Starting from December 26th, Raglan 23 has had reports of poor mobile service in Raglan on the Telecom network. Either there was no mobile coverage at all or mobile broadband was not working. The worst period was from the 26th December up to 2nd January, although the issue is continuing from time-to-time.
We asked Telecom what was going on. Their spokesperson said, ” We’ve seen heavy mobile congestion across lots of holiday hotspots around NZ – like Raglan – this Xmas and New Years period.
Each year we analyse data increases during the same period last year to help model expected increase in mobile traffic and increase capacity at these points. We have increased capacity at dozens of holiday sites around NZ including Raglan.
Nationwide this summer we’ve seen a huge increase in mobile traffic compared to last year – up to 6 times as much in key holiday areas (compared to a general 2-3 times increase experienced in previous years). This is driven by increase in mobile data usage via smartphones (use of apps, uploading and downloading large picture and video files etc) which place as greater demand on our network.
We fully understand the frustration customers feel when there is congestion on the network, and so would like to apologise to those people who have had problems. Our teams have been working around the clock to ensure the network is working as efficiently as possible, and we will also be taking long term learnings out of this when it comes to preparing for next year.
I understand that it should all be going back to normal now after congestion was experienced primarily on the 30th and 31st in the lead up to the big spike at New Year’s Eve when people sent their new year’s wishes. It appears though that some lingering mobile degradation sounds like it is lingering in Raglan particularly. The technical teams are working on managing the traffic loads appropriately and we should see an easing off of congestion from now :)”