Originally Posted by mupet0000:
“I don't see why not. When 4G first rolled out in my area on Three, they enabled one site, a huge pylon site that has all networks on it, it's about 2 miles away from me in a straight line. I didn't get coverage indoors but it worked fine outside. This kind of coverage is fantastic for motorways and vast countryside-type places.
It doesn't work everywhere. We need a combination of everything, not just large sites, not just small sites. Relaxed planning permissions on large sites can only help coverage.”
I agree to somer extent, I just don't think large masts have the answer. I live in the Trafford area of Manchester, in Altrincham there is one of the tallest masts in the area. Living under its gaze reception and service levels were shit, this was across most networks except Vodafone, which needed me to leave Orange. The actual mast only received maintainence last year which then upped the service levels to 4G. But by City/Town area standards that mast is big, but it doesn't do the job it is supposed to, previously I would find myself connecting to another mast 2 miles away as this one was so bad.
The point I make is that more small to medium sized maps are the best way to ensure coverage and service. EE is in a very good place right now, prior to the joint venture T-Mobile had a network to die for, Orange came on bored and was shat on. Since then they have spent huge somes bringing both legacy masts/networks up to scratch. They have more masts in 2G/3G than O2 and Vodafone combined, that was down to needing to erect more because of 1800 range nor being as agile as 900 in terms of reach.
EE has one of the best networks in the world in respect of the 3 technologies it uses, its for that reason they win so much praise. EE's network upgrade/rollout should be admired and crucially emulated, they are blazing a trail.