Well to be honest I was speaking in terms of the UK market as the original article was about the UK market. Don't worry, I know all about the 4G roll outs worldwide and how far behind the UK is. Even markets that have just launched recently are already taking over the UK in no time at all.
If you look at Korea they are well ahead of the game when it comes to 4G development. They are looking to trial and launch 5G in the next 3-6 years as well.
Like I said, I don't expect the UK to do anything 5G related publicly until 2022. 4G is quite new and in it's infancy here and there is a lot left to do before 5G becomes talking point.
Very likely true but I figured I would post that anyway. I want know what spectrum 5G is likely going be used on 700MHz I expect for the low band but for the others I wouldn't like to guess suppose 2100MHz would be likely possible to use by then. But hopefully some spectrum around low 1000MHz-1500MHz can be repurposed.
Have heard rumours that 1427 MHz to 1517 MHz could be possibly re purposed for mobile broadband use.
I was on the train between Bentley and Waterloo yesterday and the Three coverage on 3G was dire, I got 4G for maybe 5 minutes. I had no service for at least half the journey.
After almost 2 years of moaning to Three on Twitter & Facebook, my "it's just a bit of congestion" (their words) problem has finally come to an end and i'm back on the very reliable O2.
Now i have very good 4G signal at home and not one bar of 3G as with Three, great 4G in the City of London with a signal that penetrates numerous walls unlike Three's...i dunno why i left but lesson learnt for me.
I'm over all this willy-waving re all the different networks now. They all have faults. Three's are mainly down to signal penetration (although that is beyond their control in some respects as it's a limitation of 2100MHz, and it just isn't viable to stick a cell on every single street corner to appease one person). But at least they're addressing that with the inTouch app and whatnot. Even in congested areas I've been in (Cardiff, Bristol and London), it's still quite usable, something that you can't really say about Vodafone and O2 if my family/friends are anything to go by.
O2 and Voda's problems are pretty similar in that they're both pretty woeful outside of major urban centres, although hopefully this is being addressed with the Cornerstone project (or whatever it's called this week...).
EE really needs to address it's identity crisis sharpish. While it has similar issues in terms of building penetration as Three (on 3G at least), it does have that 2G network to fall back on even if it is snailpace.
Personally, as somebody who is primarily interested in having access to data, there is no real competition to Three right now. EE will be I'm sure when they finish integrating old Orange sites into MBNL and drop the old brands which is just confusing for people. I'll consider going back if / when they do all that.
Yep they sure do all have faults, i'm just glad i'm back on one where it works well where i frequent mostly. After 2 years of one that didn't i'm enjoying waving my willy
I do think EE is starting to get its act together. The PAYG SIM that gets you 10GB of data (for 90 days) at £15 (and you keep the £15 credit) is an amazing deal. I hope this promotion stays for a while, as you can get the 10GB data, then buy more data with the credit - then buy another SIM and repeat!
It can't be too long until EE also drops the premium for 4G, even if it will be single speed only (perhaps) with a premium for double speed, and then Cat 6 (300Mbps) after that.
Of course, those on the One Plan with tethering are very lucky - but from now on, with that gone (well, the 4GB limit), EE is starting to at least try and be competitive. And when you're able to get speeds of 70-80Mbps, it does also give a further edge over Three.
After almost 2 years of moaning to Three on Twitter & Facebook, my "it's just a bit of congestion" (their words) problem has finally come to an end and i'm back on the very reliable O2.
Now i have very good 4G signal at home and not one bar of 3G as with Three, great 4G in the City of London with a signal that penetrates numerous walls unlike Three's...i dunno why i left but lesson learnt for me.
Good bloody riddance!
Vodafone 3G was broken in the city for a long time. Don't know if it's fixed but I just hope there aren't the same issues on 4G...
So I just realised that my phone intelligently switches to LTE even when wi-fi is on if I require an LTE connection. For example If I open the three app with wi-fi on it will connect to LTE as well so the Three app works as the app only works over a mobile connection.
Have I been really dumb and just noticed this now? Anyone else seen this before?
