Pfffffffff, puh-lease.

(More of that misguided optimism I imagine!)

If there are any surprises though let us know, I might opt in!

Isn't that update just the September Patch?

It includes that, but I believe there are fixes for wakelock issues that have caused some major problems for many 6P users who upgraded to Nougat recently. It's around 50MB, making it bigger than most routine security patches of late.

Map was updated earlier today although it's at least 3 weeks out of date in some parts of the highlands.

Evening all,

Does anyone know what EE (3G/4G) coverage is like in Sheringham, Norfolk? I will be going there this weekend (mostly in the town center, sometimes indoors) and would like to have a rough idea what it is like. (The coverage maps aren't always accurate, for example the Hillington mast has virtually no coverage due to being hidden in a deep bank of trees.)
Also, any idea of speeds during normal load would be appreciated. (This weekend it's going to be extremely busy so speeds will suffer, but so long as there's a few Mbit/s available, and cell breathing doesn't render the service unusable, it doesn't matter.)
Thanks!

Bourne, Lincs now 4Ged.

A few more sites now on along the A1 at Wittering and Stretton and along the ECML.

In other news the Harbertonford TV relay has had it's 2 sector "tube" antenna removed and replaced with two Commscope tri-band panels.
Now doing EE 2G/3G/4G1800. About 70Mbps.
Was doing Three 3G but now wired for Three 4G800 (not EE 800) as well. (thank you Pedro C for confirming this).
No idea if it's live as i can't test for Three 4G.

Used to look like this.
http://postimg.org/image/gywhqzm95/
http://postimg.org/image/5b2fwfx49/

Now looks like this.
http://postimg.org/image/jvo450hgp/
http://postimg.org/image/yswl60up5/

Green tags are 800 (for three only at the mo).
http://postimg.org/image/dxaauryi1/

EE don't need 800 here. The area is surrounded by EE800.

Lovely!

Not a lot of anything. I was there last week. Mainly GPRS.

As you're going anyway does it matter or do you plan on cancelling the trip if you can't do a Speedtest?

Must be on the todo list...

Awesome upgraded mast/panels there! In all honesty I thought that the tube at the top, could have even been a single sector, omni setup - but thinking about it, yeah they could squeeze in two single input panels for 2G/3G.

Chances are, if EE have already got L08 on a lot of nearby sites, they won't activate it there - but if Three haven't, then they'll need that L08 - as last time I went to Devon (Torbay area - about 3 years ago) I remember it being very hilly! I didn't take note of 2G/3G etc as I was only on a 500MB Virgin SIM then on an old Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus with a max of HSDPA 7.2! Things have changed since then, and I have my S4, though not for much longer as I'm hoping to upgrade to an LG G4 or G5 by the end of the year!
Speaking of, I know the G5 does VoLTE if bought from EE, but is there any likelihood of being able to get VoLTE on an unbranded handset, in the future? Because apparently you have to root and flash firmware to get EE branding on an LG and I'm not taking out a lengthy 24 month contract, when SIM Only works out to be cheaper!

Btw, I did note that the other panels on that mast you linked to, were O2 G09 panels on an old microwave - I wonder if they ever added U09? If so, I doubt it'd work anyway due to the micro backhaul!

Yeah, hilly is an understatement but luckily Orange got some really good site placements back in the 90s. When power is up on 1800/800 then it will be sublime!!

O2 still just G09 there. Voda (CTIL) making some progress further up in east Devon but will be a while yet.

There are some versions of those tubes which are omni but there are a reasonable amount of sites with 3 sector, single band versions on. There are two of these near me, one is an old Orange monopole most likely still broadcasting Orange code 2G/3G (though is getting work done on it next month) and the other is an ex-Orange site (used to have a similar looking omni pole) broadcasting 2G/3G/4G for EE and 3G for H3G at very respectable speeds (I regularly see more than 100Mbps on L18).

Ouch. I know that in previous years I've been lucky to get 1 bar of 3g... So seems like things haven't improved. Oh well.

The problem is that all the masts appeared to be out of town, when I looked on sitefinder. The only decent mast for indoor coverage is an old Vodafone monopole that is G09 only.
Well, at lease that's what it was like when I remember it last!

Edit. Been on sitefinder and the only two masts that are in town, is Vodafone G09 and Orange G18. Was the GPRS you saw, on code Orange or code EE?

It will most likely be an Orange mast on an Orange code, if sitefinder says it's an Orange site. I haven't seen an old 2G only T-Mobile mast for years.

Anyway there are heaps of areas still only covered by old Orange masts. It's so common it's barely noteworthy.

Thanks. The reason why I asked was so that if it was still Orange, then there would likely be an upgrade (I know of a fair few places between Holt and Sheringham that rely on Orange 2G) - but if it was EE 2G, coming from the distant mast, then the Orange mast would be switched off and there would be no further improvements, which is not good since 3G is rather weak! (Don't know how strong 2G is but I have no intentions of using 2G anytime soon. The only time I ever enable 2G is just for testing whether really old Orange masts are still alive.)

