As of today, Vodafone customers in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Newcastle and Wollongong will be progressively able to crank their mobile downloads to 11, with Vodafone having flipped the switch and activated their 4G LTE network in the said cities.
Vodafone are claiming that their network is the fastest in Australia, with speeds up to 100Mbps, and trials showed that the network was indeed capable of achieving upwards of 50Mbps download speeds. Of course, trials are much different to real-world usage and it will be truly impressive if Vodafone can keep those sorts of speeds going after opening the network up for everyone.
Members of the Ausdroid team who use Vodafone have, earlier today, witnessed these kinds of speeds already, and there are certainly places around a few capital cities where the 50mbps download speeds are not only achievable, but steady. We’ve had a couple of download tests of large files and seen sustained transfer rates around this speed which, for a mobile network, is truly incredible.
Some of us who aren’t Vodafone customers have observed that these kinds of speeds are possible on the other carriers’ networks, but certainly not as reliably. The flipside is, at least at the very beginning, the other telcos’ respective 4G footprints do seem to be a bit larger, but with twelve months in the field already, that’s to be expected, and one can only imagine that Vodafone will catch up soon enough.
While its early days yet, and we expect that results may shift downward a little once more and more users jump on to Vodafone’s 4G network, our early impression is that this network will compete speed-wise with Optus and Telstra’s networks, and in some instances, wipe the floor with them.
Customers without LTE-capable handsets will also likely see improved data speeds and reliability in LTE-covered areas as well, as much of the strain on the 3G network will be lifted due to fewer devices relying on it exclusively.
Current Vodafone customers with LTE-capable phones can ‘switch on’ the new network as of today, while new customers will be able to join the party from next month. If you’re curious about Vodafone’s LTE coverage area, have a gander at their coverage checker.
If you’ve got an LTE-capable phone and you’re on Vodafone, run a speed test and let us know what speeds you’re getting in the comments.
Theres NO proof that vodafone has switched on 30,000 customers. The only evidence seems to be a few coveted “free tickets” to industry media savvy favourites. Vodafone upto 12th of June said it would be activating 4G in June .They have. But it seems thats only partly true for what may be a majority of its customers. They have NOW revealed that their customers will have to wait to mid July before having 4g activated. So the false impression promoted by vodafone over the last 4 months that all those that have all the criteria met for activation will be… Read more »
i live in melbournes city, still nothing on my s4.
They never got the 3G network right… Now they’re switching on 4G? Will this be safe? These guys have intercourse hands…
too late, i just switched to aldi mobile from vodafail, I dont need 4g….just need a decent 3g speed (5 mbps on aldi mobile 🙂
Glad i switched to prepaid 🙂
How ironic, just did the same thing today. I work in the heart of the CBD in Melbourne and I have ZERO reception most of the time at my desk. It’s so bad if I keep cellular data on it eats up the battery trying to get a proper signal. Granted it’s an old building with thick concrete walls but when I had tested Aldi at the same spot I couldn’t believe my eyes: full reception almost all of the time! I don’t care if I get 1 billion terabytes/second at one spot and nothing a few hundred meters away… Read more »
dont mean to be rude but i think you should add a disclaimer to this. they are not automatically turning on 4G for everybody and instead are releasing 4G in segments to people. I for example aren’t one of the customers who have 4G right now even though i have a HTC one. It’s being released in segments until mid July. Come mid July, if you do not have 4G then you are directed to give them a call on 1555.
Our Vodafone-using team members have been able to access it. However, your comment is noted — we’ll amend our article to note that not everyone will have this immediately.
hi Chris you state that your team are able to get 4g can u state locations and did they get invited and can you let us know new or old post paid plans and what $ value plans. It appears Vodafone isn’t able to answer any of these questions so I thought you might like to enlighten us and them. ta.
Not sure why the Ausdroid team can cacess but i assume it may be a special media invite only. Vodafone are manually activating thousands of customers per day till about mid July. I assume since Ausdroid has had a good relationship with Vodafone in the recent months, they wanted to ativate it for Ausdroid members so they could publish their speed tests on the blog for fans/customers to see and spread the word in a positive light. if you read their blog, its mentioned while 4G is “switched on” they are manually activating people with 4G phones in segments, and… Read more »
Hi Joel thnx for your many assumptions i kinda knew all that already. The questions i asked of Chris were to see if i could get some real feedback about what vodafone is saying. I read recently that if you asked vodafone if its raining outside and they said yes or no, you would still need to go outside to check.
Hence my queries to Chris for some realistic feedback. Unfortunatly all the assumptions in the world does not make it so. Thnx again and look forward to Chris’s reply.
Lucky – are you guys going to post up some screen shots of speed tests?
Someone on the VHA blog posted 109mbps but had no proof it was vodafone, could have been anybody.
What are they doing for Regional Australia like Nth Qld, Far North Qld and Way Out West?
You can string two cans together and attempt to commune like that.
ROFL!
do you recommend a particular string grade or is it all about the tin?
Dude. Honestly. Regional area + vodafone = epic fail.
It’s that simple.
If you want your phone to work, you’re going to have to cough up some dollars and switch to Tel$tra…
I’m hearing ya
Has any other carrier than Telstra ever pretended like they play in that market? The only reason Telstra is even there is because they inherited the physical CDMA network infrastructure built under previous governments.