Originally Posted by RAN Man:
“There will always be differences between networks due to the varying investments/revenue decisions made, in the last 10 years it's all changed pretty much 3 times.
E.g. 8 years ago, Orange had the fastest and largest 3G network, and Three were dead in the water with sites which couldn't be upgraded to HSDPA and a very low revenue user base. Orange (or more accurately FT) stopped investing and rode the cash wave which that gave them, Three bit the bullet and invested in the network share with TMobile, which ended up with where we were 4 years ago, with Orange dead last, 3/Tmobile well ahead of all. 4 years later, Three are last in the LTE race and Orange (via EE) are ahead again. (And yes I appreciate the current situation isn't really Orange, but it's a big chunk of what were Orange subs). Over that period O2 got the iPhone and made a lot of money, although had to spend a lot of it on the network to keep up, Vodafone appear to have been asleep for most of this!”
I accept that the running order of each network has changed several times over the last 10 years, I do
NOT believe this will be indicative of any upgrades going forward. All the networks have committed to heavy large scale investment to bring their infrastructure up to scratch, naturally some are at a different pace than others. You say there will always be differences, if am I honest it will be minimal.
It won't be the situation ala 3G like it was a few years ago, each network is wanting to roll out to cover at least 97% of the UK indoors as I understand it. IT will use a range of technologies and frequencies to support this. I think the only difference will come not in coverage or service but in the manner its delivered. Vodafone and EE are actively looking at small cell technology to support wider coverage especially in rural areas. This would require little outlay as it would use existing infrastructure. We are likely to see some innovation over the coming years, areas that have never had 3G service will likely start seeing it over the coming few years.