According to somebody on XDA, the OnePlus 3 now supports 4G Calling on EE!

3G speeds much improved in the Market Harborough, specifically Foxton. Last time data was non existent but today it's flying 👍

Awesome, it's good to know that Market Harborough has been sorted - it's always been a bit iffy there. Has the Orange mast at the train station (code 23433, still on HSPA, no DC-HSPA+) been done yet or is it still Orange and slow?

Update in regards to Sheringham (I'll do it on this post):

Bottom end of Sheringham (where most of the shops are): 1 bar 3G outdoors. Likely not very good indoors, but I didn't check.
By the train station: hopeless. Emergency Calls Only. May have been EDGE (there was EDGE down the high street, but there was also 3G there) but I didn't test as I'm more interested in a reliable data connection that works, rather than an old, slow 150kbps connection that won't work with most things (or will be painfully slow).
There was no Orange 3G, or even 2G, down the high street so the Orange mast may have been decommissioned (or may be doing the 3G on EE code, I don't know and didn't have the time for mast hunting!).
Weybourne was much better. Used to be very strong Orange 2G due to a nearby mast. Now EE 2G/3G/4G. Yes!
High Kelling (these are all places on the North Norfolk Railway, by the way): Variable. Some places, 10% (-107dBm?) 3G. Other places, nothing. Didn't test for 2G (due to the same reasons as above) but from previous years, when I was using an old Galaxy Ace Plus, on auto mode, it flicked between weak 3G, weak 2G, or nothing. I doubt 2G would have been reliable either, considering the surrounding terrain.

Which brings me on to the A148 (the road that links Cromer to King's Lynn). Quite hit-and-miss in regards to phone signals, sometimes more miss than hit!
Notable weak/deadspots on EE:
1) Certain areas between Cromer and Kelling Heath (including Kelling Heath)
2) Outskirts of Holt to Letheringsett
3) Passing through Little Snoring
4) East Rudham (possibly some areas in West Rudham too) - there but very weak, clinging onto -111/-113dBm! Not good...
5) Something that can only be classed as "The Hillington Disaster". Close to Hillington, Norfolk. It's a trisector mast but might as well only be a single sector mast with one panel! I'm not going to describe it in words, as this Google Maps image really does describe the problem for you: (note that the mast has been upgraded to EE 2G/3G/4G and 3 3G, with new panels, but that will not help one bit)
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.80...7i13312!8i6656
Even 800MHz 4G at full power will not work there!
O2 have a mast nearby, used to be a pitchfork 900MHz only mast, but is now CTIL and 2G/3G/4G 900/900/800.
I hope someone can sort out the location of that EE mast, which can only be described as a disaster. (Literally, after a couple of hundred meters from the EE mast, it went from a full 3G signal straight to No Service. I wonder why....)

After all this talk about GPRS, here's what 3CA 4G+ from EE and Vodafone can do.

I get about 40kbps from my Orange 2G serving site, which is usable for general Instant Messaging stuff. I even downloaded apps over it, albeit that was noticeably time consuming.

40kbps is, in my opinion, a total waste of time for most things. Yes, it's OK for IM stuff (that doesn't use a load of data) but anything else? Forget it!
Websites will not load very quickly, if at all, on 40kbps.
Apps will take a good number of minutes, even for smaller apps. Though most apps are starting to increase in size now.
For example, a 20MB app is 160Mbit. This works out at slightly more than 163,000 kilobits.
Now, a 40kbit/s data service will take 4096 seconds to complete. That's about 1 hour and 8 minutes... just to download an app. What a joke.
I wouldn't even have been able to stream KISS FM UK with 40kbit/s, as the service requires 48kbit/s. With an 8kbit/s difference, and the maximum possible buffer time of 30 seconds selected, it will take 36 seconds to buffer and will then only last about 3 minutes before it has to re-buffer the stream again - which will be quite annoying!
Anything heavier, such as Spotify/Youtube etc... forget it. Spotify has a minimum bit rate of 96kbit/s (so twice the rate of tunein) and Youtube won't work at all.
And this is why we need something better than GPRS!

Anyhoo, that video was very interesting, though I wonder how many places will even get 3CA, outside of major cities such as London/Manchester etc?

Not sure if it's been asked before...

Do EE support Fast Dormancy?

And that's what we are getting. It's not like EE can flip a magic switch and instantly have 4G everywhere. They could probably match or exceed 2G coverage with 4G now if they wanted to but the experience would be crap, so just wait until the 4G rollout is complete and accept that until then, there will be areas that are 2G only.

I get the option which wasn't there before, but it seems to hand down to 3G anyway (CSFB)

EE supports VoLTE Nationwide now right? So this means even though the option is there, it doesn't work.

Not according to EE


http://ee.co.uk/help/phones-and-device/4g-calling

Where would you even get EE firmware for a OnePlus?

If EE (and Three) could start using the Android 'carrier settings' system, they can offer VoLTE on just about any Marshmallow/Nougat phone.

At the very least, EE should be offering VoLTE on the Nexus phones by now.