[interactiv-uk]

Originally Posted by unklesam

So to clarify, I am on Orange, once this is complete will I be able to roam on 3 for 3G? They are the best for coverage around here.

Once the networks have merged you will able to use all the MBNL shared sites. 3 do, however, have some sites that are not shared with T-Mobile which were added for extra capacity. You won't be able to roam onto these.

[farmer giles2]

Originally Posted by plymouthbloke1974

Orange broadband dongles and iPad sims have their data traffic routed through T-Mobiles backhaul and have done for some time now.

3G share will be rolled out in one go, as it's a network configuration, AFAIK. However, like I've said a thousand times already, it's not happening yet. It's been delayed.

I see not sure now who i had heard it from that it was being rolled out in stages probably from Orange,

What you say makes more sense as i guess when it does happen i guess they will send a configuration update,

im not getting to excited about it as unless they fit 3g cells to the orange mast which is only just maybe 1/4 mile across ground as I don't think i will be getting a good 3g signal from my nearest T-mobile mast which is about 4 miles away as when i do a network search it only picks up Orange - T-mobile 2g and 3g outside not indoors if i select Orange - T-mobile 2g outside i only get 2-3 bars and from what i have heard 3g doesn't travel as far so that aint gonna be any better

[SilentLoner]

Originally Posted by huwdw

I actually think three are getting shafted the most and they aren't even part of the merger!

Why do you say that?

[farmer giles2]

I spoke to someone from orange today and all they said was the 3G share will be done by the end of the year,

Only six months to go

[DevonBloke]

Yeah but that's just the Orange rep reading what the website says. The website states "by the end of the year" so they have some leeway.

Hello all by the way.... my first post.

[plymouthbloke1974]

Hi. Welcome aboard!

[DevonBloke]

Thanks. I guess from your ID you must be fairly near me. Assuming it's the Plymouth in Devon and not the USA?
I'm in Totnes.... very alternative.... wear what you like and no one bats an eyelid!

Been on Orange for 14 Years!! Same account, same number. Surely must be a record??
I was customer number 00281*** (Still my Orange account number) when I signed up in July 1996 so Orange had less than 300,000 cuntomers!! Bit loathe to change now but I've been doing some testing lately and I can report that beyond any shadow of a doubt, 3 and T-Mobile have an amazing 3G network here in Devon.
Orange have only upgraded the main transmitters but MBNL have done pretty much all of them.
Got an iPhone on Orange but unlocked my old Orange HTC TyTn 2 and ordered some free 3 and T-Mobile SIMs and set about testing.
There's virtually no rural roads where there's no 3G!
I'm very tempted to change but from the topic of this thread it's clear I only have to wait for the merge and we're in business.
What amazes me is the robustness of the HSPA signal. I live in an old farmhouse with walls 3 foot thick. Outside all networks are around 1-2 bars. Indoors nothing, unless you put the phone in the window and then you get 1-2 again.
With GSM (GPRS or EDGE) you need at least 4 bars to get maximum speed but with 3's HSPA I can have just 1 bar and 1.5Mpbs on the speed tester!
Love it.

[farmer giles2]

welcome aboard, I myself am from Devon i live near a town called Holsworthy im not so sure im gonna be getting good 3g as my nearest mast is orange 2g and only stones throw away but my nearest T-mobile mast is 4 miles away and doing a network search i can pick up Orange-T-mobile 3g and 3uk if i select on to Orange-T-mobile 2g i only get 2-3 bars signal outside and i to live in a old farm house can't pick that up in there or some of are out buildings, Unless they fit 3g to the orange mast can't see i will be getting brilliant 3g.

[DevonBloke]

Yes, been there a couple of times. Can't remember why.
I was a farmer for 14 years before turning to Computer repair.
Strange transition I know.
Have you been on the coverage maps for 3? Holsworthy pretty much total outdoor 3G coverage and a large swathe of indoor too.
Orange - virtually none! In fact for good Orange 3G you'd have to go to Bude. (I'm a poet and I didn't know it! :-)

You won't have to wait for Orange to upgrade the mast. As soon as the Orange/T-Mobile/3 3G merge happens your phone will automatically use the T-Mobile/3 (MBNL) 3G transmitters. You will then be getting the coverage you can see on the 3 coverage map. Sweet.
In fact If what I think is going to happen you wont even be roaming (like the current 2G situation). All the current MBNL masts will start transmitting Orange 3G in addition to the current 3/T-Mobile. So your phone will just show Orange 3G whenever it's commected to an MBNL mast.

Clear as mud I Think.

[farmer giles2]

yeah my nearest orange 3g mast is bude, the T-mobile mast is on the edge of Holsworthy i live between there and launceston at a village callled clawton, I spoke to someone from orange yesterday and they said changes to sites should improve coverage of 3g, Not sure what will happen with the mast near me that is 2g Edge and ive been having problems with internet connection from that mast had the problem for nearly 2 months now, the problem has been logged with orange the mast has been looked at no problems with that, Interestingly there has only been problems since engineers did maintainance work which according to orange it appears ive had problems since then which was about 2 months ago.

