I am wondering if anyone else out there has been experiencing woeful reception from Vodaphone? I have both a mobile phone and mobile slowband with them. It is supposed to be broadband, but I’ve done online tests, and 4 kilobytes per second (kbs) is dial up speed. I used to own a 56k dial up modem in days of old. Not sure if that was 56 kbs or kbm but it was pretty good for the day. My so called broadband has never gone above 40 kbs and rarely manages more than 14 kbs. I often have to disconnect and reconnect just to download basic stuff after 6pm.
My mobile phone is just as bad. I have repeatedly received text messages to let me know I have a voice mail only to listen to the voice mail to find that they call was missed just a minute before when the phone was in my pocket, and on. This has happened in the heart of civic, in inner city suburbs, on the bus, out at Queanbeyan, in Woden Mall, all places you would expect excellent reception.
I spoke to a Vodaphone sales person about this who admitted off the record that Vodaphone have limited transponders in Canberra which essentially means limited lines. So if they are all in use they can’t make another phone connection, and calls get routed to voicemail. Plus they know they make money off of the voice mails, and with Canberra being a ‘marginal market’ compared to larger cities, they won’t invest in infrastructure. This is also why the Internet is manageable during the day, but in the evening from 6pm when people start to log on to the Internet it slows down. It is like water pressure through a thin pipe. With a few people on, the band with is reasonable, but in the evening it just drips, at a speed no one can use. I’m sure those Vodaphone mobile users know what I am speaking about. This is even more annoying as I used to be on 3, and they told me to move to Vodaphone because they were shutting down 3. That was slow, but Vodaphone have been slower.
I’ve rang them, emailed them, and visited their stores (hence the salesman’s candid admission) and the situation has still not improved. This is pissing me off because I’ve missed calls for job leads and have been unable to open emails from recruitment companies for a day or two. It is time to move on and request a refund from Vodaphone.
So what have other people’s experiences with mobile broadband, and mobile coverage in Canberra? Which company are you with? Are you happy with the coverage and speed? Are there issues with missed calls, drop outs, or other problems? What is their customer service like when things do go wrong? What is your overall customer satisfaction with them?
Loading ...
