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Vodafone and O2 4G experience thread
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mrgs12
12-07-2016
Originally Posted by Skippy2005:
“EE do have other VoLTE devices coming online also If you have a VoLTE active handset with EE, EE are comitting to 95% landmass coverage which would promise 4g calling device near blanket coverage across the whole of the U.K.”

95% is a play with computer simulations, real world can be very different.
jaffboy151
12-07-2016
For some reason I'd got it in my head that EE had restricted some services like wifi calling and VoLTE to EE sold/contracted phones or iPhone only, so was under the impression that if say I took out a something only contract with them using my LG G4 or another Android phone I'd not have access to wifi calling or VoLTE, which would make the phone a bit of a dead duck at home unless I sit upstairs.
CheshireBumpkin
12-07-2016
Originally Posted by jaffboy151:
“For some reason I'd got it in my head that EE had restricted some services like wifi calling and VoLTE to EE sold/contracted phones or iPhone only, so was under the impression that if say I took out a something only contract with them using my LG G4 or another Android phone I'd not have access to wifi calling or VoLTE, which would make the phone a bit of a dead duck at home unless I sit upstairs.”

There are few non-EE sourced Android phones you can buy that will work with EE wifi calling - HTC 10, S7 and new Nexus devices, I think. Others won't work I don't think. I don't think any Androids work with VoLTE on EE yet, and I'm not sure if any non-EE purchased ones will in the short to medium term.

The 'safest' phone as far as I can see is the iPhone, which can be bought anywhere and will work with all EE network features.
jonmorris
13-07-2016
The Priv and Xperia X work with VoLTE.
CheshireBumpkin
13-07-2016
Originally Posted by jonmorris:
“The Priv and Xperia X work with VoLTE.”

Do you need EE-branded versions, or will SIM-free versions work out of the box? I like the look of the Priv, it's just sad to see BB struggling to much generally. I think it's a nostalgia thing, a bit like Woolworths and OurPrice closing...

PS: Sorry to be posting about this in the VFO2 thread, I'll stop now...
jonmorris
13-07-2016
EE supplied versions, although the Sony will be easy to change with flashtool. 5 minutes or so to flash the EE firmware.
ryan125hst
15-07-2016
I was away in Somerset and Dorset with my family last week and couldn't believe how poor O2's 3G was in that area of the country.

My parents are both on O2 and at the lodge we were staying at in Cricket St Thomas (between Chard and Crewkerne), they only had 2G despite the fact that there were masts from every operator next to the lodge site! It was a strong 2G signal of course, but I was getting a strong 3G signal on Three with a performance of over 20 Mbps. I managed to Skype my Grandparents over 3G yet my Mum struggled to get Sky News to load over the 2G connection. Thank goodness we had free WiFi- they would have struggled without it!

I also noticed that the story was the same in Lyme Regis where I was getting a good internet connection (not as fast, but perfectly acceptable) and they could only get 2G. There were one or two other places where this was the same as well. They did get a bit of 3G in West Bay (I didn't ask them to check the speed of it), but given how I was helping my Dad with directions thanks to Google Maps, while I did go into No Service in some areas (and the O2 phones may have had a 2G signal on some of these occasions) the internet performance was fantastic on Three and I wouldn't have been able to help out like I did without it.

My Dad had great pleasure in telling me that he had 4G when I only had 3G at a services on the way home. Sadly, 4G in one place isn't enough to make up for it.

I'm not denying the fact that O2 (and Vodafone who's 3G performance is similar to O2's in the area judging by the coverage maps) perform well in cities and will be great if you happen to live in a 4G area and near the mast when the signals from EE and Three are weak, but their mobiles were only good for voice and text for much of the time. It's sad to see really.
jchamier
15-07-2016
Originally Posted by ryan125hst:
“ It's sad to see really.”

O2 and Vodafone are spending money very fast, but they started from a very poor background of 2G only outside most major towns/cities. EE and Three started from a good 3G background even in more rural areas. EE has also had a longer start on 4G than the other three networks.

