Going to Vodafone from 02? Mast Sharing!
ACL777
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I want to buy the Google Nexus 6p in March when my contract ends with 02. I've not had good coverage with 02 so naturally want to leave and looked at Three as an option but they are not stocking the 6p so am considering going to Vodafone however know they share masts with 02. Does this mean that I would receive exactly the same coverage as 02 or is it more to do with power and frequency?
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As a typical rule o2 and VF will have very similar coverage going forward.
What makes you think there is any realistic chance of the 3/o2 deal actually happening?
The current consensus is that it's going to be refused or neutered so badly as to make it unviable.
O2 and Vodafone are quite different full stop.
Here's my latest review: http://pedroc.co.uk/mobile%20network%20performance%20test.htm
My best advice is to look at the coverage maps to begin with. If O2 and Vodafone look much the same on the map, they'll be much the same in reality.
The real cornerstone test will be what they do with areas where they have no o2/VF mast. Will they build new sites or just move on and worry about this at a later date?
I think that's a very old thing based on where BT used telephone exchange buildings and BT sites they already owned a lot and Vodafone didn't when they were the first networks.
That might have had some truth to it years ago I guess.
Two telephone exchanges here have Voda masts on (now CTIL shared) rather than O2 which surprised me. The O2 mast is up the road a bit.
O2 did install quite a few juniper poles in around 2009/2010 which gave good 2G and basic 3G (900) and good indoors reception - these have since been 'refreshed' by CTIL to give both Vodafone and O2 signal on 2G/3G/4G and has changed Vodafone coverage in this town dramatically.
Voda used to give 1.2mbps on 3G with 1bar indoors, only in my kitchen, and 2G everywhere else, now I get 4G (800) at 20mbps easily throughout the place. If I turn off 4G then 3G manages 10mbps throughout the place. (EE by comparison is approx 12mbps 3G and 40mbps 4G).
Outside London as we know is an east west split (mostly) apart from monopoles again. o2 masts in Maidstone now broadcast voda too ( all bands) some voda masts have been decommissioned (not many) down in Cornwall /Devon Voda are doing the upgrade the masts are being upgraded to firstly voda/o2 4G then depending on exisitng o2 sites being decommissioned o2 is added as well . eventually we will have voda masts doing both networks all bands some o2 ones being upgraded all bands and some being removed in the west and the opposite in the east dont forget monopoles will be both networks straight away at launch providing backhaul is available
so in London its quite possible to have 4G but nout else if you are nearer to the upgraded mast but your home networks signal for 2G/3G comes from elsewhere!
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-3374636/Readers-complain-experiences-Vodafone.html
http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/best-worst-mobile-network-uk-2015-vodafone
I am talking about triangular-type masts here, not monopoles.
You are talking about a sectored mast and I can't believe O2 come along, bung some panels up and don't tune them.
They need to be angled for direction for a start so each panel doesn't overlap the next too much etc.. not to mention being integrated with surrounding cells.
You can't just stick some panels up and go home however crap you are. Nothing would work at all otherwise.
Nah, can't believe that. Height is going to be the thing.
There is all this talk of it going ahead.
I just think one simple thing will stop it dead.
The UK will go from 4 networks to 3 and that will be completely unacceptable.
Period! *
Let me rephrase, I don't literally mean just thrown on.
What I mean is, Vodafone will choose a part of the mast where the equipment will cover the area they want it to best. So, on a triangular mast, each sector will point in a different direction.
O2 will put their equipment on a free sector, they won't spend as much time choosing which sector to put it on. Once they have put their equipment on of course they tune it, etc. to give the best reception but placement is less important for O2 than Vodafone.
Speaking of Americans, the best thing that happened for me this year was when we went on the 17th to see The Force Awakens in Vue Plymouth, Screen 9 (the biggest curved one), VIP seats, Jack Daniel's and coke, all my kids around me (after watching The Return of The Jedi the night before on Blu-Ray) and Harrison Ford enters the Millennium Falcon.
I haven't had goose bumps like that for a loooong time....... a long time......
Got quite emotional. *
* For those who don't understand, I saw A new Hope in the Princess theater in Torquay in 1977 at the age of 9.
Ok, I kind of get you. But surely on a sectored mast they would still have 360 degrees of coverage wouldn't they?
On a sectored mast, each sector is roughly 120 degress (with slight overlaps). This means that spectrum can be reused per sector and therefore a sectored mast can have three times the capacity of an omnidirectional.
You appear to be suggesting that O2 only get 1 sector or maybe I misunderstand?
Still don't get it.
Hey, I'm not arguing with you. You know me, I'm right up EE's arse. Hahahahaha
Just trying to understand what you are saying.
That sounds like the kind of crap a salesman would try and BS you with, where did you hear that? From a salesman in a Vodafone Retail store?
The odds are, the same engineers will be servicing the o2 equipment on the mast now (as part of CTIL).
It sounds like internal Voda-chest beating (in vain) we're better than o2 rhetoric...
IMHO only...