[dts5000]

Can you do some 4g and 3g speed test on giff gaff and post the results please,

Quote:

Originally Posted by beans0ntoast

According to the O2 coverage checker, all areas on the route from Stanwick (Northamptonshire) to Peterborough now have some sort of 3G, though some areas are very patchy. Will have to test with my Giffgaff SIM soon.

That's quite a good improvement on the previous situation a few months ago, whereby it was no 3G/4G from Thrapston to east of Oundle!

Still can't believe that the Thrapston O2 mast hasn't been touched... It's got 2G1800 on it (as well as 2G900), so why not 3G2100 (or at least 3G900)?

And why oh why oh why aren't O2 and Vodafone refarming that 1800 to 4G?

[M1kos]

O2 are refarming 1800 voda have got tons of 2600 so probably won't bother

[beans0ntoast]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dts5000

Can you do some 4g and 3g speed test on giff gaff and post the results please,

Will do, on what masts? Next time I top up the SIM, I'll do a 3G and 4G speed test on my local mast and see what happens. Though when I last checked the SIM (when I was testing to see if 4G was affecting my Freeview), 3G was 3Mbps down and about 2Mbps up; 4G wasn't much better on the downlink (due to the priority thing?) but upload was about 14Mbps.

I really need a secondary phone though, for speed testing and SIM swapping/testing, because if I keep swapping SIMs all the time, on my S4, I'll have what I had with my old Virgin SIM, which was damage to the SIM (after a while) and problems with connecting to certain masts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by M1kos

O2 are refarming 1800 voda have got tons of 2600 so probably won't bother

Thank you for the info - though I thought O2 1800 was only available in London, and likewise with Vodafone 2600? Meaning that everywhere else is just 800?

And anyway Vodafone don't need to run 1800 on 2G, because they've got 900 which will give much better coverage from that mast - the 1800 would be better off on 4G where it can get half decent speeds, and better capacity (in areas where 2600 can't reach).

Or perhaps Vodafone and O2 could do a spectrum trade, whereby O2 gives Vodafone some of its other spectrum, in exchange for the unused 1800? Only a few masts get 1800 as VF 2G anyway, as upgraded sites are mostly 2G900/3G900/3G2100/4G800, or even 2G900/3G900/4G800. No mention of any 1800.

Or, if the 3/O2 deal goes ahead, and some spectrum has to be sold, then the combined 3/O2 could sell O2's 1800 to Vodafone, giving Vodafone more of an incentive to get 1800 rolled out on 4G?

[beans0ntoast]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonmorris

You'd need to run fibre the site before upgrading wouldn't you? If it's just 2G now, I'd hate to imagine the speeds. Probably linked with tight string and someone flicking bits on and off with their finger.

I know that one of Vodafone's 2G only sites along that route is micro fed (and a very small micro at that!), so I would definitely want fiber being laid to that site before upgrading to 2G/3G/4G.

As for the Raunds site, which is planned to be upgraded within 3 months, I don't know what the backhaul is - probably either micro or copper? That would also need upgrading.

[GreenLantern]

Quote:

Originally Posted by beans0ntoast

In which case, the issue is nothing to do with the fiber backhaul - as backhaul will already be in place. It's capacity on the 4G network that is an issue.

The main issue is that Vodafone aren't rolling out nearly enough 2600MHz. They've got 800MHz and 2600MHz spectrum, yet they are not rolling out 2600MHz in enough areas. Hence, everything on 4G has to go through the 800MHz, which has limited capacity.

They (Vodafone) also haven't refarmed the 5.8MHz of 1800MHz across to 4G, which is hurting VF in terms of 4G capacity. Alright, you're not going to be getting breakneck speeds, but it'll give a bit more capacity (especially if you CA 800 with 1800) and will help in areas that can't be covered by 4G2600. Oh yeah, and iPhone 5's (or any other 1800MHz only phone) would get access to 4G.

