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Vodafone and O2 4G experience thread


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Old 31-01-2016, 13:34
beans0ntoast
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This is a continuation of Devon's sarcasm right? You can't have missed it can you?
Oh yeah, silly me!

I remember the previous comment about O2 GPRS (outdoors only) vs a great big MBNL mast doing 15Mbps 3G all day long.

At least O2 are actually making use of their 1800MHz spectrum; if they rolled it out to all masts, CA'd with 800MHz, then O2's 4G wouldn't be that bad. Shame that, like Vodafone, an awful lot of sites are still 2G900 only.

Having said that, the O2 Thrapston mast is O2 2G900 and 2G1800, so when that gets upgraded, perhaps a candidate for 2G900, 3G900 + 3G2100, 4G800 + 4G1800?

In my opinion, Vodafone also need to roll out more of their 1800, and use it for 4G, rather than 2G. Perhaps either CA their 800 and 1800, or even CA their 1800 and 2600 in congested areas.
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Old 31-01-2016, 15:24
jchamier
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In my opinion, Vodafone also need to roll out more of their 1800, and use it for 4G, rather than 2G. Perhaps either CA their 800 and 1800, or even CA their 1800 and 2600 in congested areas.
Why bother? O2 have no choice, they didn't buy enough spectrum for the future, so they need to use the 1800 to gain capacity in areas where their 800 is heavily used.

Vodafone has a ton of 2600 to roll out, which will solve the congestion problem. O2 has no 2600.
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Old 31-01-2016, 17:06
beans0ntoast
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Why bother? O2 have no choice, they didn't buy enough spectrum for the future, so they need to use the 1800 to gain capacity in areas where their 800 is heavily used.

Vodafone has a ton of 2600 to roll out, which will solve the congestion problem. O2 has no 2600.
So what's Vodafone going to do with its 1800 then? They don't need it for 2G because they have 900, and there are virtually no 3G1800 compatible devices out there. The obvious choice is 4G.

Unless, if the Three/O2 merger goes through, Three/O2 could sell some of their other spectrum in return for some much needed 1800?

Also, using 1800 for 4G has worked well for EE in terms of both speed and coverage (EE's main 4G layer is 1800, and there have been some good speeds and coverage mentioned in the EE thread) - so Vodafone could in theory do the same, thus leaving 800 for VoLTE and the power turned right up, to improve coverage.
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Old 31-01-2016, 18:08
jchamier
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So what's Vodafone going to do with its 1800 then? They don't need it for 2G because they have 900, and there are virtually no 3G1800 compatible devices out there. The obvious choice is 4G.
They have a very small amount of 1800, so the costs of deploying 4G on it are not worth it as they have 2600. So keeping it for 2G and using 900 for 3G is a sensible move. There are smart meters and other machine2machine applications that use 2G.

Your other ideas are interesting, lets see.
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Old 31-01-2016, 20:02
japaul
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Yes that's one annoying thing about the LG G4 that it doesn't show H+
I added a little app called phono to show me in the top corner if I'm on H+ or H or even just 3 for umts..
Sadly I don't think they've added a 4g+ notice to it yet.
Does this move by O2 now mean that outside London, Vodafone have the slowest 4g network as they've not bothered adding or switching on there 2600mhz band yet?
Somethings never change hey...
My G4 does show 4G+ on EE but it didn't on O2 even though it was definitely using the second carrier. I've seen other phones show 4G+ on O2 though. Mine is an EE branded G4 albeit unlocked. It also shows H+ on either network.

If there's no 4G+ indicator then without some kind of field test display it might be very hard to know of the presence of 1800 as cell id will always give the primary carrier, which on O2 is always 800. In fact 1800 is only used for carrier aggregation or on phones that can do 4G on 1800 but not 800.

I don't think O2 have much 4G1800 at the moment although I don't really know as yesterday was the first time I had popped an O2 sim in a phone for quite a while. I just wanted to give it a go as I had noticed it there before in a scan and was surprised it turned out to be a number of sites. It certainly disappears as you cross the bridge into Kent and I didn't see anymore. But if it is rolled out like in Thurrock to ex 2G 1800 sites then it will be quite a considerable addition.
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Old 31-01-2016, 21:49
beans0ntoast
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Well, something's happening with our local Vodafone/o2 mast(s) in the area!

I have just noticed that the Vodafone mast in Higham Ferrers (Northants) has got new panels fitted to it, and that according to their coverage checker, there will be 4G coming from that mast. The mast appears to not be on the coverage checker at present, so something is definitely happening. I can only presume that this mast will be upgraded for O2 as well, because O2 are currently sharing the MBNL mast, though they are much lower down the mast.

Also, the fill in O2 2G mast near Chelveston is supposedly getting upgraded to Vodafone 3G and 4G, so CTIL are doing something round here!

Hopefully they'll get the Raunds one done soon as well, as that is 2G only at present (VF) and needs upgrading to 3G/4G CTIL. (The O2 mast is about a mile outside Raunds, so 3G inside the town/village isn't very good - hence the need for the Chelveston mast for 2G.
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Old 01-02-2016, 14:56
mobilecentre
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Irthlingborough is getting an upgrade as well?
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Old 02-02-2016, 11:30
andyukguy
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Thanks for the reply! Glad I'm not "special" and everyone gets this sign up experience! I'm fairly resigned to my bill being wrong. My quidco payment will no doubt need to be fought for too!
Just to update: yep, my bill was wrong. I've had to call them up and they've now added a recurring discount to my plan to correct their mistake!

