[The Lord Lucan]

I'm finding whilst testing out O2 in relation to EE & Three that speeds are far more consistent on O2 in the locations I've tested. I'm getting 5mbps down nearly everywhere I get 3G with O2. Yet with EE & Three I can get anything between 0.5 to 24mbps.. Averaging around 5-6.
Shows how together the O2 3G network is getting compared to the jigsaw and patch work quilt that MBNl/Orange is. I'd imagine once the Orange sites are sorted MBNL will have the faster network... But it seems to be taking awhile!

It has to be said however.. O2's 3G Network coverage is still utterly shocking many cities/large villages and main road arteries there just isn't any 3G at all. Massive areas in fact. MBNL are totally kicking ass on that.. Far and away better.

I enjoyed how consistent the experience on O2 3G was.. EE could and should take notes! Would I leave EE for O2? Still no. Lets see how 2013 pans out for all 4 of them

(Tested O2/Three/EE using PM sims, in DC equipped handsets at the same time, using the Root Metrics app) obviously others will have different experiences in different areas but this is mine mostly in London, Manchester, North East Scotland, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Birmingham.

[NWguy1983]

There is much more of that to come in 2013 as well as better coverage, you'd be surprised how many sites we already have that are ready to go!

[coolmp3]

I would take .05-24mbps inconsistency to gprs/edge speeds any day! Remember the EE network is going through major upgrade works at the moment with backhaul and DC/4G upgrades.

I still think EE network is overall the best of the bunch at the moment.

[carguy143]

O2 would appear more consistent because they developed their own network whereas EE is an amalgamation of T-Mobile, and Orange. Yes Three and T-Mobile set up MBNL a few years ago but they were once separate networks too. The difference between the networks in this case is back haul. Although I do find Three seems to have better signal than T-Mobile.

[The Lord Lucan]

I just thought I'd put it out there seeing that a lot of us bash the network. Still wouldn't move to them though. Yes the MBNL upgrades should sort that out but even separately before the merge/share Three, T-Mobile and Orange had very variable speeds. Orange being the worst.

[Thine Wonk]

What does it matter if the networks were once separate and now part of MBNL, it's not as if they took what they had and just linked them. They decided which sites to keep, which to decommission and have put up new sites.

According to Root Metrics Three has the best overall performance is pretty much every city they have tested so far. You might get slower or faster speeds in some areas, but I'd rather that than no 3G throughout vast swathes of the country where you fall down to GPRS.

[The Lord Lucan]

Thine no need to defend.. We all know O2's 3G coverage is crap. I agree with Root Metrics the average makes Three the best (once they start testing EE combined them too) but within that the speed varies so much area to area. MBNL needs to sort that for better inner city user experience. Everywhere else MBNL have it sown up.

[mogzyboy]

I'm liking this idea that O2 are finally getting their ar*e into gear. Finally we might have some decent 3G competition for EE and Three, which can only be a good thing for us all.

[Thine Wonk]

They have a lot of catching up to do though Mogz, they are several years behind the others in terms of coverage and upgrades to technology. We still don't know if they really plan to bring 3G to areas outside of main towns and cities.

I'll wait and see if O2 provide good 3G nationwide coverage, because with their history I am sceptical We can see a few press releases and a member of staff saying it's going to be great, but I'll reserve judgement just now.

You have to remember that as O2 catch up, the others are also evolving too, hence the phrase 'behind the curve'. The parent is having a tough time of it and some budgets and plans may be under threat, the project may under-deliver based on estimates and competitors will be in a different place in 2-3 years compared to where they are now. So even if O2 evolve to where their competitors are today, competitors will be further ahead in that time in terms of technology and performance.

[mogzyboy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thine Wonk

They have a lot of catching up to do though Mogz, they are several years behind the others in terms of coverage and upgrades to technology. We still don't know if they really plan to bring 3G to areas outside of main towns and cities.

I'll wait and see if O2 provide good 3G nationwide coverage, because with their history I am sceptical We can see a few press releases and a member of staff saying it's going to be great, but I'll reserve judgement just now.

You have to remember that as O2 catch up, the others are also evolving too, hence the phrase 'behind the curve'. The parent is having a tough time of it and some budgets and plans may be under threat, the project may under-deliver based on estimates and competitors will be in a different place in 2-3 years compared to where they are now. So even if O2 evolve to where their competitors are today, competitors will be further ahead in that time in terms of technology and performance.

Yeah, you're absolutely right of course.

I don't know an awful lot about plotting transmitter sites and the like, but I'm guessing covering 85-90% of the country is fairly easy as it's mainly towns and cities. It's the remaining percentage that EE and Three have already done that's the trickier bit as it's largely rural areas?

[danielmeah]

Agreed, Even tho its not the best of speeds its quite constant. But they appear to be using proxy servers too

Confirm @ http://hm-speedtest.serversupportgroup.com/headers.php

[Thine Wonk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mogzyboy

Yeah, you're absolutely right of course.

I don't know an awful lot about plotting transmitter sites and the like, but I'm guessing covering 85-90% of the country is fairly easy as it's mainly towns and cities. It's the remaining percentage that EE and Three have already done that's the trickier bit as it's largely rural areas?

It is the case that of course your greatest 'wins' in terms of coverage percentage are covering cities and major towns, and that as you get over 85% it gets harder and more expensive.

