Originally Posted by jaffboy151:
“I know I'll most likely get a slating for saying it and VO2 are only upgrading so much so quickly because they've done virtually sod all for the past 10 years, but as much as EE is rated when you look around at some of there equipment I can't help thinking they only have such a advanced 4g network in many places because of the past work put in by T mobile and three,”
You mean that T-Mob and Three did proper business planning and investment in 2006/2007/2008 when Voda/O2 and Orange did almost nothing? I was on T-Mobile in 2008 with 10mbps downloads on 3G when people on Vodafone and O2 were trying to get EDGE to work! Three users also had good speeds. Back then the other networks were selling phone calls, didn't anticipate the smartphone revolution.
Yes, when Orange SA and DT decided to merge the networks into EE in the UK they took the best assets (the T-mobile MBNL part, and the Orange voicemail, etc) and then added the other masts. Mergers take years.
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“and the fact they were able to reuse a frequencys they were already using making”
If you recall they applied to Ofcom and then Voda and O2 went to court to stop them! It took the Government to intervene to sort out the mess. I think in the end they had a 7 month lead.
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“many site upgrades easy (in relative terms) many sites still around me haven't seemed to need new antennas and are only now getting touched mainly due I think to three needing alterations for 800mhz & there 1800mhz, any of the more difficult orange 2g sites or 3g sites without fibre have simply been left untouched.”
Interesting you're seeing that, where I am its been new antenna panels everywhere (which are not cheap) and massive backhaul upgrades. I assume its down to population density, and your area will be upgraded eventually.
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“EE are finally upgrading 1 old orange Street pole in my work town this month, the 1st upgrade from them I've seen all year, in comparison cornerstone are doing 5 street poles and roughly 3 larger masts before the end of April. EE are still well ahead overall and always will in my opinion in regards to speed but if they continue to rest on there laurels they will end up behind”
I understand scheduling is complex, councils often won't let two companies work on the same stretch of road at the same time (even on different things) and some companies book slots longer than they need (e.g. water/gas etc) - so this delays the mobile networks.
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“I'm sure 800mhz will help them soon though, but what will the speeds be like?”
Quite slow as this is only 2x5mhz as per Three. The main capacity is at 1800 and secondary at 2600. The 800 is for in building and long distance coverage. Where I live I'm not expecting to see any 800 as 1800 works amazingly well in my town, even indoors. For years T-mobile and Orange beat VO2 for coverage - until in the last 18m when CTIL have deployed additional masts.
the UK is small compared to the USA, but it has quite intensive networks