November 2003: Original set-up, as established by BellSouth in the early 1990’s.
May 2004: New dual-band 2G/3G sector antennas added, but notice the lack of cables underneath! Obviously the sector antennas were not live yet — so the onmi-directional antennas were still in service.
July 2004: Cables now attached to antenna and soon after this photo was taken the site went live with enhanced 2G capacity. I am not sure if the 3G part was live at this time since the 3G network wasn’t officially launched at the time.
This site is near the St Heliers Bay (Telecom) site. In fact it is virtually next door!
This site has a elaborate backhaul connection to the central switch. There is a microwave link to the Waimarie Street site, which is itself a passive repeater to the Glendowie site. I wonder why BellSouth (now Vodafone) went to so much effort to ensure this site had a microwave connection? They could have easily leased a dedicated line from Telecom instead! Perhaps a dedicated line was very expensive in BellSouth’s days.
This site was also the last site in the area to be upgraded from omni-directional antennas to sectorised antennas. Telecom on the other hand still use onmi-directional antennas for many of their Eastern Bays sites.
It seems that TelstraClear has thought about establishing a site in this area when they eventually set up their own network. They made a appeal to the Council’s District Plan regarding rules for establishing cell sites in this area. Vodafone also made an appeal to the same District Plan.
