Are vodafone still rolling out 3G

[MRGS1]

Are vodafone still rolling out 3g? where i work a 3G mast was built about a year ago but never turned on it showed up on website to be up and running in six months but long gone and another mast only 2.5G turned on and not 3G part, maybe they are slowing it all down because of the losses,they still have'nt bulit another mast to replace one which is being removed because building is being knocked down they are very on the ball not!

[IanG]

Hi,

Sorry to hear of the problems you're having with 3G coverage in your area. Vodafone currently have 73% 3G coverge in the UK. As a regulatory requirement Vodafone are commited to having 80% of the population with 3G coverage by 2007.

The UK Vodafone website are currently in the process of revamping their coverage map and updating the option which will show the planned 3G coverage maps for six months time. This can be found at the below at the below link:

http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=Page_BOS_Coverage&pageID=GM_0067

[MRGS1]

Hi,

Sorry to hear of the problems you're having with 3G coverage in your area. Vodafone currently have 73% 3G coverge in the UK. As a regulatory requirement Vodafone are commited to having 80% of the population with 3G coverage by 2007.

The UK Vodafone website are currently in the process of revamping their coverage map and updating the option which will show the planned 3G coverage maps for six months time. This can be found at the below at the below link:

http://online.vodafone.co.uk/dispatch/Portal/appmanager/vodafone/wrp?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=Page_BOS_Coverage&pageID=GM_0067
They still have not updated map to give six months ahead, percents should be taken with a pinch of salt if these fourums are anything to go by i suspect figure is lower for all networks. Vodafone were rolling 3G out quickly until those losses were announced that can be the only reason it cannot be population because they covered areas with only a quarter of poulation, i suspect its slow going from now on strange why all other networks have covered stroud and not Vodafone, but other networks only updated existing masts Vodafone were going to build all new costly compared to upgrade.

[Jethro]

The coverage for 3G is still growing alongside coverage in general.

Radio network design is a very technical discipline and it's important to remember Vodafone have an incredibly complex network. Up until recently some equipment could have been up to 10 years old in some places.

Vodafone also have a large and complex base of cell sites, with limited licensing flexibility for some frequencies.

The are also in the process of many project's to upgrade and modernise all layers of the UK network. Until this is complete planned service outage can be more frequent and resources available diminished.

It is important to take all these factors into account when assessing network growth and quality especially when being geographically specific.

Note:

It's also important to remember high speed mobile internet user's are mainly business!

[MRGS1]

The coverage for 3G is still growing alongside coverage in general.

Radio network design is a very technical discipline and it's important to remember Vodafone have an incredibly complex network. Up until recently some equipment could have been up to 10 years old in some places.

Vodafone also have a large and complex base of cell sites, with limited licensing flexibility for some frequencies.

The are also in the process of many project's to upgrade and modernise all layers of the UK network. Until this is complete planned service outage can be more frequent and resources available diminished.

It is important to take all these factors into account when assessing network growth and quality especially when being geographically specific.

Note:

It's also important to remember high speed mobile internet user's are mainly business!Here is some plain English for you jethro it was a valid question since they built one mast in my area and on website coverage would start in 6 months nearly a year has passed and nothing then lots of UMTS masts appear on sitefinder for my area which they have not even built do you think thats the right way to roll out a network? the other 3g networks just built the masts turned on thats it but vodafone just messed about getting loads of planning applications and doing nothing most will expire very soon.

[Jethro]

It's a very valid point that the service displayed and the service available were at odd's with each other.

However as I am neither a Radio network planning or resources engineer I cannot offer an explanation as to the planning or resource rollout process currently employed.

If you feel the coverage map is inaccurate you can provide feedback to customer services or via the coverage site itself.

I don’t think Vodafone’s telecommunication systems are deploying or handling the continued 3G rollout poorly, however the setting of customer expectation as to the service level may be inaccurately represented by the coverage viewer.

The only thing I can suggest is making a complaint regarding the coverage viewer service.