Regarding Plymouth being switched on and the coverage map being updated. I've checked on 2 browsers and can't see anything to say that Plymouth has been switched on. It just says "coming soon".
Does anyone know approximately how far a mast broadcasting at 1800mhz will travel? I was just wondering as my town and the one neighbouring are due to be getting 4G before the end of the year. I'm assuming they're only going to switch on 1 or 2 masts per town as that seems to be the norm. I'm interested to know what my chances of receiving the signal will be.
Regarding Plymouth being switched on and the coverage map being updated. I've checked on 2 browsers and can't see anything to say that Plymouth has been switched on. It just says "coming soon".
I'm about 3 miles from the edge of the official coverage area for my nearest mast (By official coverage, I mean the scattered blocks right at the edge, I'm 3 miles from those) at work, and outdoors I can get 4G some of the time, with speeds up to 40Meg. It just depends on the mast and local terrain.
What a disappointment! After 5 weeks (!) of maintenance and the coverage checker showing 4G being at my postcode soon, I don't have 4G at home, the coverage checker says "Very good service", but the map shows I'm very close to the coverage/non coverage boarder, but obviously on the wrong side.
coverage checker has shown major improvement, in my area at least to the north of London where there was a huge gap seems mostly filled, but I've noticed no difference at all in or around my area which is a shame...
What a disappointment! After 5 weeks (!) of maintenance and the coverage checker showing 4G being at my postcode soon, I don't have 4G at home, the coverage checker says "Very good service", but the map shows I'm very close to the coverage/non coverage boarder, but obviously on the wrong side.
Yeah it's a bit silly really. It seems any area where the map shows indoor/outdoor 4g coverage, even if it's on the extreme edge, it's considered "Very good service". I have the same in my area and it's just not true.
The best I've seen in an outdoor 4g coverage spot is 2 bars. The coverage is extremely spotty at best and if you want to stay connected to 4g you have to force LTE only because the outdoor coverage is between 0 and 1 bars. There's only 1 activated mast here but still, the coverage is not as good as the map says.
They have 4G'd my local mast but it's still pumping out DC-HSDPA, I don't know when they are gonna activate 4G on it, but I can't wait! The coverage map doesn't even say within 3 months for my postcode which is strange, it just goes from very good service to no 4g availability.
I have 1-2 bars on 4G, but my phone still opts to stay on this almost always - even though I have 5 bars when on 3G.
What's more, as I walk towards the EE HQ - I still only get 2-3 bars until I'm virtually at the site. Presumably both EE and Three are still transmitting 4G on a lower power to make sure there's always 2G or 3G too.
I wouldn't therefore read too much into the signal meter on your phone as even when I've had no bars (but not no service) I can still get speeds of 4-5Mbps which seems bizarre. I do wonder why the phone reports signal so differently for LTE, as there's no logic surely in having it show 0-1 bars when it's still a good, usable, signal in comparison to problems you might have on 3G with more.
On the map, my road is shown as good outdoors only which is pretty accurate. I wish I knew why there's this little blip, as there's good indoor coverage further on and we're not in a dip.
When I do force LTE and have no bars, I still get better speeds than 3g in most cases, although the upload seems to stutter a bit. It does make sense that the network prefers good signal 3G over bad signal 4G as there are certain dead spots I've noticed when walking around where the 4G just drops in very particular spots. It just annoys me that they call it very good service.
And I would definitely agree that it's being broadcast at a lower power than 3G, I was right next to the 4G mast getting 3/4 bars on my S4.
so when will they begin broadcasting at a higher power?
I'd say it's when Three (and others) have VoLTE and as such don't need to worry about users having anything else to fall back on.
I hope we'll hear more about this later in the year, as the lack of this makes it hard for Three to use 800MHz in rural areas or in cities, given that 4G might get deeper into offices and basements, when 3G at 2100MHz won't.
Personally, I don't think consumers would have been quite so upset if the industry had foreseen the issues and considered having something on the status bar to perhaps state that you had a data signal, but not voice.
Yes, some people would moan but let's consider what the choices are;
1) Have a stronger 4G signal that allows people to use data in areas where they might not now, but not be able to make or receive calls/texts.
2) Have no 4G signal, and not be able to make or receive calls/texts.
