Not a Vodafone user at the moment but credit where it's due, CTIL are really cracking on with 4G upgrades now up here (including various masts that were 2G-only and showed no signs of being 3G'd ever). They're in with a good chance of catching up with EE at this rate.

Just driven past an O2 monopole site today (Welford upon Avon) and they are busy swapping everything out in the pouring rain. This is the first O2 site to get the CTIL treatment in my area so a big improvement in VF coverage and of course finally better data than the Edge coming soon.

I hope the NHS has been put on alert for an increase in cardiac arrests when people on O2 see 3G on their display, and God help those who see this thing called 4G...

They kind of have to really don't they.
I mean if they just carried on as they were then by the end of this year there would only be one choice of network.
To be honest, it's looking like that anyway until they do catch up.

The Vodafone 4G network where I live (Grantham Lincs) is now more robust than that of EE's. The whole town is covered and speeds are good. There are still locations around here where EE drops to poor 3G/GPRS and Vodafone stays on a very usable 4G.

It seems they're building a really good 4G network and I'm pleased to see EE is being challenged so intensely

Me too - EE are unbeatable in some areas at the moment, but have been horribly complacent and slow rolling out decent services to other areas. I'll be delighted to see them get their arses kicked in areas where they've let customers down.

I agree, although it's a shame CTIL seem to be bypassing the really big macro cell sites along the A1 such as at Foston (Jet Garage), North Witham (Woolley's Lane) and Little Ponton (pylon).

Once they get 800Mhz 4G on those masts the rural coverage will be excellent.

Remember though with CTIL that, because 800 is the primary 4G layer, the coverage will have to be set to within 3G900's coverage - otherwise you'd have no calls.

VoLTE soon I hope, then we willl not have this problem.

Re Cloudane and mobile centre Can you guys let me know where this work is taking place so I can let my followers know on Twitter thanks!

But you've still got legacy devices that don't support VoLTE (though they do still support 4G). What will happen then? Will legacy devices not be allowed onto 4G? Or will they be allowed onto 4G800, with the threshold strength of being booted to 3G being higher?

Or will they have to hurriedly roll out their 5.8MHz of 4G1800 nationwide, for support of older devices?

Ulverston, Cumbria just got 4G on CTIL a week or so ago, and there's planning permission in for upgrading one of the church fill-in base stations as well

Barton Road, Welford upon Avon, Warwickshire, the cabinets are in and the monopole up they were installing the hardware so operational by the end of the week I imagine.

VOD 2G900 is pretty awesome really so I don't see 800 being restricted to this as a short term issue. Fact is that if VOD had 4G800 coverage everywhere they had 2G900, it would be one awesome network. They had that chance and screwed it up but there you go. EE and 3 can come in with 800 at full power which is great, if they would actually do it. At the moment, in rural Devon, if you want your phone to ring, VO2 2G. If you want data, 3 / EE. Nothing much has changed. I expect in the next 6 months it will, one way or another.

4G800 on Vodafone will always be restricted to either G900 or U900 until "every" phone is VoLTE. You're talking years until 4G800 extends further than that.

The once Vodafone only site on the Skillington turn-off (Stoke Rochford) now has Voda/O2 signals. Resolves the dip in O2 coverage along the A1 at this point.

The Little Ponton pylon will resolve another O2 low point too

Interesting if they upgrade the tall Voda mast at Lobthorpe or the O2 one at South Witham

Thanks guys any Vo2 4G upgrade information is always appreciated

Mobilecentre that site in Barton is having a taller mast put in as well 15m

Well monopoles still seem to be rarerer then hens teeth in these parts. But soon as the present backlog is shifted there will be a boost to coverage in many parts. Trouble is I can see apart from infilling coverage many of the remaining 'easy' upgrades are still in the existing 3g footprints, so unless there's a great deal of backhaul work going on upgrades might slow down towards the end of the year as many of the main exiting 3g masts are done leaving the older masts to do, the good thing will be is when each one does come online it will add a massive coverage aras each time to the map.
EE have had a lot more masts to upgrade, but from a layman's point of view many have seemed to be been much easier to do, good backhaul already in place or easier access to upgrade existing and not all antennas have needed upgrades to begin with.
Alot of people seem to be singing the praises of EE's 800mhz network, even though it hasn't launched yet, I really can't see it being that much better then three's though, yes it should actually work unlike three's but they still only have the same 5mhz of spectrum, and alot more users, so it stands to reason it's going to be heavily restricted and set to a very low priority, at least of begin with or it will grind to a halt.

