Vodafone 3G woes

zebulebu · #1 27-Nov-2007, 10:13 PM

So anyone else on here got a Vodafone 3G card and found that the service has been pants lately? It seems to mainly affect coporates connecting to their LAN via specific VPN clients (Nortel is one of them) and has been tetth-clenchingly annoying for us in the past three weeks.

We only seemed to have problems in certain areas - which was bizarre, sometimes you would go from one area where everything worked fine with a low signal, to others where you had a full signal but couldn't actually 'do' anything other than connect to the VPN server (no Citrix sessions, no Exchange logon etc etc). Finally got to the bottom of it today and it is, just as I said it was three weeks ago when i first came across the problem, Vodafone rolling out changes to their network for HSDPA. I knew it was too much of a coincidence for it to be anything other than that - turns out Ericsson are responsible for the network infrastructure supporting Vodafone's 3G services and they have been rolling out changes to the network without being aware there were any issues. Vodafone haven't said a word to them - and presumably would still be insisting it was our fault if it weren't for the fact that other companies (including a big player in the car manufacturing industry) have been screaming at them to acknowledge the problem.

One of our guys went to Ericsson's lab where they did some analysis and discovered that the changes they have made have 'broken' the 3G network. The good news is that they are reversing the changes over the next few days - starting with Newbury, then moving on to London, then rolling out to other areas that have been ruined, so anyone else who is in the same boat as us - and have been fobbed off by Vodafone can rest assured that there is (at last!) a fix on the way.

**Sparky** · #2 27-Nov-2007, 10:23 PM

Thanks for the heads up Zeb, most customers I support use Vodafone for their 3G cards and mobile phones.

Perhaps another plus point for SSL VPNS though? Just sold another SSL VPN box this week as the customer was complaining he couldn’t use a full VPN client at some wireless hot spots. SSL-VPN works fine and fairly straight forward to setup.

zebulebu · #3 27-Nov-2007, 10:55 PM

Quote:

“

Originally Posted by Sparky

Thanks for the heads up Zeb, most customers I support use Vodafone for their 3G cards and mobile phones.

Perhaps another plus point for SSL VPNS though? Just sold another SSL VPN box this week as the customer was complaining he couldn’t use a full VPN client at some wireless hot spots. SSL-VPN works fine and fairly straight forward to setup.

”

100% agree.

Try selling the benefits of an SSL VPN to the board of a police force that is ridiculously underfunded though...

Oh and, PS: You needn't worry, Alcatel are responsible for Vodafone's 3G infrastructure north of the border, not Ericsson. From what I know of them it will take them six months longer than anyone else to implement anyway!