Was looking at this on three. Never been with three so don't know how good or bad they are.
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Now officially have very good service according to the coverage checker
I've actually had 4G for several weeks now and I'm very happy....the map still has me as no coverage though.
Im hoping that as soon as Three announce VOLTE is now active the rollout speed will increase dramatically, as they are obviously still going round upgrading sites ready. but not turning them on for the fears of people complaining about not being able to make calls and stuff in certain areas.
What a disappointment! After 5 weeks (!) of maintenance and the coverage checker showing 4G being at my postcode soon, I don't have 4G at home, the coverage checker says "Very good service", but the map shows I'm very close to the coverage/non coverage boarder, but obviously on the wrong side.
Mine says the same and shows my house (Nr Aldershot) as being in an indoor area, but..... due to the local topography and a woods there isn't a hope in hell of it reaching me. Even the outdoors reception isn't there for hundreds of meters around either. I've had a good walk around and need to go over the border into Aldershot before anything is received. The mast that feeds my house here is closer to Farnham, the H+ signal from that is OK.
I assume these are just computer predictions of the service area??
Ah well, I guess I wait until next year when hopefully more masts are activated.
Mine says the same and shows my house (Nr Aldershot) as being in an indoor area, but..... due to the local topography and a woods there isn't a hope in hell of it reaching me.
Farnborough is pretty similar. There seems to be one active 4g mast in North camp yet the map / checker thinks you can pick this up in Farnborough town centre, no such luck. The town centre mast isn't even H+ yet for 3G but the last weekends update implies that is now available. Hmm
Mine says the same and shows my house (Nr Aldershot) as being in an indoor area, but..... due to the local topography and a woods there isn't a hope in hell of it reaching me. Even the outdoors reception isn't there for hundreds of meters around either. I've had a good walk around and need to go over the border into Aldershot before anything is received. The mast that feeds my house here is closer to Farnham, the H+ signal from that is OK.
I assume these are just computer predictions of the service area??
Ah well, I guess I wait until next year when hopefully more masts are activated.
The maps would make more sense if you forced your phone to 4G only.
The 3G signal is closer and thus stronger, but yeh, topography comes into it as well ofc.
Farnborough is pretty similar. There seems to be one active 4g mast in North camp yet the map / checker thinks you can pick this up in Farnborough town centre, no such luck. The town centre mast isn't even H+ yet for 3G but the last weekends update implies that is now available. Hmm
I work in the Military area and again its not anywhere near what they predict. The North Camp mast I believe is at Salesian College, the area shown to the airfield isn't what they predict either. I thought they would have made an effort with Farnborough International Airshow due in July!
The maps would make more sense if you forced your phone to 4G only.
The 3G signal is closer and thus stronger, but yeh, topography comes into it as well ofc.
The best as I can do with my Nokia is to set it to highest speed of 4G in the sim menu, it seems to default to weak 4G quite quickly. I did do this before my walk around. I know it's not accurate, but the hill and the trees and the fact my house is downhill the other side too, makes it strange their computer model seems to think it would get here.
I'm not moaning btw, just pointing out about the maps, I've got a good signal otherwise and fibre BB so it's not like I need it!
There's maintenance planned for masts around my office today, PR2 2DY but I'm not sure what it's for. The map shows 4g coverage in my area but it simply doesn't exist here. The only places in Preston I've been able to get 4g are the ones shown on the map as having indoor and outdoor coverage.
The maps would make more sense if you forced your phone to 4G only.
The 3G signal is closer and thus stronger, but yeh, topography comes into it as well ofc.
In my case even LTE only doesn't work, I get no signal. Obviously I know the coverage maps aren't 100% accurate. But I don't understand why the pin for my postcode puts me in a no 4G coverage area, but the text says "Very good service".
Comments
Here's what I see if it helps:
http://i.imgur.com/Gq5zHcJ.png
I'm about 3 miles from the edge of the official coverage area for my nearest mast (By official coverage, I mean the scattered blocks right at the edge, I'm 3 miles from those) at work, and outdoors I can get 4G some of the time, with speeds up to 40Meg. It just depends on the mast and local terrain.
I live both Lincoln and Grimsby.
