Now on o2 in Liverpool the other week it was clear how congested it was. It ground Tina halt at times and slow at others.

I'm fairly sure O2 are only using 10mhz Band 20 (800mhz) across Liverpool vs Vodafone who have 10mhz of band 20 + 10mhz of band 1 (2100mhz) across the city and 20mhz of band 7 (2600mhz) in some places, that's potentially 40mhz of bandwidth available on Vodafone vs 10mhz on 02,
Last year in Manchester centre over the festive period Vodafone were grinding to a halt in many places with sub 5mbps speeds as they were only using 10mhz of band 20, things seem better now they are using the extra bandwidth from band 1
I guess that's what makes the difference.

Did anyone see my Tweet showing Vodafone's 4G at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park? Averaging 60,000 visitors a day over six weeks.

https://twitter.com/jmcomms/status/802556211946131456

Extra capacity brought in, while EE and Three didn't. EE 4G 0.5Mbps or nothing. Three nothing either.

How do I know what band I'm on. Is there a way of telling with a Galaxy S7 Edge?

*#0011# into the dialler will tell you.

Yes very good to see that Vodafone are taking many non-traditional approaches such as small cells and temporary cells to ensure the network is always available.

Does CTIL also apply in these cases? So does O2 also benefit from the temporary Vodafone network in Hyde Park or the small cell infrastructure at airports?

For a continuous display of the LTE band in use, install "LTE Discovery" from the Play store. Go to Settings, enable Signal Overlay, and check "LTE band".

I'd assume not; CTIL was the plan to share resources such as static masts, power feeds, A/C, antennae, fibre etc. The networks are still in competition, so there's no requirement for Vodafone to provide o2 with help from their COWs (Cells on wheels) if they deploy them somewhere.

Thanks to both. I seem to be on band 20 everytime I've checked.

so, I got my 50gb vodafone data sim today, popped it into my phone, and H+ signal shows... no 4g, just my luck

coverage checker said it should ofbeen good

o2, ee and three have 4g here no problems

is there a way to try and force 4g?

Sometimes, depends on the phone; what phone do you have?

currently using HTC one m8

but I stuck it in samsung galaxy s6 and no 4g there

o2, three and ee work fine

If O2 has 4G I would expect Vodafone to have it too, but I think it has to be provisioned and you may get access soon (automatically) perhaps with a restart.

This is how it worked on PAYG SIMs for some time, as you could have plans that were 3G only.

I'm hoping so as speaking with live chat is annoying, I have a funny feeling that this is an issue which won't get solved, I don't buy that they sent out a 4g sim without 4g, like they said

lets hope so though

getting 5 bars of 3g signal too

When I got 4G PAYG SIMs they took a while to connect to 4G. That was over a year ago, but it is just a quirk of their system.

Fingers crossed.

You'll need to top up the Vodafone PAYG SIM to use 4G or add a Big Value Bundle.

I think its a monthly rolling 4g SIM, 50gb

Update : works now, 4 bars.. 23mbits.. im happy

Deffo echo that must be case and proof if people need it, how important bandwidth is.

Very true, but when you look at the cost of that investment by Vodafone vs the lack of by O2 will it really hurt O2 in the short to medium term you think?
After all they get the same 4g/3g coverage levels as Vodafone thanks to cornerstone, the average user has no understanding of bandwidth or how it works so even if they were told probably wouldn't look much past coverage maps when making contract decisions.. Might be a learning curve for many..

Vodafone sent me some tasty marshmallows this morning to celebrate being voted best voice and data network in London (as well as being on a par with its leading competitor, which I assume is EE, UK wide).

A while ago I would have laughed hysterically at the thought of Vodafone being best for data in London, but all that work on 2CA and 3CA, plus small cells, seems to be paying dividends.

The same approach has already rolled out in Birmingham, Manchester and elsewhere and while you may not get the same killer 200Mbps speed tests from the early 4G days, my experience is still mostly positive.

EE has the coverage in London, but so many areas are saturated and you can easily get down to speeds of just 1Mbps at times. And that's despite EE investing in rolling out 4G+ to more places, and 800 coming. 4G is starting to mature and now we're seeing how there's a constant need to keep ahead.

In addition, UK wide Vodafone came out top for voice. Again, that doesn't surprise me but it could be a short lived celebration if EE will have over 4,000 800 sites active this time next year.

Some positive news for Beacon in my area as things have really started to come together with the site share giving contiguous coverage to various sections of main roads that never had it and towns such as Moreton in Marsh, Shipston on Stour and Chipping Campden gaining 4g coverage.

Travelling he country I noticed lots of coverage has appeared on the A14 between the M6 and A1 and dare not mention it but I believe Thrapston is getting some coverage to the SW this week.

The biggest bug bear I had was the patchy nature of upgrades where you would switch from Beacon to Legacy and back again which has significantly improved, if they keep up this pace I will have to change my mind and say that by the end of 2017 they will have a decent 4g footprint countrywide.

Tried a Voda sim in the Stamford and Rutland area over the past week. Mostly 2G GPRS still with islands of 3G/4G. It seems encredible that my county town of Oakham is still GPRS. Some old school 3G with barely any throughput about in Stamford so surfing is painful at peak periods.

Coverage along the A1 is very good with integrated O2 sites filling the gaps in the old Voda network.

EE rule the roost though with nearly all sites 4Ged now.

EE, O2 and Vodafone will all have a great 4G footprint this time next year. Not sure about Three.

If I remember correctly Three's plan was to have by the end of 2016 85% 1800 coverage and 98% 800 coverage. Well I don't think either of those has been achieved by any sane metric or radio model .

Another year on Three with 800 being raised in priority may help. Do think they've given up a bit, although they seem to be more in fill focused than before.