Very interesting, but also very confusing
If they are the same priority, how does the phone choose between them? I can see that a phone might prefer 2100 once 2600 is weaker than say -124dBm, but I can't see what the phone would prefer if both signals were about -90dBm. All I can think is that phones would choose the higher bandwidth, but I didn't think that came into idle cell reselection. Unless Vodafone have some sort of load balancing system, and are pushing phones between 2100 and 2600 to balance capacity.

IIRC, 0 is the lowest priority, and 7 the highest. So are both 2100 and 2600 priority 7?

Load balancing would be the logical assumption since the bands are both the same priority

Top part so 10736 goes

Seems to be different now and ranks below 800 and 2600. It's new so it's not surprising to see changes.

Thanks japaul and Pedro_C for all the info, much appreciated.

This is good news, as I'd say my phone never sees 2100mhz 3g anymore in upgraded areas, and judging by the top speeds you can often get, not many other phones users with 4g do as well so it will be good so see it start being put to better use slowly.
Might explain why they've not added so much 2600mhz around the country maybe, preferring in time if they can use another 5mhz to make 10mhz making priority 800-2100-2600 (no idea where 1800mhz might fall)
Back to reality for a moment in the here and now, is good to see a move on a sizeable amount 2g site upgrades planned at last, is this O2 pushing this I wonder or Vodafone as many seem to be additional sites to Vodafone's map from 02, which will help Vodafone in raw coverage as they are quite poor is some areas. I was always led to believe before joining Vodafone that they had great 2g coverage just little 3g.
But after joining, thankfully in areas I don't have to travel often I was shocked at how poor coverage was, massive areas of no signal whilst O2 and EE thanks to old 2g orange mast had great coverage.
Looking at how much further ahead the east rollout (O2) is verses the west (Vodafone) I can't help thinking is O2 driving cornerstone while Vodafone are doing just what they need to.

Yeah the total lack of any signal on voda in many areas of staffordshire is what totally shocked me too.

Vodafone 4G 2100MHz and 4G 1800MHz explained - Video

I hope to visit the 2100MHz 4G mast at some point though it seems to be quite similar to the VF 2600MHz one I went to see.

Great video, about band steering and that. Just one small point, some cat4 devices can do carrier aggregation, the main one which comes to mind is the iPhone 6, which probably represents a significant part of Vodafone's handsets with it being a popular company phone. So iPhone 6s and some other cat 4 phones could do 800+2100, which although is only 2x15MHz currently, it might provide better speeds than 2x20 of 2600 because of the 800+2100 having better propagation properties.

I'm still quite disappointed in Manchester given that over 80% of sites have 2600MHz antennas, they would just need to run new feeders or more RRUs to provide 2600MHz. They would also need new RRUs in most cases in Manchester to do 4G2100, so a similar level of work.

I'll keep an eye out on Manchester United, which I think was one of the first Manchester sites to get 2600MHz. They are currently still using the middle of the 1800MHz band for 2G, but the top slice of 2100 is clear, giving the potential for 4G2100. They would need to replace the RRUs which are in not very accessible places though, so a cabinet swap from 2G1800 to 4G1800 maybe more likely.

Pretty sure the iPhone 6 can't do CA.

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...06&postcount=6
Here's a thread from 2014. I'm trying to find an official source, but it wasn't exactly widely talked about.
It may even be that B1+B20 isn't a supported carrier aggregation pair, but at least some models of the iPhone 6 could carrier aggregate 2x10+2x10.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8554/t...ne-6-review/13
"As was previously announced, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus both have support for carrier aggregation and VoLTE. For those that are unfamiliar with the two technologies, carrier aggregation is a method of combining multiple pieces of spectrum for simultaneous use, so it would be possible to piece together one band of 10 MHz and another band of 10 MHz spectrum to achieve the same rate that one would get with a single band of 20 MHz LTE. VoLTE is the next generation of voice service that is delivered over LTE, thus eliminating the need for complicated circuit-switched fallback mechanisms to WCDMA or GSM that are currently required. This is all enabled by the move to Qualcomm's MDM9x25 Gobi modem, which is built on 28HPm and therefore brings lower power when compared to the MDM9x15 generation fabricated on 28LP."

everywhere I travel with red on the voda map only gets sos. I honestly think the "limited" part just means sos calls. I was on top of a massive hill at Wildboarclough this weekend that is covered in red coverage but only ever got sos calls. Its the same everywhere i go, not a sniff of signal.

Been to Oulton Park today for the touring cars. 3yrs ago we saw the move to 3g, but it was useless when 30,000 people were there. Today had 4g all day. It was go good I could stream the tv live using the data connection.

It's amazing how much progress is being made and most of rural Cheshire on the trip back now has 3 or 4g.

Our EE friends had 3g but no data through put all day.

Interesting. Voda show pretty much no 4G here according to their coverage checker and the map was updated Thursday. Maybe they had COW here?

Edit: O2 shows full 2G/3G/4G here

Question about 3G cell breathing.. With all the 4G we now have could the breathing be got rid of. My gf house had pitterful voda until this week a formally o2 mast very high up has been ctil'd up and now I get good signal at the front of her house but in the back its still poor and one minute 3G is - 95 the next - 110 from the same sector. Bloody annoying!

I used to see that alot when I was on 3 and my mates were on EE at simular events around Silverstone or Rockingham and a few times at Old Trafford, this was over a year ago now but it sounds like other networks have moved on where as EE still have work to do, but are rolling out the big guns for special events like Glastonbury to get the PR.
On another note, following on from what M1kos has said, it would be good to see in areas with very good 4g coverage the power levels Increased as some masts are very very low in power it seems, understandably at the start but maybe not now.
For me though, more important then that or this or the move with 2100mhz 4g is for the here and now to get the extra bandwidth in place on 3g 900mhz as it's struggling badly in many places and unlike 2100mhz 3g will be needed for a few years more yet while volte gets going and 4g remains on reduced power.

I see Voda is now showing full 4G coverage in Stretham, nothing for O2's coverage maps yet though.

When/how often do these get updated? How can you see that the Voda map was updated on Thursday?

Where did Subaru come from? Good to see the 2 champs up there at the front. Car to beat next year I reckon. Meanwhile, BMW look FAST. Sorry, OT.

The former O2 site off Ely Road in Streatham has been upgraded - it was late in the month so missed the end of month update so will show on the coverage checker from the end of June/Early July. The site is 2G900/3G900/3G2100/4G800/4G1800.

Ah OK, so the updates are done once a month. The upgrade occured 18 May, so if it just missed the map update, I guess it could start showing up in the next few weeks.

Out of interest, I suppose the Stretham mast wouldve been 2G900/3G900 only pre 4G upgrade?

Not sure - I can't see once the upgrade has taken place.

Stretham mast was 2G900 only

Just read it can only do 2x10 CA.

In fairness I think the track suits RWD cars, however the Subaru always targeted Oulton for their true showing. Of course Oulton is very popular with fans but track action isn't always the best due to the narrow track.

However I was mega impressed with the 4g from o2. How many connections can 4g hold? It must be in the 10,000 mark as that seems a reasonable assumption of people on o2. Also how fast must be the fibre feeding that mast to be able to allow streaming as well? All very impressive.