Network Improvement part 3 – Role of transmission sites

Our investment in improving the Vodafone network is continuing, with the work focused on bringing you a better experience and better performance from your mobile device.

Last week we looked at what we’re doing with base stations and the upgrade of their hardware and software. This week we are looking at how we improve the network by installing new hardware in our transmission sites. Our transmission sites (or TX) are what links all of our base stations wirelessly together.

TX is what allows the transmitting of voice, data and information services to your phone, wireless device or mobile broadband in and between different base stations (areas) to keep you connected to our services as you move about.

The video we have included here is an example of the works we are undertaking to improve our network by adding new transmission sites. The example we have provided is a brand new link we have installed between Waverley Tower in inner Sydney and Redfern in Central Sydney.

This brand new link will support a 50 per cent increase in TX capacity across the Vodafone sites in the areas between Waverly and Redfern, enhancing the experience of our network in these areas.

As you can see, we installed supporting mounts at both site locations and fitted new 600mm dishes and antenna units. We then ran new cables from each dishes and units to the new radios inside the cabin, which we then connected to the existing network infrastructure. The biggest challenge of course is doing all of this work two-thirds up a 100 metre tower.

The system is currently operational, and is a ‘protected link’, meaning it has a link running in parallel at all times so that if something happens it has a standby or back-up system that will take over and do the job instantaneously, so your service isn’t interrupted.

Thanks,
Peter Ryan, General Manager Network
Vodafone

For more information on updates regarding the network:

Weekly Network Update: April 1, 2011:
http://blog.vodafone.com.au/blog/news/weekly-network-update-april-110401

Customer Update: Network Improvement part 2:
http://blog.vodafone.com.au/blog/news/customer-update-network-improvement-part-2/

Weekly Network Update: March 25, 2011:
http://blog.vodafone.com.au/blog/news/weekly-network-update-march-110325

Weekly Network Update: March 18, 2011:
http://blog.vodafone.com.au/blog/news/network-update-march-110318

Customer Update: Network Improvement:
http://blog.vodafone.com.au/blog/news/customer-update-network-improvement

Network Update Michael Young:
http://blog.vodafone.com.au/blog/news/network-update-michael-young

Vodafone Network status page:
www.vodafone.com.au/networkstatus

Recent Comments

44 Responses to “ Network Improvement part 3 – Role of transmission sites ”

Tim W says:

Could these Network upgrades be affecting 3G? For the most part of the day I have been unable to access the 3G network on my iPhone
Reply
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 3:56 pm
- Vodafone Blog says:
  
  Hi Tim W,
  
  From my understanding it shouldn’t, but there’s a discussion on our forum about it that you can join – http://community.vodafone.com.au/t5/Network/bd-p/network
  
  AT
  Reply
  Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 4:18 pm
Steve says:

So just a question, is that worker on the tower in the video the only person who has been hired by vodafone to fix all the towers in Australia.
Reply
Friday, April 1, 2011 at 3:31 pm
- Vodafone Blog says:
  
  Hi Steve,
  
  Don’t think so mate.
  
  AT
  Reply
  Friday, April 1, 2011 at 4:41 pm
Joe says:

Lets see how good they do there JOB all over AU??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Reply
Saturday, April 2, 2011 at 10:25 am
Renier says:

Good day,

In all fairness, we appreciate all these updates.
But when will I the paying customer start to see results? My data is so slow – worse than dial -up, my calls are dropping, my signal lacking and my contract has only a few months left…
Reply
Tuesday, April 5, 2011 at 4:51 pm
Renier says:

My phone has dropped a call twice in a row! Like the call center all we see happening is promises without any answers! I called the “helpline” twice and after holding on for 15 minutes were told nothing is wrong!
However, I cannot have a decent conversation – the calls either dropped or they cannot hear me.

What to do…?
Reply
Wednesday, April 6, 2011 at 4:40 pm
- Vodafone Blog says:
  
  Hi Renier,
  
  Sorry for the experience you having, if you join one of our conversations in our community (http://community.vodafone.com.au/t5/Network/bd-p/network) one of our customer care team can try and assist from there.
  
