[M1kos]

Vodafone have Launched their 4G services (according to their coverage map) for Central Southern England, The Partial rollout covers Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Eastleigh, Havant, Bognor Basingstoke, fleet Andover and the M3 corridor, Southampton appears to have been omitted for now but does have some coverage with more cells coming on line in the next few weeks no doubt

[japaul]

Voda's (and I assume O2's) 4G coverage in the South seems to be coming along quite nicely at least in the SE. I was on the South Coast near Rye a few weeks ago and there was a lot of 4G, often in middle of nowhere places that never saw 3G. Looking at the coverage map now it seems the SW is missing out although I guess it's gradually rolling westwards looking at the planned coverage.

I hadn't looked at the coverage map for a while and it seems they have fixed 3G900 so 3G now shows something sensible compared with the previous gamma ray like prediction!

[iGeek2014]

Quote:

Originally Posted by M1kos

Vodafone have Launched their 4G services (according to their coverage map) for Central Southern England, The Partial rollout covers Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Eastleigh, Havant, Bognor Basingstoke, fleet Andover and the M3 corridor, Southampton appears to have been omitted for now but does have some coverage with more cells coming on line in the next few weeks no doubt

Wish they'd extend 4G into Derby.... At this rate by contract with them will be finished!

[jchamier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by M1kos

Vodafone have Launched their 4G services (according to their coverage map) for Central Southern England, The Partial rollout covers Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Eastleigh, Havant, Bognor Basingstoke, fleet Andover and the M3 corridor, Southampton appears to have been omitted for now but does have some coverage with more cells coming on line in the next few weeks no doubt

Amazing, shame it stops at Basingstoke, as the other way stops at Woking, so those of us in the Camberley / Farnborough / Aldershot area are out of luck.

I just checked with my unlocked MiFi which shows all networks on a scan, and sitting at home I have Three-3G, Three-4G, EE-4G, EE-3G (twice), EE-2G (once), Voda-3G, Voda-2G, and O2-3G and O2-2G all in the area.

[-ajm-]

A network scan reveals they now have coverage here. Shame, I've just switched from them to Three.

[uno]

Igeek2014- Derby and Derbyshire will be getting 4G very soon mast upgrades are well underway and on track. Next weeks focus will be around Chesterfield, Mickleover and Markeaton areas.

[iGeek2014]

Quote:

Originally Posted by uno

Igeek2014- Derby and Derbyshire will be getting 4G very soon mast upgrades are well underway and on track. Next weeks focus will be around Chesterfield, Mickleover and Markeaton areas.

Thanks.

I'm in the Oakwood area of Derby myself; I work in Ashbourne and the mobile data signal there is GPRS which renders my iPhone useless for anything web based!

How soon is "very soon"?

[jchamier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by -ajm-

A network scan reveals they now have coverage here. Shame, I've just switched from them to Three.

Which handset shows you that its 4G rather than just any Voda 2G/3G signal ?

I ask because my Huawei MiFi is the only box I've seen that shows separate lines for Voda 2G and Voda 3G etc, whereas all the phones just show "Vodafone - UK" :-/

[matty1000kk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jchamier

Which handset shows you that its 4G rather than just any Voda 2G/3G signal ?

I ask because my Huawei MiFi is the only box I've seen that shows separate lines for Voda 2G and Voda 3G etc, whereas all the phones just show "Vodafone - UK" :-/

Sony Xperia Z1 does.

[moox]

Good to see that Vodafone is continuing its glacial pace with 4G as it has done with 3G.

EE/3 aren't much better though, they barely exist in the SW whereas VF and O2 aren't there at all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jchamier

Which handset shows you that its 4G rather than just any Voda 2G/3G signal ?

I ask because my Huawei MiFi is the only box I've seen that shows separate lines for Voda 2G and Voda 3G etc, whereas all the phones just show "Vodafone - UK" :-/

Can always force the phone to LTE only (if available) and then do a scan.

[Ignite]

Looking at their coverage in Dorset, it's crazy! You have Poole Wimborne and Christchurch covered but not Bournemouth in-between! You would have thought that they would want to cover the main part of the conurbation.

