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Vodafone and O2 4G experience thread


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Old 22-08-2015, 08:57
M1kos
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I see Voda are rolling out 2600 now across South London many planning apps now clearly show it and some upgrades to add it to already upgraded sites question -do any android handsets so this type of band info?? Or is it only iPhones as I like to see how much of 2600 is already live!
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Old 22-08-2015, 10:10
iampaulxo
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I see Voda are rolling out 2600 now across South London many planning apps now clearly show it and some upgrades to add it to already upgraded sites question -do any android handsets so this type of band info?? Or is it only iPhones as I like to see how much of 2600 is already live!
You can use LTE Discovery on any android handset to check what band you are connected to (although I believe there are measures already taken place to block that activity on non rooted phones to which root is your only option).

Samsung phones that can access service mode to see what band and how much spectrum it is using plus if it's carrier aggregated or not. Absolutely brilliant tool in my opinion. Again the latest Samsung phones may have it blocked now either from factory or through an update (or it might still be there and I'm talking absolute nonsense).

Finally LG have the option to select what LTE band you want to manually connect to which is useful as all android phones already have the function via hidden menu (easy access by downloading 4G switcher from Play Store) to force your phone onto LTE in situations where the 4G may be weak and doesn't show up etc.

LG goes that extra mile to be able to select which LTE band you wish to connect to, now this might be through their normal settings or via their own hidden menu, I am not really too sure, of course someone on here would be able to tell you that whoever has experience with LG handsets. So there you go, there's plenty of ways to find out what band you are connected to.
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Old 22-08-2015, 10:29
jaffboy151
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Just to add service menu which you access via typing *#0011# I know is available on the following Samsung handsets:
Galaxy S4,
Galaxy Note 3
Galaxy Note 4
If someone could confirm or deny it's availability on the S5,S6 & S6 edge it would be appreciated.
Would like a bit more info on this LG band selector settings as should I switch my main phone from three to Vodafone I'd have to root my note 4 to select 3g & 4g and no 2g as the note 4 doesn't let you do it or install 4g switcher,
Bit scared of the idea of rooting it in case it bricks, looses any functions or damages the resale..
So if you can select the mode and bands on lg phones they sound like a good compromise, swap my note 4 for a LG G4 5.5inch
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Old 22-08-2015, 10:36
iampaulxo
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Just to add service menu which you access via typing *#0011# I know is available on the following Samsung handsets:
Galaxy S4,
Galaxy Note 3
Galaxy Note 4
If someone could confirm or deny it's availability on the S5,S6 & S6 edge it would be appreciated.
Would like a bit more info on this LG band selector settings as should I switch my main phone from three to Vodafone I'd have to root my note 4 to select 3g & 4g and no 2g as the note 4 doesn't let you do it or install 4g switcher,
Bit scared of the idea of rooting it in case it bricks, looses any functions or damages the resale..
So if you can select the mode and bands on lg phones they sound like a good compromise, swap my note 4 for a LG G4 5.5inch
I have my Samsung S5 fully rooted and on custom firmware, just rooting on its own won't have a chance of your phone getting bricked, well not for Samsungs anyway, it's literally just flashing one file which is a custom kernel, flashing your phone with different ROMs have a likelihood if not done properly, and yes I've been in a situation many times where my phone is going into a constant bootloop but the geek I am, I've always figured out a way to fix that.
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Old 22-08-2015, 10:41
M1kos
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Thanks for the info my phone is a z2 it's swings and rounderbout as network signal info works properly unlike on Samsung but the *#0011#* hidden menu doesn't work at all maybe a iPhone5c would be a good second phone for 4G testing
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Old 22-08-2015, 10:53
Denco1
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Thanks for the info my phone is a z2 it's swings and rounderbout as network signal info works properly unlike on Samsung but the *#0011#* hidden menu doesn't work at all maybe a iPhone5c would be a good second phone for 4G testing
Sony do have techmode by sony which is *#*#386#*#* I think if you have customised UK flashed. This won't let you lock a 4G band but does give you much more information than available to an app.