  AT
  Reply
  Wednesday, April 6, 2011 at 4:51 pm
Jason says:

WE HAVE 25 VODAFONE MOBILE PHONES IN OUR BUSINESS AND HAVE NO 3G ACCESS FOR MOST PART OF THE DAY! CUSTOMERS CANNOT CALL US MOST OF THE TIME AND OUR BUSINESS IS SUFFERING! I AM MOST DEFINITELY TAKING OUR BUSINESS TO TELSTRA! VODAFONE WE HAVE BEEN WITH YOU SINCE 1991 AND NOW YOU HAVE LET US DOWN SINCE LAST YEAR. ITS JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH!
Reply
Friday, April 8, 2011 at 7:12 am
- Vodafone Blog says:
  
  Hi Jason,
  
  Could you join this conversation on our forum where our customer care team can assist you further please
  
  http://community.vodafone.com.au/t5/Network/bd-p/network
  
  Cheers
  
  AT
  Reply
  Friday, April 8, 2011 at 11:11 am
Jim says:

Vodafone, I have experienced ZERO improvements in my 3G coverage so please don’t pacify us with empty promises. You may be upgrading your infrastructure but you’re continuously advertising and getting more customers so does it mean you need to invest MUCH MUCH MORE?? Vodafone you have been causing us grief for almost a year now. My whole family and I will definitely move to another carrier when my contract is up.
Reply
Friday, April 8, 2011 at 11:25 am
- Vodafone Blog says:
  
  Hi Jim,
  
  If you are experiencing difficulties with your service, please join our conversation so our customer care team can try and assist you
  
  http://community.vodafone.com.au/t5/Network/bd-p/network
  
  AT
  Reply
  Friday, April 8, 2011 at 1:34 pm
Pim says:

I’ve been experiencing drop out all the time with my prepaid broadband USB stick. I called to 126722 for help, your tech support said it’s a free call. However I checked on mobile usage detail, it showed vodafone charge me. I rang th bill dept. He said he can’t help me because I called in the wrong number 126722 supposed for prepaid customer which I think I’m a broadbrand prepaid customer. Anyway my prepaid will end this July so I don’t think I will continue to pay for this drop out experience anymore and some of your tech support are rude and not enough knowledge. I don’t understand Vodafone use to be good with all tech support and network but now your staff are rude and hopeless and network are not good.
Reply
Friday, April 8, 2011 at 9:28 pm
Huey says:

I get constant disconnection everyday since a week or two ago, it’s absolutely unusable.
I live in McMahons Point, my friend lives in St Leonards, he also have similar problems.

Your support process is very bad, your technical support is a waste of time, they do not know anything (they call me twice because I made compliant twice from Vodafone’s online support requests), they denies everything and can’t make any decisions.

Your unusable service is totally unacceptable.
Reply
Saturday, April 9, 2011 at 7:09 am
- Vodafone Blog says:
  
  Hi Huey,
  
  Sorry for the service you’re experiencing, we are undertaking a massive network overhaul (http://blog.vodafone.com.au/blog/news/a-message-from-michael-young/) which we expect to complete in the next 12 months.
  
  If you have any specific questions, please join one of our conversations on our forum – http://community.vodafone.com.au/t5/Network/bd-p/network
  
  Cheers
  
  AT
  Reply
  Monday, April 11, 2011 at 9:54 am
Kieron Dorian says:

These updates are awesome and really give us an appreciation about what’s involved in working in and up a tower!

Thanks for the insight!
Reply
Saturday, April 9, 2011 at 12:55 pm
ian watson says:

my daughter and myself are leaving vodafone asap. since feb this year we both have had pitiful 3g coverage plus virtually NO wireless internet coverage. i went to one of your stores and all the staff could give was,” ring service difficulties ” we are in townsville nth qld and the wireless internet coverage is pure crap. i have already gone over to telstra wireless and as soon as november gets here bye bye vodafone. i have been with vodafone for approx 12 years.
Reply
Tuesday, April 19, 2011 at 6:35 pm
- Victoria says:
  
  I’ll back Ian up here. I’m, in Townsville and the service is absolutely rubbish. I too have been with Vodafone for over 10 years and will most definitely be leaving when my conatract is up. Atthe moment I’m paying $89 a month for a phone I can’t use, an internet service that never connects and rude and unknowledgeable “tech” staff on the phone. Sadly I have almost a year left to go on the contract but I’ll spend that time wisely- telling everyone I know how bad Vodafone is!
  Reply
  Saturday, April 30, 2011 at 2:24 pm
Pim says:

My message has never get any reply..and I stil got drop out with my prepaid internet all the time. So whenever my prepaid expires, i will have to say bye to Vodafone. Seriously it’s very annoying you’re on net for 2 hours but you’ve drop out almost 10 times.
Reply
Saturday, April 23, 2011 at 12:35 am
- neil says:
  
  i agree with that, I live in cairns and it is shit up here, used most of my data by just rebooting the device
  Reply
  Friday, April 26, 2013 at 1:27 pm
  - Vodafone Australia says:
    
    We don’t want your data going to waste Neil. So lets take a look into what’s going on.
    
