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Vodafone 3G Services
Jack_Wilson2
26-10-2014
How is everyones 3G services on Vodafone?

I can't get anything more than G and 0.03meg on a speedtest? within a 10 mile radius??
moox
26-10-2014
I get GPRS performance on a fairly recently upgraded 3G site in my rural area. It's as if they've put in 3G equipment but connected it to a dialup modem for backhaul.

Even O2's site here does better - 10-15Mbps easy. 3 wins as usual with 22Mbps+
Jack_Wilson2
26-10-2014
Originally Posted by moox:
“I get GPRS performance on a fairly recently upgraded 3G site in my rural area. It's as if they've put in 3G equipment but connected it to a dialup modem for backhaul.

Even O2's site here does better - 10-15Mbps easy. 3 wins as usual with 22Mbps+”

Indeed i've got a contract with O2/Vodafone/Three UK and Three UK beats all the providers for data. Three UK even beats O2 on full bars and Three on 2 bars over 3G.

According to the coverage check i'm in a perfect area i'm not to fussed like I only get 250MB of data but 3 months of unlimited data for 3 months thought it was worth a shot but with 0.03meg speeds it's hardly usable.

I wonder if I can get a contract discount as they're not providing the services which is in my contract or to a suitable level of service. It's a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 not a Nokia 3330.
Thine Wonk
26-10-2014
2G gprs in my house and same at work, maybe 1 bar of very slow 3G when I tried it last about 9 months ago until Ovivo went bust. It might have got better with CTIL, I'm sure I'll give it a test again at some point.
Aye Up
26-10-2014
I think my experience runs counter to everyone elses. I was at Flamingo Land earlier in the week for a few days, couldn't even muster 1 bar of signal on Three using an iPhone 5S. I would have been ok with 2G but as we all know Three have virtually put the kybosh on that bar very remote locations. I am unsure of what impact MBNL may have had in the area, however although 3G signal was faint on EE, its 2G signal was healthy. Would have done me ok but alas I was on Three.

As for Vodafone and O2 at said theme park I got 2/3 bars of 4G yes 4G in the middle of nowhere. It was adequate for my needs, 2G coverage as you would expect from them was brilliant.
M1kos
26-10-2014
where i live in South east London Three and EE have only one bar of signal and almost nothing downstairs 2mbps when it works .. where as Vodafone is full bars of 3G at up to 20mbps and 4g at two bars up to 25mbps down o2'S 4G is the same as vodas but their 3G although better than EE is still patchy with max 3 bars and about 5mbps
clewsy
27-10-2014
Has something kicked off between O2 and Vodafone on this Cornerstone agreement? I only ask as we have 3 sites locally just left half complete in different stages for well over 3 months now.

1 site has the base of a new mast in the ground and is about 6ft high just sitting there now for 2 months.

Another has the footings for the new mast installed and now just covered over and all has stopped.

3rd site has new mast, cabinets however has a box over one of the holes from the old cabinets. Let like this now for well over 3 months.

Something doesn't seem right if you ask me.
uno
27-10-2014
Clewsy- Where abouts is this location and i may be able to look into this further ? It is not uncommon for this to happen though as Cornerstone use a variety of contractors to do different section of the work all of which work at differnet speeds and workloads.

When the rollout first started it used to be all done over a few days but this meant a mast being out of service for 3-5 days and also with so many people on site often meant staff sitting around waiting to their section. So now they each go and do their bit so frequently the process is as follows (These contractors are mainly for Midlands )

1.Rk Kinch Groundworkers- They arrive and dig all the footings and trenches out then install the ducting follwowed by laying the concrete bases the cabinets sit on. This has all obviously got to set. They may also dig out the hole and concrete the metal new roots and base for the mast they will then fill this over to prevent anybody falling in the hole.
2. A week or so later Commhoist will come and lift all the cabinets into the required places .
3.Clarke telecoms staff will come and install all the base station equipment into the cabinets and an electrician will connect all the power up as well. BT openreach will normally visit the next day to connect up the backhaul.and Virgin for the O2 side of things.

4. Then commhoist will come again with crane and low loader and lift new mast into place this is in general very quick maybe an hour or so but does ofetn mean that roads needs to be closed so happens in evenings and weekends to avoid disrupting traffic too much. once the mast is up a company called Celluar rigging come and go up the mast and install all the feeder cables and connect the aerials to the mast checking all directions are correct to provide coverage in required plces.

