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Vodafone and O2 4G experience thread


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Old 02-07-2015, 20:09
M1kos
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Voda is fine in Enfield
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Old 04-07-2015, 09:21
Zebb
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Vodafone updated their coverage map near me but the 4G only extends to about 400m from the mast. Out of curiosity I put a VF SIM in and not a sniff of 4G.

Checked earlier this week and it said no planned coverage and then pow! indoor/outdoor 4G - except there isn't any.
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Old 07-07-2015, 19:04
Gigabit
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4G is live in Alton on O2 finally. Curiously the train station mast isn't live though...
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Old 07-07-2015, 20:02
M1kos
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Vodafone updated their coverage map near me but the 4G only extends to about 400m from the mast. Out of curiosity I put a VF SIM in and not a sniff of 4G.

Checked earlier this week and it said no planned coverage and then pow! indoor/outdoor 4G - except there isn't any.
Voda Sims dont connect to 4G unless you put £15 on a pay and go or subscribe to a RED tariff
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Old 07-07-2015, 21:03
lightspeed2398
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My Voda sim previously had a £40 bundle and still connects to 4g. I still use it for speed tests via the Net Perform app.
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Old 07-07-2015, 21:46
Zebb
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Voda Sims dont connect to 4G unless you put £15 on a pay and go or subscribe to a RED tariff
Interesting, I didn't know that. I'm not that curious to put £15 to find out its limited coverage. There's O2 stickers all over the cabinets, so the mast must be sharing, but on O2's coverage map, no 4G shown.
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Old 07-07-2015, 22:33
Skippy2005
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Interesting, I didn't know that. I'm not that curious to put £15 to find out its limited coverage. There's O2 stickers all over the cabinets, so the mast must be sharing, but on O2's coverage map, no 4G shown.
O2 coverage map hasn't been updated yet, they only usually update it once a month and usually around now and the 10th. EE and Voda update every Thursday!
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Old 08-07-2015, 09:02
lightspeed2398
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Anyone got an idea of how far the 2600MHz rollout for Vodafone 4.5g has reached? I've seen it a bit in Manchester and London but never got the best speeds on my iPhone which is only Cat.4. I presume they'll want to start making use of it because they've only got 10MHz on 800.
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Old 08-07-2015, 15:21
Pedro_C
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If you look at Vodafone Germany's Coverage map, which breaks down the coverage to 800MHz and 2600MHz, you'll see how little 2600MHz coverage they have even in Germany.
http://www.vodafone.de/privat/hilfe-...abdeckung.html
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Old 08-07-2015, 15:27
Denco1
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Now that is a handy coverage checker, if only all networks let you break down the coverage to separate technologies and frequencies.
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Old 08-07-2015, 15:43
Pedro_C
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The Czech Republic's is even better: http://www.vodafone.cz/mapa-pokryti/

They seem to have a lot more 4G frequencies than we have though. Another pattern that seems to be appearing is Vodafone's lack of 3G across Europe, not just the UK.
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Old 08-07-2015, 15:47
lightspeed2398
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Is Vodafone CZ re allocating 3g frequencies for band 1 LTE and the like? Interesting.

What seems clear from both the maps is that the 3g was never properly done but 4g has been. Hopefully it's the same here. Are they using 2g csfb the because the 4g appears to far outstrip the 3g coverage? Or are they using 800MHz limited to VoLTE like Three are doing?

I did also note on Vodafone's blog today about how they were saying that they'd never been able to rollout as well as they'd liked to have done because they were never allowed to build masts tall enough.
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Old 08-07-2015, 16:45
Gigabit
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Why was 3G never properly done?
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Old 08-07-2015, 18:13
mici01
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Are they using 2g csfb the because the 4g appears to far outstrip the 3g coverage? Or are they using 800MHz limited to VoLTE like Three are doing?
They use CSFB to the 2G Network (At least in Germany i'm sure about that). As Vodafone Germany only recently activated VoLTE (and only for some phones with VF branding and only on some plans).
Also LTE is already so widely available as it is also used as a broadband replacement in rural areas and the German Ofcom made it a requirement for the providers to start LTE in rural areas (where there is no 3G available) when they awarded the spectrum.
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Old 08-07-2015, 18:59
lightspeed2398
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They use CSFB to the 2G Network (At least in Germany i'm sure about that). As Vodafone Germany only recently activated VoLTE (and only for some phones with VF branding and only on some plans).
Also LTE is already so widely available as it is also used as a broadband replacement in rural areas and the German Ofcom made it a requirement for the providers to start LTE in rural areas (where there is no 3G available) when they awarded the spectrum.
Sounds like we need to get some of their sense over here! If they can do it there why can't they do it here? It would help a lot I presume with their rollout?
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Old 08-07-2015, 19:45
japaul
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Is Vodafone CZ re allocating 3g frequencies for band 1 LTE and the like? Interesting.

