Completely off topic but how do you pronounce Cynon? I run a mail order / fulfillment company and I often see it on addresses. Just out of interest! Is it like 'Sin-on'? Been bugging me for years

Kunnon. Well, close enough for a Sais C is always "hard" in Welsh, y is (almost always) pronounced roughly "uh". The double-d in Rhondda is a bit like a hard "th" (like the start of "this", rather than "think"), but you probably knew that already.

Many thanks.

Can anyone clarify the situation regarding Three having to send an update to handsets in order for them to access the 800mhz and/or VOLTE? The reason being is that I've imported a Note 5 which does have all the 4g bands, but am wondering if i'll have to wait for Three to send an update, and if that's the case, will they even send one as the Note 5 isn't officially available in the UK?

Your Note 5 probably isn't an F variant so it's not going to receive an update from Three that you'd be able to flash. Your best bet is waiting on this supposed update to the Three In Touch app where you may be able to enable 800 access and take calls through the app. VoLTE will never work so that will be your only solution for this handset, unless some future version of android fixes the VoLTE mess.

To be more succinct, the way Three do it, it will only work on the Note 5 when you have Three UK firmware, until then, you have no chance (so, you have no chance).

So does that mean he has no chance then?
You are so cruel...

That reminds me, the Note 5 isn't even available to purchase in the UK so it's never gonna receive any sort of Three firmware anyway. I'd forgotten about that, damn Samsung and their stupid regional messing about.

Yup, that was my point, there will (most likely) never be a Note 5 firmware that will allow it.

Damn this is as I feared! Now I wish I'd gone for a dual sim version! Thanks for the responses.

Although..I do recall that when Three were originally rolling out 4g they said the same thing about devices needing an update to get it, yet the Note 5 I have DOES work on 4g but presumably only the 1800mhz frequency at the moment. So maybe there is still hope!

Three don't have the same control over normal 1800Mhz 4G, if your handset works on the frequency it will work, if they allow 800Mhz for normal use with CSFB (unlikely) then you should get use of it.

If it remains that you need VoLTE to use 800Mhz then you won't get to use it (you also won't get WifiCalling when it arrives) under the current rules.

Sorry, my "response" was meant to be light hearted and funny.
Typical of me. Totally pointless posts!!!
Ask anyone here.

I guess I'll have to just wait and see. According to one user, he has been able to use the 800mhz band without any update from Three, so hopefully this will he the case for everyone. However, it's not easy to actually know which band you're on.

http://editorsean.com/articles/three...ing-downloads/

I'm not sure what a user on Three IE has to do with what is happening on Three UK.

They might well be using 800Mhz with CSFB in Ireland allowing normal use of 800Mhz, in the UK it is only available in conjunction with SuperVoice (VoLTE).

Different country, different network, different policies...

I'm confused about this proposed InTouch app enabling 800MHz. Will it only work when the app is open? Will opening the app when in an 800MHz area make you connect to it?

I would imagine it would work like it does over wifi. Sit in the background until someone calls and then allow you to answer the call using 4G data. Not sure how it works when you want to make a call or if you are outdoors and start a call on VoLTE outside and then walk indoors where you have wifi but no 800 signal. How does the phone hand the call from VoLTE to Intouch?

Power cut here and 800MHz is keeping me online

I assume it registers each time you start the app to tell the network to route calls via the app, and once that's activated you can register on the 800MHz network instead of being rejected.

Who knows how well it will, or does, work. We don't have it, so maybe that suggests it isn't working reliably.

I don't see how that would work. You would have to run it at such a low power to keep it within 3G coverage.
All it would do is add a bit of capacity.

Reading his link they seem to have 3G 900Mhz in use, so it isn't that big an issue. Having said that, I've almost no idea of how Irish telecoms work, which is why I raised the question of what relevance anything happening on 3 IE has to do with him using his imported phone on 3 UK.

That's a bit like saying Vodafone South Africa offers a certain service or product so I'm sure I will also get it on Vodafone UK.

Oh I didn't spot that they weren't in the UK.
I'm still unsure about the whole thing - from testing I've certainly been able to get 4g in places where I'd expect the 800mhz band is used, such as some villages, so I need to do some more testing to make sure.

I'd be very annoyed if it does require an update to work - it's not right that Three can basically choose which customers can access this, especially as they stated over a year ago that 4g would be available in my area by the end of 2014 and there's still no sign of it!

Three's 4G rollout promises crashed and burned many months ago, so any promises they made about when it would arrive have been broken. Having said that, they do have 1800Mhz 4G in some strange small places while there are huge non-4G areas in major urban areas.

Other than for iPhone, all the networks only offer these services to their own firmware handsets, it's not only Three than do it.

Seems strange to me - I've got a bt mobile sim that works on all 4g networks with a phone not running special firmware, and my wife's unbranded phone works on Vodafone 4g no problem - as far as I can see it's only Three that restrict customers

And therein lies the entire cock-up.

What should have happen is that everyone is allowed on 800mhz and then if your phone didn't do VoLTE then it just wouldn't do that but still allowing you to use 800mhz for data only. Then they should have had VoLTE updates available for all phones (Branded and unbranded) from day one. Not launch something and only then go about working on updates. A cover-all app should have been perfected way before launch that allowed any and every phone to do VoLTE via the app until a specific update was made available for any given phone.

How and in what way this 800mhz roll-out can in any way be described as 'Making It Better". I don't know.