o yeah i totally agree and in my area voda/o2 have gone from a single mast each to 3 4g masts. They're definitely making their network more dense but they desperately need to add some spectrum to balance the load. At the moment they just cant compete with EE in busy areas. The odd thing is that they easily could of if they had rolled out 2600Mhz was rolled out at the same time.

I have Three, Voda and EE sim. I have tried them all for the last year. All I can see around here in Berkshire is Three and Vodafone have made improvement but not EE. Still the same rubbish wherever I work in many places. EE 4G as soon as I go indoors it vanishes. Even sometimes NO SERVICE. But Voda is the strongest for now

It's odd, dumb and potentially damaging decision not to aggressively roll out 2600mhz along with each cells 4g upgrades, Vodafone have tones of spectrum but have chosen short term it seems to run the whole network on 10mhz of 4g & 5mhz of 3g.
If the plan was to go back and add 2600mhz 4g to sites where it's needed after the 800mhz 4g roll out was finished I think they have made an error in judgment in how much data there users like to use once they actually have a data signal.
I don't live or visit any areas where there is this level of congestion but one crumb of comfort might be that if they mirror areas where am in, the 4g roll out still is covered by only a few masts with many larger sites not online yet which could share the load.

But Vodafone's 2600 and 1800 will do just fine outdoors - hence, having 1800 and 2600 on 4G on all masts will relieve capacity issues for a lot of outdoor users (who would otherwise be on 800), thus giving more capacity to those areas that 1800 and 2600 cannot reach, such as some indoor areas.

If Vodafone shoved 4G1800 and 4G2600 on every mast, there wouldn't be that many areas that would have to go to 800 (certainly in cities, where congestion would be most probable).

Having more masts will be expensive, unless there is no coverage at all for any 4G service - and of course, there's only so much that 800 on its own will be able to take.

I think that 2100 on 3G should have been more aggressively rolled out, which would help ease congestion on the 900 band (especially if they are only using 5MHz). Speaking of, I'd get more of the 900 refarmed to 3G, whilst leaving a small amount available for legacy 2G users. Once all of the upgrades have taken place, most areas that get 2G900 should easily get 3G900.

With regards to 4G, again, roll out more than just a low frequency band. A higher frequency band is required to support the amount of users requiring data. That means using 1800 or 2600 (or both) as well as 800.

By using as many bands as possible, Vodafone would be future-proofing their network, so that, if and when the network usage suddenly increases exponentially, their network can still cope, and not be crippled to sub 1Mbps speeds.

So looks like the VF site in North Stamford (Lincs) is getting a CTIL upgrade next week so 4G coming to part of the town although as usual with VF this is not the two sites covering the centre of the town. Once they do the other VF sites in the town and three o2 sites on the outskirst this will give extremely good and dense coverage.

A site at Thrapston by the A14 getting the treatment next week too leaving about thiry miles of this road with no 3G (let alone 4G) between the M6 & A1 including the M6 / M1 / A14 junction!

Also VO2 4G "work planned" for next week in Chipping Campden (Glos) fixing another data black hole visited by hundreds of thousands of people every year.

Lots of sites around major links seem to be getting done, also they seem to be going back to areas they've previously visited and filling on some gaps, I noticed quite a few extra holes filled in on the predicted coverage map around the outskirts of Manchester, like Knutsford and Durham Masses, few 2g sites springing up to be upgraded in Wales, but there still mainly getting through the 2100mhz 3g sites,the difference in footprint between old 2100mhz 3g and 900mhz 3g & 800mhz 4g is massive, do Vodafone run many of these sites on lower power then say three or EE?
Anyone who's on nimby watch,
I noticed that Stone in Staffordshire have again rejected the revised plans from cornerstone to upgrade the telegraph pole mast near the town centre, after rejecting a lollipop option they have now rejected the telegraph pole extention option, staying they don't believe Vodafone/O2 have provided the best possible option for the area, maybe static and no signal is the best option when the pole is ripped out altogether and people can't use there phones.. I think they're left with fringe coverage and little or no indoor service like other networks now..

