I was hoping for something more from Three, but this 800MHz launch is really disappointing.
1. Launched with only one device being compatible (S5) and no roadmap available to view. Three have only given info about the LG G4 and new iPhones being compatible, the other phones and dates we know about are only from internal documents. The majority of customers can't even get on 800 at the moment, and some us wont be able to for a long time, or not at all unless we get a new phone.
2. Launched as a last resort rather than part of the network - you're only getting on 800MHz if there's nothing else, with 0 priority it's hardly going to be a seamless 4G experience between 1800 and 800, and with only 5MHz of 800 I can see why. This means for people like me whose phones have a poor signal and the battery drains quicker, it's not going to help unless they increase the priority of 800.
3. Overly optimistic and misleading coverage maps - When you are viewing 800 coverage, it overlays 1800+800, giving the impression that you will get 800 everywhere that's shown and that they work together so you will get 4G consistently in a particular area. It's just not true, and in 1800 areas at least, I suspect the 800 layer is extremely thin as it is in my town, but the coverage map makes it look impressive.
4. VoLTE - In theory, it's great. But if you have good 3G or 1800 4G, you aren't getting on 800 and you aren't using VoLTE. Hopefully they will enable VoLTE on 1800, but as of now it's 800 only. This also causes problems if you are on an 800 VoLTE call and you go out of 800 coverage, it's not going to switch to 1800 so it must drop you down to 3G.
I was hoping for better than this. It will be interesting to see how the VoLTE launch goes for EE/Voda, and also how EE deal with 800. If it's as bad as this, I'll give Three a pass lol. At least Three will get 5MHz extra for 1800 soon, should help with congestion and speeds.