3 3G better than EE 3G

Stereo Steve · 14-07-2015, 17:06

I've got a naff Chinese dual sim phone and run VOD for 2G voice on my main number and have been running EE for data on the other SIM. EE PAYG is not great in terms of tariffs so I ordered up a 3 SIM as 321 looked better price wise. I used to be on 3 and it was good until the 2G fallback got turned off.

My impression is that in the South Hams, I get better 3G from 3 than I do from EE, having gone from one to the other. Randomly pulling my phone out and checking would be a good VOD signal and poorer EE 3G signal in terms of bars. Maybe down to the phone but I now find that the same test often shows a better 3 3G signal than VOD.

As they share a lot of the same masts, do 3 pump out more power than EE? In my experience, it seems that the 3 signal is generally better than EE's for 3G at least.

lightspeed2398 · 14-07-2015, 17:31

Could it be that EE 3g is under greater load and subject to more restrictive cell breathing? I would presume it's on the same power.

Ashley_Bradbury · 14-07-2015, 18:14

I've noticed the exact same. I can sit next to my sister on a call (3) and phone constantly drops out in the same location (ee). Both of the phones are iphone 5s's

DevonBloke · 14-07-2015, 19:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by lightspeed2398

Could it be that EE 3g is under greater load and subject to more restrictive cell breathing? I would presume it's on the same power.

That would be my assumption.
EE likely to be under a lot more load more of the time in areas where there is no 4G.
EE also have the safety net of 2G to throw you back to should a cell get overloaded whereas 3 will hold on for grim death even if the data rate plummeted.
Also since Three don't have 2G AND voice has priority over data I would have thought their network was configured in such a way as it doesn't really breath much anyway.
So you are more likely to get a better signal on Three (regardless of whether there's data).
Perhaps test in an area where EE have a 4G signal to see what the results are?

lightspeed2398 · 14-07-2015, 19:27

I'm right next to a 4ged EE mast, Three 3g only. Something you could only dream of Devon !

On 3g only here are the dBm strength figures for 3g. It's on two different phones so it won't be the same but on my Three SIM on my 6+ I get -87 and on my EE SIM on my Nexus 5 I get -81. If the strain has been taken off the 3g by the mast being 4ged that would explain the greater coverage.

Icaraa · 14-07-2015, 20:19

I can confirm the same. Surprisingly my own iPhone 6 on 3 sometimes has a signal when my work phone on EE doesn't.

Gigabit · 14-07-2015, 20:43

I've always found EE 3G to be better than Three 3G.

d123 · 14-07-2015, 20:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gigabit

I've always found EE 3G to be better than Three 3G.

So have I.

I've just quickly tested EE 3G versus 3 3G at my current location.

EE 11.14Mbps / 2.03Mbps
3 3.57Mbps / 1.80Mbps

Soundbox · 14-07-2015, 22:13

I'm in remote Dorset and have just tested at the same time.

EE download 9.24 mbps, upload 3.72 mbps
3 download 9.25 mbps, upload 1.88 mbps

enapace · 14-07-2015, 22:44

I will say I have always seen higher upload speeds on EE 3G than I ever have on 3 it was rare you ever saw 2Mbps upload on Three in my experience.

Devon's theory is likely sort of correct EE only has an extra 2x5MHz of 2100MHz spectrum for 3G over Three but has over double the amount of customers.

lightspeed2398 · 14-07-2015, 22:56

Have they deployed all of that spectrum as well or are they just using two 5MHz carriers bonded I think that's how you say it? I might be in desperate need of correction. Three whiskies will do that!

mupet0000 · 14-07-2015, 23:15

It's definately Three 3G beating EE 3G down here. I've even seen Three 3G beat EE 4G occasionally when it gets up to 25mbps and EE 4G is "struggling" below 20mbps.

Normally though, EE 4G slaughters everything quite easily and Three 3G beats EE 3G by a meg or two.

Pedro_C · 14-07-2015, 23:21

Three and EE's 3G are almost identical around my house. When I get to the modern MBNL + EE 4G sites, 3 tends to thrash EE though, with a fairly consistent 30mbps, compared to about 5 or 6 from EE.

DevonBloke · 14-07-2015, 23:48

Don't mix radio carriers and Whisky. It'll only get you into trouble!!

GreenLantern · 15-07-2015, 00:49

In London I normally only get 3-4-5mbit on Three 3G, waiting to try out EE 3G in comparison . . .

