Not seeing any changes myself. Several sites that have been live with 4G for the past 4-5 weeks still not showing on the coverage map. I'm using the main EE coverage checker, unless there is another that's more up to date?

A few sites added in Scotland that I can see but also a few missing that have been active over a month!

The map has been updated tonight

EE 4G coverage doesn't seem as good on my iPhone 7, I drop to 3G in places I didn't on my iPhone 6.

People on 3 have similar issues so I'm sure it's probably the phone or modem firmware, I hope Apple or the networks can resolve it.

Three has acknowledged a problem, saying the phone falls to 3G and doesn't return.

But as it's an iPhone, I expect Apple would blame the network and many customers will just grin and bear it.

You're allowing a little bias to show there, Jon , if the problem only exists on certain networks it has to be some form of network issue.

If it happened on all networks then it would be safer to conclude its a handset issue.

The iPhone 7 uses an Intel modem I believe so that may be the cause of the change in signal.

It was a joke, but I do think that if it happened on some devices, nobody would be as forgiving.

I am not sure it will be a network issue, rather the way the phone is configured to make a decision on when to switch, and a likely bug that causes it not to change back. I am sure Apple will fix it, and it won't require Three or EE, or anyone else, to reconfigure their entire network.

Especially if the fault occurs on other networks too, using different equipment.

From Apple's point of view, it's something that's easy to blame on networks. Remember Antennagate?! The press release that made it sound like the networks were always at fault, and it was a programming error that made the phone appear to show too strong a signal. People bought that, as how can a network prove it isn't a network problem?

I suspect a chipset change has caused this and the problem will be solved soon.

I do find my iPhone 6 now sometimes sticks to 3G on EE and won't shift up.
Can't remember when it started happening though. iOS 10 maybe?
Not often but noticeable when it happens.
Toggling airplane normally sorts it.

Just thought I'd muddy the waters there!

Its Apples first time in using an intel baseband , The probably need to refine the modem software.

November 1st is when EE launches the new Max plan on SIM Only and introduces new Wi-Fi and tablet plans.

So that's when 800 goes live then?

You think?

Not sure why there would be a connection.

I've heard it might be as late as next year, so haven't a clue but I doubt these things would be linked.

From a marketing point of view, there's plenty with these new plans to be selling to the public than that too.

Dunno, I'd heard it would be as early as last year but never mind. I was assuming that if serious data tariffs were coming on line then EE would want to finally solve their Achilles heel.

I was told that EE still needs a lot more 800 sites before it feels ready to go live.

My guess is that given it will kill the other networks, they're going to make a rather big deal of it.

However, unless there are some new sites built for EE (and 3 too...), then there will be some areas (some large villages/towns) which will rely on 800MHz for any coverage, and 5MHz of it will get swamped.

Example being Eye/Eye Green, near Peterborough - I went through the village/town a few days ago and 2100MHz was extremely weak, if available at all, outdoors. 2G 1800MHz wouldn't be much better, so 4G1800 at full power would also be extremely weak (if present at all). The only way Eye/Eye Green are going to get any reliable MBNL coverage (particularly indoor coverage; CTIL make use of the O2 mast just outside the village so don't have an issue) is via 800MHz, so having everyone in a small area using all of the capacity (5MHz L800 won't be great) will not be good.

I'm sure there are other areas too that have similar issues but that is the biggest and most prominent example I am aware of, that will be a case of 800MHz only, which will get very swamped very quickly. Which isn't a good thing to make a big deal out of.

You'll be swamping the mast, having your phone forced to 4G all the time

I assume EE wants to go live with LOTS of sites 800 enabled, rather than Three's way of having few sites on max power - for that very reason that they'll become swamped quickly otherwise.

I don't actually live at that location - but anyone who does live there, and is on EE, will almost certainly be using L08 - since L18 is very weak, U21 is very weak and G18 is also weak (and would not reach indoors). So L18 at max power would also not work.
Hence, the only option (apart from a new mast) is L08, and 5MHz of it isn't enough (unless all surrounding masts get L08, to try and put a bit more capacity in the area).


I suppose so. I really don't get why Three launched L08/Supervoice the way they did? Surely waiting until all sites were wired and ready for L08, then doing a big launch of all L08 sites on high power, would be better? That way there'd be more sites in a given area giving more capacity. And why they prioritised 4G L08 below 3G is beyond me... L08 would work much better indoors than U21!
And wouldn't the call drop if you had to switch from U21 to L08 during a phone call?

I've connected to EE 800MHz from Surrey to Devon, Guildford, Hull, Liverpool, East Yorkshire etc. I've discovered 61 EE B20 masts on cellmapper just while travelling around the place. I reckon the mast side of things is pretty much complete.

There's also a number of them live in the north east.

That means included data roaming and higher 4G speeds on SIM only plans ?

I am not sure why they took so long to launch 800, and did it so half arsed. Of course, they promote it for voice primarily, and have prioritised it below 3G so I guess they did that so people would get faster data speeds on 3G and only fall to 4G 800 as a last resort.

Problem is, as we all know, with cell breathing 3G can be near useless these days. And you're kept on an unusable 3G service too long before going to 800 4G.

If they're playing around with settings (like I saw VoLTE on 1800 in Windsor a few months back and there are growing reports of this happening elsewhere now) then maybe they'll strike a good balance, but they must surely add more 800 sites too?

I've had three lots of work done locally, the last date being yesterday (13th) so I wonder if they've done any work on 800 and VoLTE here? I've not seen any other changes/improvements but it's possible they're still working on it.