Yep they are deffo doing all the ground work and just leaving the poles. See a few sites in Stoke like this with even roadworks.org now saying "pole swap at later date".

I guess when they do manage this they will have some really decent coverage. EE in Staffs are now starting to fall behind O2/VF as they give 2g when the later gives 4g

Vodafone have had planning permission for my mast for a year now, it's a large town with 4G all around it, and it itself is a huge blackspot with only 2G.

Why vodafone decided to leave this large town out of 3G is beyond me, and now they're upgrading absolutely every mast around this town, bar the one here, even though they have permission and the site is not shared with anyone and is in an industrial park with internet access, so not completely out of the way either.

My dad wanted to change networks a year ago, I suggested vodafone as they'd just got permission to 4G the mast, and they offer the best add ons he needs. 1 year on and he's pretty miffed at me for suggesting such an awful network. The 2G antennae his calls go though are so old and the quality is awful.

It's the same in almost all towns I can think of around here, smaller often outskirts of town masts have been done but the larger one have not been touched or have had antennas upgraded but not broadcasting 4g yet. I can give you a big list of towns and the masts to back the case up but I doubt anyone interested in that sort of detail.
But it's clearly a planned approach by cornerstone for some reason, either that or there just unlucky that every single large mast is taking a while to get backhaul installed. Unlikely but could be the case.

Suspect turning on the cities is easy once you have the rural areas covered. Think of the speed that phase could be done in.

Well I can gladly announce that O2 4G800 is now showing on the coverage checker on the upgraded VF Higham Ferrers mast - so Higham Ferrers (and the surrounding areas) now have:
Vod 2G900, O2 2G900
Vod & O2 3G900 (from the upgraded Vod mast)
Vod 3G2100 (from the upgraded Vod mast) & O2 3G2100 (from possibly the old O2 mast?)
Vod & O2 4G800 from the upgraded Vod mast

Doubt that they have upgraded the O2 mast as it is lower down than Vodafone.

EE and 3 are still on 3G2100 - no 4G yet round here (EE 4G comes from the Wellingborough mast, very weak signal).

So at the moment, in my area, it's:
Best for Higham/Rushden/Chelveston: O2/Vodafone (they have 4G800 and 3G900, which should cover the poor spot in Chelveston)
Best for Raunds: EE/3 or O2 (the O2 mast is out of the village though, so EE/3 would probably be stronger in the town). The old nasty Vodafone mast is STILL 2G ONLY!!!
Best for East of Raunds (i.e. Thrapston, Oundle etc): EE/3. Vod/O2 still haven't bothered to upgrade that area.
Best for Wellingborough: All 4 operators have 4G and 3G, but I'd probably be inclined to say EE (in terms of speed). Managed to get 80Mbps+ on EE's 1800MHz 4G, whereas Vod/O2 are using 800MHz (so you'll be likely to get about 30-40Mbps). Haven't tested Three's 4G (it's only recently been added) but if their rollout elsewhere is anything to go by, it'll probably be beaten in speed by EE, and quite possibly even the CTIL duo. At least their 3G is fast enough.

Oh, and whilst on the subject of Three, I saw an advert about banishing blackspots (with their VoLTE @ 800). Trouble is, it only works if you've got a handset with Three firmware (so not an unlocked one bought from elsewhere) AND you can't get a sniff of 4G1800/3G2100! Pahahaha

As far as know that is incorrect. EE 800 will launch at a priority between 4G1800 and 3G2100.
I also doubt it will be restricted in any way. The 4G1800 reaches far enough that it shouldn't be too loaded.
Once it's on you will not see 3G again on a given cell.