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What do service providers mean when they say they are fixing a mast?

voipfc

Member
It is about a week now since Vodafone 4G performance in my area tanked, and they said they are fixing the problem. The first time I called to properly enquire they said by 8pm yesterday, and when I called again yesterday I was told next Friday.

The problem I don't get is if the mast is faulty, why don't they just swap out whatever part or parts need replacement and just get it going? You would think that they are waiting for cement to dry or something.

How much repairs do solid state devices need anyway, and how much of that can be done on sight?

Is the problem actually some damage to the some underground cables or some exchange where those cables leading up to the mast or is it a fault with the mast itself?
 
The problem really is that customer services who we contact can't see anything. It often can be as simple as their tests/checks show 'Mast Problem'.

They're not going to be able to see what exactly is wrong in most cases or whether there is a technician on site or whatever. Whilst they may be aware of the problem it doesn't mean they're working on it right now as engineers could be anywhere dealing with many other things.
 
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Unfortunately almost all providers are pretty poor when it comes to giving out details of exactly what has gone wrong or why. As ManOfMeans says, at the end of the day the only real way to know is to ask the provider and then there's nothing that can force them to tell you anything more than they so choose.
 
Some of the mobile providers don't even own the masts so might not know the full extent of the issue themselves
 
How much repairs do solid state devices need anyway, and how much of that can be done on sight?

Many, many things.
Firstly, these devices aren't entirely solid state - active cooling systems are needed for many parts of the mast infrastructure like routers and radio units.
Secondly, there are many complex interconnected components that make up a cell site - and they are almost entirely in the outdoors exposed to the elements.
Issues like water ingress and weather damage (hot, cold, wet, dry, windy etc) could lead to worm or corroded components and interconnects. Also misaligned microwave links, broken fibres etc, faulty power equipment.

Often, providers can get a good idea of what the fault might be remotely, but experts are needed on site to make a full diagnosis.
And then sometimes sites have specialised access requirements, or the replacement part isn't something on hand - you can't cater for ALL possibilities, only the most common. And that's assuming the issue is entirely internal to the site - broken power lines and fibre due to things like construction may be external factors that are hard to get fixed quickly and may need cooperation of third parties.

There is a tonne of expert knowledge and understanding of this within telcos - but they just don't equip frontline customer service staff with it because it's just unnecessarily complex and for 99.9% of customers is not understandable or useful. You guys are a different niche :)

If you're on twitter, I'd recommend following this account:
He's a mobile network technician and posts lots of fascinating pictures from the field
 
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