Was in London yesterday.

Around Kensington and St. Pancras International 4G on o2 behaved fine.

Headed over to Battersea Park and near the Chelsea Physic Garden and despite 4G showing on my phone I had to drop down to 3G to use the Internet.

Very odd. A mast near me has gone 4G live but it did not show anything on O2 live status or voda planned maintenance as i check every day. This is the first time it happens

Where is this George?

near RG30 4BN M1kos it is the first time it happens. usually O2 are very good at this but they must have missed the upgrade this time

Indeed I would also like to see a wider TDD rollout, especially from Vodafone but it would be nice to see BT or EE do something with their slice.

The 2300MHz auctions likely in 2017 now thanks to Three should bring about greater use of TDD from most if not all networks.

Just Vodafone in limited technical trials for now.
Beamforming is primarily a TDD technology rather than a FDD technology.

Wonder if EE might use its in a more focused small cell rollout in a year or two rather than a big macro though. Keep it as a dedicated frequency for that. Could depend how EE do in the 2300 auction.

2300MHz auction is a massive balls up to put it frankly! IMO Three should stop moaning and densify as the amount of legacy sites for them in urban areas is what's holding them back IMO. Still not convinced with the amount of spectrum up for auction it's a long term solution though.

Yes I had that in mind too, TDD would be prime for stadium or indoor deployment. I understand that TDD in a macro deployment needs to be time synced, so small concentrated deployments would avoid the need for network wide time syncs (not that GPS or fibre time syncs should be difficult anyway).

It's very disappointing to see it delayed so far, and only 40MHz of spectrum being released. Surely the MoD could have released closer to the full 100MHz available.
Agreed on densification, and refarming some 2100MHz over to 4G wouldn't go amiss. Phil Sheppard along with some other absurd claims has stated plans to start this.

You have to wonder if Vodafone would be asking Ofcom to intervene if Three and O2 had merged...

Agree on the TDD usage scenarios. Would be interesting to have a widespread macro rollout on Voda though China Mobile/Softbank/Sprint style. Does have its advantages.

MoD probably have some reason for it but they can basically just say nope we need this and keep it seemingly and had to be pressured iirc to release even 40MHz. Would go out with a Spectrum Analyser and look to see if the rest is being used anywhere but I fear I'd get taken away in a black van by people in suits and you'd never see me again! (No one comment this would be a good thing).

Can't really blame Three for trying to wangle more. Saw the interview was a bit desperate! But I'd rather they shut up and got the job done. To be fair round here they've done a fair bit recently, especially 800 wise. Having had a play with NSG locked to B20 recently on a Three SIM I'd say they could bring the priority up and have the best 4G coverage in my area.

Next on my plan is to return to MediaCity with a B38 rooted Qualcomm Android and play (speaking of which is it in the part of the spectrum where it can MBFI B41?)

It might be true that Three is using all the spectrum it has, but it can still add it on more sites to increase capacity, rather than now where 800 in particular is ridiculously sparse.

It's not going to eradicate indoor blackspots if the nearest site is 30 miles away.

London also has some TDD from Vodafone now. Will try and look at the technical details at some point to see if it's different to Manchester.

Very happy with o2 in Heanor.

Am guessing the area was upgraded to 4G as part of the Cornerstone project.

Did a speed test with OpenSignal for iOS earlier in the town centre and got 83 down and around 20 up.

Didn't think that was too bad for an area with no CA in force.

83 on o2 needs CA.

Ah OK.

Unable to check the Band(s) as Field Test Mode isn't working in iOS 10 at the moment.

It works in iOS 10 but doesn't work if you have an iPhone 7.

Which I do... because I'm daft enough/an iSheep/idiot etc 😂

Goodness Vodafone in Hull is terrible.

Did you need the first three words?

EE for me isn't that great either in certain areas!

VF is but L08.
O2 has CA L08_L18 on many of the sites now. Speeds are pretty good, even on giffgaff.
EE has CA L18_L26 in pretty much the majority of area of West Hull. Speeds are usually excellent; I often have continuous stretches where I achieve over 110mbps.
3 has L18 and L08 in most places. It is often very fast too.

Can provide a list/map of sites if wanted

Very happy with Vodafone. They keep upgrading their sites all around Reading. The speeds might not be as good as EE but I need 4G indoors or just to make a call.

So this is my mum's local O2 & Vodafone mast, as you can see the panels at the top have recently been replaced with new ones, presumebly 4G antennas, however the legacy Vodafone panels remain still and are working, no sign of 4G yet from this site.

Anyone know what type of set-up the new panels are at the top?

https://i.imgsafe.org/8246277385.png

That panel is listed on the new New Vodafone 4G and O2 4G masts page: it's a quad band Commscope Argus. If you're in the East, you may well get some O2 L18 in time.

I wonder why Vodafone haven't been bothered to roll out any L18 or L26 in Hull? O2 have shown for 5MHz of L18 and 10MHz L08 to work, as you described - yet Vodafone could roll out L26 as well if they wanted, and even L21.

Are O2 and Vodafone sharing backhaul? If so then I wouldn't imagine backhaul to be an issue, though having said that, you used to say that Hull had lots of microwave masts around whilst they were sorting out the fiber... did they manage to get the fiber installed?