No, I mentioned it on here a while back when I saw it happen (after an update to the app, which was probably a month or two ago at least). There must now be a feature in Android to allow an app to use a mobile data connection even if Wi-Fi is active/connected.
So far I've not spotted anything else doing this, including the My EE app, and it could be potentially dangerous is other apps did it without your knowledge and used up your allowance. The Three app doesn't use any of your data.
It's certainly useful for apps that interact with your network and need to authenticate you, but the inTouch app doesn't do it and you need to turn Wi-Fi off to provision it!
So I just realised that my phone intelligently switches to LTE even when wi-fi is on if I require an LTE connection. For example If I open the three app with wi-fi on it will connect to LTE as well so the Three app works as the app only works over a mobile connection.
Have I been really dumb and just noticed this now? Anyone else seen this before?
That's strange, my phone only seems to want to connect to LTE is if I put it in and out of flight mode, it definitely won't go from 3G to LTE if data is active I.e streaming radio.
Once you're using data on 3G it doesn't attempt to change to LTE at all does it? Stopping the data (and flight mode would do that) would make it switch.
So I just realised that my phone intelligently switches to LTE even when wi-fi is on if I require an LTE connection. For example If I open the three app with wi-fi on it will connect to LTE as well so the Three app works as the app only works over a mobile connection.
Have I been really dumb and just noticed this now? Anyone else seen this before?
Not just LTE, the Moto G 3G does this too with the My3 app.
So I just realised that my phone intelligently switches to LTE even when wi-fi is on if I require an LTE connection. For example If I open the three app with wi-fi on it will connect to LTE as well so the Three app works as the app only works over a mobile connection.
Have I been really dumb and just noticed this now? Anyone else seen this before?
As far as file downloads are concerned, it's a Samsung S5 feature, designed to use both data connections to boost your speed I believe. You can go back to 'old' if you want in the settings through.
No, it isn't that. That's something else entirely.
It's not that? oh I thought Wifi booster allowed dual LTE and Wifi connections and was built into the S5 and that's what Jabbamk is reporting so I linked the 2.
It's not that? oh I thought Wifi booster allowed dual LTE and Wifi connections and was built into the S5 and that's what Jabbamk is reporting so I linked the 2.
It's not the same. But I know what you mean about download booster. Its similar.
Basically what is happening is i'll be connected to WI-FI and browsing or whatever. And then I open the three app (which requires a mobile connection to run) and my phone connects to LTE whilst also remaining connected to WI-FI. Besides my phone is LG G Pro 2 so not Samsung haha.
Just noticed it last night and thought it was weird because as Jon said it means some apps use mobile data by default even when wi-fi is on. Quite good for the Three app which requires a mobile connection as before you had to manually switch off wi-fi.
No, I mentioned it on here a while back when I saw it happen (after an update to the app, which was probably a month or two ago at least). There must now be a feature in Android to allow an app to use a mobile data connection even if Wi-Fi is active/connected.
So far I've not spotted anything else doing this, including the My EE app, and it could be potentially dangerous is other apps did it without your knowledge and used up your allowance. The Three app doesn't use any of your data.
It's certainly useful for apps that interact with your network and need to authenticate you, but the inTouch app doesn't do it and you need to turn Wi-Fi off to provision it!
The feature of the three app being able to work without switching wifi off was mentioned in its "what's new" at the time. I assumed it doesn't actually use the mobile data connect.ion, but it just passes the mobile number through wifi to authenticate it, or something like that?
It only lets you get to the first screen anyway with wifi on. To actually do anything more (view breakdown, top up, buy addons etc.) it makes you turn the wifi off to continue.
Comments
Haha old Boris disagrees with you
http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2014/07/boris-promises-5g-mobile-faster-broadband-london-city-2020.html
Very likely true but I figured I would post that anyway. I want know what spectrum 5G is likely going be used on 700MHz I expect for the low band but for the others I wouldn't like to guess suppose 2100MHz would be likely possible to use by then. But hopefully some spectrum around low 1000MHz-1500MHz can be repurposed.
Have heard rumours that 1427 MHz to 1517 MHz could be possibly re purposed for mobile broadband use.
