2600/800/900/1800 max speeds?
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I am trying to phrase this as best I can, so here goes. Based on what each network holds spectrum wise in the UK what is the max achievable speeds both 3G/4G wise?
For example what is the theoretical max for Vodafone on its 2x10 slice of 800 spectrum?
Further what is the max on EE's 2x5 slice of 800?
What would real world speeds look like as well?
It might be a broad and somewhat lengthy answer you give, however it does puzzle me what speeds Three will achieve rolling out 4G nationwide at 800 vs EE using it in rural areas?
As I have said previously I don't know much around networking technology, it would be interesting to find out what the possibilities are.
For example what is the theoretical max for Vodafone on its 2x10 slice of 800 spectrum?
Further what is the max on EE's 2x5 slice of 800?
What would real world speeds look like as well?
It might be a broad and somewhat lengthy answer you give, however it does puzzle me what speeds Three will achieve rolling out 4G nationwide at 800 vs EE using it in rural areas?
As I have said previously I don't know much around networking technology, it would be interesting to find out what the possibilities are.
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Best of luck to anyone who wants to try though
900 = Faster
1800 = Bloody hell.
2600 = OMG!!!!!
Can confirm!
Although I would like to propose you change 2600 to be "OM4G!!!!!". EE's 2600 is classed as "OM4GEE!!!!!" Fast.
Theoretical 4G peak download speeds aren't so hard to work out based on spectrum but you have to know what things affect these peaks and make some assumptions. There are three main variables.
1. The amount of spectrum (we'll come back to that).
2. The modulation scheme you are assigned. In ascending order of speed capability these are, QPSK, 16QAM and 64QAM. What you get depends on how good a signal you have as the better your signal the more robustness you can trade for speed and so you can use a faster scheme. Since we are interested in peak speeds we'll make the assumption that you have a good signal and can use 64QAM.
3. MIMO (Multiple In Multiple Out) Order. Basic systems without MIMO have a single transmit antenna and a single receive antenna. However you can increase data rates by using more than one antenna. 2x2 MIMO means you have two transmit antennas (in the basestation) and 2 receive antennas (in your phone). This allows two streams and doubles the peak speed capability. Theoretically you can keep doubling up the maximum speed by doubling the MIMO order i.e 4x4, 8x8 etc. T-Mobile in the US have started using four transmit antennas in the basestation but as phones still only receive two it doesn't change peak speeds but does improve the average. However as almost all 4G MIMO installations are 2x2 this is what we will assume.
So given our assumptions of 64QAM and 2x2 MIMO for the download you just need to know how much spectrum you have and with this configuration you get a rounded 75Mb/s for every 10MHz of spectrum.
So Vodafone or O2 using its 800MHz spectrum with 2x10MHz of it can get a peak of 75Mb/s. If you have 2x20MHz available (EE on 1800 or 2600, Vodafone on 2600) then with double the spectrum you double the speed so 150 Mb/s. If EE or Three use their 2x5MHz of 800 on its own then the maximum speed would be half i.e. 38Mb/s.
As others have mentioned LTE-Advanced carrier aggregation allows use to just add the spectrum together but the same calculation applies. So EE add together 20MHz of 1800 and 20MHz of 2600 at the moment in London and this 40MHz total gives you 4 x 75 = 300Mb/s. You can play around with the totals each network could theoretically achieve if you know what they've got but remember some of it is used for 2G and 3G. An accurate guide to each network's holdings is here.
http://licensing.ofcom.org.uk/radiocommunication-licences/mobile-wireless-broadband/cellular-wireless-broadband/policy-and-background/licensee-freq-tech-information/uk-cellular-operators/
Real world speeds could of course be anything up to these speeds but it's common to divide the peak speeds by about 5 or 6 and quote that. So for every 10MHz, averages might be 12-15 Mb/s in the real world assuming things aren't too congested.
Does that help?
I'm asking the question in the sense of physics, not how much spectrum the government has actually made available for operators to license.
Just on the underlying physics there's no difference in speed or capacity between low and high frequency spectrum. So on its own 10MHz of 800 offers the same speed capability and capacity as 10MHz of 2600. The reason you often read about higher frequencies giving better speed or capacity is mainly down to two things.
Firstly, there tends to be more high frequency spectrum available. Because of the generally better coverage it offers lower frequency spectrum is in greater demand amongst competing uses. This limits supply for mobile and makes it more expensive. So it's not a case of comparing 10MHz of low and 10MHz of high but 10MHz of low and perhaps 20MHz of high.
Secondly because lower frequencies can cover a wider area a network might choose to rollout using less sites than a higher frequency network. If so then although both might end up with the same overall coverage, the lower frequency network will have more users per site and each site would be closer to capacity.
That's what I mean, three have 15mhtz 1800 and EE has 45mhtz, what difference does this make.
I would guess it means they're theoretically 3x slower? At least, if everything else about the network is the same.
The number of users each network has, and how much data they use, should make a difference too. In my own testing 10Mhz of 1800 4G on Three always seems to be much slower than 10Mhz of 800 on O2/Vodafone, likely because Three has more 4G customers, and Three customers use more data. I also generally find 20Mhz 1800 on EE way more than twice as fast as 10Mhz on Three - even though EE have more 4G users, they possibly use less data than Three users? The other difference could be that EE have more 4G masts, so there are less users per mast, even if they have more users overall.
(Three don't quite have 15Mhz of 1800 yet as the remaining 5Mhz has yet to be transferred to them from EE).