Earlier this week came two interesting media reports on Vodafone that I commented on in my Fuzzy Logic column entitled: “Vodafone still on the hook despite claimed improvements?”.

That article looks reports from Lifehacker and the Sydney Morning Herald on Vodafone, and added non-Galaxy, non-Pure Research, non-Nielsen survey-sourced but my own real-world findings from a small-world unpaid sample of two paying Vodafone customers, one in Sydney, the other in Canberra.

Both are lucky enough to enjoy calls without dropouts, unlike many who comment at other media stories on Vodafone, but both have very, very slow page loading speeds, presumably because the mobile base stations they’re connecting to haven’t been upgraded to the new Huawei base stations Vodafone is installing, as Vodafone explains in a moment.  

Lifehacker’s Angus Kidman looked at Vodafone’s mobile broadband quality in the areas Vodafone claimed new upgrades has delivered “more reliable” broadband and better voice calls.

Ben Grubb’s article in the Sydney Morning Herald looked at the appropriateness of new Vodafone advertising boasting “better, strong, faster” when many on Vodafone’s network were still suffering problems, followed by a wrap-up of Vodafone’s recent network woes and customer reactions. 

My article also queried the appropriateness of bold new advertising while so many on the network still say they’re not yet experiencing a better, stronger and faster experience, even if part of Vodafone’s network truly is now, due actual new units or physical upgrades, better, stronger and faster than before.

So it was very interesting to receive a response from a Vodafone spokesperson on the issues raised by Lifehacker, Fairfax and my own commentary, as described above, and is worth simply reprinting in full.

My best comment to Vodafone’s response below is that although Vodafone insists there should be “more reliable broadband” for users connected to new what it called in its July 7 release “state-of-the-art Huawei equipment”, this seems to mean a more reliable connection to the network itself, rather than more reliable “and faster” broadband – at least until the end of September when the 850MHz network is switched on in the very first areas Vodafone lists.

Thus you could infer that better and stronger for voice calls Vodafone’s network may in some areas be, but is it truly faster in a fashion you’d want to see Vodafone advertising boldly?

As Captain Picard wouldn’t say: “Do not make it so” might be a better option until the network improvements are complete, and when it comes to any advertising campaign right now, the safest bet could well be to “Disengage”.

Here’s what Vodafone had to say, letting you be the best judge for yourself:   

“Hi Alex,

“I saw your recent post regarding our network roll-out program and thought you might be interested in the below information.

“Firstly some important context about what we are doing as it’s where the heart of the issue with some of the commentary on Lifehacker and SMH requires clarification.”

The rest of Vodafone’s response concludes on page two, please read on!

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