Originally Posted by jabbamk1:
“Nah, EE will have the best 4G network. I've seen their road map.
They have the spectrum, right amount of sites being upgraded, right roll out strategy and plenty of other things such as VoLTE, Wi-Fi calling and LTE Broadcast coming before anyone else.
Vodafone will be good but not to the same extent. Maybe in cities/towns they'll match EE but not outside. Also, Vodafone will be behind EE pretty much all the time.”

Again I fail to see how that translates into being better? Sooner or later VoLTE and the rest will end up on the other networks. Have you seen Vodafones rollout strategy? What they have planned will equal if not beat EE in my opinion, but again this isn't based on fact, I will concede EE are further along with their rollout than those here or even worldwide. They are in a fantastic position right now which they are rightly exploiting.
I suppose its a difference or opinion (and I am not trying to be patronising in this respect). The rollout strategies between EE and Vodafone are quite similar to some extent (although the latter is circling a media partner), to be fair EE will have more cells by virtue of necessity (to ensure coverage). Over the longer term I think we will begin to see some significant developments coming from them both.
Again as I say my experience of Vodafone runs counter to other people, but EE are on fire at the moment and its nice they are leading the pack and forcing the rest to catchup or move faster.
Originally Posted by Thine Wonk:
“Aye up, the Yorkshire moors is an extreme example, being an area of outstanding natural beauty and with strict planning permission of course 2100Mhz networks can't put as many cell sites out there. In those very specific cases a massive tower on 900Mhz is best.
However if you look at the P3 report it shows O2 and Vodafone actually have the lowest call reliability and quality by a massive margin in big cities and minor cities and towns. Three's rural *(outside of AONB's) data quality is actually very good.”
Extreme example though it maybe, but my point stands. Even in built up areas where you would expect coverage and capacity to be plentiful isn't the case, I have been battling with Three to get them to fix problems in my area (Altrincham/Sale). This has been the case for the last 6 months, my experience with them travelling round he rest of Manchester has been very negative yet the other 3 I face no problems?
I am fortunate that I get to travel around a lot and stupidly have connections on the 4 networks. The only network that gives me grief is Three, whether I am in Sunderland, Glasgow or even London, it fails. Was in Blackpool recently on a short break with family, couldn't get throughput at all nor make a phone call on Three, guess which ones worked?
Admittedly this was also at a busy period for the resort due to illuminations and what not. What got me is how can the rest ensure adequate signal and capacity yet Three couldn't? If this was the exception rather than the rule I would acknowledge that, however their 4G rollout is at best a sticking plaster for the problems they are now facing (congestion etc).
The point I make is these science based surveys only show part of the picture, real world usage may offer a different insight.