BT 4G I get solid 30mbit down 15mbit up (EE 4G Single Speed basically)

Icaraa · 15-07-2015, 08:12

I would describe Three's 3G as very snappy feeling in comparison. Though I can't give a technical reason for this, but it has to be something to do with how the traffic is routed.

Ashley_Bradbury · 15-07-2015, 15:12

How did a thread about signal strength turn in to data speeds

Stereo Steve · 15-07-2015, 16:09

It always does. To be fair, there is some relationship between connection speed and the amount of users who can get a usable signal. Personally I'm not that interested in it.

The comment that 3 is generally more 'snappy' is valid. I was on 3 for ages with EE 2G backup and it was superb for the net. Then they turned off EE backup so I moved and tried O2 for a while. Oops. On to a dual sim VOD/EE set up which has worked well but switching back to a 3 Sim for data, it seems far quicker to access sites than EE and the signal is definitely better. Less 4G of course but this doesn't bother me as unless you are doing a speed test, I doubt most smartphone users could tell the difference between a good 3G signal from a good 4G signal .

jaffboy151 · 15-07-2015, 16:28

My note 4 is like lighting when on three 4g and noticeably slower when on 3g regardless of signal strength and any speed above 1mbps. Saying that three 3g seems much faster then when I've used vodafone 3g despite the mast local to work having very low ping and 20+mbps download speed, three must have something set up different further down the chain from the mast which makes Web pages load so fast, shame it's often spoilt by congestion.
Around where I live my partner always seems to have a superior signal level on EE then I do on three, but I reckon much of this is to do with the Galaxy note 3&4 having rubbish reception and a few orange only 3g masts still live around here..

japaul · 15-07-2015, 21:44

Speeds will of course vary between the two in different areas but I suspect what you perceive as a difference in signal as measured by bars (at least from the shared masts) is largely due to experimental error.

Perhaps you've got a lot of Orange masts in your area and you mostly hang on to these for EE which could mean bigger differences although in that scenario you might expect EE to be the better one overall.

Ashley_Bradbury · 15-07-2015, 23:10

I've noticed on the ofcome ckeacker that the mast powered levels are always higher for 3 compared to ee. Is this accurate?

d123 · 15-07-2015, 23:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ashley_Bradbury

I've noticed on the ofcome ckeacker that the mast powered levels are always higher for 3 compared to ee. Is this accurate?

It's about as accurate as any database that hasn't been updated in up to 10 years.

Didn't you see the disclaimer on the page?

Quote:

Ofcom makes no corrections to the data supplied by the operators. Apart from any errors or omissions that the data itself may contain, the dataset which is available at http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/sit...inder-dataset/ is currently out-of-date. The last Sitefinder update was done in May 2012, although some operators ceased providing updates from as early as 2005.

http://sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk

Icaraa · 16-07-2015, 10:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ashley_Bradbury

I've noticed on the ofcome ckeacker that the mast powered levels are always higher for 3 compared to ee. Is this accurate?

What's the reason for this then?

d123 · 16-07-2015, 11:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Icaraa

What's the reason for this then?

Alien technology...

The Lord Lucan · 16-07-2015, 12:02

Not where i live and work, 3 has poorer coverage here in Edinburgh, despite the Three sim priority to cling on to 3G for dear life where the EE will switch down to 2G to preserve call quality and reliability. 99% of the sites here are MBNL so id say the 3 sites here are under far more stress, likely due to the poor 3 4G coverage and the near blanket EE4G coverage taking the stress off EE's network. Speeds are rarely compatible as some sites EE is faster and some sites Three is faster. Overall much the same.. can't say i've checked recently as i'm always on 4G with EE though.

The reason for the weird figures in the site finder website was that pre MBNL EE had many more sites than 3 so didn't have to use such high outputs. I doubt there is much variance nowadays like for like. What people are seeing is SIM/Handset priority. EE switches down as a quality of service thing, 3 don't have the luxury of 2G fallback.

14-07-2015, 17:06	#1
Stereo Steve Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 1,378	3 3G better than EE 3G I've got a naff Chinese dual sim phone and run VOD for 2G voice on my main number and have been running EE for data on the other SIM. EE PAYG is not great in terms of tariffs so I ordered up a 3 SIM as 321 looked better price wise. I used to be on 3 and it was good until the 2G fallback got turned off. My impression is that in the South Hams, I get better 3G from 3 than I do from EE, having gone from one to the other. Randomly pulling my phone out and checking would be a good VOD signal and poorer EE 3G signal in terms of bars. Maybe down to the phone but I now find that the same test often shows a better 3 3G signal than VOD. As they share a lot of the same masts, do 3 pump out more power than EE? In my experience, it seems that the 3 signal is generally better than EE's for 3G at least.

