I have not once seen 3 roam onto EE/T-Mobile's 2G network code though so it is just the Orange side of the EE 2G network if roaming still applies to a certain area.

Indeed.

Apparently they're still on for capacity rather than coverage, due to Three's 3G in the area being somewhat congested. That's the answer I got when I asked before anyway.


Same experience here, it's just the Orange side that's used. The EE/T-Mobile side of the 2G network isn't used for Three's 2G fallback roaming.

As I understand it, once EE have added their 4G to an area, the Orange 234-33 code goes off, leaving just T-Mobile/EE's 234-30 code offering 2G/3G/4G as available (2G/3G to Orange/T-Mobile customers, 2G/3G/4G to EE customers). This means that the Three 2G fallback in the area, which would use the Orange side, goes off at the same time.

Yup around here my Three phone will only roam onto a distant Orange mast if I force 2G. Really poor signal so I assume it must be an old mast somewhere.

To answer your question: Your call would hand over as normal to the forbidden 2G site and the call would continue until it had ended. You would then be booted off the 2G site.

What if that's an area that's been brought into MBNL and has no Orange transmitter?

A proper MBNL site would have both EE (ex T-mobile) and Three 3G natively and shared as that is what MBNL was formed to do. An MBNL site will have EE 2G and will eventually have 4G from each network but separately.

Perhaps I'm just confused but here was my line of thinking. Three only roams on to Orange transmitting masts because others are in MBNL. If the next mast after the 2g fallback from Orange is transmitting only a T-Mobile code will it continue on the orange fallback through EE 2g or will it revert to 3 3g.

Hope that makes sense.

I would have thought that Three would set it up to always prefer the Three 3G signal over any fallback 2G. So if you're on an Orange 2G fallback and you come into range of an MBNL mast transmitting Three 3G then the Three 3G signal is the one used.

Three 3G signal will give data, whereas Orange 2G is voice/sms only.

A Three user is not allowed onto any 2G TMobile/EE (234 30) site, either by handover when in call or in idle. So in the case that you start a call on Orange 2G (234 33), and move out of the covergae area of Orange 2G, the call will drop, even if Tmobile/EE 2G is present.

Technically all EE sites are MBNL sites, as MBNL manage both the Orange (234 33) and TMobile/EE (234 30) sites.

Think I've got it now, thanks both. I'm a little slow for some reason today!

That explains why Three have been aggressively turning off Orange fall back, if the EE plan is to gradually replace Orange-only sites with T-Mobile/EE sites (with 4G) there wouldn't be any 2G fallback for Three left. Hopefully the Orange to T-Mobile/EE upgrade will be at the same time as a Three upgrade to the same cell site.

RAN Man has it spot on. Also a call will not handover from 2G to 3G in any circumstances

It's likely that in about a years time Three will have its own 2G network.....

It'll be interesting to see if three users ever get to go on it. They can't switch it off because of o2 and smartphone penetration and the high number of M2M, but I thought one of the 'principles' of Three was that it was designed to exist without the 'baggage' of the 2g network.

Huh, I didn't know that. I guess I've had 3G to 2G handover, but hadn't realised not the other way. Thanks.

Depending on how easy it is to do, they might go for it (even if it isn't integration and is just roaming) - it'll be cheaper than paying EE, and it'll give them some coverage in those super rural areas where O2 900MHz 2G gets through

Plus there's indoor coverage for those people who can get 900MHz 2G/3G but not adequate 2100MHz 3G reception. At least until 800MHz 4G happens

You make a point. It's fair to criticise o2 for their 3g but on 2g most of the time they're rock solid.

Edit: Although I know some super remote places that only Vodafone reach but when you get that remote you take whatever network you can get.

Depends if half-rate codec is actually audible. Most calls I've had over O2 2G have been "can you repeat? Can you call me back from a landline?" etc :-/

Having switched to 3 from o2 2 years ago I know exactly what you mean but when you really need that signal to call somebody then it's good to know you'll have a signal.

TBH my work was with O2 then switched to vodafone, and I've been carrying my Orange (now EE) phone for longer. I can't think of a place where the older networks had signal that I've needed it that I've not on Orange / EE. Seriously. Yes, Orange worked hard to do this, but it showed.

(I've not been to Northern Ireland, but I have been to remote places in Wales and Scotland).

Have you been indoors?

I can't be the only one who struggles with this on EE!

I have and the signal indoors on EE just isn't good. Despite 2G being a lower frequency it doesn't appear to work much better indoors.

Compare that to O2 or Vodafone which is consistently better, although not perfect, with a signal good enough to make calls and receive texts.

It's all very well having the UK's best network for data but if you can't even receive a text, you take whatever you can get.

Its not a problem where I've been, I'm indoors right now in the centre of a large building and have 4 bars 3G and 2 bars 4G, and we have metal in the walls.

It does depend on antenna location for all networks. Here we get such poor Vodafone we've had to install SureSignal devices inside the building - and we are in the middle of a town.

In The Cube in the centre of Birmingham I know that the Vodafone signal inside is so bad that as part of a DfT contract they got a small cell kind of thing.

Same here. Since the Orange/T-Mobile merge I can't really think of many places where I've never had a signal indoors. They certainly seemed to have plugged each others coverage gaps to a degree.

I guess everyone's experiences will differ and there will never be a network that works everywhere for everyone.

My biggest gripe with EE is how it clings to weak 3G signal and doesn't switch to a usable 2G Signal. I've had this cause problems for me where a simple flick to 2G only mode (Android) and calls & texts are fine.