It's now showing on the coverage page:

http://www.vodafone.co.uk/vodafone-u...rage/index.htm

What is Extended Internet and email coverage?
See what this means to you
Indoors and outdoors you can expect to have a reliable connection for email and the internet using a 3G 900 phone, laptop or tablet. You can also expect good browsing and download speeds.

Live in a basement flat? You probably already know that your signal is not as good when underground.

Looks like Vodafone have pretty good population coverage with 900Mhz 3G. Pretty impressive range of areas covered for the launch of 'extended internet and e-mail' as they call it. Vodafone have said little about their UMTS 900 roll out but looking at the maps they have been keeping their powder dry!

UMTS 900 provides much better in-building coverage for data as lower frequencies penetrate structures more easily. UMTS 900 also has better range so requires fewer sites in rural areas compared with 2100Mhz services.

I can't find any areas covered that aren't already covered u2100?

You haven't looked at the coverage for my house then

If you want to make calls you have to venture into the garden and im not even in a remote location

It seems to be the same rubbish coverage as before for my area . No network improvments planned for the next 12 month's .At least Vodafone are consisently poor . They are the only network who does not have any form of 3G coverage . Even O2 are better then them.

3G900 still looks incredibly splotchy in Cornwall with VF.

I think I'll continue to use one of 3/Orange/T-Mobile and friends - who seem to be able to manage to do so much better despite "only" having 2100MHz.

Still no indoor signal for calls/texts let alone internet here even though we have full 3G with 3, Orange-Tmobile and O2.

IIRC my N8 should support 3G@900MHz and the coverage checker says it's good here.

but no sign of it.

they could try giving 3g coverage to places where there is none first!

This^

Every Network is busy upgrading towns to the latest 3G standard while some places don't even have a whiff of 3G. I know towns will always come first but networks should at least get 99% of the UK on 3G first i believe.

Still not seeing any 900 coverage with Vodafone in any of cities i've visited.. so this is a bit of a damp squid.

It's damp squib!, it comes from an explosive term as in the squib (stick of explosive) is damp and goes off rather less impressively than expected. Nothing to do with sea creatures.

It's a very common mistake though.

there are quite a few places in London with 900mhz

Thine... That's autocorrect for you!

Always F*****G LONDON with Vodafone/O2! Even the 4G trials O2 are running are in London rather than in rural areas with bugger all 3G and patchy 2G.

At least EverythingEverywhere (Orange/T-Mobile) are installing the test kit in places like Cornwall and Cumbria where they're actually needed.

Also seen a few in Cambridge

Only because they could stand to get a share of the BT/EU/Cornwall Council funding pie if 4G works well for rural broadband provision (the pie is to give everyone in the county "superfast" broadband)

They need something for the few percent that they aren't going to give fibre to the cabinet/premises.

How do we know if we've got 900, when I went to download I had a H+ on my S3
Didn't really see no difference in internet speeds compared to my normal H tbh

It's not to do with HSPA+ or anything like that, and it won't in itself effect speed. If you have a good 3G signal already it'll make little or no difference. It's purely the frequency that you connect to the cell on.

Some here would have you believe that 900Mhz makes a massive difference, it does expand the coverage area of cells by an extra mile or so radius, maybe 2, but operators already planned their networks and spaced the cells apart in the right distance for 2100Mhz originally.

Vodafone and O2 didn't put many 3G cells in rural areas as they already had 2G. 3 seem to have decided early on that they wanted to cover main towns and cities with 3G and also roads, railway lines and rural communities so you'll find far more 2100Mhz cells in rural locations on 3 & T-mobile. They invested in more 3G cells from the start, so whether it's 900Mhz or 2100Mhz matters, but what also matters is whether the operators bothered to invest in rural 3G coverage and how many 1000's of cell sites they put up. A network with 15,000 2100Mhz 3G cells does compare well and has more capacity than a network with 9,000 2100 & some 900Mhz 3G cells.

I suppose all I'm trying to say is it's great to say 900Mhz is a better frequency, that is the case, but you also have to consider how many 3G cells the operators have. The operators that have been running on 2100mhz and knew that was their lot have invested in more 3G cells and have nearly double the amount.

There is no difference in building penetration between a 2100Mhz cell that is 1/2 a mile away and a 900Mhz that is 1 mile away, therefore the amount of cells and your distance from them is equally as important as the frequency.

You can't ignore the fact that some operators have a lot less 3G cells, so when you take into account the frequency benefits, the end result is diluted by the reduced number of cells.

it's damp squib not squid. a squib is like a small explosive. doesn't work so well when wet. a squid is a marine cephalopod and is really better off when wet.

Just thought I might bring back this thread to see how the role out of 3G 900 is going. Has Anyone been seeing any improvements?

I just switched from ee to Vodafone (long story) and have found 3G 900 to be widespread and pretty impressive around Glasgow. If I venture out past the suburbs it's 2g but I spend most of my time I within 10 miles of the city centre.

I've got my 4g mifi on standby just in case I'm in need

PS. i had noticed over time ee voice quality had gone downhill ( very rarely did I get hd). On the flip side Vodafone call quality is now excellent in comparison. Hd aside

I did notice this too it used to be terrible but now it's good.

Terrible compared to what ee used to have but compared to O2 it's was excellent

Yeah I know what you mean you can always tell if someone is using O2 when you speak with them.