14-07-2015, 17:31	#2
lightspeed2398 Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2015 Posts: 1,325	Could it be that EE 3g is under greater load and subject to more restrictive cell breathing? I would presume it's on the same power.

14-07-2015, 18:14	#3
Ashley_Bradbury Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2013 Posts: 106	I've noticed the exact same. I can sit next to my sister on a call (3) and phone constantly drops out in the same location (ee). Both of the phones are iphone 5s's

14-07-2015, 19:16	#4
DevonBloke Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Totnes, Devon Posts: 6,694	Quote: Originally Posted by lightspeed2398 Could it be that EE 3g is under greater load and subject to more restrictive cell breathing? I would presume it's on the same power. That would be my assumption. EE likely to be under a lot more load more of the time in areas where there is no 4G. EE also have the safety net of 2G to throw you back to should a cell get overloaded whereas 3 will hold on for grim death even if the data rate plummeted. Also since Three don't have 2G AND voice has priority over data I would have thought their network was configured in such a way as it doesn't really breath much anyway. So you are more likely to get a better signal on Three (regardless of whether there's data). Perhaps test in an area where EE have a 4G signal to see what the results are?

14-07-2015, 19:27	#5
lightspeed2398 Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2015 Posts: 1,325	I'm right next to a 4ged EE mast, Three 3g only. Something you could only dream of Devon ! On 3g only here are the dBm strength figures for 3g. It's on two different phones so it won't be the same but on my Three SIM on my 6+ I get -87 and on my EE SIM on my Nexus 5 I get -81. If the strain has been taken off the 3g by the mast being 4ged that would explain the greater coverage.

14-07-2015, 20:19	#6
Icaraa Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2013 Posts: 1,732	I can confirm the same. Surprisingly my own iPhone 6 on 3 sometimes has a signal when my work phone on EE doesn't.

14-07-2015, 20:43	#7
Gigabit Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 2,887	I've always found EE 3G to be better than Three 3G.

14-07-2015, 20:58	#8
d123 Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 3,993	Quote: Originally Posted by Gigabit I've always found EE 3G to be better than Three 3G. So have I. I've just quickly tested EE 3G versus 3 3G at my current location. EE 11.14Mbps / 2.03Mbps 3 3.57Mbps / 1.80Mbps

14-07-2015, 22:13	#9
Soundbox Forum Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: The garden of earthly delights Posts: 4,509	I'm in remote Dorset and have just tested at the same time. EE download 9.24 mbps, upload 3.72 mbps 3 download 9.25 mbps, upload 1.88 mbps

14-07-2015, 22:44	#10
enapace Forum Member Join Date: Mar 2013 Posts: 4,249	I will say I have always seen higher upload speeds on EE 3G than I ever have on 3 it was rare you ever saw 2Mbps upload on Three in my experience. Devon's theory is likely sort of correct EE only has an extra 2x5MHz of 2100MHz spectrum for 3G over Three but has over double the amount of customers.

14-07-2015, 22:56	#11
lightspeed2398 Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2015 Posts: 1,325	Have they deployed all of that spectrum as well or are they just using two 5MHz carriers bonded I think that's how you say it? I might be in desperate need of correction. Three whiskies will do that!

14-07-2015, 23:15	#12
mupet0000 Forum Member Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 620	It's definately Three 3G beating EE 3G down here. I've even seen Three 3G beat EE 4G occasionally when it gets up to 25mbps and EE 4G is "struggling" below 20mbps. Normally though, EE 4G slaughters everything quite easily and Three 3G beats EE 3G by a meg or two.

14-07-2015, 23:21	#13
Pedro_C Forum Member Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: Surrey, UK Posts: 660	Three and EE's 3G are almost identical around my house. When I get to the modern MBNL + EE 4G sites, 3 tends to thrash EE though, with a fairly consistent 30mbps, compared to about 5 or 6 from EE.

14-07-2015, 23:48	#14
DevonBloke Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Totnes, Devon Posts: 6,694	Don't mix radio carriers and Whisky. It'll only get you into trouble!!

