With Omicron making its way steadily through the community, the health and safety of our employees and partners has been the number one priority when undertaking essential cell site builds and upgrades. Despite navigating added restrictions (and taking time out to enjoy the summer break!) our RAN (Radio Access Network) team and partners continued to work on our mobile network and completed eight upgrades/new builds in January.

This saw six upgrades to existing sites and two RCG (Rural Connectivity Group) new builds. Upgrades included two sites in Auckland and Canterbury (two), with Northland (one) and the Waikato (one) also seeing increased connectivity.

Over the summer break, mobile data spiked on the Vodafone network with some holiday hotspots seeing traffic double!! Busy areas included the Coromandel Peninsula as well as other popular beach and holiday towns around the motu.

Upgrades will ramp up in February, as regional investments continue. Thaigan Govender, Head of Radio Access Network, explains, "Our team is busy working on upgrades around Aotearoa, with the Bay of Plenty, Hamilton, Taranaki and Southland as particular focus areas at the moment for new cell sites.

"We continue to roll out more 4G and 5G technology onto existing sites to offer our customers an even better mobile network experience, while ensuring we are following all Covid-19 health and safety guidelines."

The six upgraded Vodafone sites are located in;

• Mission Bay, Auckland
• Akoranga, Auckland
• Springfield Central, Canterbury
• Christchurch West, Canterbury
• Karikari Central, Northland
• Frankton (Hamilton), Waikato

The two RCG sites are located in;

• Kaimarama, Waikato
• Otama Beach, Waikato

For more information about services available in your area, check out the Vodafone coverage map - www.vodafone.co.nz/coverage