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Three 4G Discussion Thread (Part 2)


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Old 16-12-2015, 01:29
DevonBloke
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And this really irks me; my Z3 Compact apparently supports VoLTE and 800Mhz, but Three don't want to include it on their list of devices.

For the most part I'm not that concerned, living and working around Manchester, but on occasion when I'm in the peaks or lakes having some extra coverage would be useful.

... so I keep looking at the cost of the 10/20GB packages on Vod/EE and wondering whether to move.
Never going to happen.
If you have a phone (that can make cellular calls) then you must be able to make a call if you have a signal of any type.
Don't shoot the messenger, that's the law.
You could easily have a 4G data signal but no voice (2G or 3G).
I have to say this has been discussed to death and the general consensus is this is right and proper.
Mr or Mrs public don't get all this 800Mhz / VoLTE / CS / PS / crap like we do and it would cause major problems for the networks.

E.G. A life and death emergency where someone pulls their phone out, it has 2 bars 4G (data only) signal but when a call is attempted it goes to "no service" as your's would in this situation.
(unless there's was some VO2 2G900 available for it to latch onto which isn't guaranteed).

Even I would find this bloody annoying in general use.
Jon Morris pointed out this could have been sorted right from the beginning by having 2 icons. One for voice and one for data but that never happened.

Not happening.
If you want 800 you have to have an approved VoLTE device.
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Old 16-12-2015, 08:43
jonmorris
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I do wish someone had been forward thinking and had separate meters for voice and data (the data one then showing mobile data or Wi-Fi as required).

Of course the expectation must have been that VoLTE would be along within a matter of months, not years. Another mess up for the industry.
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Old 16-12-2015, 09:19
DevonBloke
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How much do you want to bet that 5G doesn't launch with voice?
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Old 16-12-2015, 09:49
Brian The Dog
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How much do you want to bet that 5G doesn't launch with voice?
If a company is involved, (any) and there is a way to screw it up, they will find it! It's the law.
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Old 16-12-2015, 11:10
Stereo Steve
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I do wish someone had been forward thinking and had separate meters for voice and data (the data one then showing mobile data or Wi-Fi as required).

Of course the expectation must have been that VoLTE would be along within a matter of months, not years. Another mess up for the industry.
Wouldn't that still cause issues with emergency calls though? If the phone was hooked up to LTE, even if it wasn't displaying a voice signal, it would still stop it trying to find a signal on another network. Or not? That, in itself would need a workaround.
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Old 16-12-2015, 11:14
Synthetic42
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Wouldn't that still cause issues with emergency calls though? If the phone was hooked up to LTE, even if it wasn't displaying a voice signal, it would still stop it trying to find a signal on another network. Or not? That, in itself would need a workaround.
Wouldn't it just fall back to whatever network / technology was available?
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Old 16-12-2015, 11:23
jonmorris
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How much do you want to bet that 5G doesn't launch with voice?
Can you imagine?

I'd like to say there's NO chance as by then everything will be IP based, but you never know.

I am sure there will be some issues. Most likely that some operators will be too keen to launch before the spec is fully ratified, causing interoperability issues that delay wider roll outs.

You just know there's going to be a rush to be first with 5G, no matter the cost.
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Old 16-12-2015, 11:27
jonmorris
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Wouldn't that still cause issues with emergency calls though? If the phone was hooked up to LTE, even if it wasn't displaying a voice signal, it would still stop it trying to find a signal on another network. Or not? That, in itself would need a workaround.
If you could see you couldn't make a voice call (i.e. no 2G or 3G) then you'd know you couldn't make a voice call. Currently this would mean no signal for voice OR data.

But it could have been you knew you couldn't use voice, but COULD use data.

You'd be no worse off, as those areas of data only wouldn't have had voice anyway.

Because that isn't what happened, it merely means losing data 'artificially' because the 4G coverage is crippled to safely fit within the boundaries of the legacy networks.

I do think people could have understood the difference between voice and data, just as they can see Wi-Fi separately to mobile data. Many people could also make VoIP calls, thus benefitting from that even before VoLTE. There's no reason that you couldn't have have allowed emergency calls over VoIP, with data being allowed for such calls even if you didn't have any data (just like being able to access a network website to do a top up).

However, this is all a case of 'if only' as it didn't happen and can't now happen. Indeed, there's no point now that VoLTE is likely to be widely available by this time next year.
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Old 16-12-2015, 11:36
blueacid
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Never going to happen.
If you have a phone (that can make cellular calls) then you must be able to make a call if you have a signal of any type.
Don't shoot the messenger, that's the law.
You could easily have a 4G data signal but no voice (2G or 3G).
I have to say this has been discussed to death and the general consensus is this is right and proper.
Mr or Mrs public don't get all this 800Mhz / VoLTE / CS / PS / crap like we do and it would cause major problems for the networks.

