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EE 2G/3G/4G Discussion Thread (Part 2)


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Old 19-09-2016, 21:10
Aye Up
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On a more serious note, I have just been busy with work and life, so had to revert to taking a look at the forum less often.

Oh, and a bit of whale watching in the North East
Did you hear their song too?
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Old 20-09-2016, 14:49
mogzyboy
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My fastest ever speed: http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/i/1786887109
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Old 20-09-2016, 14:57
jonmorris
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Nice. Still not able to get over 150Mbps despite the bar now being 200. I guess we're talking about perfect conditions to get there, or a Cat 9 device in the right place.

I'm impressed that I can now get around 70-90 on Three too.

I am wondering if Vodafone is doing something to cap speeds now, as I get consistent speeds around 15-40Mbps and coverage just about everywhere, but never amazing speeds as was possible before - getting almost 200Mbps in some parts of London on 2600.
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Old 20-09-2016, 15:02
Synthetic42
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I believe someone has broken the 200Meg cap already
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Old 20-09-2016, 15:29
Synthetic42
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Can't edit the above post!

Joe (not sure if he's on here) was the lucky customer to get it

http://i.imgur.com/RyYxR0u.jpg
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Old 20-09-2016, 15:57
japaul
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Nice. Still not able to get over 150Mbps despite the bar now being 200. I guess we're talking about perfect conditions to get there, or a Cat 9 device in the right place.

I'm impressed that I can now get around 70-90 on Three too.

I am wondering if Vodafone is doing something to cap speeds now, as I get consistent speeds around 15-40Mbps and coverage just about everywhere, but never amazing speeds as was possible before - getting almost 200Mbps in some parts of London on 2600.
I never saw a 200Mbps cap. I was capped at 150 until about a week ago but now appear to be limited only by the technology. As Synthetic says, over 200 is possible.

Same with Vodafone. I can still get very high speeds if the conditions are right.
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Old 20-09-2016, 16:06
beans0ntoast
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Awesome! My fastest ever speed was 95Mbps down, though that's likely limited by my S4 only supporting up to 100Mbps download. Had I had something more modern, there's every chance that I could have broken the 100Mbps barrier.

Btw, does anyone know what the fastest real-life speed you will get on a device that has a theoretical max of 100Mbps? I take it that I will never actually see 100Mbps, but just under, i.e. 95Mbps?
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Old 20-09-2016, 16:18
_m
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I believe someone has broken the 200Meg cap already
I've seen tests around 250Mbps on 2CA. I'll be going on a 3CA hunt in London next month so will report back with my fastest speeds on a small business contract.
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Old 20-09-2016, 16:21
Synthetic42
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VoLTE live on the S7 according to EE, looks like you need the EVR rom for it to work though.
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Old 20-09-2016, 17:41
bookey_uk
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Oh please, try a bit harder... http://imgur.com/a/IR5DH
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Old 20-09-2016, 18:39
jonmorris
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Just need faster uplink speeds now!
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Old 20-09-2016, 19:26
beans0ntoast
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Just need faster uplink speeds now!
Though both downlinks and uplinks on 4G (particularly those speedtests) are faster than home broadband so will it actually improve things in real life usage (apart from speedtests)?
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Old 20-09-2016, 20:08
Synthetic42
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Though both downlinks and uplinks on 4G (particularly those speedtests) are faster than home broadband so will it actually improve things in real life usage (apart from speedtests)?
Main advantage will be more capacity to avoid congestion
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Old 20-09-2016, 20:55
rasseru16
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For some reason my speeds have declined in my town on EE obviously not soo much but not getting over 100Mbps anymore boo hoo!
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Old 20-09-2016, 20:58
jonmorris
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Though both downlinks and uplinks on 4G (particularly those speedtests) are faster than home broadband so will it actually improve things in real life usage (apart from speedtests)?
If I can upload 1-2GB of 4K video in half the time, I'll be a happy bunny. Not that I'm complaining with 30-45Mbps now.

For other applications, there's nothing that needs such speeds.
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Old 20-09-2016, 21:34
_m
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Though both downlinks and uplinks on 4G (particularly those speedtests) are faster than home broadband so will it actually improve things in real life usage (apart from speedtests)?
Uplink CA does exist but isn't implemented on any UK networks as far as I know, although the iPhone 7 does support it. I imagine uplink CA won't come for a while as band steering the primary carrier should be good enough and uplink very rarely becomes congested, just slows down a lot as signal gets weaker.

Only thing I could think where uplink CA would be useful right now would be for broadcast stuff where they're sending large video files from shoots back to the offices.
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Old 20-09-2016, 22:23
jonmorris
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The BBC uses EE for this I believe. I guess 50Mbps is sufficient though, at least until such time that the Beeb needs to send 4K content.
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Old 20-09-2016, 22:33
beans0ntoast
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Main advantage will be more capacity to avoid congestion
Oh okay, I get you - so in a heavily loaded area (i.e. central London), by using multiple carriers and CA, speeds will still be relatively good and the masts won't cripple under the heavy load.
So for example, you might get a decent 50Mbps with all 3 carriers, and carrier aggregation, whereas you will get less with 2 carriers and very little throughput at all with everyone on a single carrier?
Meaning that, as more people switch to 4G and 4G+ devices, the speeds will still be good and the network will be future proofed, rather than playing catchup.