Why oh why oh why have Vodafone gone with the 800MHz only tactic, when they have plenty of 2600 and some 1800 to help back up the 800 in congested areas?

The problem is I think its backhaul and mast density and not correct rollout strategy - they have 800 & 2600 on some masts with no CA at all !!!

The backhaul is an issue - I've heard that they have not utilised the C&W infrastructure in the way they initially thought they would - how accurate that is I don't know but I do know it is an issue.

With a C&W site they can run some dark fibre to it, stick some 10gig goons on the end and they're basically done apart from switching and routing kit.

With BT they have to make a bandwidth analysis and then cost out exactly how much bandwidth they expect to get - then get the link supplied at that speed - it wouldn't surprise me for BT fibred sites if they run them right at capacity or just over.

Masts don't just get saturated from a spectrum point of view, they also get saturated from an available bandwidth point of view.

Again, just Vodafone doing what they do best, balls-ing things up.

[interactiv-uk]

Strange goings-on with Beacon around here.. In the village there is currently a full O2 Macro site with 2G900/3G900/3G2100 and a Vodafone monopole over the road with 3G2100. Around August last year, the builders installed a new power cabinet and the base mounts and metal temporary covers for a brand new site near the Vodafone one with planning in for one of the Hutchison poles.

It has sat like this ever since. Today on driving past I saw a Clarke Telecom van parked up and works going on - I thought we were finally getting the new site!

I went to work and on returning tonight the temporary cabinets have gone, as have the base mounts and the whole thing has been newly paved!! Very odd that they'd undo all the work and pull the new site! My only thought is that with the shortage of poles that has been talked about they are going to panel swap the O2 site instead. Why they didn't do this in the first place I have no idea - would have been much easier!

I'll just have to wait and see what happens next!

[Pedro_C]

O2 has quite a lot of 1800Mhz outside of London, even in some not so populated areas.

Potentially Vodafone might use 1800MHz 4G in the future, but I'd think it'll be for critical high use areas like Canary Wharf

[RileyM]

Looks like O2 inStretham, Ely, Cambridgeshire will finally be entering the 21st century!

Got a text earlier that 4G (and improved 3G) will be coming in the next few days! Work is scheduled for Tuesday I believe so bring it on. Going from GPRS only (last speed test 0.1Mbps down) to 3G (let alone 4G) will be great!

(Vodafone coverage check corresponds showing good coverage in the next three months)

[interactiv-uk]

The O2 site off Ely Road has work planned for Monday-Wednesday next week.

Depending on what needs doing this could e the whole thing or the first phase of uograde. Several sites around me have been off for that length of time and are then revisited to complete the works. Some are done in one hit. Fingers crossed for you!

[mobilecentre]

VF's main website is down and so the coverage coverage checker http://forum.vodafone.co.uk/t5/Vodaf...p/2493287#M197

[M1kos]

It's all working OK for me. Was down last night thou

[M1kos]

Reports of 1800 lte on voda around Canary Wharf!

[jaffboy151]

Quote:

Originally Posted by interactiv-uk

Strange goings-on with Beacon around here.. In the village there is currently a full O2 Macro site with 2G900/3G900/3G2100 and a Vodafone monopole over the road with 3G2100. Around August last year, the builders installed a new power cabinet and the base mounts and metal temporary covers for a brand new site near the Vodafone one with planning in for one of the Hutchison poles.

It has sat like this ever since. Today on driving past I saw a Clarke Telecom van parked up and works going on - I thought we were finally getting the new site!

I went to work and on returning tonight the temporary cabinets have gone, as have the base mounts and the whole thing has been newly paved!! Very odd that they'd undo all the work and pull the new site! My only thought is that with the shortage of poles that has been talked about they are going to panel swap the O2 site instead. Why they didn't do this in the first place I have no idea - would have been much easier!

I'll just have to wait and see what happens next!

