[nickgold]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Denco1

Wow, holy s***
What I do wonder though is whether the official launch will result in a power increase on most 800 sites, or whether it will just be a case of 800 sites appearing on the coverage checker for the first time, gradually building up to full power as the rollout continues.

I would have thought that EE currently have enough 800 sites to make a larger increase than 2% geographic coverage if they were all on full power, but maybe I'm overestimating the amount of 800 sites EE currently have.

I am also suprised by only 2% geographic increase. EE claim to have increased geographic coverage by 5% in the last 6 months with out any 800mhz.

[Synthetic42]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gigabit

And by "next week" are we meaning Monday at 12:01?

It'll be Tuesday or Wednesday.

Yeah the S7/E BTU Nougat rom will work as the S7/E is an approved device so if the handset supports it, the network will.

[Gigabit]

Is it possible they're starting low and then going to ramp it up very quickly? Perhaps even after a week they might have covered even more of the UK?

[packages]

Quote:

Originally Posted by WelshBluebird

So, I have a Galaxy S7 Edge bought elsewhere, unlocked running the BTU firmware. However I have installed the Nouget beta from Samsung which enables VoLTE. Does this mean 800Mhz will work for yet? Got a feeling the answer is either "no" or "no idea", but still curious!

Don't have a definite, but I would say yes it will work

[Gigabit]

The S7 isn't on the 4G Calling list, yet?

Edit: I really do hope the 5X/6P get added really soon. You can actually do band locking on those devices if you get root and install the engineering firmware. Not possible on the Pixel devices yet.

[packages]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gigabit

What do you know that we don't?

Honestly I know as much as you. It's just from hearing reports that the S7 unbranded is now working in beta so I would guess they are close to getting S6 working and Jon also mentioned a nexus phone working too in testing.

[biggy7]

Quote:

Originally Posted by WelshBluebird

So, I have a Galaxy S7 Edge bought elsewhere, unlocked running the BTU firmware. However I have installed the Nouget beta from Samsung which enables VoLTE. Does this mean 800Mhz will work for yet? Got a feeling the answer is either "no" or "no idea", but still curious!

ive seen 800Mhz on a BTU Sim free S7E on Nougat using a Three sim, so hopefully EE will allow it to

as you, i have VoLTE on EE 4G (1800Mhz LTE Band 3) on the S7E BTU

[Synthetic42]

As I said before, yes the S7 on BTU Nougat will work...

If a device has VoLTE, then it'll be able to access 800 as well.

[DevonBloke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickgold

I am also suprised by only 2% geographic increase. EE claim to have increased geographic coverage by 5% in the last 6 months with out any 800mhz.

The 2% will be due to the first lot of masts going live being mostly urban. That's the case here. So the initial switch on will have more impact on indoor rather than actual outdoor land area.
The rest will probably follow next year.

[DevonBloke]

Basically they would want to impact as many people as possible on initial switch on.
This makes a lot of sense.
What I find here is that the majority of sites wired up for 800 are the main ones covering a Town or urban area. Few of the proper rural sites are done yet.

[jonmorris]

Quote:

Originally Posted by packages

Finally EE, finally!!!

I would guess we may see a few more phones added to the 4G Calling list too next week.

I can think of one possible addition, which I saw yesterday under embargo, but otherwise the list is what will be available next week.

I also expect the Nexus 5X will be announced soon as that's apparently all working on test software, and (as I said elsewhere) once Huawei gets its software to work, you'll have the 6P, P9 and countless others added.

[jonmorris]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DevonBloke

The 2% will be due to the first lot of masts going live being mostly urban. That's the case here. So the initial switch on will have more impact on indoor rather than actual outdoor land area.
The rest will probably follow next year.

Makes sense when you think about it. It's going to make a real difference in towns and cities, where people want and demand data.

In rural areas, there's likely still 2G to fall back on. Hardly ideal, but you might argue that voice is more important there than data, and data can come in due course.