Three called back today (good customer service), they said that Croydon is working fine but there aren't many cells so it will get better over time.
Now i have very good 4G signal at home and not one bar of 3G as with Three, great 4G in the City of London with a signal that penetrates numerous walls unlike Three's...i dunno why i left but lesson learnt for me.
Good bloody riddance!
O2 and Voda's problems are pretty similar in that they're both pretty woeful outside of major urban centres, although hopefully this is being addressed with the Cornerstone project (or whatever it's called this week...).
EE really needs to address it's identity crisis sharpish. While it has similar issues in terms of building penetration as Three (on 3G at least), it does have that 2G network to fall back on even if it is snailpace.
Personally, as somebody who is primarily interested in having access to data, there is no real competition to Three right now. EE will be I'm sure when they finish integrating old Orange sites into MBNL and drop the old brands which is just confusing for people. I'll consider going back if / when they do all that.
It can't be too long until EE also drops the premium for 4G, even if it will be single speed only (perhaps) with a premium for double speed, and then Cat 6 (300Mbps) after that.
Of course, those on the One Plan with tethering are very lucky - but from now on, with that gone (well, the 4GB limit), EE is starting to at least try and be competitive. And when you're able to get speeds of 70-80Mbps, it does also give a further edge over Three.
Vodafone 3G was broken in the city for a long time. Don't know if it's fixed but I just hope there aren't the same issues on 4G...
Have I been really dumb and just noticed this now? Anyone else seen this before?
Here is a screen showing wi-fi and LTE active at the same time.
http://i481.photobucket.com/albums/rr180/jabbamk1/Screenshot_2014-07-31-00-08-38_zpslejh6qh_edit_1406762417231.png_zpsyeulpvhl.jpeg
So far I've not spotted anything else doing this, including the My EE app, and it could be potentially dangerous is other apps did it without your knowledge and used up your allowance. The Three app doesn't use any of your data.
It's certainly useful for apps that interact with your network and need to authenticate you, but the inTouch app doesn't do it and you need to turn Wi-Fi off to provision it!
That's strange, my phone only seems to want to connect to LTE is if I put it in and out of flight mode, it definitely won't go from 3G to LTE if data is active I.e streaming radio.
Not just LTE, the Moto G 3G does this too with the My3 app.
As far as file downloads are concerned, it's a Samsung S5 feature, designed to use both data connections to boost your speed I believe. You can go back to 'old' if you want in the settings through.
It's called 'Wifi booster' http://galaxys5guide.com/samsung-galaxy-s5-features-explained/galaxy-s5-download-booster/
It's not that? oh I thought Wifi booster allowed dual LTE and Wifi connections and was built into the S5 and that's what Jabbamk is reporting so I linked the 2.
It's not the same. But I know what you mean about download booster. Its similar.
Basically what is happening is i'll be connected to WI-FI and browsing or whatever. And then I open the three app (which requires a mobile connection to run) and my phone connects to LTE whilst also remaining connected to WI-FI. Besides my phone is LG G Pro 2 so not Samsung haha.
Just noticed it last night and thought it was weird because as Jon said it means some apps use mobile data by default even when wi-fi is on. Quite good for the Three app which requires a mobile connection as before you had to manually switch off wi-fi.
The feature of the three app being able to work without switching wifi off was mentioned in its "what's new" at the time. I assumed it doesn't actually use the mobile data connect.ion, but it just passes the mobile number through wifi to authenticate it, or something like that?
It only lets you get to the first screen anyway with wifi on. To actually do anything more (view breakdown, top up, buy addons etc.) it makes you turn the wifi off to continue.
I was walking up my street earlier and about 300 meters from my house got a 4g signal despite no 4g coverage on the Three map for about 10 miles.
I therefore conclude the Three map is utter shite.
Every coverage map is full of inconsistencies. Just read the small print at the bottom of the coverage checkers on every networks websites.
My gut feeling is they have turned the power up on the mast by about a bar, I dont think it is a new mast going live.
Being outside in the middle of what's regarded a strong 4g area with no 4g is a pretty big inconsistency I would say.