It's not the 1st waste of time, money and effort I've seen them do like this, I saw something similar at a site I sometimes pass on the was to work in Telford, Vodafone battled with the local residents and the council for a few years to get this particular monopole in this part of Telford, after it was installed I'd say it was active for only 6-8 months before being switched off, and was then completely removed without a trace a few months ago, didn't even stay in place long enough for a Google Street View entry.

[jaffboy151]

Quote:

Originally Posted by M1kos

Reports of 1800 lte on voda around Canary Wharf!

That's a 1st if it's confirmed.
A few 1800mhz 2g sires used by Vodafone out here, doubt they will bother to 4g them though.

[moox]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pedro_C

O2 has quite a lot of 1800Mhz outside of London, even in some not so populated areas.

My area is one of the latter. It's not particularly dense, the only thing of importance is an A road. There is O2 1800 2G though. I didn't know this until I did a network search on an old single band phone and saw "UK 10"

[andyukguy]

Is there any news on Vodafone VoLTE? Any areas they're testing it?

[DevonBloke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonmorris

You'd need to run fibre the site before upgrading wouldn't you? If it's just 2G now, I'd hate to imagine the speeds. Probably linked with tight string and someone flicking bits on and off with their finger.

Microwave would do to start with. Full 3 sector site with U900 and L800 would need about 300Mbps at full capacity so depending on where the site was and the current usage you could get away with 100 - 150Mbps
of course if you are going to bolt 2600 to it at some point in the future then just make sure the MW link is capable of 1Gbps so you can pay for a slower speed now and increase later.
It has been pointed out to me that Vodafone probably have general backhaul issues in South Devon hence why we aren't getting anything much down here.
Having a fast MW link is all very fine as long as you have something fast to link it too.

[Stereo Steve]

I'm guessing they will need to get all the town masts done first to take heat off somewhere like Beacon Hill or it would be immediately swamped. Frustrating but they are paying for all those years of no investment.

[M1kos]

I reckon beacon Hill could cope with a normal 300mbps feed bare in mind the majority of people in its coverage area are already served from Torbay masts...except Totnes Get on with it Voda!!!

[hammy_y]

Quote:

Originally Posted by beans0ntoast

Thank you for the info - though I thought O2 1800 was only available in London, and likewise with Vodafone 2600? Meaning that everywhere else is just 800?

In my village I've got EE 4G1800 only, Vodafone 4G800 only, and O2 800+1800 4G.

EE vs O2:

EE: http://i.imgur.com/tr3tna2.png

O2: http://i.imgur.com/3C09Tv1.png

They're on the same mast btw.

So O2 is the fastest network in my village, come on EE! Lol

[interactiv-uk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hammy_y

In my village I've got EE 4G1800 only, Vodafone 4G800 only, and O2 800+1800 4G.

EE vs O2:

EE: http://i.imgur.com/tr3tna2.png

O2: http://i.imgur.com/3C09Tv1.png

They're on the same mast btw.

So O2 is the fastest network in my village, come on EE! Lol

So much for EE being 50% faster!! ) - They shouldn't be able to run that campaign without explicitly mentioning it was in 5 cities at the end of last year. Things do move on!

[Denco1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by hammy_y

In my village I've got EE 4G1800 only, Vodafone 4G800 only, and O2 800+1800 4G.

EE vs O2:

EE: http://i.imgur.com/tr3tna2.png

O2: http://i.imgur.com/3C09Tv1.png

They're on the same mast btw.

So O2 is the fastest network in my village, come on EE! Lol

Interesting
If your village is Leicester, I assume you are on the O2 side of CTIL?
I have a hunch the Vodafone side of CTIL haven't rolled out 1800 4G yet.

[Bentoni]

Quote:

Originally Posted by andyukguy

Is there any news on Vodafone VoLTE? Any areas they're testing it?

No new development unfortunately

[Gigabit]

I think this summer for Vodafone VoLTE.

[M1kos]

86meg isn't possible from 800 alone maybe 1800 too?!