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EE aiming to bring super-fast mobile broadband to 99% of the UK population by 2017


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Old 13-02-2015, 15:01
enapace
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I'm in a rural area of Staffordshire/Cheshire/Shropshire but thankfully on quite high ground so can get 4g signals from all the networks (apart from three which is too weak to connect) but have had to dance with the devil and go with Bt. the only adsl provider in my area as using mobile broadband is just too expensive due to the download limits need to use a home broadband connection as we would like due to all the devices and data hungry people in an average house these days..
It's not download speed I find limiting here, it's the 0.3mbps upload which kills us when facetime, and browsing,
Which BDUK Project you covered by? As you said three counties there.
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Old 13-02-2015, 15:43
The Lord Lucan
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There is a town near me (Odiham) which had 900MHz O2 3G rolled out a couple of years ago and as a result the coverage from one mast on the top of a hill extends all the way into a village a good few miles away - EE and Three both have zero coverage here.

It's a shame that O2 didn't roll it out in more places. I'm hoping that when my nearest Three mast gets 800MHz I may see a similar level of good coverage. Coverage on 900MHz 2G is good here.
The 900Mhz 3G is pretty poor as the spectrum assigned to it so small. During peak times it might as well be Edge. In many places it is deployed there is obvious cell shrinkage until 2100 takes over debating the purpose of it.
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Old 13-02-2015, 17:17
jchamier
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The 900Mhz 3G is pretty poor as the spectrum assigned to it so small. During peak times it might as well be Edge. In many places it is deployed there is obvious cell shrinkage until 2100 takes over debating the purpose of it.
That explains why I've never seen it on my voda handset. Colleagues on O2 claim its what they are receiving, but the one person with an iPhone was on 2100mhz when I looked in field test.

Cell Breathing on 3G is a problem for planning/prediction.

Could O2/Voda allocate more of their 2G 900 capacity to 3G, or do they not have enough?
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Old 13-02-2015, 17:21
enapace
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That explains why I've never seen it on my voda handset. Colleagues on O2 claim its what they are receiving, but the one person with an iPhone was on 2100mhz when I looked in field test.

Cell Breathing on 3G is a problem for planning/prediction.

Could O2/Voda allocate more of their 2G 900 capacity to 3G, or do they not have enough?
They only use 2x12.4MHz for 2G in most areas as it is doubt they could really afford give up enough another 2x5MHz for 3G at moment.
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Old 13-02-2015, 17:27
jchamier
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They only use 2x12.4MHz for 2G in most areas as it is doubt they could really afford give up enough another 2x5MHz for 3G at moment.
Thanks; I guess with the high numbers of non-smartphones on the O2 network, they need to keep a good quality 2G service
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Old 13-02-2015, 19:04
Gigabit
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The 900Mhz 3G is pretty poor as the spectrum assigned to it so small. During peak times it might as well be Edge. In many places it is deployed there is obvious cell shrinkage until 2100 takes over debating the purpose of it.
From my experience, the nearby village got no 3G at all on 2100MHz from the same mast and now gets approximately -95dBm on 900MHz so it's quite an improvement.
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Old 13-02-2015, 21:56
DevonBloke
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My Brother is on the process of moving back to EE I think but in the meantime has been trying out the others.
He is currently running a PAYG O2 SIM. O2 have done a bit of 3G900 down here along the A38 but he said it's pants. Really slow or nothing at all.
VO2 simply don't have enough spectrum for it to work properly.
Seems like a desperate effort to get "3G" showing on more handsets to me.
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Old 14-02-2015, 11:10
jchamier
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Seems like a desperate effort to get "3G" showing on more handsets to me.
It could be for voice capacity, and not data. I think UMTS allows for more calls per Mhz, so upgrading a mast for UMTS increases voice call capacity.

Probably a good move if voice was still the "killer app" - I'm fairly sure around me the killer app is either Facebook, twitter, or WhatsApp now
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Old 14-02-2015, 19:51
Gigabit
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That explains why I've never seen it on my voda handset. Colleagues on O2 claim its what they are receiving, but the one person with an iPhone was on 2100mhz when I looked in field test.

Cell Breathing on 3G is a problem for planning/prediction.

Could O2/Voda allocate more of their 2G 900 capacity to 3G, or do they not have enough?
To be fair this area isn't massively populated. Perhaps the fact the mast is right next to an airforce base means that there is more capacity?
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Old 14-02-2015, 20:46
The Lord Lucan
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It is literally just to get the coverage percentage up.. doesnt mean it's a great customer experience.
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Old 14-02-2015, 20:59
DevonBloke
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See! I was right... again!
God I'm on fire this week!!
Hahahaha
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Old 14-02-2015, 21:27
cooler
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All the hype about 4G rolling out to more areas, but most people want affordable 3G mobile broadband.

What is the point of having super fast 4G mobile broadband if you've only got 15GB data a month. From iPlayer, even just one episode of the Voice UK in HD quality uses 1.34 GB of data, which is way over twice the daily amount of data you can use on a 15GB data plan.
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Old 15-02-2015, 14:43
jchamier
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All the hype about 4G rolling out to more areas, but most people want affordable 3G mobile broadband.

What is the point of having super fast 4G mobile broadband if you've only got 15GB data a month..
Don't confuse data allowance with the technology. 4G means more people can use the internet at the same time (simple stuff, like WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook) that on a 3G mast.

People don't (only) buy 4G for speed, they buy 4G for reliable connectivity.
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Old 15-02-2015, 14:44
enapace
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Don't confuse data allowance with the technology. 4G means more people can use the internet at the same time (simple stuff, like WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook) that on a 3G mast.

People don't (only) buy 4G for speed, they buy 4G for reliable connectivity.
Completely true.
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