The LG G4 has a great hidden menu although once you start to lock to a 4G band you have to reboot to get automatic 4G selection. So you can lock to L2600 then L800 but to get it to switch automatically you have to reboot. Much better than an iPhone though, although that will tell you how many Tx antennas they are unlike android phones. I'm pretty sure Vodafone are only currently using two however.
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Old 22-08-2015, 11:11
japaul
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LTE Discovery (if it works on your phone) can give misleading info for the band particularly when new bands are being rolled out as it isn't able to query the phone to get the info directly. It relies on building knowledge of how cell ids relate to bands for that particular network which takes time when new ones are introduced.

If you don't have a phone that shows the band directly then it's far more reliable to do it yourself as lots of apps will show and log the local cell id. For Vodafone, the 800MHz cell ids are 10,20 and 30 and the 2600 ones are 18,28 and 38.

The only situation which might be confusing is where you are using carrier aggregation with an LTE-A phone and the cell id shown is the primary one. On Vodafone the PCC can be 800 or 2600 depending on how you get there. e.g The cell id shown could be an 800 one (and if you phone allows you to see the band it will usually show 800MHz too although some like Samsung show both carriers) even though you may have 800 and 2600. In this situation though, you'll probably see 4G+ indicator so you'll know that way.
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Old 22-08-2015, 11:57
jaffboy151
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I have my Samsung S5 fully rooted and on custom firmware, just rooting on its own won't have a chance of your phone getting bricked, well not for Samsungs anyway, it's literally just flashing one file which is a custom kernel, flashing your phone with different ROMs have a likelihood if not done properly, and yes I've been in a situation many times where my phone is going into a constant bootloop but the geek I am, I've always figured out a way to fix that.
Thanks Paul, would you mind if I PM'd you to pick your brains about this?
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Old 22-08-2015, 17:37
M1kos
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*#*#386#*#* didnt work on my Z2
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Old 23-08-2015, 15:46
lightspeed2398
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Does anyone know if Vodafone ever offer discounts if you haggle with them, despite never being with them? It's a little bit cheeky of me but I thought I'd see what they'd do considering my letter from 3 is coming ever closer.
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Old 24-08-2015, 17:19
Gigabit
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So with O2 now annoucing the refarming of 1800MHz spectrum for 4G, my "accidental" pickup last week now makes perfect sense
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Old 24-08-2015, 18:16
japaul
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Last week after they announced it, I did have a little look to see if I could find any 4G 1800 in a few busy parts of London (they said it would be used in London first) but I didn't spot any.

If they aggregate it with 800, it does bring into play the iPhone 6's carrier aggregation abilities which have been redundant in the UK thus far.
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Old 24-08-2015, 18:22
Denco1
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*#*#386#*#* didnt work on my Z2
What firmware are you using, carrier branded eg Vodafone ROM or unbranded?
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Old 24-08-2015, 18:23
Denco1
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So with O2 now annoucing the refarming of 1800MHz spectrum for 4G, my "accidental" pickup last week now makes perfect sense
So it does, very good spot
The A1 is quite a way out of London though, I wonder why it is in testing there?
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Old 24-08-2015, 18:27
Skippy2005
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Last week after they announced it, I did have a little look to see if I could find any 4G 1800 in a few busy parts of London (they said it would be used in London first) but I didn't spot any.

If they aggregate it with 800, it does bring into play the iPhone 6's carrier aggregation abilities which have been redundant in the UK thus far.
Another question, providing O2 rollout their 1800mhz for 4G properly with the correct backhaul and to enough sites! What sort of speeds are we looking at minus congestion? Around 30mb?? And in theory what sort of speeds if they are CA with 800mhz? Would O2 likely rollout of 1800mhz as MIMO to increase capacity??

Also do you think they will need to do a nationwide rollout given they could soon be part of 3, or could it be ploy to safeguard their spectrum like EE have ensuring they are using it all to avoid a sell off??

Thanks ❓
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Old 24-08-2015, 18:29
Gigabit
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So it does, very good spot
The A1 is quite a way out of London though, I wonder why it is in testing there?
The A1 starts in London, does it not?

I was going from North East Hampshire to Hull so I went via the M25 and A1.

