Hello, this is my first post so I hope I've done everything right 
I'm studying Electrical and Electronic Engineering at university (in my first year at present) and one area that I have got myself interested in lately is how mobile phones work. As a result, I've spent quite a bit of time over the last week or so reading posts in this forum and it's interesting stuff!
One question I have that hasn't really been answered is whether or not 2G and 3G coverage will be improved by mobile networks over the next few years. After all, while 4G on 800 Mhz will vastly improve indoor coverage, phones that only support 2G are still being sold, not to mention 3G phones as well as 4G phones that don't support voLTE and so may not get access to that frequency on certain networks.
As an example, I live in Retford and am currently on 3. The coverage map says that I will get outdoor coverage only, yet I luckily manage to get a signal even when I'm downstairs and I frequently get speeds of over 5 Mbps down on 3G- not bad when the ADSL broadband in my house maxes out at about 2.75 Mbps (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my Dad will upgrade to fibre when the contract runs out in the next month!). I tested my sister's phone which is on EE to find that the 3G performance was very similar to 3's. In fact, I did a speed test on both my phone and her phone at the same time while standing in my bedroom and the ping as well as the download and upload speeds were pretty much identical- clearly the mast is shared in Retford. When I got up to my room having first tested her phone downstairs, I noticed it briefly dropped to five bars of Edge which is more than the one to three bars of 3G I get with 3 which is a good thing as far as call and text reliably is concerned. I even managed to test 4G when it found a 4G signal and got an impressive 22 Mbps down, yet I've never got a 4G signal at home with 3 despite the fact that they have recently added 4G to my local mast (as I found out to my surprise last week!).
However, going up the road to my Grandparents and Uncle's house is a completely different story as I am unable to get a signal at all in their kitchen, dining room or conservatory except for one bar occasionally that drops out whenever I use the internet. I seem to get 3-5 Mbps at least if I stand on the landing, although to be fair, it does say outdoor coverage only there. I've not tested EE, although I did used to be on Orange and I'm sure I used to get a signal there although it's likely that it'll be 2G only. My phone is an iPhone 5S so doesn't support voLT|E so I'll have to wait until I get a new phone when my contract runs out in September to see if this makes a difference, assuming EE have switched it on by then as I am thinking of switching to them. Even on O2, with their 900 Mhz 2G and 3G, my parents and Uncle have a difficult time getting a signal downstairs and my Uncle's Samsung Galaxy S5 was showing Emergency Only or No Service when I was round there yesterday. In fact, only Vodaphone seems to work downstairs despite the masts being quite close to O2's- my Grandma's basic Nokia is years old but never lets her down. I hope my Grandad's new one is just as reliable when it arrives at Argos next week!
Apologies for rambling on! What I really need to ask is are the operators are likely to add more masts (or turn up the power to existing ones if that is an option at all?) for 2G and 3G or is that it now, and getting a 4G phone is the only option. If the former is the case, looking at EE's coverage for this example, there's three or four areas of Retford alone with large areas of outdoor coverage only where there are housing estates. A large area of Worksop also appears to have poor indoor 3G coverage in the area just below the station. If the latter is the case, I hope that some basic 4G voLTE phones costing £30 or less enter the market soon. The phone my Grandad is getting is 2G only, but if all phones were 4G voLTE, then coverage could improve for everyone and not just those with £500 plus phones and £30 a month plus contracts.
As a final point, I find it daft how fields can have a decent signal, yet as soon as you get to a village it's outdoor only or even No Service. As an example, look at North Leverton and Sturton Le Steeple (both near Retford) on 3's 3G coverage map. it's outdoor coverage until you get to these villages yet No Service in some of the village. I understand that this is due to the fact that the masts are a few miles away and that to put masts up in villages requires planning applications which could be refused, backhaul to be added which isn't always easy, and it costs a lot of money to build and maintain them. It still seems a bit of a daft scenario though, particularly given the price of mobile contracts these days.
So, to conclude, is it likely that the 2G and 3G coverage will be improved over the next few years or is it simply a case of make do until 4G voLTE becomes more widespread? Could new technologies, such as those trialed in Cumbria by EE, be useful in situations like this? Is it viable for monopoles to be put up in towns to fill in coverage gaps or weak spots such as those that I have mentioned?
Many thanks
Ryan

I'm studying Electrical and Electronic Engineering at university (in my first year at present) and one area that I have got myself interested in lately is how mobile phones work. As a result, I've spent quite a bit of time over the last week or so reading posts in this forum and it's interesting stuff!
