Vodafone and O2 4G experience thread

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lightspeed2398

08-09-2016

Originally Posted by beans0ntoast:
“Out of those choices, 4G all the time. Yes 3G is very good at most things (apart from cell breathing!) but dropping to 2G is just not an option. I'd rather have solid 4G all the time, than drop from 4G/3G to 2G.
Plus, when Vodafone and O2 launch VoLTE, then CSFB to 2G won't be an issue either. You'd effectively have 4G all the time, with only non-VoLTE devices ever seeing 2G.”

Yes it is an option to 99% of sane people. Of course it's an option. Eventually it won't be like that but for now it is.

You demand high speed data absolutely everywhere but think back 5-10 years and then look at the progress has been made. You expect too much too quickly and in the wrong way, with a complete disregard for what the normal consumer wants/needs, the business and logistics of a network and sometimes physics!

08-09-2016

Originally Posted by beans0ntoast:
“I agree with you that I'd rather see 2G gone than 3G. DC-HSPA can easily provide 10Mbit/s, sometimes even 20Mbit/s or more, which is a good fallback for if 4G is not available. 2G, on the other hand, is dire for data - 150kbit/s anyone? That's kbit/s, not Mbit/s, btw...

The same goes for calling. HD Voice is much better quality, and 3G provides HD Voice. 2G doesn't - 2G voice quality can be rather poor indeed.

4G VoLTE with a fallback to 3G would be ideal - though for some reason, Vodafone wants 2G/4G by 2020. Don't know why, when for calls and data quality, 3G outperforms 2G...”

Do you not take anything in from the other threads/posts in here?…

I'll refer you back to this post http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...postcount=1964

camer_000

08-09-2016

Something that I didn't see here is that O2's CEO Ronan Dunne has gone to/is going to Verizon as the President of Verizon Wireless. Wonder who's gonna take over the top spot now and if they'll keep the improvement up.

https://twitter.com/O2/status/773861861959741445

voodoofish

10-09-2016

Originally Posted by jo_m1:
“If you were serious about phasing out 3G or 2G, the rollout of 4G needs to be much more bold and aggressive in the UK.

For instance both Swisscom in Switzerland and Three in Austria have installed every technology (2G/3G/4G) on every single mast they operate and have both been doing so for over a year ! Three in Austria for example is operating 2G900, 3G 2100 and 4G1800 on every mast, complimented by 4G2600 in urban areas and are now rolling out 4G900 (3Mhz) onto every mast as well.

I think this illustrates that any talk of switching off 2G or 3G in the UK is not realistic at the moment.”

Remember Vodafone doesn't have 3G on every mast at the moment though... given how bad their 3G rollout is, they don't need to be particularly aggressive to have 4G signal everywhere in 2020 where they have 3G signal today.

interactiv-uk

10-09-2016

Originally Posted by camer_000:
“Something that I didn't see here is that O2's CEO Ronan Dunne has gone to/is going to Verizon as the President of Verizon Wireless. Wonder who's gonna take over the top spot now and if they'll keep the improvement up.

https://twitter.com/O2/status/773861861959741445”

It's Mark Evans, Ronan's former CFO.. Mark has been in place for a while now.

Ideally1gig

10-09-2016

Originally Posted by voodoofish:
“Remember Vodafone doesn't have 3G on every mast at the moment though... given how bad their 3G rollout is, they don't need to be particularly aggressive to have 4G signal everywhere in 2020 where they have 3G signal today.”

No wonder it's so bad compared to Three for data coverage!

Denco1

12-09-2016

https://imgur.com/a/r7S6A
Detailed network info on the TDD trials in Manchester.
Standard transmission modes 2 and 3 are employed, but beamforming in the form of TM8 is also employed.
The SA (subframe assignment) is mode 2, meaning for each 5ms frame 60% is allocated to downlink, 20% to uplink and 20% to special subframes. This gives a maximum of 90Mbps down and 10Mbps up, ignoring the special subframes.
The SSF (Special subframe pattern) is mode 7, this has a very short guard interval so there is more time spent downloading and uploading instead of guard time. This can be used when the cell area is relatively small.

As you can see I was able to receive 42.7Mbps downlink on one spatial stream, so I was very close to absolute maximums for that spatial stream. On the uplink I received 8.21Mbps, again close to the maximum possible in this given configuration.

Ashley_Bradbury

12-09-2016

Originally Posted by Denco1:
“https://imgur.com/a/r7S6A
Detailed network info on the TDD trials in Manchester.
Standard transmission modes 2 and 3 are employed, but beamforming in the form of TM8 is also employed.
The SA (subframe assignment) is mode 2, meaning for each 5ms frame 60% is allocated to downlink, 20% to uplink and 20% to special subframes. This gives a maximum of 90Mbps down and 10Mbps up, ignoring the special subframes.
The SSF (Special subframe pattern) is mode 7, this has a very short guard interval so there is more time spent downloading and uploading instead of guard time. This can be used when the cell area is relatively small.

As you can see I was able to receive 42.7Mbps downlink on one spatial stream, so I was very close to absolute maximums for that spatial stream. On the uplink I received 8.21Mbps, again close to the maximum possible in this given configuration.”

