[Everything Goes]

Ofcom reckons the networks will not get the revenue boost from 4G they had hoped for.

Quote:

New research from Ofcom said UK consumers pay significantly less money than their European counterparts and their mobile bills are almost a third of what shoppers in the United States pay. Ofcom's research revealed that the average price paid by UK consumers fell by 23% during the past 12 months. The regulator cited the highly competitive state of the UK market, driven by the price competitiveness of Three and healthy MVNO sector including Tesco Mobile.

Operators had originally hoped that 4G would lead to an uptick in the price paid for mobile services but prices have come down from when EE first came to market in late 2012 and Three has promised not to charge any extra for 4G services. James Thickett, director of research at Ofcom, said he believed O2 and Vodafone's entry into the 4G market would not lead to Britons paying more for mobile. He said: 'The innovation and competition are managing to keep prices down. With 4G coming in, that trend will continue.'

The report found smartphone penetration sat at 66%, ahead of most major economies apart from Spain (74%) and China (88%).

http://www.mobiletoday.co.uk/News/27...t_from_4G.aspx

[qasdfdsaq]

I'm not sure the operators ever expected a huge upturn in revenues from 4G, considering how little they were willing to pay for the spectrum compared to the government's expectations.

[dephanix02]

Basically Three gate crashed the cosey party.

[psionic]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dephanix02

Basically Three gate crashed the cosey party.

I think the cosy party was while EE had no competition. They still have a massive head start though.

[jonmorris]

EE had the head start, a new identity, new shops, some 'cheap' services thrown in to seem like more than just a standard tariff - oh, and Kevin Bacon!

Of course it was going to milk its customers, but we all know that eventually there will be little to no reason to stop those who are sticking with Orange or T-Mobile to get 4G.

Ultimately, 4G helps the operators manage capacity so once the networks are well set up, it will be in their interest to migrate people - just as happened with 2G to 3G.

We're perhaps seeing that right now with O2 'upgrading' people for 'free' from today.

All good news for the consumer.

[The Lord Lucan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonmorris

EE had the head start, a new identity, new shops, some 'cheap' services thrown in to seem like more than just a standard tariff - oh, and Kevin Bacon!

Of course it was going to milk its customers, but we all know that eventually there will be little to no reason to stop those who are sticking with Orange or T-Mobile to get 4G.

Ultimately, 4G helps the operators manage capacity so once the networks are well set up, it will be in their interest to migrate people - just as happened with 2G to 3G.

We're perhaps seeing that right now with O2 'upgrading' people for 'free' from today.

All good news for the consumer.

Two-Three years of having customers locked in to higher tariffs will allow EE to roll out quicker & use more advanced technology. Which other networks are even talking about VOLTE or LTE-A? None.
I'm glad i'm paying a little extra.

Still doesn't explain why Vodafones 3G is so poor & flaky as there are no spectrum issues there.... so no reasons to punt people to 4G......

[enapace]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Lord Lucan

Two-Three years of having customers locked in to higher tariffs will allow EE to roll out quicker & use more advanced technology. Which other networks are even talking about VOLTE or LTE-A? None.
I'm glad i'm paying a little extra.

Still doesn't explain why Vodafones 3G is so poor & flaky as there are no spectrum issues there.... so no reasons to punt people to 4G......

I thought EE/Three were getting VoLTE at same time that no longer case?

[jabbamk1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by enapace

I thought EE/Three were getting VoLTE at same time that no longer case?

Three aren't talking about it publicly though, which is Lucans point.

EE are the only ones that have formally announced plans to roll out VoLTE and 300Mbps LTE Advanced. The other networks have only mentioned.

[enapace]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jabbamk1

Three aren't talking about it publicly though, which is Lucans point.

EE are the only ones that have formally announced plans to roll out VoLTE and 300Mbps LTE Advanced. The other networks have only mentioned.

Ah my bad I get you now.

In fairness only Vodafone could do LTE -Advanced. O2 doesn't have spectrum to do it and Three would need new masts.

Though O2 and Vodafone could definitely use VoLTE if only to improve call quality

[qasdfdsaq]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Lord Lucan

Two-Three years of having customers locked in to higher tariffs will allow EE to roll out quicker & use more advanced technology. Which other networks are even talking about VOLTE or LTE-A? None.

Other networks already have plans or even capability, as for talking about it, well. Some networks are better than others at talking - doesn't really change much technologically. CS have always been hush-hush compared to MBNL but they're doing much the same job.

Quote:

Still doesn't explain why Vodafones 3G is so poor & flaky as there are no spectrum issues there.... so no reasons to punt people to 4G......

Simple: Bad network management.

But since O2 are taking over the running of Vodafone's 3G network in Scotland under Cornerstone, things can only get better, right?

Quote:

Originally Posted by enapace

Ah my bad I get you now.

In fairness only Vodafone could do LTE -Advanced. O2 doesn't have spectrum to do it and Three would need new masts.

Actually O2 do have the spectrum, you don't need multiple 20Mhz to do LTE-A. In fact, current handsets only support up to 10+10 bonding, which is seen as the main benefit - allowing networks that don't have contiguous 20Mhz blocks (basically most LTE networks in the world) to achieve 20Mhz speeds.

[The Lord Lucan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by qasdfdsaq

Other networks already have plans or even capability, as for talking about it, well. Some networks are better than others at talking - doesn't really change much technologically. CS have always been hush-hush compared to MBNL but they're doing much the same job.

Are they.. i thought you already stated O2 had done a half ars*d job in Edinburgh with LTE..

Also I have not heard even internally any committing to using VOLTE/A outside of MBNL... so no. I wouldn't have said it otherwise.

Also Three will not have it same time.

[qasdfdsaq]

They've done a half arsed job with the coverage - yes.

But they've already got the capability of offering some form of non-IMS VoLTE. They already have the requisite core network systems in place to offer voice calls over any IP network. It's technically more like VoLGA than anything else.

[japaul]

When EE announced their 300Mbps, Vodafone (UK) did say that they would be introducing LTE-A but didn't give a time. Vodafone (Group) have announced LTE-A will be used across all their European markets starting next year but that doesn't say when exactly the UK will get it. Probably Spain will be first as they are already testing 300Mbps.

To be fair VoLTE has taken more of a back seat everywhere. It's still coming but a few years ago there were horror stories that CSFB would either be unreliable (using handover) or add 2-3 seconds to call setup times (using redirection). In actual fact improvements in redirection has meant CSFB is doing just fine (good reliability with only around 0.5s added to setups) so there is less urgency now.