I have been with Vodafone for work for 9 years now and have seen dramatic improvement, but long way to go.
Stereo Steve
15-07-2016
Originally Posted by ryan125hst:
“I was away in Somerset and Dorset with my family last week and couldn't believe how poor O2's 3G was in that area of the country.

My parents are both on O2 and at the lodge we were staying at in Cricket St Thomas (between Chard and Crewkerne), they only had 2G despite the fact that there were masts from every operator next to the lodge site! It was a strong 2G signal of course, but I was getting a strong 3G signal on Three with a performance of over 20 Mbps. I managed to Skype my Grandparents over 3G yet my Mum struggled to get Sky News to load over the 2G connection. Thank goodness we had free WiFi- they would have struggled without it!

I also noticed that the story was the same in Lyme Regis where I was getting a good internet connection (not as fast, but perfectly acceptable) and they could only get 2G. There were one or two other places where this was the same as well. They did get a bit of 3G in West Bay (I didn't ask them to check the speed of it), but given how I was helping my Dad with directions thanks to Google Maps, while I did go into No Service in some areas (and the O2 phones may have had a 2G signal on some of these occasions) the internet performance was fantastic on Three and I wouldn't have been able to help out like I did without it.

My Dad had great pleasure in telling me that he had 4G when I only had 3G at a services on the way home. Sadly, 4G in one place isn't enough to make up for it.

I'm not denying the fact that O2 (and Vodafone who's 3G performance is similar to O2's in the area judging by the coverage maps) perform well in cities and will be great if you happen to live in a 4G area and near the mast when the signals from EE and Three are weak, but their mobiles were only good for voice and text for much of the time. It's sad to see really.”

Welcome to our world. Good innit? That's pretty much the story over the South West as a whole although it is improving fast now.
DevonBloke
16-07-2016
MIP masts going in down here, 3 so far. Only one of them has Voda U09, the others G09.
In other news EE are bolting G18, L18, L08 and in most cases U21 to theirs with speeds over 100Mbps.
Can't quite work out why Voda aren't doing 4G but general consensus is it's an overall backhaul issue down here. Basically massive under-investment over the years in infrastructure so they are having to seriously catch up.
maverickjesus
16-07-2016
I would imagine Vodafone are doing everything in their power to not use BT circuits where feasible, even if it means waiting decades for planning permission to run C&W fibre.

Can't really blame them as its cheaper in the long run and helps build out their domestic broadband backbone but it sucks if you live in one of those areas in the short term
mobilecentre
16-07-2016
Originally Posted by maverickjesus:
“I would imagine Vodafone are doing everything in their power to not use BT circuits where feasible, even if it means waiting decades for planning permission to run C&W fibre.

Can't really blame them as its cheaper in the long run and helps build out their domestic broadband backbone but it sucks if you live in one of those areas in the short term ”

I agree in my area it appears to be lack of backhaul not just fibre, we have a number of sites locked down because one existing site on a hill they objected to the addition of a 300mm dia dish about 18 months ago on the basis of over development IIRC and it has been at appeal but in the meantime nothing can happen to anything in the relay of sites.
M1kos
16-07-2016
They should have just put the dish up anyway I doubt that the stupid council would even notice. Other sites have been upgraded without permission!
jonmorris
17-07-2016
Just been to see the wife running at Stratford, finishing in the Olympic stadium. Thousands of people and it really sorted the men from the boys.

On a normal day, Vodafone is good around Westfield and the Olympic Park, but today the backhaul capacity demonstrated that Vodafone still has a way to go. And a friend on O2 found it just as slow.

https://goo.gl/photos/sPnr2zoVbDzHS5Rv8

West Ham fans may want to switch to EE!
jaffboy151
17-07-2016
Seems the problem with cornerstone and Vodafone in particular at the moment, I know they are putting in huge amounts of money, but for what ever the reasons it's not happening quite quick enough to stay ahead of the game right now , they seem to failing on 2 fronts capacity and area coverage, still sticking largely to urban masts upgrades with just 900mhz overspill for the rural areas.
Pedro_C
17-07-2016
Sure it's backhaul and not local access network spectral congestion?

Was Vodafone in a cat 6 device? If it was, then not indicating 4G+ could suggest it was only seeing 800MHz, or if 2600MHz was available, band steering rather than CA.