5. Finally Clarke telecoms will come back and they will do the software updates on base station and move the 2 & 3G traffic over to the new mast ,then last of all they turn on the 4G side. The site may well run on reduced power for a few days to make sure its all working right as they do have to come and make tweaks so it fits in with the neighbbouring sites for handovers.

AS you can see it is all quite a demanding process and also have to throw in getting councils on side for road closures and such like. If it is also a new site for O2 or Vodafone then there may also be the need to get backhaul installed from nearest fibre aggregation node which could be a few miles away this can lead to weeks of delays especially if got to lay lots of new ductingand fibre.

It does not also help that both Vodafone and O2 want to use differnet backahul providers with O2 using Virgin media fibre Sync E product and Vodafone using their own ex C& W fibre network.

it also has to be remembered that engineering support is being bit stretched at the min as Vodafone have got engineers from Clarkes telecoms and others out doing 2600mhz upgrades installing new equipment to support this, It has also been found that some of the early rollout masts do not like operating at both frequencies so are having to be replaced again
clewsy
27-10-2014
Thanks for that really detailed and interesting post on how it all works. Reading that it will probably be the case that some sites are at different stages. I am talking North Staffordshire so the ST post code, I can PM more specifics if you like? It just seems really strange as the 3rd mast is clearly to the visual eye looking ready to go, apart from some box covering what must be an old cabinet hole.
uno
27-10-2014
Clewsy- When you say North Staffordshire I presume you mean around the Stoke area, This Is very interesting as Vodafone are in charge of the rollout in this area and were very keen to get 4G up and running in this area partly due to them having call centres and large numbers of staff in the area who they want to have a positive experience of using the network . However O2 have decided that the Stoke area is not high on thei list of places that they want to have coverage and that they would not be going live for a number of months yet.
Hence I understand that some mast upgrades in this area have been started and are at various stages but the project is parked for the time being, with resources moved to other areas. It will come to the area just not at the minute, I believe to get round the call centre and staff issue in Stoke on Trent they have Installed small cells for them to use.
clewsy
27-10-2014
Yes Stoke area is exactly right and that fits with my experience of the mast sites then. Interesting how they are leaving it part finished though as you would think once they started they would at least make them look nice, even if its not switched on yet.

Thanks for that info though. Interesting how o2 aren't so keen yet have in some parts of stoke been trying to install masts to improve what can be shocking coverage in parts.
Jack_Wilson2
29-10-2014
This is getting silly now,

First they said there's a problem in my area then they said it's my sim so they sent me a totally different sim and it just won't connect to 3G as soon as you switch it to WCDMA bang no signal. UGh
daclick
29-10-2014
I saw a guy from erricson recently who said he was connecting up Vodafone 4G, I got a flicker of it, data is now more h+ but O2 has minimal 4G now on in the area -_-
clewsy
01-11-2014
Originally Posted by uno:
“Clewsy- When you say North Staffordshire I presume you mean around the Stoke area, This Is very interesting as Vodafone are in charge of the rollout in this area and were very keen to get 4G up and running in this area partly due to them having call centres and large numbers of staff in the area who they want to have a positive experience of using the network . However O2 have decided that the Stoke area is not high on thei list of places that they want to have coverage and that they would not be going live for a number of months yet.
Hence I understand that some mast upgrades in this area have been started and are at various stages but the project is parked for the time being, with resources moved to other areas. It will come to the area just not at the minute, I believe to get round the call centre and staff issue in Stoke on Trent they have Installed small cells for them to use.”

Its obvious you know your stuff and its really appreciated. What made me smile was today when I was told by a friend that the O2 shop is telling people 4G will be live in the area in December. Apparently its important for them to get it online before the end of the year.

I suspect this is sales talk but thought i'd just share it as shows how you the lack of communication or just lies that are told.
jabbamk1
01-11-2014
Originally Posted by clewsy:
“I suspect this is sales talk but thought i'd just share it as shows how you the lack of communication or just lies that are told.”

All sales people who don't work in a professional environment will lie.
Mobile phone staff can be the worse and will literally say anything to get you to sign their commission cheque.
Aye Up
02-11-2014
Originally Posted by jabbamk1:
“All sales people who don't work in a professional environment will lie.
Mobile phone staff can be the worse and will literally say anything to get you to sign their commission cheque.”

Whilst that may have been true a few years ago and most recently Phone4U. Commission based sales has effectively been abolished by the networks in their own stores. Same along with CPW as well.
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