If I can upload 1-2GB of 4K video in half the time, I'll be a happy bunny. Not that I'm complaining with 30-45Mbps now.

For other applications, there's nothing that needs such speeds.
Forget 4K video, I'm still using 1080p, 720p or even 480p, depending on what my laptop will let me do.

I guess that, as you mentioned, uploading and downloading rather large files would be the only advantage of such mega-speeds - most day to day tasks would be unaffected. If Youtube 1080p will work fine on 15Mbps, then you won't see the difference between 30Mbps single speed, 60Mbps double speed or 150Mbps on 3CA.

I must say though, when I once used my university's internet connection for uploads, they had a few computers on gigabit connections (I'm sure I got 600Mbps+ both ways) and the speed was phenomenal. A 2GB+ youtube video uploaded in a matter of seconds. It was crazy!

Uplink CA does exist but isn't implemented on any UK networks as far as I know, although the iPhone 7 does support it. I imagine uplink CA won't come for a while as band steering the primary carrier should be good enough and uplink very rarely becomes congested, just slows down a lot as signal gets weaker.

Only thing I could think where uplink CA would be useful right now would be for broadcast stuff where they're sending large video files from shoots back to the offices.
50Mbps is fine for most uploads at the present day anyway, so I'm not too fussed about uplink CA. Chances are, in the future, there will be a time that uplink CA will become as important as downlink CA, especially in congested areas, but at the moment it's ok. I must pick up on what you said about the speed slowing down as the signal gets weaker - from my experience, anything below 1 bar can result in very low uplink speeds and even sometimes below 2 bars of signal, upload is significantly slower than if you had full signal.
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Old 20-09-2016, 22:48
jonmorris
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If you're using 4G for mobile broadband, you'll want faster speeds just as you do at home or in an office.

However, faster speeds can work well even for just 720 or 1080 video if the device buffers. It could mean you'll have the whole video downloaded way ahead of time so you don't notice going in and out of coverage.

The fact is, most of the time that extra speed won't be needed or called upon, but there are many benefits for the networks to offer faster speeds. Even if only to encourage more usage (like me uploading video over 4G in preference to using a slower fixed or Wi-Fi alternative).
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Old 20-09-2016, 23:33
_m
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Oh okay, I get you - so in a heavily loaded area (i.e. central London), by using multiple carriers and CA, speeds will still be relatively good and the masts won't cripple under the heavy load.
So for example, you might get a decent 50Mbps with all 3 carriers, and carrier aggregation, whereas you will get less with 2 carriers and very little throughput at all with everyone on a single carrier?
Meaning that, as more people switch to 4G and 4G+ devices, the speeds will still be good and the network will be future proofed, rather than playing catchup.
CA does give networks a massive e-peen extension by showing off 300Mbps+ speed tests but the main reason is as you said, to increase capacity in busy areas like London, Brighton, or Hull. Say that each carrier gives 150Mbps then with three carriers (presuming all are full 20MHz carriers) they would have 450Mbps of capacity. By then adding CA to the three carriers, it allows users to get crazy speeds when load is light (e-peen again), makes it easier for the network to manage load across carriers, and takes what could be 4Mbps of throughput without CA, to 12Mbps of throughput with 3CA (presuming load is the same on all carriers and it scales with no overheads etc.).
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Old 21-09-2016, 01:10
DevonBloke
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Ah crap, that's faster than mine (133.9Mbps) . Maybe I need to upgrade this iPhone 6 after all! : )
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Old 21-09-2016, 01:19
DevonBloke
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I've just spent an hour looking for a rolleyes emoji but I have failed so will have to abort.....
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Old 21-09-2016, 12:08
bikerlad
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How about http://pic.nperf.com/r/64956228-G0s9PgnG.png
Not bad for E14.

Interesting to see EE promoting the Google announcement on the 4th Oct. Maybe they will support wifi calling and VoLTE for the Pixels from launch. I imagined they wouldn't sell them and take ages to even think about supporting them.
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Old 21-09-2016, 12:17
Everything Goes
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How about http://pic.nperf.com/r/64956228-G0s9PgnG.png
Not bad for E14.

Interesting to see EE promoting the Google announcement on the 4th Oct. Maybe they will support wifi calling and VoLTE for the Pixels from launch. I imagined they wouldn't sell them and take ages to even think about supporting them.
I would expect them not to bother. Google have show no interest in support for the last couple of years. Most people wont even know what VoLTE and WiFi calling is. Google will still sell them regardless.
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Old 21-09-2016, 14:08
jonmorris
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EE sold the current Nexus phones and still no VoLTE.
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