An issue that has been bugging me for past couple years, is the trouble when you go somewhere outside the city and find you cant get a data connection on 4G. One such location is up the back of Jenolan Caves (west of Sydney), we visit and stay here nearly every year. I noticed more in recent years the difficulty sustaining a data connection or ability to make a phone call or send an SMS, this is on the Optus network, we have gone with the family so there are several of us with various phones all on Optus. I blamed Optus for a poor network, as it getting worse each year. Now the reason I question this is because =, I did some study into this as I can clearly look across the valley and see 4 or 5 cell towers, I used the Cell Phone Signal App to identify the towers I can see, where Optus operating from. I can identify what their signal strength is and which bands they operate on. In the recent visit last July, I also took note of the times I could and couldnt get access to the network (this is on iPhones6's and Samsung7 and Samsung8)
Basically, I could only guarantee a connection very early in the morning (ie 6-7am or very late at night) so this proved it based on the load of the network, or the concentration of users accessing the network. I found I had to drive into Oberon to get a reliable connection for phone, SMS & data. This is interesting, because you can see the signal bars are showing the phone can see a cell tower, but it just unbale to establish a connection.
Next, on a visit to Tumut, did a drive up to top of Snowy Mtns, we drove to Kiandra, I noticed at one stage on the drive, signal dropped out, but up on top of the plateau at approx 1500m ASL, none of our phone could establish a connection, even though, the phone showing several bars of signal, driving back to Tumut, can see there is signal, but no, it dont want to establish a connection, arrive back in Tumut, all the phones re-establish connection. At this point I getting pretty pissed off with Optus, I am thinking what the hell is wrong with their network.
Yes, I drove from Sydney down the Hume Highway, coverage all the way, no data dropout, as I had my APRS Droid App running on my phone, I can see all the way from Sydney to tumut, 100% coverage on Optus 4G. So question is why is it not working up in the mountains, when I know there is signal present.
Move to November 21st, 2020, the club I belong to go to Mt Allyn for a radio contest. drive up, set up on top of the mountain, 1135m ASL, I need to get on the web to tell people where we are, I notice the phone connection dropping out, but I sitting on top of a mountain, there are towns just down the road, I can see them in the distance, and I know the phone was working whilst driving, as I had the APRS Droid App on. Then one of the other guys mentions his phone not working, he got signal, but no connection, he and another fellow are on Telstra, but I am on Optus. Now, the guy who has Telstra mobile , used to work for Telstra, setting up the sites for Telstra. At this point, I realise this is common to Telstra and Optus.
Weeks go by from here, but I still thinking about it, then it clicks, my phones can receive a signal from the cell tower. the path is LOS, but we are still quite a few kilometres away from the various towers, like the situation at Jenolan Caves and Snowy Mtns, I am up high, in clear LOS with towers, but no connection can be established. Of course, I am distant to the tower, there are no other competing mobile device signals near me, but I can bet for sure, there are many more mobile devices closer in nearer the towers, so I am competing against many more devices that are providing a stronger signal to the tower, since they are closer. It is not like back in the days of 2G and 3G, we now in the realms of 4G and 5G and many more devices other than phones are accessing and using the phone network. Of course, now we have all sorts of devices with a mobile sim fitted, such as alarm systems, home modems, in car systems, tracking systems, IOT, so we have a bucket load of more devices, all trying to establish a connection, each cell does not have an infinite amount of connections, each cell has a limit. I noticed more and more often , your phone sends an alert to tell you that you missed a voice call and you think to yourself, I did not hear that phone ringing, its a simple reason, the network cant establish a connection to your phone, as too many other competing devices seen at the receiver of the cell tower.
This explains the high demand for spectrum by the Telcos, they just grabbing as much as they can, as the demand for access is increasing faster than they can roll out cell towers. I can see, long gone are the days we need cell towers up high for maximum coverage, now you need lots of cell towers with low height to create lots of micro coverage areas. I remember Malcolm Turnbull sprouting that we don't need NBN fibre everywhere to provide broadband services, , we just need to run broadband from mobile network. Well, its 2020 and that mobile network is now SATURATED. What use is a mobile network, if you can't connect to it ? paying a fortune for a mobile service that is no longer reliably accessible. Its a joke, drive a few kilometres out of a town and no mobile service, even though your phone can clearly see the signal from the tower, going to 5G, is not going to help, when there are a large number of 5G devices, then 5G network will be saturated. Yes, faster download on 5G, but can I establish a connection as a I get further away from town ? probably not. I cant see that Telcos can afford to put 5G cells every 500m apart, the cost would be mind blowing. It still comes back to need of fibre cable everywhere, just to provide the backbone infrastructure to provide bandwidth for a whole bucket of micro cells, as the concept of 1 or 2 cells per suburb just wont cut it, the Telcos are going to need dozens of low powered, low height cells to provide micro coverage areas. The cost of expanding the network will make the service prohibitive to the end user.
I guess one way to do it with current cell towers is multiple cells with arrays from a single tower, run multiple directional arrays, multiple feeds, rather than just the single omni bays, but again the cost becomes quadrupled, or as many times as you have directional arrays spread over a 360 degree coverage area. If you have multiple directional arrays spread out over the 360degrees, then each node receiver has a limited aperture of devices in its view.
All of this high consumption bandwidth, just for the sake of watching crap tv and movies. How sad. Once upon a time the internet was for doing useful things.
Summer 2023 - 0100 UTC Saturday 14 through 0059 UTC Sunday 15 January(0400 / 0359 in VK6). - COMPLETED