Millions of people living is smaller communities are currently not covered, 10% of the population is 7 million people.

Another thing to remember the population are not static, we all travel and that's exactly what a mobile phone is for.

To give you an example the village of Woburn in Bedfordshire currently has no O2 3G coverage, even at 900Mhz. It has a population of just under 1000 people, but that is tiny compared to the people that visit the villiage as tourists from London and all around the country.

Whether they visit Woburn Abbey, Woburn Safari park or the concerts that they have had like Dire Straits, Elton John etc or the Centerparcs resort that is being built.

This is O2's 3G coverage of Woburn http://oi48.tinypic.com/2n8txmd.jpg

Compared to Three EE Vodafone

The same could be said for all sorts of places people pass though, visit or stay for the night. This is just one example, I could write an example like this for 1000's of places across the country.

[The Lord Lucan]

Will be pretty interesting when Root Metrics activate the map layers in the next month or so. Allowing the mapping to show the real world 2G 3G & 4G coverage each separately!!

[Thine Wonk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Lord Lucan

Will be pretty interesting when Root Metrics activate the map layers in the next month or so. Allowing the mapping to show the real world 2G 3G & 4G coverage each separately!!

I didn't know they planned to do that.

[jabbamk1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thine Wonk

I didn't know they planned to do that.

*ANTI O2 POST* I bet O2's 4G coverage will be non existant *ANTI O2 POST*

Anyway, i've noticed O2 is better than before, but i noticed this last year sometime. They've been doing upgrades in the past but these have usually been where they already have 3G coverage.

They just need to focus on places where there is currently no 3G at all. If NWguys post + O2's 2013 plans are anything to go by then we should see a huge improvement in O2's 3G population coverage.

[grumpyoldbat]

I also found their 3G speed to be consistently around the 3-5Mbps mark, but the problem was that there just weren't enough locations that had that 3G coverage. I found far too many places were still GPRS only, and that's why I moved.

[beecart]

Quote:

Originally Posted by danielmeah

Agreed, Even tho its not the best of speeds its quite constant. But they appear to be using proxy servers too

Confirm @ http://hm-speedtest.serversupportgroup.com/headers.php

What does using a proxy server mean and is it good or bad?

[Thine Wonk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by beecart

What does using a proxy server mean and is it good or bad?

It means instead of your web requests going out to the internet through networking equipment only, they go through a bank of servers which can be configured to do a variety of things.

Allow and block content types and requests based on lots of things
Scale down or process images or videos
Allow and block requests by category or content
Cache content to save the company bandwidth

Pretty much all of the mobile networks and some ISPs use transparent proxy servers. It can have the effect of slowing down some requests, it can scale content down, but apart from that it's not normally too much of an issue.

I think all 4 of the networks use proxy servers, so it's not unique to O2.

[beecart]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thine Wonk

It means instead of your web requests going out to the internet through networking equipment only, they go through a bank of servers which can be configured to do a variety of things.

Allow and block content types and requests based on lots of things
Scale down or process images or videos
Allow and block requests by category or content
Cache content to save the company bandwidth

Pretty much all of the mobile networks and some ISPs use transparent proxy servers. It can have the effect of slowing down some requests, it can scale content down, but apart from that it's not normally too much of an issue.

I think all 4 of the networks use proxy servers, so it's not unique to O2.

Thanks

[Thine Wonk]

It was in fact a proxy server error that lead to the leak of phone numbers with web requests a while ago, as they were embedding your phone number in the headers of the GET request for trusted partners, but there was a configuration error which meant it was sent on all requests instead of just for a small number of domains.

As I say I wouldn't judge O2 for using proxy servers as the others do too, some are configured to be transparent (user isn't aware even in headers), some will show you have been proxied in the headers.

[Everything Goes]

Their GPRS coverage and speed is very consistent and unusable in this day and age

[John_Patrick]

Aren't O2 about to swap vendors for their BTS kit... That could be interesting

[beecart]

Quote:

Originally Posted by John_Patrick

Aren't O2 about to swap vendors for their BTS kit... That could be interesting

What does this mean? And is it good or bad?

[The Lord Lucan]

Yes good. Basically they are doing the same as EE where they both ( O2/Voda) have 2G they are trying to put 3G. Some inner cities areas have been done and looking at planning a lot of village / country sites have been done too. I guess they literally are just waiting for a big switch on. As for 4G I see nothing to suggest they are installing any 800 LTE compatible kit in the places I've checked.

They seem to be mostly using Alifabs Vulcan cabinets to replace old or existing cabs. O2 opting for Nokia innards and Voda Ericsson.

[beecart]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Lord Lucan

Yes good. Basically they are doing the same as EE where they both ( O2/Voda) have 2G they are trying to put 3G. Some inner cities areas have been done and looking at planning a lot of village / country sites have been done too. I guess they literally are just waiting for a big switch on. As for 4G I see nothing to suggest they are installing any 800 LTE compatible kit in the places I've checked.

They seem to be mostly using Alifabs Vulcan cabinets to replace old or existing cabs. O2 opting for Nokia innards and Voda Ericsson.

Cool. How do you know about the planning ? Do you know when this big switch on is ?

What's a Vulcan cabinet and why are they using Nokia and Ericsson. Wouldn't it be better to use the same? Is one better than the other?

Thanks