15-07-2015, 00:49	#15
GreenLantern Inactive Member Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: London, UK Posts: 178	In London I normally only get 3-4-5mbit on Three 3G, waiting to try out EE 3G in comparison . . . BT 4G I get solid 30mbit down 15mbit up (EE 4G Single Speed basically)

15-07-2015, 08:12	#16
Icaraa Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2013 Posts: 1,732	I would describe Three's 3G as very snappy feeling in comparison. Though I can't give a technical reason for this, but it has to be something to do with how the traffic is routed.

15-07-2015, 15:12	#17
Ashley_Bradbury Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2013 Posts: 106	How did a thread about signal strength turn in to data speeds

15-07-2015, 16:09	#18
Stereo Steve Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 1,378	It always does. To be fair, there is some relationship between connection speed and the amount of users who can get a usable signal. Personally I'm not that interested in it. The comment that 3 is generally more 'snappy' is valid. I was on 3 for ages with EE 2G backup and it was superb for the net. Then they turned off EE backup so I moved and tried O2 for a while. Oops. On to a dual sim VOD/EE set up which has worked well but switching back to a 3 Sim for data, it seems far quicker to access sites than EE and the signal is definitely better. Less 4G of course but this doesn't bother me as unless you are doing a speed test, I doubt most smartphone users could tell the difference between a good 3G signal from a good 4G signal .

15-07-2015, 16:28	#19
jaffboy151 Forum Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Woore, Cheshire/Shropshire Posts: 1,675	My note 4 is like lighting when on three 4g and noticeably slower when on 3g regardless of signal strength and any speed above 1mbps. Saying that three 3g seems much faster then when I've used vodafone 3g despite the mast local to work having very low ping and 20+mbps download speed, three must have something set up different further down the chain from the mast which makes Web pages load so fast, shame it's often spoilt by congestion. Around where I live my partner always seems to have a superior signal level on EE then I do on three, but I reckon much of this is to do with the Galaxy note 3&4 having rubbish reception and a few orange only 3g masts still live around here..

15-07-2015, 21:44	#20
japaul Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2013 Posts: 1,662	Speeds will of course vary between the two in different areas but I suspect what you perceive as a difference in signal as measured by bars (at least from the shared masts) is largely due to experimental error. Perhaps you've got a lot of Orange masts in your area and you mostly hang on to these for EE which could mean bigger differences although in that scenario you might expect EE to be the better one overall.

15-07-2015, 23:10	#21
Ashley_Bradbury Forum Member Join Date: Jan 2013 Posts: 106	I've noticed on the ofcome ckeacker that the mast powered levels are always higher for 3 compared to ee. Is this accurate?

DS Forums

3 3G better than EE 3G

15-07-2015, 23:25	#22
d123 Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 3,993	Quote: Originally Posted by Ashley_Bradbury I've noticed on the ofcome ckeacker that the mast powered levels are always higher for 3 compared to ee. Is this accurate? It's about as accurate as any database that hasn't been updated in up to 10 years. Didn't you see the disclaimer on the page? Quote: Ofcom makes no corrections to the data supplied by the operators. Apart from any errors or omissions that the data itself may contain, the dataset which is available at http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/sit...inder-dataset/ is currently out-of-date. The last Sitefinder update was done in May 2012, although some operators ceased providing updates from as early as 2005. http://sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk

16-07-2015, 10:12	#23
Icaraa Forum Member Join Date: Feb 2013 Posts: 1,732	Quote: Originally Posted by Ashley_Bradbury I've noticed on the ofcome ckeacker that the mast powered levels are always higher for 3 compared to ee. Is this accurate? What's the reason for this then?

16-07-2015, 11:37	#24
d123 Forum Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 3,993	Quote: Originally Posted by Icaraa What's the reason for this then? Alien technology...

16-07-2015, 12:02	#25
The Lord Lucan Forum Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Scotland Posts: 4,966	Not where i live and work, 3 has poorer coverage here in Edinburgh, despite the Three sim priority to cling on to 3G for dear life where the EE will switch down to 2G to preserve call quality and reliability. 99% of the sites here are MBNL so id say the 3 sites here are under far more stress, likely due to the poor 3 4G coverage and the near blanket EE4G coverage taking the stress off EE's network. Speeds are rarely compatible as some sites EE is faster and some sites Three is faster. Overall much the same.. can't say i've checked recently as i'm always on 4G with EE though. The reason for the weird figures in the site finder website was that pre MBNL EE had many more sites than 3 so didn't have to use such high outputs. I doubt there is much variance nowadays like for like. What people are seeing is SIM/Handset priority. EE switches down as a quality of service thing, 3 don't have the luxury of 2G fallback.