We have had feedback from visitors to Raglan this summer that there was no Vodafone 3G Broadband coverage in the town. Their laptop adapters weren’t providing broadband speeds and their mobiles were running at slow speeds. We thought we had better investigate this. Vodafone’s website shows that Raglan and a small area around it has 3G Broadband coverage. Some lower areas in the town are shown without coverage, but those are the same areas that lack regular mobile coverage. So we asked the visitors to check out coverage in an area with line of sight to the cell site tower. The result was still no coverage.
We checked with Paul Brislen, Vodafone’s External Communication Manager and he told us that Raglan has a type of 3G coverage known as ‘3G Extended’. This works in a completely different band to Vodafone’s normal coverage and provides better coverage where there is only one cell site tower as is the case in Raglan. He also said that while some of Vodafone’s phone work OK with 3G coverage, some will not and will only work in city areas at high broadband speeds. In Raglan they will work but at much lower speeds.
Vodafone’s web site lists the following phones and broadband adapters as capable of working in Raglan using 3G Extended coverage: Vodem Stick, Vodem Stick Pro, Nokia 3120C, Nokia 5320, Nokia 5800, Nokia 6121, Nokia E63, Nokia E71, Nokia E75, Nokia N85, Nokia N96, SE W715, Sony Ericsson X1 and LG KS500.
So if you have a regular Vodafone 3G mobile or broadband adapter, it won’t work at Broadband speeds in Raglan. If you are buying a Vodafone 3G broadband phone make sure you get one from the list above that works with 3G Extended coverage. Paul Brislen advised that Vodafone customers wanting to check coverage levels would be best advised to visit www.Vodafone.co.NZ/coverage