They need to deploy far more 2.6Ghz as they get really contested in manc and their 3G is usless

Denco1

12-09-2016

Originally Posted by Ashley_Bradbury:
“They need to deploy far more 2.6Ghz as they get really contested in manc and their 3G is usless”

4G2100 seems to have helped a lot, do you know whether your device supports L21 or whether you're in a L21 area?(~10 mile radius from MCC)
Agreed they could do with more 3CA sites, perhaps EE rolling out 2*55MHz will kick Vodafone's back side into gear and encourage them to go one step further than 2*20MHz and go for more widespread 2*40MHz.

lightspeed2398

12-09-2016

Visited it myself a few weeks ago. Only had an iPhone that supported B38 so couldn't pull any stats for the B38 from my Android phone.

To comment beyond Denco's excellent explanation from my own perspective. The mast covers a reasonable area that gets very densely packed at certain times. All layers performed well but the beamforming does appear to make a rather large difference to the cell edge performance of the L26. Was on -107 of 2600 if I remember correctly and was pulling in the high 90s on a very busy day. Not possible on the 2600 I get at home from EE (although having 2600 where I am is an achievement in itself so I shan't moan)!

TDD spectrum does has its uses and I would like to see a greater deployment of this from Vodafone along indeed with something more than the L08 & L21 layer they have done reasonably well in Manchester City Centre and other areas I've visited recently.

lightspeed2398

12-09-2016

Originally Posted by Denco1:
“4G2100 seems to have helped a lot, do you know whether your device supports L21 or whether you're in a L21 area?(~10 mile radius from MCC)
Agreed they could do with more 3CA sites, perhaps EE rolling out 2*55MHz will kick Vodafone's back side into gear and encourage them to go one step further than 2*20MHz and go for more widespread 2*40MHz.”

Agree with it helping a lot. There were some dodgy areas in the city but they all seem to have been lifted to "Usable" by the L21 rollout which is on practically every city centre site. EE are still generally faster but they have work to do in areas as well.

rasseru16

14-09-2016

Only picking up Vodafone 800Mhz 4G along the M25 Northbound, is the 2600Mhz only inside central London?

jo_m1

14-09-2016

Yes and even in central London the rollout is quite limited. You're more likely to pick up some 2100Mhz 4G than 2600Mhz 4G.

daleski75

15-09-2016

Is there anyway to find out which towns and/or cities where Vodafone have turned on VoLTE?

lightspeed2398

15-09-2016

Originally Posted by daleski75:
“Is there anyway to find out which towns and/or cities where Vodafone have turned on VoLTE?”

Used to be not anymore.

packages

15-09-2016

Originally Posted by daleski75:
“Is there anyway to find out which towns and/or cities where Vodafone have turned on VoLTE?”

Nope. Ask a their forums maybe, but you probably won't get a good answer.

daleski75

15-09-2016

Originally Posted by packages:
“Nope. Ask a their forums maybe, but you probably won't get a good answer.”

I did check their eforums and for want of a better word the people there seem to be very opinionated so may do an online chat instead.

jo_m1

15-09-2016

I've seen quite a lot of 10Mhz LTE2100 in central London in the last few days, however all my speedtests have been lower than when connected to either 800 or 2600 in the same areas and I haven't clocked anything higher than 25Mbit.

Anyone know why that is ?

rasseru16

15-09-2016

Originally Posted by jo_m1:
“I've seen quite a lot of 10Mhz LTE2100 in central London in the last few days, however all my speedtests have been lower than when connected to either 800 or 2600 in the same areas and I haven't clocked anything higher than 25Mbit.

Anyone know why that is ?”

Interesting! Wonder why there is no 2600Mhz on the busy M25...

lightspeed2398

15-09-2016

Originally Posted by rasseru16:
“Interesting! Wonder why there is no 2600Mhz on the busy M25...”

There is... on the west of it I believe

lightspeed2398

15-09-2016

Probably because the load balancing isn't perfect between 800,2100,2600 and the majority of people end up on 2100. Either that or 2100 is optimised a bit dodgy but wouldn't expect that.

Also in London lots of people roaming who won't have band 20 on their phones.

Pedro_C

15-09-2016

Originally Posted by rasseru16:
“Interesting! Wonder why there is no 2600Mhz on the busy M25...”

There is.
M25 near Byfleet has L08, L21 and L26. I've achieved 170mbps.
M25 near Egham has L08, L21 and L26. I've achieved 130mbps.

rasseru16

15-09-2016

Originally Posted by Pedro_C:
“There is.
M25 near Byfleet has L08, L21 and L26. I've achieved 170mbps.
M25 near Egham has L08, L21 and L26. I've achieved 130mbps.”

Interesting! I only travelled from Heathrow Airport up towards the A1 so no sign of L21 Or L2600 on that stretch unless my new S7 duos phone isn't working as it should.

M1kos

16-09-2016

Remember voda have the south side of London. It seems sites controlled by o2 are not being upgraded to L21/26 atm. Same for o2 North sites having L18 added but not South at least not at the moment

Ashley_Bradbury

16-09-2016

Do EE use beamforming too or is it just vodafone?

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