The only upside? I got connected within a minute to someone helpful, no long wait today.
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Old 02-02-2016, 13:42
jaffboy151
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Just to update: yep, my bill was wrong. I've had to call them up and they've now added a recurring discount to my plan to correct their mistake!
A carbon copy of what happened to me...
And that was back in September! Thought they might have got a handle on things by now...
The my Vodafone app now always says my plans costs £39.99 with a 25% discount (not yet applied) which in the end brings it down to the £30 it should be!
Talk about making life difficult for themselves.
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Old 02-02-2016, 18:11
camer_000
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A carbon copy of what happened to me...
And that was back in September! Thought they might have got a handle on things by now...
The my Vodafone app now always says my plans costs £39.99 with a 25% discount (not yet applied) which in the end brings it down to the £30 it should be!
Talk about making life difficult for themselves.
Oh, i hope mine does that then and then I don't have to ring them up ..
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Old 02-02-2016, 19:43
jonmorris
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The app shows the non discounted price and doesn't even appear to show the discount anywhere. I asked on store and was told not to worry as the discount is applied when the bill is raised. And shop staff say they get asked every day and wish Vodafone could fix it!

I now get told I've got £2.25 of out of bundle charges for next month, except it says underneath there is nothing (same if you click to see). I phoned up and was told there was nothing and to ignore it!

https://goo.gl/photos/M67EwUbW3GM5muCCA
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Old 02-02-2016, 19:59
beans0ntoast
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Irthlingborough is getting an upgrade as well?
Yes, you are correct. Irthlingborough is planned to go 3G/4G as well.

However, Finedon is still no service (unless you class 2G as coverage, which I don't, for obvious reasons) and Raunds is also going to remain on no service (and along the A45 past Thrapston up to the outskirts of Peterborough).
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Old 02-02-2016, 20:42
camer_000
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The app shows the non discounted price and doesn't even appear to show the discount anywhere. I asked on store and was told not to worry as the discount is applied when the bill is raised. And shop staff say they get asked every day and wish Vodafone could fix it!

I now get told I've got £2.25 of out of bundle charges for next month, except it says underneath there is nothing (same if you click to see). I phoned up and was told there was nothing and to ignore it!

https://goo.gl/photos/M67EwUbW3GM5muCCA
I'm not that supprised it doesn't work, especially considering their website and how slow and outdated it is.
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Old 02-02-2016, 20:48
Gigabit
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Vodafone cannot do price plan changes, the system is not able to do so, when a sale or an offer is on, what actually happens is a recurring discount is added to your bill, so your price plan is actually always the same but immediately below it will be some percentage "promotional discount".

If that's not on there, you need to contact the billing team. You want in-life billing as they're the UK one (well most of them are).
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Old 02-02-2016, 23:50
hammy_y
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I got a pic of the O2 pole with the top exposed that I mentioned about 2 weeks ago.

http://i.imgur.com/Xkn7Mis.jpg

Sorry about the quality, I didn't really have a chance to stop and look at it.
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Old 03-02-2016, 00:00
Pedro_C
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I got a pic of the O2 pole with the top exposed that I mentioned about 2 weeks ago.

http://i.imgur.com/Xkn7Mis.jpg

Sorry about the quality, I didn't really have a chance to stop and look at it.
Triple input panels, looks like 3 RETs fitted and MHAs, so it's 800, 900, 2100 as expected pretty much
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Old 03-02-2016, 00:16
hammy_y
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Triple input panels, looks like 3 RETs fitted and MHAs, so it's 800, 900, 2100 as expected pretty much
So it's a 4G mast then? And do you think it'd broadcast 900 3G and 2G or just 900 2G?
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Old 03-02-2016, 00:26
Pedro_C
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So it's a 4G mast then? And do you think it'd broadcast 900 3G and 2G or just 900 2G?
It has the capability to broadcast 800, yes. Almost certainly 900MHz 2G/3G; never seen a modern monopole that does not do 900 2G and 3G.
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Old 03-02-2016, 00:38
hammy_y
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It has the capability to broadcast 800, yes. Almost certainly 900MHz 2G/3G; never seen a modern monopole that does not do 900 2G and 3G.
Nice! Thanks!
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Old 03-02-2016, 02:29
DevonBloke
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If it's got 4G800 on it, it will almost certainly have 3G900 on there too!
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Old 03-02-2016, 02:54
hammy_y
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If it's got 4G800 on it, it will almost certainly have 3G900 on there too!
That's good to know, thanks!
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Old 03-02-2016, 21:13
beans0ntoast
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If it's got 4G800 on it, it will almost certainly have 3G900 on there too!
Almost all upgraded CTIL masts have 900 2G/3G; some have 2100 3G too (but not all of them). 4G800 is on all upgraded masts, but not many get Vodafone 2600 or O2 1800.

For example, the CTIL mast (was ex-O2 GSM) by Waitrose, in Rushden, has got 2G, 3G at 900, 4G at 800 and quite possibly 3G2100 too. The Higham Ferrers mast has also had 3G900 added to it (was 2G900 and 3G2100), though that might be from the Vodafone mast that CTIL are upgrading, and not from the O2 mast. Vodafone are going to have 2G900, 3G2100/3G900 and 4G800 from that mast soon, so expect O2 to have 4G800 soon as well.

Speaking of, I'd best test my TV soon, because if CTIL 800 is coming to my local mast, then it could wipe out TV reception in the area unless I get a filter (will literally be a few hundred meters from the mast).
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Old 04-02-2016, 11:15
Gigabit
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Goodness Vodafone 4G is fantastic for coverage where it is on every mast. Along the M3 its unbroken between Odiham and Basingstoke.
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Old 04-02-2016, 11:32
Gigabit
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Then it was back to sub 3Mbps 3G on the A303 and then back to fast, unbroken 4G on the A34.

Some work to be done. What's EE like on these routes?
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Old 04-02-2016, 11:43
Stereo Steve
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Quite a bit happening in Wales I see.
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