8degrees of vaughan rowsell

Sneak peak on the Telecom XT network… from the fringes

May 28, 2009 at 8:33 pm In Getting Things Done, Web, stuff I like, 3 Comments

As you may or may not know I have currently put most of my digital work live on hold and am cycling up the country on a bicycle, tweeting, blogging and posting video as I go all over on http://www.nzuphill.co.nz.

Well, the other day I was given a new SIM card for the new Telecom XT network, which I quickly poked into my iPhone. And so I have come out of temporary hiatus on 8degrees.co.nz to let you know what I found. After a quick change to the APN setting on my iPhone I was away, calling and surfing on the new XT network, and THIS is what I found:

1. Coverage
2. 3G speeds
3. and all from the fringes of civilisation

I must confess I felt like a kid in a candy shop, as I rode my bike from small town to small town with a permanent 3G signal and pretty decent speeds. The speeds I have been getting are obviously not fast compared to a fixed line DSL, so don’t be expecting any crazy crazy speeds just yet, but considering I can do 3G things at good 3G speeds from places like Leigh and Mangawhai, well this is a new experience for me. And if I can get 3G from further up the line as I go, I must say, with only a little hesitation, I would be very very tempted to switch from my 15 year relationship with Vodafone (BellSouth pre Vodafone) and move to Telecom New Zealand if it allows me to make full use of the iPhone that Vodafone sold me, while sitting in my local Kerikeri cafe, where to date even a basic data connection on Vodafone is a rare thing depending on where you stand on the main street and if the sky is overcast.

So Vodafone will bump things up on their own network soon. Well they sure as hell have to, as within minutes I quickly moved (albeit temporally for the moment) onto what so far seems to be a faster broader network and I kept my phone. If I can have number portability to boot, then what’s to stop me? (apart from slightly more expensive data plans). I felt a little hurt that Vodafone let another network provide better toys first. What about all the 10′s of thousands of dollars I have sent their way over the years? Couldn’t some of it gone towards a better network before Telecom got their act together?

What confuses me is why didn’t Vodafone upgrade their network pre XT launch? I have heard from quite a few previously loyal Vodafone customers already saying they are very very tempted to move networks if all Telecom say is true. Well so far I am finding it to be very true, a dramatic improvement on the connections I have been getting on the Vodafone network. Sure it is not all about data speeds and coverage, there is all the other services that you should probably compare to be 100% apples with apples, but to be honest, my needs are pretty simple. I want fast data wherever I go. I don’t care much for voice mail, or the online interface I use to access my bill. I pay every month for fast data and good great coverage, because without those things I cant access my bill online and I can’t check my voice mail from anywhere I might be around our beautiful country.

So it is still early days yet. As I continue my mad mad cycle up the country I will be comparing coverage and data speeds as I go from my bike, from the tops of hills and down in the valleys. At the beach and in the middle of the towns that until now seem to have been forsaken by GSM networks. And if I decide I’m not going to stop at the lighthouse in Cape Reinga, well at least I have the option as a potential Telecom customer to roam to another foreign GSM network with my phone and continue my ride. Perhaps cycling from one side of Europe to the other… hmmm…