Originally Posted by Redcoat:
“Talk about a red herring! Unless 3 were happy to run as an MVNO on O2 for a while, it had to get their backside up and running with its own network pretty sharpish. Not to mention that in its first few years of operation it was plagued with problems e.g. poor customer service, poor 3G network coverage, dodgy handsets (the early NECs being notorious), "walled garden" services instead of full net access etc. it's actually quite amusing to think back then it promoted itself as a premium network!.”
I obviously didn't imply Three's network from day one was excellent. Far from it. I know just how bad it was, but I was just giving some context about 3G and how old it is as a network technology.
By 2014, it should be available almost everywhere (as in every site upgraded), but for whatever reason (and I know some of them, but won't dilute this thread any further) O2 and Vodafone saw fit not invest in a speedy 3G rollout, or to keep upgrading the hardware to cope with the enhancements like HSPA/+/DC-HSPA and backhaul upgrades etc.
That's not even something to debate. It's fact, and both operators have come very close to getting in trouble for their rather pitiful rollout.
2G coverage has never been called into question and even now, if I'm in some big building in London where there's no signal - O2 is bound to be found. For some reason, in London, O2 2G coverage is everywhere. That's great for voice and text, and I'm not knocking O2 for any of the things it does right and does well.
The problem is data. Poor 3G, and very frequently no data flow at all over 2G. Limited 4G, and a long timeframe for that to improve. But when it does, as I see no doubt will happen, I'll be the first to announce how good it has become.
Nevertheless, in my opinion, O2 is way behind (so is Vodafone) and is now suffering a period where it can't realistically compete with EE and Three in a lot of places.
If some will argue that it just needs to work at home or at work, and you now have O2 or Vodafone 4G (and therefore upgraded 2G and 3G at the same time) then, fine, but for those that travel or haven't yet had 4G come to town, my point still stands. And I think O2 and Vodafone only has itself to blame, because myself and others have been saying this for many, many years.
Even back when we were seeing 3G offering speeds of 1.8 and 3.6Mbps (and, later, 7.2) it was always a case of asking why O2 and Vodafone weren't that bothered. Vodafone offered higher speeds only in selected post codes, mostly in the City of London. Meanwhile, T-Mobile and Three were introducing it on a sizeable percentage of its network - and clearly preparing for the possibility of increasing speeds further as time went on.
Orange was also behind too, so benefitted massively when it teamed up with T-Mobile. I couldn't wait for my SIM to be able to roam onto T-Mobile, so I got better coverage AND faster speeds. It took some considerable time, as initially the roaming was 2G only!