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What's the point in 4G?


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Old 28-03-2015, 17:10
Super Bandit
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I live in London and my 4G service is excellent from Three
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Old 28-03-2015, 17:17
Gigabit
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But it's London. Mobiles actually work in London.
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Old 28-03-2015, 17:54
The Lord Lucan
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But it's London. Mobiles actually work in London.
Vodafone 3G didn't for about a year lol.
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Old 28-03-2015, 18:18
mrgs1
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Vodafone 3G didn't for about a year lol.
I think some people would like a basic service and feel disillusioned by technology 4G is probably a luxury, clearly by all complaints basic voice services are still poor and 3G too, you can quote percentages as much as you like MIP will help a bit but has been watered down. I think most people would probably never use those super fast speeds but would like something usable, I suspect it will like the broadband rollout full of notspots and problems.
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Old 28-03-2015, 18:27
enapace
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Of course 90% Geographic 4G is going have notspots I don't think anyone has ever said it won't but it is far better than what we have now.

The point of 4G is to make sure people can get connected on the go plain and simple.
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Old 28-03-2015, 18:59
jchamier
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I think some people would like a basic service and feel disillusioned by technology 4G is probably a luxury, clearly by all complaints basic voice services are still poor and 3G too, you can quote percentages as much as you like MIP will help a bit but has been watered down. I think most people would probably never use those super fast speeds but would like something usable, I suspect it will like the broadband rollout full of notspots and problems.
4G is a transition technology, at the moment its all about fast / reliable data, but 4G as a technology has much more capacity for all uses (Data, calls, texts) than 3G or 2G and as people use more and more of their mobile devices (phones, tablets, laptops with cellular built in) the capacity on 3G and 2G is getting close to the limits.

Eventually once enough handsets have changed, 4G Voice (VoLTE) will mean massive improvement in calls from quality through to ability to make a reliable call. Eventually people will not need 3G or 2G except for old devices.
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Old 28-03-2015, 20:58
finbaar
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Networks are rolling out 4G but let's be honest here who even gets 3G most of the time? Even in city centres I'm lucky to even get more than H+.

Most of the time my 3G enabled smartphone is fluctuating between G, where you're lucky if it even manages a simple Google search to H and H+ and in some places I am unable to get a data signal at all.

When it does move over to 3G the signal is so bad that I'm actually better off on a good H+ signal than a totally crap 3G one which mostly keeps dropping out.

So why oh why are networks now pushing 4G when the majority of the time they can't even offer us 1G? We can't even manage a stable 3G coverage. How about they get that up and running before moving on to the next level?

Try walking before you can run.
Ate you from the past?
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Old 28-03-2015, 21:02
Gigabit
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H+ is 3G
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Old 28-03-2015, 21:27
davybhoy
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In Northern Ireland I would say the exact opposite is true. ,
Oh yes EE 4G is fantastic, Three on the other hand useless.
You must live in a different Northern Ireland than me. I find 90% of the time I have 4G signal and other than that it's DCHSPA. Friends on 3 rarely have a problem either and I've considered jumping to 3.

Of course there will be rural black spots, but every country in the world has these.

To the OP - you're generalising everyone as if their needs are yours. I regularly stream SkyGo and other such apps and require 4G for the highest quality picture. DCHSPA can technically handle decent stream quality but bandwidth suffers from users I find. 4G always gives me more than enough so that I can comfortably tether and still browse on my phone.
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Old 28-03-2015, 21:30
1manonthebog
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You must live in a different Northern Ireland than me. I find 90% of the time I have 4G signal and other than that it's DCHSPA. Friends on 3 rarely have a problem either and I've considered jumping to 3.

Of course there will be rural black spots, but every country in the world has these.

To the OP - you're generalising everyone as if their needs are yours. I regularly stream SkyGo and other such apps and require 4G for the highest quality picture. DCHSPA can technically handle decent stream quality but bandwidth suffers from users I find. 4G always gives me more than enough so that I can comfortably tether and still browse on my phone.
3 is great in towns and cities, in rural areas crap, I live in a rural area, zero coverage from 3 yet I have O2 H+ and EE4g, In saying that H+ is supposed to be fast. 1.2MB on O2, Dire.
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Old 28-03-2015, 21:58
mrgs1
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4G is a transition technology, at the moment its all about fast / reliable data, but 4G as a technology has much more capacity for all uses (Data, calls, texts) than 3G or 2G and as people use more and more of their mobile devices (phones, tablets, laptops with cellular built in) the capacity on 3G and 2G is getting close to the limits.

Eventually once enough handsets have changed, 4G Voice (VoLTE) will mean massive improvement in calls from quality through to ability to make a reliable call. Eventually people will not need 3G or 2G except for old devices.
I suspect that there will be 4G non smartphones for voice and text if 2g is being phased out because the other uses are pretty much no interest when you get to certain age. I suspect when your 60 or over what's app etc don't mean much I think millions of Oap'a just want to talk.
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Old 28-03-2015, 22:07
Gilbertoo
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The problem isn't the networks, per se, it's the negative stigma still associated with mobile masts and base stations.

