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O2 2G/3G - Discussion
lee18xx
Posts: 2,971 Forum Member
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I've just moved from three to O2 because I was fed up of not receiving signal in the buildings I use the most (work family and home) and to give them credit...o2's 2G Network is bloody good for calls and text.
I just have one niggle.
There are about 4 O2 3G masts quite close to my work (a town centre location) and about a mile away... Towering over the whole town....a massive O2 2G mast. The 2G mast seems to be that big and powerful it overrides the 3G ones all the time whilst I'm at work. I can have 3 bars 3G one minute and the next the phone is on a 5 bar GPRS Connection again.....particularly annoying when half way through loading a web page or downloading an email.
However like I mention...this is only a niggle. Not a complaint. I'm just happy to have signal indoors for once.
My question for those who are more technically minded is .... Is there anyway on iPhone 5s that I can tell the phone whilst at work just to look for 3G and not 2G. I don't seem to have anything in my settings to do this....only an 'enable 4g' button.
Many thanks
P.s when on the said 3G connection a speed test throws back very decent results of around 10/12mbps download.
I just have one niggle.
There are about 4 O2 3G masts quite close to my work (a town centre location) and about a mile away... Towering over the whole town....a massive O2 2G mast. The 2G mast seems to be that big and powerful it overrides the 3G ones all the time whilst I'm at work. I can have 3 bars 3G one minute and the next the phone is on a 5 bar GPRS Connection again.....particularly annoying when half way through loading a web page or downloading an email.
However like I mention...this is only a niggle. Not a complaint. I'm just happy to have signal indoors for once.
My question for those who are more technically minded is .... Is there anyway on iPhone 5s that I can tell the phone whilst at work just to look for 3G and not 2G. I don't seem to have anything in my settings to do this....only an 'enable 4g' button.
Many thanks
P.s when on the said 3G connection a speed test throws back very decent results of around 10/12mbps download.
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Comments
I'm not familiar with iPhones but can't you set it to 3G only while your at work?
I was on giffgaff (o2) and used to leave my phone on 2G only, i used to change it to 3G only when i wanted to use data. It only took a couple of seconds to set it.
Well this seems a bit of faffing about, taken from the Apple forum
EDIT
That's actually for an iphone 5 so you may not be able to do it. From further reading you might only get that option if you jailbreak.
No, once the SIM card is 4G enabled, the iPhone only lets you turn on / off the 4G signal.
I suspect your problem with O2 is the same as I've seen with Vodafone on my work handset, they have the SIM set to "prefer" 2G as they believe their 2G network is stronger/better. Unlike Three and EE who prefer 3G.
Not much you can do about this but flick airplane mode on then off again to force the phone to look again - or ask Apple for a proper mode switch. Generally Apple thinks things should be automatic, as the majority of people would end up with the switch in the wrong setting!
However, even in London there isn't 100% EDGE coverage I don't think.
Well if you're talking about Verizon that's possible in many areas, but all 4 US networks have the same problems as we have in the UK.
However given Verizon is the biggest LTE in the US today they probably want to force traffic onto their LTE network rather than the legacy CDMA.
I moved to GiffGaff for the very same reason and GiffGaff hangs on to 2G for grim death as well but like you have pointed out getting a signal inside is more than worth it.
So Voda broke something and couldn't remotely turn off the 3G transmission, so it because the *users* problem? I didn't realise they were incompetent at Vodafone as well as crap coverage. Plenty of people are non technical enough to know how to switch this setting on any device, iOS, Android, WinPho. :-(
Apple gives the network control over the single setting. The USA assumption being that 4G is just "data" and you don't have to pay a different price plan to use it.
So now that Voda has a 4G network, the option in the 5c and 5s settings is "4G on and off" but Voda *could* have chosen to set this by the price plan but chose not to.
With a 5 handset with Vodafone there is still the 3G switch, as the 5 doesn't do LTE on 800mhz, but on an Orange, T-Mobile or EE SIM card the switch becomes a 4G switch, even if you don't have a 4G price plan.
The UK rollout of 4G has been as premium product, sadly.