    We’ll need to run through some troubleshooting to narrow things down. When you have a moment can you run through the steps here and pop over to our Community here and let us know the results.
    
    We’ll get the ball rolling from there.
    Brad.
    Reply
    Friday, April 26, 2013 at 3:49 pm
Aimee says:

Yeah! We see a real improvement (sarcasm intended)… especially today when no one can send messages! Bet we still have to pay our whole bill!
Reply
Sunday, April 24, 2011 at 6:47 pm
Raul says:

My coverage is definitely not improving but seems to be getting worse. Am counting the days until I can leave Vodafone for ever.
Reply
Wednesday, April 27, 2011 at 1:37 pm
Brian says:

Hi I am a senior & National exec at a tier 1 Global IT company that uses your services, I have also been a personal Vodafone customer for over a decade, I have always praised your company and your service and stood up for you against many criticisms and I’ll feeling over your recent poor service standards, however, I’m
getting pretty sick of paying good quality high value Aussie Dollars for a very ordinary service, maybe the next time you send me a bill I should take a leaf out of your book and half pay you, or pay you one dollar at a time, or perhaps pay you in Rhupees …… Lift your game Vodafone or I’ll vote with my feet!

ordinary service
Reply
Friday, April 29, 2011 at 7:38 pm
Victoria says:

For over 24 hours now I have had no internet on my phone. Yay again Vodafone- your continousl placitudes and dismissive comments aren’t winning any fans. Telling everyone on the blog the “join a discussion” is just plain insulting.

How about you drop the megabuck sponsership of Forumal 1 cars, trying to attract new customers and look after the ones you already have by putting some real money into your infrasctructure?

Pathetic
Reply
Saturday, April 30, 2011 at 2:28 pm
Darren says:

Country coverage is bad bad.Cant wait for December when my wife and I change back to Telstra.
The signal strength was good when we first signed,but it has left us standing on the back deck on one leg to get a signal.
Don’t even think about making a call from the front lounge room, we lose the signal between the lounge and kitchen.
When in Mortlake we sometimes get a signal from the Panmure tower,35km away if we are lucky.
Reply
Saturday, April 30, 2011 at 10:22 pm
Ivan says:

Worst coverage ever, can’t wait till my plan ends in 3 weeks. Will definitely be switching to another carrier, bye bye vodafone!!!
Reply
Saturday, April 30, 2011 at 11:01 pm
Dave says:

That’s a joke, right? The service is getting worse daily. Everything was fine for the first few months (a year ago). Late last year had a few problems. Past two weeks has been the biggest walking PR disaster a network could have. Last week it was about one in 40 calls could be made. I’m not talking dropouts, I’m talking totally no phone calls made or received and no text and no internet. This week it is own to zero out of 40. Am having to contract to another company because this one can’t even have to decency to reply to a query lodged last week. For my business, it’s a case of no phone-no business. The same will apply to Vodafone. No phone-no business-no payment.
Reply
Sunday, May 1, 2011 at 3:31 pm
Sheena says:

I share the same frustration as everybody else, no reception in my own house, dropouts and sometimes I try to call somebody and the only way I can is to turn my phone off and restart the thing and maybe it comes back.

Vodafone had awesome reception at a great price in the beginning but has gotten way too bad to ignore this past year.

I even went to a Vodafone store to see if they can convince me to stay but I was told to shop around and given a brochure to compare. What a palm off, even their store staff couldnt give two hoots.

Looks like Telstra is the way to go…
Reply
Wednesday, May 4, 2011 at 5:36 pm
ash says:

I live on the Gold Coast in QLD and the network has improved alot in the last few months. Im very happy with the signal where i live and voda have the best plans in australia!
Reply
Thursday, May 12, 2011 at 7:55 pm
- Vodafone Blog says:
  
  Thanks Ash, appreciate the support!
  
  AT
  Reply
  Friday, May 13, 2011 at 2:57 pm
Grumps says:

What about a few more rural towers, we have one old one in Jimboomba 4280 and the coverage is terrible, in fact in town it’s really crappy…..but so is Optus.