Even though the likes of WHO, HSE, etc., state that there's currently no compelling evidence linking poor health with them, it still doesn't stop people kicking off if they know a mast is going to be installed anywhere near them. Of course, because research continues on them, genuine concerns may be found at some point in the future, but until then, we have to assume that the risks are so low that the negative stigma is unjustified.....especially when you consider the engineers working on the damn things for more than 10yrs are still alive and kicking.

3G is great. H is better.....4G is better still, but probably not really needed by a lot of people. If you're getting H, then not sure what you're complaining about.
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Old 28-03-2015, 22:07
mrgs1
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Ate you from the past?
I read reviews recently on hotel and guest houses from people staying in the Cotswolds they often say it's like going back in time, some say back to 1970s because they can't get a signal or no Wi-Fi. So we are in the past I suppose!
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Old 28-03-2015, 23:20
jchamier
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3 is great in towns and cities, in rural areas crap, I live in a rural area, zero coverage from 3 yet I have O2 H+ and EE4g, In saying that H+ is supposed to be fast. 1.2MB on O2, Dire.
Having a £100,000 transmitter that can do HSPA+ is good, but not if you can't pay the £50,000 a month for a 100megabit or faster fibre connection to the mast. EE and Three upgraded connections to masts starting in 2008 when they formed the joined venture company MBNL. Vodafone and O2 have done very little until they started rolling out 4G.
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Old 28-03-2015, 23:49
mrgs1
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Having a £100,000 transmitter that can do HSPA+ is good, but not if you can't pay the £50,000 a month for a 100megabit or faster fibre connection to the mast. EE and Three upgraded connections to masts starting in 2008 when they formed the joined venture company MBNL. Vodafone and O2 have done very little until they started rolling out 4G.
It's all about money! In my area planning permission granted for six masts over the years not a single one built the reason they give to council " The mast is not required anymore" but coverage is still terrible. Once the financial guys have taken over from planning then the money gets spent elsewhere it's about profitable.
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Old 29-03-2015, 09:30
noise747
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Coverage is getting worse here and not just Vodafone by all accounts. 2G and 3G
i wonder what Three is going to do with the O2 networ, because threee around here is awful and no 2G either. I think they should keep o2 2G.
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Old 29-03-2015, 09:45
1manonthebog
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Coverage is getting worse here and not just Vodafone by all accounts. 2G and 3G
i wonder what Three is going to do with the O2 networ, because threee around here is awful and no 2G either. I think they should keep o2 2G.
Same with Three around here,
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Old 29-03-2015, 09:52
artnada
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Networks are rolling out 4G but let's be honest here who even gets 3G most of the time? Even in city centres I'm lucky to even get more than H+.

Most of the time my 3G enabled smartphone is fluctuating between G, where you're lucky if it even manages a simple Google search to H and H+ and in some places I am unable to get a data signal at all.

When it does move over to 3G the signal is so bad that I'm actually better off on a good H+ signal than a totally crap 3G one which mostly keeps dropping out.

So why oh why are networks now pushing 4G when the majority of the time they can't even offer us 1G? We can't even manage a stable 3G coverage. How about they get that up and running before moving on to the next level?

Try walking before you can run.
You are defiantly getting your symbols mixed up.
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Old 29-03-2015, 10:31
Rossby41
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O2 have just upgraded my area to 4G this month (it's not the coverage maps though, go figure), and these are the type of speeds i'm getting.
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Old 29-03-2015, 10:34
1manonthebog
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O2 have just upgraded my area to 4G this month (it's not the coverage maps though, go figure), and these are the type of speeds i'm getting.
Now that is impressive, More than double what EE have in this area.
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Old 29-03-2015, 10:52
jchamier
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Now that is impressive, More than double what EE have in this area.
If you get EE 4G and don't get speeds over 40mbps its not yet complete. Eventually EE and Vodafone should be faster than O2.
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Old 29-03-2015, 11:05
gomezz
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I will ask the OP's question in a different way: As you can get solid video streaming from iPlayer etc on 3G (OK I actually need the H / H+ variants) why would you need 4G? What do you do that needs it to be so much faster?
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Old 29-03-2015, 11:16
Thine Wonk
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I will ask the OP's question in a different way: As you can get solid video streaming from iPlayer etc on 3G (OK I actually need the H / H+ variants) why would you need 4G? What do you do that needs it to be so much faster?
They want better Speedtest results.
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Old 29-03-2015, 11:18
Gigabit
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The best 4G speed I have got on O2 is 49Mbps down, 20Mbps up, in Winchester.

It's usually around 25Mbps down, 10Mbps up though.
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Old 29-03-2015, 11:48
jchamier
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I will ask the OP's question in a different way: As you can get solid video streaming from iPlayer etc on 3G (OK I actually need the H / H+ variants) why would you need 4G? What do you do that needs it to be so much faster?
Who said it needs to be faster?

A single 3G mast sector can handle say 500 people at once "connected" - Nevermind streaming, these are people getting notifications from apps, game updates, iMessage, WhatsApp, Facebook messenger etc.

A single 4G mast sector can handle 4000 people at once "connected".

With the sheer number of people in the UK with smartphones and some carrying two, the networks need this increase in capacity. Or in a couple of years things will start to stop work.

I would expect to see most 4G networks under loads to give around 10mbps speeds, as we get on 3G today, but for them to be more reliable and none of the 'I have signal so why isn't it working' congestion effects that we see in areas of high usage. (train stations in London etc).
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