E.G. A life and death emergency where someone pulls their phone out, it has 2 bars 4G (data only) signal but when a call is attempted it goes to "no service" as your's would in this situation.
(unless there's was some VO2 2G900 available for it to latch onto which isn't guaranteed).

Even I would find this bloody annoying in general use.
Jon Morris pointed out this could have been sorted right from the beginning by having 2 icons. One for voice and one for data but that never happened.

Not happening.
If you want 800 you have to have an approved VoLTE device.
Yes, I already know all about that, it's the fact that Three haven't opted to include my device in the golden "permitted" last which is the source of my ire.

Although I wonder whether it might be possible for them to offer an opt out: "If you accept that sometimes you might only have data services available but in more places then turn this on".

Admittedly the signal in the places I go is usually very good, especially when I'm able to stream music on long does, something which I imagine might be frustrating on vo2 at present. It was only a month ago I was driving from Plymouth to Weymouth and had almost unbroken audio for the entire two hours (it buffeted once)
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Old 16-12-2015, 12:03
Stereo Steve
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If you could see you couldn't make a voice call (i.e. no 2G or 3G) then you'd know you couldn't make a voice call. Currently this would mean no signal for voice OR data.

But it could have been you knew you couldn't use voice, but COULD use data.

You'd be no worse off, as those areas of data only wouldn't have had voice anyway.

Because that isn't what happened, it merely means losing data 'artificially' because the 4G coverage is crippled to safely fit within the boundaries of the legacy networks.

I do think people could have understood the difference between voice and data, just as they can see Wi-Fi separately to mobile data. Many people could also make VoIP calls, thus benefitting from that even before VoLTE. There's no reason that you couldn't have have allowed emergency calls over VoIP, with data being allowed for such calls even if you didn't have any data (just like being able to access a network website to do a top up).

However, this is all a case of 'if only' as it didn't happen and can't now happen. Indeed, there's no point now that VoLTE is likely to be widely available by this time next year.
But then, currently, if I'm on say, 3 and I find an injured person and I have no service I will either try 999 as I know that in this case, it will search for a network which might work or I will put my phone back in my pocket as I didn't know that was the case. If my phone was hooked up to 4G though and I do know it can use other networks in emergencies, so I try to call 999, how does the phone deal with that as it's already hooked up? It would mean a lot of software updates and stuff. Not saying it would be impossible.

Anyway, as you say, it's kind of a pointless discussion as that moment has almost passed.
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Old 16-12-2015, 12:39
mhs81
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E.G. A life and death emergency where someone pulls their phone out, it has 2 bars 4G (data only) signal but when a call is attempted it goes to "no service" as your's would in this situation..
Don't want to start another argument about this but.....the amount of times I pull my phone out of my pocket and it has signal, and I then go to make a call and it says 'no service'

I think 3 are trolling me.
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Old 16-12-2015, 12:43
PrinceGaz
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Given that the inTouch app (as of v4.9.5) has the ability to make emergency calls using a wifi hotspot (which is why it now needs access to 'Location' permission so the emergency services have some idea where the call is being made from), surely all they need to add is to allow that same app to make a call using mobile data, in addition to using a nearby wifi hotspot.

That way any phone running inTouch which is 4G800 compatible but not officially registered for VoLTE, could still legally connect to 4G800 as it could then make an emergency call (or indeed any voice-call) using the normal data connection whenever required. Hopefully Three wouldn't charge people twice for those calls (once for voice minutes, then again for data MBs) but emergency calls are free anyway so that wouldn't apply for them.

The more I think about this, the more obvious it seems. Just add mobile data calling to inTouch, and allow devices with inTouch running to connect to the 4G800 signal (when they can't get a 3G2100 or 4G1800, of course).
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Old 16-12-2015, 12:59
DevonBloke
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Yes, I already know all about that, it's the fact that Three haven't opted to include my device in the golden "permitted" last which is the source of my ire.)
Yeah, I realised that after the 15 minute editing window was up!
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Old 16-12-2015, 13:18
jonmorris
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The more I think about this, the more obvious it seems. Just add mobile data calling to inTouch, and allow devices with inTouch running to connect to the 4G800 signal (when they can't get a 3G2100 or 4G1800, of course).
I think that's what will happen, in that once you register on inTouch and are connected, you'll be given permission to access 800MHz. If you sign out, you'll be restricted again. I assume Three can add/remove access on the fly, just as it can redirect calls and texts via Wi-Fi when you're connected and then back 'as normal' after.

