On 26th September 1997, the IEEE Student Branch visited the VodaFone mobile telecommunications centre at North Ryde.
This centre controls all Vodafone mobile telephone communications (0414 and 0416 prefixes).

Present: David Kok, Nuala Ward, Diana Sukkar, Karsten Kumpf, Dominik Dersch, Tarun Gangopadhyay and James
Rapson

We were taken to the exchange floor and given an overview of the Vodafone digital mobile network. Vodafone has two main
switching sites - North Ryde and Strathfield. North Ryde switches the Sydney CBD traffic and Strathfield switches Rural
NSW traffic. We were shown the relationships between the MSC's, BSC's and RBS's. Vodafone has three MSC's and four
BSC's. One MSC operates two BSC's at North Ryde and Strathfield. The other MSC switches between outside (Telstra and
Optus) traffic. Many RBS's are connected to a BSC. The RBS's are connected using third party networks (Telstra, Optus,
AAP or other) since Vodafone does not have a physical network, only the equipment at the end. Hence Vodafone optimises
their equipment to minimise their traffic since they are charged for it.

We saw the Ericsson digital exchange - MSC and BSC's and then shown the testing units. New software is tested on a
completely self contained exchange before being transferred to the live exchange.

Brad White of the Radio Base Station section took us through the basics of the RBS's and we saw two test units - the old
taller RBS200 and the newer RBS2000. These units are strategically placed throughout the CBD and other areas where there
is a demand. Brad described the logistics of installing and tuning an RBS and antenna and discussed the problems faced with
keeping them working optimally. He mentioned that the frequencies allocated to Vodafone present particular problems with
some small amateur and public broadcasters who use old or dirty equipment, leaking into the band. He also described how to
troubleshoot, pinpoint and eliminate such problems.

Laura (?) took us around the Customer Care Centre where telephone operators assist customers with Directory Assistance,
Call Screening and general Customer Care enquiries. Vodafone aims to answer 90% of calls to this centre within 5 seconds
and were running at 71% while we were there. Directory assistance calls use the same White and Yellow pages as Telstra but
give out the number by person and may also transfer callers to their required destination. Call Screening is a personalised
paging service with digital mobiles receiving a page in the form of an SMS (Short Message Service). Customer Care enquiries
may be queries on how to use a particular phone feature or reporting faults - hence these reps have access to much wide and
varied hardware and information.

David Kok, Chairman

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