The telco's director of customer service and experience, Cormac Hodgkinson, said what was most important to Vodafone was the experience of its customers on its network. On that front, the executive said, the telco had made a great deal of progress, with an 18 percent improvement in dropped calls and a 66 percent increase in data reliability since January.
' While we still have more to do, we have seen a significant reduction in customer calls about network issues,' said Hodgkinson.
A Vodafone spokesperson was not immediately available to clarify the situation, but it appears the new Huawei radio access hardware has so far only been installed at 49 sites in the Newcastle, Hunter and Central Coast region.
'The 49 sites where we have replaced equipment with new technology are leading the way in terms of our site performance, and customer satisfaction has risen in that area,' said Hodgkinson. The Huawei replacement program will now occur 'concurrently around the country' in each state, according to Vodafone's statement, with Canberra and Perth being the first metropolitan areas to receive the upgrades over the next few months.
The network upgrades come as Vodafone is currently attempting to rejuvenate its reputation in the Australian marketplace. The company experienced a tsunami of complaints from customers over the closing months of 2010 and the first few months of 2011, as its network struggled to cope with customer demand and suffered a constant series of drop-outs and poor coverage.
Image credit: VHA