One question I have that hasn't really been answered is whether or not 2G and 3G coverage will be improved by mobile networks over the next few years. After all, while 4G on 800 Mhz will vastly improve indoor coverage, phones that only support 2G are still being sold, not to mention 3G phones as well as 4G phones that don't support voLTE and so may not get access to that frequency on certain networks.
As an example, I live in Retford and am currently on 3. The coverage map says that I will get outdoor coverage only, yet I luckily manage to get a signal even when I'm downstairs and I frequently get speeds of over 5 Mbps down on 3G- not bad when the ADSL broadband in my house maxes out at about 2.75 Mbps (I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my Dad will upgrade to fibre when the contract runs out in the next month!). I tested my sister's phone which is on EE to find that the 3G performance was very similar to 3's. In fact, I did a speed test on both my phone and her phone at the same time while standing in my bedroom and the ping as well as the download and upload speeds were pretty much identical- clearly the mast is shared in Retford. When I got up to my room having first tested her phone downstairs, I noticed it briefly dropped to five bars of Edge which is more than the one to three bars of 3G I get with 3 which is a good thing as far as call and text reliably is concerned. I even managed to test 4G when it found a 4G signal and got an impressive 22 Mbps down, yet I've never got a 4G signal at home with 3 despite the fact that they have recently added 4G to my local mast (as I found out to my surprise last week!).
However, going up the road to my Grandparents and Uncle's house is a completely different story as I am unable to get a signal at all in their kitchen, dining room or conservatory except for one bar occasionally that drops out whenever I use the internet. I seem to get 3-5 Mbps at least if I stand on the landing, although to be fair, it does say outdoor coverage only there. I've not tested EE, although I did used to be on Orange and I'm sure I used to get a signal there although it's likely that it'll be 2G only. My phone is an iPhone 5S so doesn't support voLT|E so I'll have to wait until I get a new phone when my contract runs out in September to see if this makes a difference, assuming EE have switched it on by then as I am thinking of switching to them. Even on O2, with their 900 Mhz 2G and 3G, my parents and Uncle have a difficult time getting a signal downstairs and my Uncle's Samsung Galaxy S5 was showing Emergency Only or No Service when I was round there yesterday. In fact, only Vodaphone seems to work downstairs despite the masts being quite close to O2's- my Grandma's basic Nokia is years old but never lets her down. I hope my Grandad's new one is just as reliable when it arrives at Argos next week!
Apologies for rambling on! What I really need to ask is are the operators are likely to add more masts (or turn up the power to existing ones if that is an option at all?) for 2G and 3G or is that it now, and getting a 4G phone is the only option. If the former is the case, looking at EE's coverage for this example, there's three or four areas of Retford alone with large areas of outdoor coverage only where there are housing estates. A large area of Worksop also appears to have poor indoor 3G coverage in the area just below the station. If the latter is the case, I hope that some basic 4G voLTE phones costing £30 or less enter the market soon. The phone my Grandad is getting is 2G only, but if all phones were 4G voLTE, then coverage could improve for everyone and not just those with £500 plus phones and £30 a month plus contracts.
As a final point, I find it daft how fields can have a decent signal, yet as soon as you get to a village it's outdoor only or even No Service. As an example, look at North Leverton and Sturton Le Steeple (both near Retford) on 3's 3G coverage map. it's outdoor coverage until you get to these villages yet No Service in some of the village. I understand that this is due to the fact that the masts are a few miles away and that to put masts up in villages requires planning applications which could be refused, backhaul to be added which isn't always easy, and it costs a lot of money to build and maintain them. It still seems a bit of a daft scenario though, particularly given the price of mobile contracts these days.
So, to conclude, is it likely that the 2G and 3G coverage will be improved over the next few years or is it simply a case of make do until 4G voLTE becomes more widespread? Could new technologies, such as those trialed in Cumbria by EE, be useful in situations like this? Is it viable for monopoles to be put up in towns to fill in coverage gaps or weak spots such as those that I have mentioned?
Many thanks
Ryan




Turning up powers at existing sites isn't really an option - handsets themselves are restricted in power by standards and for mobiles to work, both links between handset and base station need to be clear. Sometimes you might hear about operators "turning up the power" at base stations - this is normally to do with the field strength levels that accommodate the amount of users of that cell and doesn't give an increase in mobile phone reception that you'd notice.
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