[carnivalist]

Originally Posted by brynhyfrydd

It appears that the process has started as there have been adverts on sky tonight.

I have just joined T-Mobile this weekend via a 30 day rolling contract and the signals so far are excellent. I was an existing orange customer and the signal was excellent also.

Terrible Orange coverage in the area of Exeter where I spend a lot of time. By Sod's law T-mobile coverage is virtually non-existent.

[coolesticeking]

Originally Posted by farmer giles2

I see not sure now who i had heard it from that it was being rolled out in stages probably from Orange,

What you say makes more sense as i guess when it does happen i guess they will send a configuration update,

im not getting to excited about it as unless they fit 3g cells to the orange mast which is only just maybe 1/4 mile across ground as I don't think i will be getting a good 3g signal from my nearest T-mobile mast which is about 4 miles away as when i do a network search it only picks up Orange - T-mobile 2g and 3g outside not indoors if i select Orange - T-mobile 2g outside i only get 2-3 bars and from what i have heard 3g doesn't travel as far so that aint gonna be any better

I had the same with 3 when they did this mast share thing with T-Mobile... Moved it with T-Mobiles which was a LOT further away than the stand alone 3 mast, and guess what NO SERVICE on the phone! 3 had to cancel all three of my contracts with them, still to do this day I can't get a signal on 3 which was a shame, I like the service and speed!

I hope it does not affect you like it did me tbh!

[farmer giles2]

Originally Posted by coolesticeking

I had the same with 3 when they did this mast share thing with T-Mobile... Moved it with T-Mobiles which was a LOT further away than the stand alone 3 mast, and guess what NO SERVICE on the phone! 3 had to cancel all three of my contracts with them, still to do this day I can't get a signal on 3 which was a shame, I like the service and speed!

I hope it does not affect you like it did me tbh!

I can't see they will do away with the mast close to me as it is a big 34 meter tall mast a proper tower it's only 2g not sure what will happen with it covers a fair area really, there is only 1 other mast which i am on the edge of it's signal thats got orange and T-mobile and 3uk aswell i think on it any other masts are 6 to 10 miles away,

i am just waiting for a T-mobile and 3uk sim card to come so will do a bit of a test with a spare 3g unlocked phone i have and where i can get there 3g !

[wonkotsane]

The symptoms you're describing are common problems reported by Orange customers all over the country and it's why I left after over a decade as an Orange customer. Signal is no problem (there's a lampost mast about 200yds away from my house) but there's just no capacity. Connection failures hit 90% and the mast contracts to cut the number of connections so signal strength drops.

It all started with the iPhone - O2 had the same problem in London. Now everyone wants data and the network can't cope.

I changed to Three and I'm very happy. Not only do they value me as a customer - always go the extra mile to please me - but the network is excellent. In fact, the only problems I ever have are when I'm roaming onto Orange! I did a speed test yesterday from my mobile in the office and got a 3mbit download speed and I don't live in a big city. My colleague did a test at the same time on T-Mobile and got half that. Both phones had a full signal and they are the same model of phone and OS version.

The only gripe I have about Three is that they won't let me change to the One Plan for unlimited data part way through my contract!

[DevonBloke]

Originally Posted by farmer giles2

I can't see they will do away with the mast close to me as it is a big 34 meter tall mast a proper tower it's only 2g not sure what will happen with it covers a fair area really, there is only 1 other mast which i am on the edge of it's signal thats got orange and T-mobile and 3uk aswell i think on it any other masts are 6 to 10 miles away,

i am just waiting for a T-mobile and 3uk sim card to come so will do a bit of a test with a spare 3g unlocked phone i have and where i can get there 3g !

Make sure you get back and let us know how you get on.
I have a feeling you'll get excellent 3G from 3.
Remember, if this is the case you don't necessarily have to change as you will get the same 3G coverage from Orange once the merge happens.
3 do have much better backhaul though.

[farmer giles2]

Originally Posted by DevonBloke

Make sure you get back and let us know how you get on.
I have a feeling you'll get excellent 3G from 3.
Remember, if this is the case you don't necessarily have to change as you will get the same 3G coverage from Orange once the merge happens.
3 do have much better backhaul though.

I will im mainly checking for coverage really im not thinking about moving im reasonably happy with orange im only on payg but on dolphin so not doing to bad with that,

it will be interesting to see what happens with all the other say 3-4 orange 2g masts around the area as only 1 of them has a 3/ T-mobile mast near it if they don't put 3g on any of these masts there will be a fair area still without 3g,

I my self am on the edge of coverage from a T-mobile mast with no overlap from any other 3g masts unless they put 3g on any of the orange 2g masts it would be nice if they put 3g on the mast a stones throw from me

[No-One]

Is the 3/T-mobile mast sharing deal still active? There's a pretty big T-Mobile mast near me which I would have assumed was carrying 3 traffic too. About 6 months ago 3 installed a brand new (albeit smaller) mast right next to it.