What seems clear from both the maps is that the 3g was never properly done but 4g has been. Hopefully it's the same here. Are they using 2g csfb the because the 4g appears to far outstrip the 3g coverage? Or are they using 800MHz limited to VoLTE like Three are doing?

I did also note on Vodafone's blog today about how they were saying that they'd never been able to rollout as well as they'd liked to have done because they were never allowed to build masts tall enough.
No VoLTE yet so a lot of the CSFB is to 2G.

The 800/2600 auction was quite late in CZ so these frequencies weren't available to use until last year. They started with 1800 in a few places but used 900 as this let them roll out quickly when 800 wasn't available. They don't have 5MHz of contiguous 900 spectrum so LTE at 900 is only 3MHz hence the speed shown. Adding 2100 LTE was easy as they already had a 3G/4G SRAN so by doing it at 2100 it was pretty much just a software upgrade.

The LTE-A shown is 800/1800 but they said they will shortly be doing 800/1800/2600 CA. This means they'll be running 4G at 800/900/1800/2100/2600!


Why was 3G never properly done?
Same reason as everywhere else - returns didn't justify the investment.
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Old 09-07-2015, 11:14
M1kos
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Vodafone 4G now live in Inverness and Yeovil according to their coverage map and 3G 900 coming soon to Buckfastleigh!
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Old 09-07-2015, 16:17
Ashley_Bradbury
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Has anyone else noticed that o2 seem to be transmitting at a much higher power than voda? I get a couple of bars 4g on o2 in my house yet nothing on voda, even when set to 4g only. They both are transmitting from the same mast and I can pick voda up if I walk to the end of my road
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Old 09-07-2015, 18:38
mupet0000
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Has anyone else noticed that o2 seem to be transmitting at a much higher power than voda? I get a couple of bars 4g on o2 in my house yet nothing on voda, even when set to 4g only. They both are transmitting from the same mast and I can pick voda up if I walk to the end of my road
That doesn't sound right, are you 100% sure it's coming from the same mast?
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Old 09-07-2015, 19:16
Ashley_Bradbury
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Yeah positive, there was only one mast enabled at the time. I should add that this was two weeks ago before they enabled a second mast. This second mast is down the road so offers 5 bars for both networks.
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Old 09-07-2015, 19:57
Stereo Steve
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Vodafone 4G now live in Inverness and Yeovil according to their coverage map and 3G 900 coming soon to Buckfastleigh!
Hope they've put some backhaul in at Buckfastleigh as the O2 mast has never worked well on 3G900. Lot's of bars, no data.
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Old 09-07-2015, 22:46
jaffboy151
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Yeah positive, there was only one mast enabled at the time. I should add that this was two weeks ago before they enabled a second mast. This second mast is down the road so offers 5 bars for both networks.
When vod/O2 started activating the 1st 4g masts in Stoke and crewe which are both around 10 -12 miles from here it was always easier to find the O2 signal over the Vodafone one, despite many more masts going live (still none local though) giving better if still weak coverage the 02 signal can still found in places that Vodafone cannot, so I'd say it is likely to be stronger then Vodafone. Not sure why that is, do O2 have 900mhz 3g like Vodafone? If not how do they manage the switch back to voice calls?
Vodafone seemed to have positioned there 4g signal strength somewhere between 900mhz 3g strength and 2100mhz 3g, much stronger then the one but significantly weaker then the other,

Hope they've put some backhaul in at Buckfastleigh as the O2 mast has never worked well on 3G900. Lot's of bars, no data.
Does anyone know if on masts in small towns and rural areas weather Vodafone/O2 plan to run fibre up to any of these old 2g masts or older 3g masts or if they're going to get them on line by using microwave links from key masts?
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Old 09-07-2015, 23:22
Zebb
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O2 coverage map hasn't been updated yet, they only usually update it once a month and usually around now and the 10th. EE and Voda update every Thursday!
O2 map updated today, shows my location with excellent 4G now, pity I've no way to test it.
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Old 10-07-2015, 12:14
Zebb
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Great! 4G coverage now and Species 8472 invades!

http://i.imgur.com/V3cx57v.jpg
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Old 10-07-2015, 13:04
clonmult
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Voda Sims dont connect to 4G unless you put £15 on a pay and go or subscribe to a RED tariff
Not true; if it is the case please give links.

I'm not on a red tariff or payg. Just a regular unlimited talk/text with 1gb data. Was upgraded to 4G at no extra charge about 2 weeks back.
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