[jchamier]

Quote:

Originally Posted by moox

Can always force the phone to LTE only (if available) and then do a scan.

Sadly Moto G 4G only has two options "3G" and "4G" which seems to be the equivalent of a 4G on/off switch.

Will have to investigate other models, sounds like Android customisation, rather than in the base AOSP feature set.

[daclick]

Norwich or Cambridge... This rollout seems so slow alough h+ does appear in Norwich a lot more now

[sethpet]

Slow? 4G rollout in the UK is much faster than the rest of the world. According to the press stuff I heard after an analyst call I few months ago.

[AlecR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jchamier

Sadly Moto G 4G only has two options "3G" and "4G" which seems to be the equivalent of a 4G on/off switch.

Will have to investigate other models, sounds like Android customisation, rather than in the base AOSP feature set.

Download Radio Switcher from the Play Store.

[M1kos]

Or TELINFO on play store be careful with the settings thou and remember if in 4G only you wont receive any phone calls!!!!

[Thine Wonk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by M1kos

Or TELINFO on play store be careful with the settings thou and remember if in 4G only you wont receive any phone calls!!!!

or 4G switcher, there's loads of apps that all bring up the hidden service menu. There's actually a number combination you can dial in to bring it up without an app.

[jchamier]

Thanks all, I found the dialler code, but very little info in there sadly. Doesn't even tell me if its a 10mhz or 20mhz mode transmitter.

(FWIW, my EE iPhone shows my area is now 20x20 but nothing increased in speeds, so I guess they're doing backhaul upgrades before changing the colour on the map)

[iGeek2014]

Quote:

Originally Posted by uno

Igeek2014- Derby and Derbyshire will be getting 4G very soon mast upgrades are well underway and on track. Next weeks focus will be around Chesterfield, Mickleover and Markeaton areas.

Out of interest if the Coverage Checker mentions planned maintenance to improve 2G/3G data does that mean the site is being upgraded for 4G, too?

[M1kos]

the planned maintaince never says '4G upgrades' for some reason, but if you see a site which is being worked on for 3 days or so quite often its a 4G upgrade. lots going on in Medway kent at the moment and along the M3 Remember Voda are doing the west of the uk and o2 the east so that may give you a clue when it cones to existing sites

[iGeek2014]

Quote:

Originally Posted by M1kos

the planned maintaince never says '4G upgrades' for some reason, but if you see a site which is being worked on for 3 days or so quite often its a 4G upgrade. lots going on in Medway kent at the moment and along the M3 Remember Voda are doing the west of the uk and o2 the east so that may give you a clue when it cones to existing sites

Thanks for that; I'm getting more information from people on DS than I am with Vodafone.

According to the checker right now it looks like an over-night job (starting at 11.59pm on the 29th and ending at 3am on the 30th.)

Will have to wait and see, that's all.

[uno]

IGeek 2014- That work will not be 4G upgrade work that is being done , This work will likely be retuning the network for new masts that will have been or will be installed.

What generally happens is you will have 3 days work to remove the old cabinets and then install new cabinets along with connecting up new backhaul and power supply if required. Once all that has been done they will leave it all working on 2G and 3G.

They will then come back about 2- 3 weeks later and will then do the actual mast replacement and get 4G working.

The only exception to this is when it is next to very busy roads or in an area where disruption is to be high as they need cranes to lift the masts and cabinets.

In this case they will often do this overnight between 9pm and 5am for 5 days with bigger work forces. I went to one install in Leicester on the main ring road where there was 2 civil workers digging holes,a crane operator and assistant,3 mobile telecoms engineers,to install all the base station equipment,2 aerial rigging engineers to climb masts and connect all up top, an electrician to connect all the electrics up and 2 BT Openreach engineers to connect all up to the fibre connections.this was all completed in 2 nights.

Dont forget that this is all for two networks as both Vodafone and O2 have own cabinets for 4G. A

[M1kos]

yep Uno is right pretty much whats is happening on Medway cabinets all went in a couple of weeks ago now the guys are on site over a 3 day period swapping over the mast and connecting it up usually the 3G comes back first sometimes enhanced with 3g 900 then a few days later 4G comes online although it depends who is doing the install as the host operator normally apppears to go live first!