It has reduced everywhere if you zoom out and look. It's not too pretty really when you see how many more holes are there.

My area shows there actually being way more indoor coverage on 3G according to the coverage checker, nothing has changed signal wise from what i can tell.

Says it's improved where my college is too, again i didn't notice any difference at all.

Three's coverage map changes

Red = today 21st Jan.
Blue = 11th Jan

800 4G http://gdurl.com/Pgve
1800 4G http://gdurl.com/U507

Very interesting, the 3G footprint has been reduced for my area. It's more accurate for sure, but the 4G footprint is untouched. So according to the map, my area has better 4G coverage than 3G coverage which is an absolute joke xD

I mean really, how are they going to reduce the 3G map and leave the 4G map the same. The 4G coverage needs to be the same or smaller. As for the 800MHz map, it's a complete fabrication. It's more like modern art rather than a coverage map.

Amazing coverage from the Alford mast in Lincolnshire, outdoor coverage from Donna Nook to Gibraltar Point, about 30 miles all down the coast. The 800 coverage only shows up on 3's map for some devices like the Samsung S5 but not the Sony Z5 Compact, but both are enabled for 800MHz. No 1800MHz 4G on that mast.

The 3G coverage has been reduced as mentioned above. My location has been downgraded to outdoors from indoors, considering my nearest mast is only about 500m away, I can only surmise that 3 have reduced the power?

I just don't get the strategy here. If 800 coverage actually meant something (i.e people could use it) Three would be very close to EE I think. Hardly anyone can use it though so as impressive as the coverage is it's useless and unless they have some grand plan they arresting money rolling it out.

The strategy is very simple and very clear for all to see:

Three can make loud claims in advertising that their coverage is almost or every bit as good as EE's to attract customers but you can't use it as it would be congested in seconds.

The whole thing has been set up for their advertising boost and not the customer's benefit.

Three; making it better FOR NO ONE BUT THEMSELVES!

I don't think the 800 coverage is actually as good as the map says though. Most of the 1800 is made up, so the 800 is probably even more made up. I'm not very impressed by their "coverage".

Their coverage checker says "Very good service." for 4G at home... I can only get 4G in one room, only with my old phone (my current Galaxy Alpha won't pick up Three 4G at all), and only with the phone against the window, on a good day, and a very weak signal.

EE 4G "Outdoors" works in every room. O2 4G "5/5, Good indoors and outdoors." and Vodafone 4G "Indoors and outdoors" also work in every room.

I used to be with Three cause of their unlimited data, but their poor 4G coverage and the fact I only used about 1GB a month made me switch to EE.

I think Three are completely relying on buying O2 to provide them with decent 4G coverage, which is pretty risky as there's no guarantee it will go through. If it does go though, they will be pretty much covered: O2 800 for rural areas and combined O2 800 + Three 1800 for urban areas should work pretty well. If the deal doesn't go through though they will need to roll out much more 4G.

I agree, I believe the coverage map is what Three would like to provide if they enabled all the masts they wanted to but they haven't.

I've forced 800MHz on my G4 and drove around Hampshire and picked it up only in my house.

I've seen Three's 800mhz in Fleet on an iPhone 6. Had to force loss of an unusable 1bar 3G signal and then full signal 800 appeared (confirmed using Field Test, and VoLTE active).

Completely useless due to the preference to use the 1bar/useless 3G signal.

I've got it to hold on the train to Manchester where there would usually be pretty unusable 3G for most of the journey, and it's bloody good where it is, just need to get it on as many masts as possible and then put the priority then up.

I wonder if 800MHz will work with South West Trains' fleet of Faraday cages.

Nothing works with them Nor Cross Country trains :-/

I wonder if coverage will ever improve on those train routes then

Now I don't think this deserves it's own thread, so I'll chuck it in there, but....

Don't you guys remember Three saying a while back that more devices would be added for 800Mhz / VoLTE? I'm sure they said the LG G3 would be added before Christmas, I cut them a bit of slack with xmas and new year, but they really do seem to be dragging their feet now with device support and still no news yet on 'in Touch' adding any functionality.

Quite frustrating that sill only a limited set of handsets supported.

Are they Pacer style ones?

That would mean changing priorities and while they would indeed be getting close to EE for coverage, network performance would be dire!
Every single compatible device would be on it all the time.
The only way it would possibly work is if they put it on every mast like 3G is.
5Mhz 4G800 is roughly equivalent to 10Mhz DC 3G2100 for data throughput.
Trouble then is (I think I'm right in saying, someone correct me) that a dense 800 network would suffer reduced performance due to inter-cell interference (this is why 3G automatically load balances between cells (breaths or raises and lowers power)).
They can manually alter power levels but it's not very accurate when you are dealing with low frequencies.
The result would be really great coverage but less capacity than 3G and since Three 3G is already creaking in places, that would be a disaster.
800 absolutely must be backed up with some mid band spectrum on every mast where 800 is deployed.

Three are further screwed in that when EE I believe (we shall see), activate 800 on a mast, they will crank up the 1800 to near 2G levels and change CSFB to 2G.
This means 800 only has to fill that last 30% or so. (the relatively small area that 2G doesn't currently reach).
Plus, they have WiFi calling to take the load off 800 indoors.
Even if Three put 1800 on every mast it would have to be on low power (like now) for the foreseeable future and there's no WiFi calling meaning 800 would still have too big a gap to fill.

I honestly can't see a way out of this and I can't see the low priority 800 changing any time soon.

Very enlightening, wow!

What can Three do now?!..

The approval for the purchase of O2 is rumoured to be approved next week, subject to spectrum sale and other conditions. It'll be really interesting if they have to give up half of the 800, or some other spectrum.

I think the plan is not to try and compete with EE, I'm not sure why the comparison is always made as EE is very much a high speed, high cost option. I think Three will manage with the spectrum they have and over the next year or two users of O2 / Three will be able to use Cornerstone and Three's 4G + MBNL 3G. If you have DC-HSPA in some areas I don't think that's a big issue for the majority of the customer base.

I really don't think it will be approved. If it is, I think eventually the two players will back out as it will be too difficult for them to merge due to the conditions placed on the deal.

This is just what I think though. I've been wrong before and I could quite possibly be wrong again

Don't worry. I'm wrong all the time, and I'm completely mad, as you know. Haha
I agree. I mean it's the only solution that is going to save either of them but I just can't see them letting 4 networks reduce to 3. Maybe they will take into account the fact that they are both screwed unless they can consolidate but I don't even pretend to know how these things work.
The only way they can get even remotely close to EE is if it goes ahead and they retain everything. So 15Mhz of 800 and Three's 1800.
The trouble is, even then, in just a couple of years time they are struggling spectrum wise, particularly urban.
It's a bloody mess.

Well, we should find out more next week.

The EU are not expected to rule on this until April so this seems very premature or more likely someone is hasn't considered the EU took on the case and is relying on CMA doing a report?


http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f51a2088-9...19b685d74.html

Yes that is why they slowed down 4G roll out as their priorities changed.