Yeah it's a bit silly really. It seems any area where the map shows indoor/outdoor 4g coverage, even if it's on the extreme edge, it's considered "Very good service". I have the same in my area and it's just not true.
The best I've seen in an outdoor 4g coverage spot is 2 bars. The coverage is extremely spotty at best and if you want to stay connected to 4g you have to force LTE only because the outdoor coverage is between 0 and 1 bars. There's only 1 activated mast here but still, the coverage is not as good as the map says.
They have 4G'd my local mast but it's still pumping out DC-HSDPA, I don't know when they are gonna activate 4G on it, but I can't wait! The coverage map doesn't even say within 3 months for my postcode which is strange, it just goes from very good service to no 4g availability.
What's more, as I walk towards the EE HQ - I still only get 2-3 bars until I'm virtually at the site. Presumably both EE and Three are still transmitting 4G on a lower power to make sure there's always 2G or 3G too.
I wouldn't therefore read too much into the signal meter on your phone as even when I've had no bars (but not no service) I can still get speeds of 4-5Mbps which seems bizarre. I do wonder why the phone reports signal so differently for LTE, as there's no logic surely in having it show 0-1 bars when it's still a good, usable, signal in comparison to problems you might have on 3G with more.
On the map, my road is shown as good outdoors only which is pretty accurate. I wish I knew why there's this little blip, as there's good indoor coverage further on and we're not in a dip.
And I would definitely agree that it's being broadcast at a lower power than 3G, I was right next to the 4G mast getting 3/4 bars on my S4.
I'd say it's when Three (and others) have VoLTE and as such don't need to worry about users having anything else to fall back on.
I hope we'll hear more about this later in the year, as the lack of this makes it hard for Three to use 800MHz in rural areas or in cities, given that 4G might get deeper into offices and basements, when 3G at 2100MHz won't.
Personally, I don't think consumers would have been quite so upset if the industry had foreseen the issues and considered having something on the status bar to perhaps state that you had a data signal, but not voice.
Yes, some people would moan but let's consider what the choices are;
1) Have a stronger 4G signal that allows people to use data in areas where they might not now, but not be able to make or receive calls/texts.
2) Have no 4G signal, and not be able to make or receive calls/texts.
And once VoLTE arrives, problem solved.
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It can't be too long away now.
When I'm in Louth, I don't expect to get any 4G any time soon, but in my location I get 12Mbps down / 3Mbps up on 3G using a Huawei E5776
The latest map update has my area fully RED now.
Large swathes of Leeds are now RED or BLUE.
Sorry for all you who are still waiting
I wish I got that here, even with a DC-HSDPA supported device you are knocking off the 1 on the download speed and halving the upload speed:(
Mine says the same and shows my house (Nr Aldershot) as being in an indoor area, but..... due to the local topography and a woods there isn't a hope in hell of it reaching me. Even the outdoors reception isn't there for hundreds of meters around either. I've had a good walk around and need to go over the border into Aldershot before anything is received. The mast that feeds my house here is closer to Farnham, the H+ signal from that is OK.
I assume these are just computer predictions of the service area??
Ah well, I guess I wait until next year when hopefully more masts are activated.
The maps would make more sense if you forced your phone to 4G only.
The 3G signal is closer and thus stronger, but yeh, topography comes into it as well ofc.
At my parents in Cleethorpes (next too football stadium) I get 28down 3up. There must be extra capacity for the football games.
I work in the Military area and again its not anywhere near what they predict. The North Camp mast I believe is at Salesian College, the area shown to the airfield isn't what they predict either. I thought they would have made an effort with Farnborough International Airshow due in July!
The best as I can do with my Nokia is to set it to highest speed of 4G in the sim menu, it seems to default to weak 4G quite quickly. I did do this before my walk around. I know it's not accurate, but the hill and the trees and the fact my house is downhill the other side too, makes it strange their computer model seems to think it would get here.
I'm not moaning btw, just pointing out about the maps, I've got a good signal otherwise and fibre BB so it's not like I need it!
In my case even LTE only doesn't work, I get no signal. Obviously I know the coverage maps aren't 100% accurate. But I don't understand why the pin for my postcode puts me in a no 4G coverage area, but the text says "Very good service".