I can't quite remember where the pickup of 4G happened but if it happened just as I got onto the A1 is it not possible that I was picking up the signal from a London transmitter?
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Old 24-08-2015, 18:32
Denco1
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Last week after they announced it, I did have a little look to see if I could find any 4G 1800 in a few busy parts of London (they said it would be used in London first) but I didn't spot any.

If they aggregate it with 800, it does bring into play the iPhone 6's carrier aggregation abilities which have been redundant in the UK thus far.
I'd forgotten that several cat 4 devices will be able to take advantage in the meantime before they get there hands on Three's 800MHz, if/when that happens.

Any idea if they still plan on using 0.8MHz of 2G along with the 5MHz of 1800MHz 4G? I guess that would be pretty pointless though, maybe they are just replacing 1800MHz 2G cards with 4G cards meaning only cabinet work would be required and no feeder or antenna work.
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Old 24-08-2015, 18:36
Denco1
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The A1 starts in London, does it not?

I was going from North East Hampshire to Hull so I went via the M25 and A1.

I can't quite remember where the pickup of 4G happened but if it happened just as I got onto the A1 is it not possible that I was picking up the signal from a London transmitter?
So it does, what was I thinking

Seems very likely then, I guess that is a good starting point for anyone looking for 1800MHz 4G.

I wonder how fast the rollout will be in relation to Vodafone's 2600MHz.
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Old 24-08-2015, 18:45
Gigabit
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Like I say I didn't have time to test speeds (although I'll test it when I next go through) but it seemed snappy.

What sort of speeds are we looking at when the network is under load? Presumably O2 would favour 800MHz as that is more extensively rolled out?
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Old 24-08-2015, 18:51
Denco1
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Like I say I didn't have time to test speeds (although I'll test it when I next go through) but it seemed snappy.

What sort of speeds are we looking at when the network is under load? Presumably O2 would favour 800MHz as that is more extensively rolled out?
At a guess I would assume that preference would be 1800 4G, 800 4G, 2100 3G, 900 3G. I'm not sure though in this instance because 1800MHz has less bandwidth than 800MHz but will also cover a smaller area. One thing they may be doing is only allowing the 1800MHz 4G as a secondary carrier so people without carrier aggregation handsets don't notice a drop in speeds. They aren't currently seem that you picked it up on your OPO but potentially that is the end plan.

1800MHz of 4G would give 37.5mbps, aggregated with there 800MHz would give 112.5mbps downlink. Underload I guess it would give 50% higher speeds if the backhaul is fast enough.
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Old 24-08-2015, 19:09
Gigabit
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Presumably if you're aggregating the 800MHz and 1800MHz bands you effectively have the range of 1800MHz only?

If I moved too far away from 1800MHz but still within 800MHz I assume it would seamlessly transition?
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Old 24-08-2015, 19:12
Denco1
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Presumably if you're aggregating the 800MHz and 1800MHz bands you effectively have the range of 1800MHz only?

If I moved too far away from 1800MHz but still within 800MHz I assume it would seamlessly transition?
Yes, at least that's my experience with 1800+2600 aggregation on EE.
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Old 24-08-2015, 19:41
lightspeed2398
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Perhaps someone who's clued up could explain if this is possible or not. I was reading on some American website about how AT&T in the States is refarming 2g spectrum to LTE and operating GSM in the LTE guard bands. Could that be done with the GSM900 that Vodafone and o2 are using?
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Old 24-08-2015, 20:00
Denco1
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Perhaps someone who's clued up could explain if this is possible or not. I was reading on some American website about how AT&T in the States is refarming 2g spectrum to LTE and operating GSM in the LTE guard bands. Could that be done with the GSM900 that Vodafone and o2 are using?
I think if they really wanted to they could refarm 7.6MHz(O2) and 7.8MHz(Vodafone) to give them 5MHz of 4G and also 2.6MHz/2.8MHz of 2G, which would be 13/14 channels of 2G.
Not sure it would be worth it or even possible for a while, they probably need the 2G spectrum for a while until VoLTE is commonplace and 3G 900MHz is widely rolled out.
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Old 24-08-2015, 20:07
jayteedc1
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Presumably any O2 users of the iPhone 5 would be pleased to see that re-farming of the 1800Mhz frequency too

jayteedc
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