Hi all,

I've got decent broadband at home but I currently have a temporary need for broadband in another building. It's an older building with thick old school stone walls. My Three phone was the ideal thought with unlimited internet but there's a problem. Outside it works perfectly, indoors it's very patchy and slow, working only by windows in some rooms.

I have decided to look at a mobile router. Obviously Three won't be any good for me here because of the signal issues.

I've seen a deal on EE For a PAYG router. Is the EE signal any better at getting through walls?

I'm mindful that most places will sell me a product but won't take it back if the signal is rubbish. Both network checkers say my location has indoor and outdoor coverage.

Any recommendations from anyone?

EE broadband signal is good indoors but the switch to 3G and 2G phone signal is terrible. Lot's of missed calls and being unable to connect when making calls.

You'd be better off getting a network unlocked router/mifi and trying it out with various payg sims.if you go for a network provided one, the Huaweis tend to be pretty easy to get unlocked as well from various internet sites.

Bear in mind that if you can position it by the window/upstairs it's likely to be better, although you'll need to make sure the wifi gets to where you need to use it.

If you get to the point you then don't need it, you should be able to recoup most of the cost by selling it in ebay.

Agree, you're best to try different networks because it depends where you are. I recently went experimenting as I was getting fed up with O2's data speeds when I was out and about.

I tried Three and I have to say that there data speeds were superb. If I got just one bar, I had data that worked. This was useful as I was commuting to the Midlands every week. Whereas data on my commute with O2 was awful. Often went to no service and even when it said 3G, it didn't mean I had data. That said, O2 seems to work well where I live (and nearly everyone here has O2).

I recently left O2 as I couldn't upgrade my tariff to 4G and my concerns over data. I went for EE. Their coverage map said I should get 4G outside, excellent 2G and 3G inside and outside. I went for EE over Three because I was concerned that several friends had issues with Three inside buildings in London. I assumed EE having 2G and 3G networks would be ok. However, with EE I don't get a good 3G signal inside my home, mainly 2G and occasionally 4G. The 4G was before the official switch on. I haven't seen any improvement since EE switched on 4G last week - there is no 4G signal in the town centre or railway (and I don't live in a big town).

I contacted EE who said the local mast had issues but that was over a week ago so it looks like I will have to use the 14 day period to leave the contract. Which puts me back to square one. I will probably try Three again as I will be working in London more and if that doesn't work, back to O2 or a network on O2. Now that they have 4G, it might be better.

3 and EE share a their 3G network so there should be no major differences in coverage. Both networks operate on the same frequency band so there are no real differences there either.

3 has no 2G of their own but uses EE's 2G network too outside of their own 3G areas so again no reason for much coverage difference - though even if there were, 2G is near useless for broadband.

it doesn't quite work like that, they don't exactly in every sense share each others networks.

+1

It's a RAN share. You'll see similar coverage but not the same. And the experience will vary on the different networks.

Hence why I didn't say there are no differences, just no major differences. The degree of overlap is well above 90%

Plus, the RAN is by definition everything to do with actually delivering a signal to the handset - hence if it's a RAN share it's necessarily going to result in similar signal delivered to the handset.

EE has turned out to be quite an improvement. It's a lot faster, I'm getting decent speeds and able to play online games with my PS3. The only downside is that I don't get the unlimited bandwidth that I get with Three.

Also, not every site is shared at the moment.

Granted, Tmobile and Three share their sites under MBNL flag and TMobile customers use Oranges Signal and vice versa, but there are still lots of Ex-Orange Sites that have Orange 3G on but not yet MBNL (Three).

So, dependant on where the OP is, he could be closer to an Orange site than he is an MBNL site.

Yes but in most areas they are few and far between. In many areas all the Orange 3G masts are already gone.

why are phone companies removing 3g masts?

They are consolidating by teaming up with other networks, so that they can share the pole and there is a technical ability to broadcast signal from the same cells, but keep them separate, that's all.

Because they are being replaced with newer 3G masts.

Yeah, I would have thought that the OP would be getting similar coverage to Three (from MBNL) so you are probably correct. Old Orange 3G mast is closer. However he says he's getting decent speeds and most orange Masts are still doing up to 2 meg but I guess it's possible it's an Orange mast that's had a backhaul upgrade (ready to be MBNLed).

Still got 2 Orange 3G masts around me down here on 2 meg, and a load of GPRS/EDGE ones too.
I wish they'd get them sorted!

On Three I was getting around 1-2Mb down and around 1Mb up. On EE I'm getting around 23Mb down and around 7Mb up.

If I go outside then Three is faster than it is inside, but still not as fast as EE. Obviously I'm on 3G on Three and 4G on EE. EE is also faster outside.

It seems that the 4G signal of EE works better through the building than the 3G signal of Three.

As it would be as it's a lower frequency, Three's 4G will be 1800 Mhz in most places too, with some 800Mhz later.

The newer technology helps too, the difference between 1800Mhz and 2100Mhz isn't really that big. Especially when you consider EE's 4G downlink is centered on 1851.7Mhz and 3's uplink starts at 1922.8Mhz

But yes, 3's LTE will be working on the same frequencies - and same base stations as EE's so the coverage and indoor range should be similar - bar the lack of 2600Mhz for "Up to 300Mbps LTE-A" that 3 won't have and the lower channel width making for slower top speeds on 3.

So Three's 4G signal should be better at getting through walls etc too then?

Better than what? Their 3G? Yes. EE's 4G? No. Pigeon messengers? Probably.