from West Leederville until the start of the tunnel it is just unusable.
Sam
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 5:51 PMI’m doomed for crap coverage regardless of how much of their new network is rolled out, as my area isn’t on the list for upgrades.
Vodafone support have already told me that there is nothing further they can offer me, other than for me to pay off the remainder of my handset and waive the early exit fee, or receive 50% of my monthly access fee for 6 months.
Piss weak.
Sam.D.
Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 7:03 PMDon’t accept it, Sam. I had the same feedback from those useless so-and-so’s in their call centre in India. So I rang the telecommunications ombudsman and told them. Two days later an Aussie lady rang me from Vodafone’s retention centre in Tasmania and told me that because their data reception in my area is so piss weak and there’s no plan to upgrade, I’m allowed off my contract AND I can send my phones back and not pay the remainder of the phone costs.
I suggest you call the telecommunications ombudsman’s office too.
salmonpie
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 6:04 PMI have only had issues when visiting family in WA In Melbs and with family up in rural Victoria has always been great. As a note I I went to the UK a couple of months ago and the Vodafone reception in rural England was worse than in Oz
Michael
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 6:09 PMJust changes to Telstra. Last week on vodafone I couldn’t make a call from a square in the centre of town. Today on Telstra I made a call 6 floors underground in the car park. It is UNBElIEVABLE that there is such a difference inthe network. I’d pay tripple the $$ – it’s worth it.
Dan
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 6:16 PMI get way better coverage now then I did 6 months ago. All so their 3G speeds have improved. I get 5MB in and around places where I used to get 512KBps speeds. Speed is still crap where I live but that’s ok as I’m on wifi when I’m home.
Chris
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 7:11 PMCanberra’s still very intermittent.
CK
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 7:30 PM+1
My phone loses reception in my pocket, the signal is so weak and sporadic.
Tony
Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 9:12 AM+1
They really need to do something about the nation’s capital. It’s shocking.. sure i can get repection in Civic.. but head anywhere else and things get patchy.
Maybe it’s the fact i’ve got an iPhone 3GS but I still shouldn’t have one bar of reception in a top floor apartment 2km from parliament house.
Dave C
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 7:36 PMI don’t get it. THe new network is 850Mhz, so apart from the iPhone, the rest of the phones vodafone offer won’t be able to access the new network. So how does this new network improve coverage?
Justin Reading
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 8:02 PMI am been experiencing problems since Oct 2009. For almost a year Vodafail blamed everything thing else under the sun for my issues but never their network. It got persistant that when u finally gave in and upgraded from iPhone to HTC Desire HD the same problens persisted. I went back to my local store and just about tore them a new one. I got 6 monhs free access, that is the only thing that kept me around.
Jay
Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 6:43 PMYou don’t need an 850 phone to experience the upgrades, it lowers congestion as iPhone and other 850 phone users are offloaded onto that network, freeing up traffic.
I use a HTC Desire HD, it’s not 850, but regardless I’m happy with all the improvements I’ve seen, but I’m still not happy with data speeds in some areas
Jay
Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 6:44 PMUghhh, ignore me Justin, that was meant to go to Dave above you
Dave
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 8:31 PMMy 3G speed was running at about 1.5 MB/s before. I was changed to the new frequency and its now 0.8 MB/s.
Not happy Jan
Glenn
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 8:49 PMMy coverage has definitely improved, dropped calls at almost zero now. Still have data issues when on the northern part of the central coast.
the 850 network will work with all new smartphone’s I believe, I know my sgs2 does.
Peter
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 8:56 PMSelling prepaid Vodafone, admittedly not as much as before, but no major customer reports beyond the usual. Seeing more Virgin refunds if anything.
Muzz
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 10:05 PMVodafail..it’s pretty useless upgrading to 850MHz network when most of the handsets you sell now don’t use that network. For example one of your biggest sellers the HTC Desire HD…nope..doesnt work on 850MHz…otherwise I’d would have dropped you faster than you could say vodafail and gone to Telstra.
Just counting the days until Telstra brings outs the HTC Sensatation and I’ll be banging on your door getting my contract canceled to move to Telstra. I figured no point paying for a cheap mobile and network access if it doesn’t work. I suppose my mother told me “cheap is what cheap gets”
mike
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 9:15 PMSensation in stock at Telstra NOW! seems like good stock levels, but selling fast!