Looking at publicly available data, it looks like EE is the only operator to have CA there. This explains how their speed is so much higher, especially if VF/O2 are using their typical 10MHz layer
jonmorris
17-07-2016
I can't see in the 6P if it was 4G+ but I go to Stratford around once a week, or maybe every fortnight, and usually it's very quick. Probably have some speed test results knocking about.

Today O2 and Vodafone was unusable. The nPerf test I did timed out twice and I had to resume, while the Ookla app couldn't complete either.

EE never stuttered once, and I was quite surprised but perhaps EE has realised that with the sheer numbers of people shopping, travelling and spending leisure time (plus West Ham FC starting to play in a few weeks) upping capacity was a must.

I should add that EE would normally be 50 or more, so it also took a hit but nowhere near as devastating.

I didn't have my Three or O2 SIM, but the Great Run app didn't even download on my mates O2 phone, but he got on to the free Wi-Fi in the park. That was also slow, but at least worked in the end.
jchamier
17-07-2016
Originally Posted by jonmorris:
“I should add that EE would normally be 50 or more, so it also took a hit but nowhere near as devastating.”

I think EE are planning for a detail amount capacity in much of the UK, whereas the other networks are trying to stay on top of rolling out their 4G networks with a first level of capacity. And this won't be about 10Gig links to masts, more about the spectrum allocation as Pedro_C says.

If EE only have 1800 they have 20mhz available, and if Vodafone and O2 only have 800 they each have 10mhz available. If EE is 4G+ (as your screenshot shows) they are likely to be 1800+2600 which will be 20+20 = 40mhz compared to Vodafone on 10mhz. Voda has 2600 but needs to roll it out; they could in theory have 10+20 = 30mhz. O2 doesn't have the spectrum so they might have 10+5 (800+1800) at best. Doesn't really compete with the 40mhz from EE.

In an incredibly busy location that could be the difference. Even without a 4G+/Cat6 handset.
jonmorris
17-07-2016
I should go back with another phone to see easily if there's 4G+. The Platinum 7 shows this, so I'll give it a go on my next trip next week. I'll also go with my O2 and Three SIMs.
clewsy
18-07-2016
What I've noticed more and more at the moment. When moving from 2g into a 4g area. It isn't picking up the 4g, bit choosing edge for some reason. The 4g will come back on, but only after you seem to be in the centre of a few masts.
M1kos
18-07-2016
No problems around here on Vodafone 4G everywhere some with triple carrier masts with 150mbps widely available
jonmorris
18-07-2016
Originally Posted by clewsy:
“What I've noticed more and more at the moment. When moving from 2g into a 4g area. It isn't picking up the 4g, bit choosing edge for some reason. The 4g will come back on, but only after you seem to be in the centre of a few masts.”

I had that last week but wondered if it was related to local work (see previous posts) as it took a flight mode toggle to get it back from 2G to 4G. At the very least I'd have expected it to stick on 3G.
georgi_prodanov
18-07-2016
On Voda eforum someone said that VoLTE is beeng rolled out and will be on soon everywhere. He said-I think because there are so many initial issues, they will wait to announce it, otherwise announcing something that doesn't work would be pointless. Sorry not much info on location apart from Derby, Birmingham, Coventry :/ just many customers saying they have used it.
mobilecentre
19-07-2016
Originally Posted by jonmorris:
“I had that last week but wondered if it was related to local work (see previous posts) as it took a flight mode toggle to get it back from 2G to 4G. At the very least I'd have expected it to stick on 3G.”

Same here - we are in a mix of beacon and non beacon sites and often the phone will go no srvc then full 2G Edge for quite while before switching when on Beacon.
clewsy
19-07-2016
Originally Posted by mobilecentre:
“Same here - we are in a mix of beacon and non beacon sites and often the phone will go no srvc then full 2G Edge for quite while before switching when on Beacon.”

It seems to have got worse as such, a sin sure in the places I'm now seeing it, previously it used to just switch to 4g near enough straight away.

Going the other way around it does also now try and cling on to 3g/4g signal for as long as possible before switching over to 2g.
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