I am not sure when the update will come. I'm using a beta of the new Three app (checking balances, bills etc) but have no idea if they're doing a live trial of the inTouch app with VoLTE yet.

I'd hope so, as the sooner it comes the better. I know the Nexus 6P will get support for VoLTE in Q1 next year, but I can't wait that long! Only last night I was in a restaurant where there was no coverage at all - and just 2G on EE and Vodafone. I can see that, in theory, 800 would have covered me.
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Old 16-12-2015, 14:11
WelshBluebird
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not sure if anyone else has noticed, but if you have Three InTouch running but the phone is not connected to a WiFi hotspot that is registered with the app then the android persistant notifcation says "Mobile calling ready". Not sure if that is a new change or not, but if it is then surely that is an indication of what is to come?
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Old 16-12-2015, 14:34
neilybealy
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Exec Team office suggested a workaround is to change mobile settings to not use 4G
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Old 16-12-2015, 16:17
Zebb
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My 'new' shared mast turned out to be 3G in-fill only, no 4G. Signal varies wildly but at least I can get a signal now inside the house. -107 dBm to -73 dBm.
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Old 16-12-2015, 16:33
jaffboy151
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You just know there's going to be a rush to be first with 5G, no matter the cost.
Will there be that much of a rush for 5g?
I admit I know zero,completely nothing about what 5g could/will bring to the party but as of today right now 4g as it's developing can or will deliver more then enough speed for for quite few years yet, so unless it can be extremely efficient on a spectrum front to allow more users to use more data simultaneously, thus allowing networks to massively increase usage caps and is easy for the networks to upgrade, not requiring total Base station upgrades like 4g, I can't see a huge initial rush, if it was to launch in the next 5 years without any key USP apart from mad speeds it would be a bit like UHD TV's are at present, great to wow over in the shops but for general everyday use standard HD is still sufficient for the majority..
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Old 16-12-2015, 16:35
tarzion
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not sure if anyone else has noticed, but if you have Three InTouch running but the phone is not connected to a WiFi hotspot that is registered with the app then the android persistant notifcation says "Mobile calling ready". Not sure if that is a new change or not, but if it is then surely that is an indication of what is to come?
Yes, I noticed that.

Will give it a try when connected to 4G..
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Old 17-12-2015, 09:29
tarzion
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Yes, I noticed that.

Will give it a try when connected to 4G..
I did a test call when I was connected to the 800Mhz network and it works.

http://i65.tinypic.com/a1jqde.png
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Old 17-12-2015, 10:09
Stereo Steve
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I did a test call when I was connected to the 800Mhz network and it works.

http://i65.tinypic.com/a1jqde.png
Which phone do you have? Is it on the compatible list for supervoice?
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Old 17-12-2015, 10:13
sky0000547
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Just received a sms from Three telling me 4G Super-Voice/VoLTE is now available in my area with the link and I need to update my software.

http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Netw...s_bse_net_4gsv
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Old 17-12-2015, 11:00
tarzion
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Which phone do you have? Is it on the compatible list for supervoice?
I have EE sourced Z5 with the latest Three firmware.

I don't have the VOLTE arrows but I have managed to make calls over 4G without using the Three in touch app. I need to test it more.

The above screenshot was taken when I was using the Three in touch app over the 800Mhz network.
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Old 17-12-2015, 11:50
GrannyGruntbuck
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Just received a sms from Three telling me 4G Super-Voice/VoLTE is now available in my area with the link and I need to update my software.

http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Netw...s_bse_net_4gsv
Hmmm, I got no message from 3 UK telling me about the service.

I just got the usual popup telling me there was a firmware update on my S6 Edge.
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Old 17-12-2015, 12:03
mupet0000
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I have a feeling that between 1 and 3 masts are covering my town for Super-Voice, based on where I've been able to access it and the general look of the coverage map. I asked 2nd line support if I could have the location of my nearest mast which was broadcasting super-voice and after checking with someone he told me he didn't have access to that information.

I've previously been told where masts are on a number of occasions and if they broadcast 4G or 3G. I wonder if they won't reveal the locations of the Super-Voice masts because there are so few and the coverage map is overly optimistic.

1st line support don't know the priority is 4G1800,3G2100,4G800. When I told them I wasn't able to access Super-Voice in all sorts of areas they had me checking settings on my phone and telling me whenever I make a call it should stay on 4G rather than drop down to 3G if I'm in a Super-Voice area. The only reason I was even speaking to 2nd line is because when I told him it always drops down to 3G to make a call he was concerned so he escalated it.

According to 2nd line, they actually escalated my call up to 3rd line who then informed them about the priority situation. If they don't even understand how it works, how are their customers supposed to?
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