Same everywhere we have an existing site that they wanted to add the newer antennas and an additional dish onto which they rejected as overdevelopment this in turn blocks more sites as it is a MW relay.

So much for Digital Britain!

London Borough of Bromley council have turned down 30+ applications from Vodafone in the last 18 months some have been resubmitted over and over again getting smaller each time until finally 6 have been approved (of about 20 sites) mostly only 10m tall with one cabinet. I so hope voda appeal the other 14

Whoopee! Thrapston is finally going to get 3G from the CTIL networks!!!

It's about time - Vodafone don't even have a mast in Thrapston and O2's is GSM900/1800 only.

Which makes me wonder - will O2 keep the 1800 there and use it for 4G instead, to alleviate pressure on 4G800? The calls can then go through 3G900 and 3G2100 (hopefully) - 2100 for Thrapston itself and 900 for the more remote areas?

Mobile data use IS increasing exponentially...

It's Stone. They think they are posh, think being the apt word.

May as well just let them suffer and maybe if people complain about the lack of coverage point them back to their council members.

I can confirm today I was in an area where I was listening to my internet radio on my Iphone on 4G when someone called me and from 4G went down to 3G. After finished my call the radio automatically continued and noticed that from streaming on 3G it changed to 4G. But later went to different area and could not do the same. Mast was different. Is there any chance Vodafone have upgraded that mast and when streaming signal moves from 3G to 4G

I've noticed this happening on O2 as well.. Streaming TuneIn on 3G in some areas and it switches back to 4G mid stream.. Doesn't happen everywhere so I wonder if it's being tested..

Yes exactly he same happened to me very good stuff as no other network apart from VO2 has done that

I can't remember where I was at the time.. I have a feeling it may have been on the M6 so Voda's network.. Could be wrong..

This is great if true as I'm sure you lot are finding like me that when streaming you drop to 3G and never get it back again on a journey. If some networks are implementing 3G->4G promotion mid data session that's great.

Yes, EE now seems to allow mid session switching from 2G EDGE to 4G, at least in some areas. This is awesome as if you're travelling and streaming, you don't find yourself stuck on 3G until you stop the flow.

Not sure if Three has implemented this anywhere for 3G to 4G during data flow. It's one downside.

YES I am 100 percent sure. Today did it 3 times but I think not every mast is enabled. It happened when I was covered from one mast but as soon as I moved to area covered by different mast then it was on 3G not moving to 4G. But yes I am positive about 4G-3G-4G again after the call. Very exited about what an amazing stuff Voda are doing

Now EE need to get 3G to 4G going nicely, like what Vodafone are now doing!

2G up to 4G is no good when you're like me and trying to avoid 2G in the first place, because Tunein won't work on 2G.

I'm not sure EE doesn't already do 3G to 4G too, but I've not seen it work just yet.

It is by all accounts, despite the massive amount of work cornerstone are doing its a bit like trying to run the wrong way up escalator, there going almost flat out but effects of the progress are limited. Three are on the same escalator but have stopped running and have decided to have a fag break instead 😉

This is very interesting! I will put on my anorak and test via tune In on my way to and from work as I can drive past an number of 4g cells that easily drop down to 3g, if it's common place this will be a big obstacle overcome, sadly I've seen the total opposite so far, with situations like starting a data stream (Spotify or Google music) while on a old non dc-hsdpa mast on 900mhz and this continuing even after moving over to other higher speed masts with better 900mhz, 2100mhz 3g capacity and 4g.
I'd live to see the end of 3g beaching.

You guys sure this 3G > 4G thing is not just the fact that when streaming, the app buffers ahead and then goes data idle for a few seconds.
This is enough time for a switch to 4G to take place.

You know what, that's plausible as on 4G my phone can go for a long time with no data upload or download when streaming, on 4G you only see it come on for a second as the next lot of data is requested, then it can be 20 seconds before the arrows come back on when in 4G mode.

Exactly. 4G only needs a window of 2-3 seconds to kick in. If 3G is buffering even 5-10 seconds ahead then that would be enough time easily.