James Allan
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 11:40 PMHere, less than 5km from the centre of Canberra, I still can’t load any web pages and spend most of my time with no service on my iPhone. When i first signed up at the end of 2009 the reception was comparable to the Optus USB dongle I had been using and as a result I ditched that in favour of tethering. Within six months the service had become unusable. While the basic Google homepage loads on a Telstra T-tab in under five seconds, after several minutes my iPhone gives up. After feeling lonely and forgotten on my birthday early last week, Vodafone decided to send through about a dozen voicemail messages five days after they had been left for me. I have been paying for a premium service for 18 months now and receiving barely any. Enquiries and complaints have remained unanswered. It will be a good day when my contract ends, and I will actively campaign to make sure nobody I know ever subscribes to any Vodafone services.
Denis
Friday, July 1, 2011 at 11:47 PMwhen I started 3 years ago, slow at home but generally OK at the places I visited. Now it’s improved dramatically and on occasions I can get better download speeds than my naked dsl.
I’ve always had good service when contacting them as well.
Steve
Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 12:04 AMWhere’s the 5th option? “My contract doesn’t end soon and I’m screwed for the next 10 months”
chris
Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 12:18 AMthey cant eve send me my bill to my phone, all i ever get is due to techincal diff. you willneedto go to our website to veiw your bill…..poor ass Mo Fo’s
Hugh
Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 12:58 AMIn Brisbane, and data connectivity has dropped out for most of this week. It is not a reception problem, as I usually have full reception, but I usually can’t even connect to the net. Such a *lots of bad words* network to be on. Really can not see how that have improved any of their network.
Jay
Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 3:31 AMMy contract is just 3-6 months into the contract, can I claim a refund as I am unable to use Vodafone’s service where as on my optus phone I have better reception and service, the reason for paying two services is that the service from Vodafone sucks… last time I ended up paying for a Blackberry device, this time for an iPhone4.
Sam.D.
Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 7:09 PMI rang the telecommunications ombudsman and two days later Vodafone rang me and said I can cancel my contract and send back the phone I was paying off outright and not pay anymore.
Chumly
Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 9:35 AMI’m in or near Sydney CBD most of the time so maybe my experience is better than some but I’ve noticed an improvement tothe point where there is no longer an issue.
data can still be slow when on the move but when I compare to friends with Telstra accounts it’s pretty similar.
Pete
Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 11:29 AMVoice is fine, data is OK most of the time – but their website is absolute CRAP and has been for years. Took me 30 min to try to login yesterday – stilll haven’t – and got messages saying “database error – technical support has been notified”. What a comfort!
Jack
Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 12:00 PMIt is surprising to read that many people here who are having issues with their network coverage are simply waiting for their contracts to finish and bear the pain.
If your coverage is pretty bad, make a complaint to Vodafone first. If talking to Vodafone didn’t help, make a complaint to the ombudsman (TIO) and you will be out of your contract in no time.
Sam.D.
Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 7:12 PMAs I replied above, that’s exactly what I did and two days after calling the TIO, Vodafone rang me and I had my contract cancelled and handset payments cancelled also (with the return of the phone). Telstra here I come.
Chris Mid
Saturday, July 2, 2011 at 7:34 PMI have copied and pasted this from an ealier article on Giz, this is my Vodafail story from a few months back, may help some of you get out of your plan……
I was 7 months in to a 24mnth plan and they let me out of my contract with zero cost. They asked that i return the phone (16GB iPhone 4), i asked if i could purchase it from them and was told that it would be approx $540.
I then asked if i could speak to someone else to see if i could achieve a better deal. The operator told me that was the best he could do, but would get another department to call me back the next day.
The ‘Customer Relations Department’ (or something like that) called me the next day and i managed to get the iPhone for $175 and they waived the unlock fee ($25 i think). The guy that i dealt with was called Malcolm, who’s service and manner were excellent. How ironic that the best service i get from Vodafone is when i am leaving them.
Anyway, my point is, give them a call and try to negotiate a deal for the handset, $175 for a 7 mnth old iPhone 4…..thanks Vodafone ;)