Could T-Mobile be planning on removing that mast (as according to sitefinder it's only 2G) and relying on the Orange 3G mast in town once the merger is complete?

[Thine Wonk]

Originally Posted by No-One

Is the 3/T-mobile mast sharing deal still active? There's a pretty big T-Mobile mast near me which I would have assumed was carrying 3 traffic too. About 6 months ago 3 installed a brand new (albeit smaller) mast right next to it.

Could T-Mobile be planning on removing that mast (as according to sitefinder it's only 2G) and relying on the Orange 3G mast in town once the merger is complete?

3 add some extra masts for capacity as they have a lot of mobile broadband customers. These don't always share with T-mobile I believe.

Yes the sharing deal is still active and will include Orange too, if anything Orange customers will be the biggest winners in this as they will finally get some decent 3G coverage.

Three will probably end up slightly worse off in terms of a small loss of capacity as the x amount of millions of Orange customers drop to the MBNL network with only 3,000 Orange masts contributing to it.

[wonkotsane]

You don't get 3G on roaming so Orange customers will still be stuck with a rubbish, overloaded network.

[Thine Wonk]

Originally Posted by wonkotsane

You don't get 3G on roaming so Orange customers will still be stuck with a rubbish, overloaded network.

A) you can roam on 3G, what happens when you go abroad? you roam on 3G, it's just that it's not implemented for Orange / T-mobile and there may be a legal restriction in the UK currently.

B) It won't be roaming, it's a mobile network integration. Cell sites will be able to broadcast signal for Orange, T-mobile and Three customers all from the same cell / transmitter and it then goes through each network's respective backhaul networks.

It's called a RAN share. Mobile cell sites are capable of broadcasting on a number of 3G frequencies in parallel.

Each network that is part of the RAN share can then route the traffic and have the back end network they require, of which Three has the best backhaul. However it will mean that in terms of 3G signal, coverage for T-mobile, Three and Orange will be largely the same at 99% population, a significant upgrade for Orange customers.

[farmer giles2]

Originally Posted by No-One

Is the 3/T-mobile mast sharing deal still active? There's a pretty big T-Mobile mast near me which I would have assumed was carrying 3 traffic too. About 6 months ago 3 installed a brand new (albeit smaller) mast right next to it.

Could T-Mobile be planning on removing that mast (as according to sitefinder it's only 2G) and relying on the Orange 3G mast in town once the merger is complete?

I my self have a mast about 4 miles away from me that is orange and T-mobile according to sitefinder it is only 2g but if i do a network search it shows up T-mobile 3g and 3 3g and there are no other T-mobile or 3 mast around for maybe 10 miles,

so i would say sitefinder isn't upto date and from what i have heard from a community Liaisons Officer from well i guess everything everywhere and she said don't exspect it to be upto date for sometime with everything thats going to be changing now,

It seem odd that 3 havent jumped on to the T-mobile mast seem a bit silly putting up another mast all be it smaller but maybe as you say maybe they would remove the bigger mast but i doubt it will probably be offered to another network if there is no others close,

I have a 2g orange mast a stones throw from me big 34 meter tall tower not sure if they will put 3g on it,
At the monent i only get 2g as there are no orange 3g mast within range and my nearest T-mobile mast is about 4 miles away so im just on the edge of thats signal if i do a network search indoors can't get T-mobile.

[Thine Wonk]

That post is really hard to read farmer. Sitefinder is voluntarily updated by the networks and may not be up to date.

You say "if i do a network search it shows up T-mobile 3g and 3 3g" and then "It seem odd that 3 havent jumped on to the T-mobile mast" that contradicts each other.

They may put 3G on the big tower, although 3G doesn't carry as far as 2G and the idea of a cell pattern is that you don't have gaps before the next cell.

2G carries twice as far as 3G and so that's why it usually sits on bigger towers, 3G usually sits on smaller masts or poles.

Think of the cells like a honeycomb if you just threw up 3G cells on 2G structures you'd just leave gaps everywhere and need fill in sites anyway, so it's not always the best thing to use existing structures for a different technology. This is why you see an O2 3G mast and then a few hundred meters away an O2 2G mast sometimes.

Also 3G doesn't want to be at 32 meters really for other technical reasons, although they could use a lower part of the structure I grant you.

[wonkotsane]

I'm on Three and when I roam onto Orange I get 2G or Edge where available.

[Thine Wonk]

Originally Posted by wonkotsane

I'm on Three and when I roam onto Orange I get 2G or Edge where available.

You will do, but it isn't available in all areas. Three has stopped this roaming agreement on a per case basis where they feel that their coverage is sufficient in an area.

This is to stop people using 2G only handsets on the Three network when Three coverage was good and they were having to pay Orange for that usage in a good Three coverage area.

Over time as 3G coverage becomes even more and more blanket they will probably stop roaming to Orange 2G all together.

[wonkotsane]

They stopped the roaming agreement for where I live because Three coverage is perfectly fine. Only time it was a problem for me was when there was a problem with the Three mast and I couldn't get a signal but that's no different to what you'd get with any other network.