Please fix up Jimboomba…we have had bad coverage for years….we need a tower close to town not 5 k away
Reply
Friday, June 3, 2011 at 8:04 pm
ile razmovsski says:

could you tell me weather the couvage in lake heights 2502 NSW is going to get a new updated coverage here is the service terrible internet is slow and calls drop out
Reply
Friday, November 11, 2011 at 10:36 pm
- Dana says:
  
  Hi ile,
  
  The network upgrades and news page has quite a few upgrades listed for that postcode. You can check here by popping your postcode into the “Find about coverage in your area” box.
  
  Cheers,
  Dana.
  Reply
  Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 12:40 pm
James says:

Why don’t you invest in technology like fibre so you don’t have a rubbish network?
Reply
Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 8:52 am
Lozza says:

I I live in Ashmore Gold Coast and work from home. My service is extremely poor and I don’t believe they are upgrading anything as the Brisbane to Gold Coast corridor has always been iffy and still is.

Driving this rout I have 3 spots my phone cuts out in.

I work for a multination company with 38,000 employee’s, we had a change to pullout and we were promised the world to stay and lo-and -behold, we went with this rubbish again.

In the middle of important phone conferences the Mobile drops or people can hear me. I never new my type of phone’s actually have four bars to measure the reception until I put a Telstra simm in it late last year. I thought it was half a bar to two bars measurement. Who knew?

My 3G is non-existent or I have never got 1Mbps. With the Telstra simm I can get up to 18Mbps (same phone ).

Our internal Service Desk and phone department is full of complaints and we keep seeing these types of nonsense advertising that is rubbish. No one in SE-Queensland has seen any improvement. My immediate manage has to go out side his house and stand in the back corner of his house to make calls, he can take calls because he has no bars on his phone….

Why am I even bothering writing here…
Reply
Sunday, April 1, 2012 at 3:57 am
- Vodafone Australia says:
  
  Hi Lozza,
  
  Our help and support team will be able to look in to any issues you’re facing, as well as inform you of any upgrades happening in your area. So they can look in to this, please post on our Vodafone Community.
  
  Thanks,
  Sarah.
  Reply
  Monday, April 2, 2012 at 9:05 am
warwick Goldsbro says:

why is it that after the upgrade I now have NO SERVICE!!!
Reply
Friday, September 14, 2012 at 6:41 pm
- warwick Goldsbro says:
  
  and I am also trying to run a business
  Reply
  Friday, September 14, 2012 at 6:43 pm
- Andrew Tran says:
  
  Hi Warwick,
  
  Sounds like you need our assistance, our social representatives are happy to help.
  
  If you could please post your question relating to your service on our Vodafone Community
  
  Cheers
  
  AT
  Reply
  Saturday, September 15, 2012 at 4:39 pm
J.F.Aiello says:

Still have very week signal in the Hastings indoor area, with No signal at all when I pick up the Handset, I was told by three support, that all my problems should be over in March, and here we are, I did notice a rise in signal Strength at the begining of March, but as I mentioned it dissapears when I handle the Phone ???? n97 Mini. I can use my old nokia N73, but this is so anoying.
Reply
Monday, March 18, 2013 at 8:34 pm
- Vodafone Australia says:
  
  Hey J.F.Aiello,
  
  We’re really keen to take a closer look at the troubles you are having in Hastings. So that we can follow this up with you individually could you please head over to the Vodafone Community Forum here and make a new thread outlining the issues you are facing. Our help and support team will then pick it up and help you out with your coverage.
  
  Thanks,
  
  Llell
  Reply
  Tuesday, March 19, 2013 at 10:43 am
J.F.Aiello says:

Howver looking at the Blogs above and the dates I realy dont know why I bother, The three rep yold me it was the phone frequencies, interupting themselves, I dont think so.. (the N97 mini) I have checked the frequencies, they are much the same as any other quad Freq mobile, my son has a iPhone 4, and that has not worked very well in Hastings since August 2012, but was charged all the way, even after telling Three he had no service. I am trying to run a business.
Reply
Monday, March 18, 2013 at 8:48 pm
Mat says:

Kudos vodafone for showing progress like this. Great idea to show this. Shows the effort involved in carrying out the work. Thanks to the workers for taking those risks as well. You probably don’t get the thanks you deserve.
Reply
Sunday, April 7, 2013 at 3:56 pm

Vodafone blog