I have been using Cellmapper to compare O2 4G Vs Vodafone 4G however Vodafone's 4G has more coverage then O2 4G so how dos this work as they meant to be sharing the same masts?

O2 (Marked blue for rootop cells, Green for monopole)
http://imgur.com/zx65TUl

Vodafone (Marked blue for rootop cells, Green for monopole, Left the Red marker as unknown)
http://imgur.com/JdNXwpQ

My understanding is they are sharing all sites. Vodafone are upgrading one side of the country and o2 the other, Vidafone are spending heavier so they are pushing ahead, what will happen is o2 will come along and add there equipment at a later date. There will be places that o2 have upgraded but Vodafone haven't added yet! By the end they will have the same coverage. Each operator uses there own backhaul so that can be a key factor as to when the other goes live! As each site is fully upgraded it is handed over to CTIL to manage.

In London, the sharing works completely differently to the rest of the UK. Even when on the same roof, the operators tend to have completely separate panels and equipment. Some buildings therefore carry 4G for one operator but not both. Some buildings also only have one of the operators full stop.

The "other" operator doesn't come along and add kit to any sites.. Each operator is responsible for building a network to carry both operators in their respective areas. Backhaul is the only difference.

That used to happen in the old Cornerstone days but no Beacon.

If there's a small legacy O2 2G-only site in the rural West of the country that's earmarked for upgrade, does that mean that when it's upgraded it will automatically carry VF too? I'm not sure if there are exceptions. To add to the mix, the mast is currently shared by O2 with Airwave.

Yes definitely it will carry all technologies and both operators once finished. The voda map often shows an upgrade when status.o2.co.uk shows the same upgrade

Very odd. One pole in Reading which belongs to Voda was upgraded but the upgrade was not shown on Voda coverage map. On O2 was only shown as Our Network modernisation programme to improve 2G and 3G coverage and roll out 4G has reached this area. It does mean that you may experience intermittent service on your mobile device while our engineers 'do their thing'. It did not show actual date upgrade. I only found out on roadworks.org One more pole which belongs to O2 will be done next week and it shows on O2 status but nothing again on Voda but on roadworks it comes up as Vodafone upgrade. All of Reading area shows on roadroks as Voda upgrade even if the mast ot pole belongs to O2. So imagine how many sites get upgraded but we do not know about it as the miss on the voda map

Reading will be under the Vodafone upgrade area then. Vodafone is doing the west and Ireland and Wales, o2 is doing the east of the country and Scotland.

Cripes, so Vodafone is coming to my little corner of rural Cheshire alongside O2. Who'd have thought it?

Excellent thanks for clearing that up. I wasn't 100% on that part.

Seems to me that O2 are rolling out 3G900 before anything else is done down here at least. VOD seem to wait and do the whole thing properly in one go. I guess O2 just want to make the coverage look good regardless of whether it works or not.

I have to say I've jumped ship from EE and made the move to o2. I have their son only offer with 25gb for £25 a month. I can happily report I'm thrilled with the service compared to EE. What a difference.

EE 3G 0.02/3mb down 0.10mb up
EE 4G no coverage indoors

O2 3G 21-26mb down 3mb up
O2 4G 48-55mb down 20-21mb up.

That EE result must be because of an ancient mast on poor backhaul, or congestion. There's only been a very few times that I've had issues like that, though admittedly there are areas like that!

For example, if you live in Eye, or Eye Green (both on the outskirts of Peterborough), you want to be on O2 or Vodafone. (No indoor U21/L18, weak outdoors. CTIL have a mast on the edge of the village.)

If you visit Denny Abbey (Cambridgeshire) a lot, you also want to be on O2 or Vodafone - CTIL have a nearby mast on U09, possibly L08. EE/3 are relying on U21 from a more distant mast - result is -109dBm U21 at best (outdoors).
Alright, chances are these areas will get full power L08 but it doesn't look good from a capacity point of view, particularly if the vast majority of people in Eye (on EE) will be using the L08.

Good to see that you are liking o2. Ee is pathetic for me too in South East London!!! The only decent signal you can get is from next doors fermto Box which is 3G and only 2meg their 4G arrives upstairs at - 120 dbm and doesn't work!

Maybe so but the mast was like that before T-Mobile and Orange started roaming onto each other's network. EE has made no attempt to upgrade this site in 4 years so enough is enough. I'm fed up of reporting it and EE coming back saying there is no issues. I've had enough, bookey thankfully has looked into this for me and has said it will be upgraded but no date or ETA. It's a city centre site that happens to cover our apartments. I find it bizarre that site are being done that have little traffic in rural areas but urban areas are being left.

No offence, feel better now lol.

You watch it'll be upgraded next week ha ha

These o2 figures are on 4G800 no 4G1800 yet so very impressive I say.

All that and a £1 lunch on a Monday and a free CaffeNero on a Tuesday! What's NOT to love?! 😜

There are still, however, areas that need the CTIL attention... CTIL have upgraded all of the masts in towns near me, so in Rushden, Wellingborough, Higham Ferrers, now Raunds, CTIL will work nicely (especially O2 rolling out more L18 than Vodafone).

However, if I lived in Thrapston, the only choice would be MBNL... as Vodafone have no mast in Thrapston (so rely on fringe G900 from other masts) and the O2 mast has G09 and G18 - but no U09, U21 or any LTE.

The EE femto box speeds will depend on what their broadband is like, if it's old ADSL then it won't be any good - fiber optic broadband will be better though!
4G at -120dBm is quite weak but I've had 4G working before down to about -125dBm, maybe it's just a capacity issue with many people trying to force 4G to get something better than slow 3G @ 0.2Mbps!

I'm pretty certain that all masts that are 2G or 2G/3G at the moment, will eventually get upgraded to 4G (and quite possibly 3G/4G, depending on what EE want to do). It might be down to planning issues or council/landlord issues, though I'm sure EE are trying whatever they can to get all of these masts upgraded.

As I said, it depends by area - chances are, there are many areas whereby CTIL can provide decent 3G/4G, yet MBNL are either slow or have no 3G/4G coverage...yet there are also plenty of areas whereby MBNL is the only option.

Let's hope not - otherwise, if it is upgraded next week, you'll be thinking "why did I just switch networks?".

Vodafone and BT have a fair bit of planned work over near Denny Abbey (Vodafone this week, BT a month later), so there should be further improvements there.

According to Apple, O2 UK supports VoLTE.
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204040

O2 must have asked Apple to enable it in the carrier profile then. I don't think any O2 masts have VoLTE enabled yet - anyone found any?

My iPhone 6s Plus on o2 has enable 4G, it doesn't have the 4G voice and data option. I have carried 24.1?

Excellent - I know that they both had at least 3G the last time I checked, so maybe it is backhaul upgrades/4G?

4G would need to be added. In spite of O2's coverage checker, mum's phone has never connected to 4G in that location.

Judging by the area that's been cleared, i'd say at the very least a new cabinet is going in, but ideally a whole new monopole needs to go in as well.

I'll keep an eye on it, it's along my work commuting route, although that's only the latter half of the week.