[jonmorris]

Quote:

Originally Posted by WelshBluebird

So, I have a Galaxy S7 Edge bought elsewhere, unlocked running the BTU firmware. However I have installed the Nouget beta from Samsung which enables VoLTE. Does this mean 800Mhz will work for yet? Got a feeling the answer is either "no" or "no idea", but still curious!

I suspect this will work fine. EE is putting immense pressure on manufacturers to add VoLTE support to ALL builds of firmware, so you won't need a phone supplied by EE.

As such, in the coming weeks/months, I'd hope many people will find they get an update that enables VoLTE. The same should apply for Three and others.

Huawei clearly still have issues with EE's network for whatever reason, but once that's fixed you should start seeing the list of compatible devices growing very quickly.

[Synthetic42]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonmorris

I can think of one possible addition, which I saw yesterday under embargo, but otherwise the list is what will be available next week.

Oneplus 3? It's been working for a while now but they've not official announced it.

[jonmorris]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Synthetic42

Oneplus 3? It's been working for a while now but they've not official announced it.

Yes, that's true. I guess the 3T too.

I wonder how often EE will update its list? It probably needs to be revised and reviewed on a monthly basis going forward.

[Synthetic42]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonmorris

Yes, that's true. I guess the 3T too.

I wonder how often EE will update its list? It probably needs to be revised and reviewed on a monthly basis going forward.

I'd say more often, if they're going to advertise this 800 service they're going to have to push more compatible devices for it to take off, and of course they need to keep the compatible list up to date

[_m]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickgold

I am also suprised by only 2% geographic increase. EE claim to have increased geographic coverage by 5% in the last 6 months with out any 800mhz.

You have to remember that 800 will make the biggest difference indoors where 1800 can't reach and that the geographic coverage metrics are outdoors so wouldn't be vastly affected by 800.

[_m]

Quote:

Originally Posted by WelshBluebird

So, I have a Galaxy S7 Edge bought elsewhere, unlocked running the BTU firmware. However I have installed the Nouget beta from Samsung which enables VoLTE. Does this mean 800Mhz will work for yet? Got a feeling the answer is either "no" or "no idea", but still curious!

As far as I'm aware, all phones with VoLTE access should have 800 access.

[Denco1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by _m

You have to remember that 800 will make the biggest difference indoors where 1800 can't reach and that the geographic coverage metrics are outdoors so wouldn't be vastly affected by 800.

But EE are currently at 70% geographic on 1800MHz, and 72% 800+1800. How do they expect to reach 90% by the end of 2017? Surely 800 must play a large part and it can't only be the 750 new sites, as most won't be built until 2018-2020.

[Stereo Steve]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonmorris

Makes sense when you think about it. It's going to make a real difference in towns and cities, where people want and demand data.

In rural areas, there's likely still 2G to fall back on. Hardly ideal, but you might argue that voice is more important there than data, and data can come in due course.

True that. We're all sheep shaggers out here so why would we need a decent data service? Most of us can't even spell innterwebs. Either that or we lean on gates with a piece of straw in our mouth and give incorrect directions to townies (OK, so we do that). Fact is if we want voice we go to VO2, the end. 3 seem to have managed to turn on 800 all over the South Hams. God knows if it works or not but on paper they have provided an alternative. EE better get them rural masts fired up soon or I'm going to stamp on the ground and make a face.

[jonmorris]

They will, but if you've limited resources and major issues in towns (and that can apply to rural villages too, especially those nice stone wall pubs and churches) then you might want to launch something with the biggest impact.

To have added 5000 square KMs, I assume they're not ALL in central London, Birmingham etc.

For EE to reach its target, it will no doubt have 800 on all sites eventually (or almost all) and all those legacy 2G sites will get 2G and 4G, plus 800 at full power.

The switch-on next week isn't it, and I really did think they'd hold off launching until next year - but it wouldn't make any difference either way to those who aren't yet covered.

[georgi_prodanov]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonmorris

They will, but if you've limited resources and major issues in towns (and that can apply to rural villages too, especially those nice stone wall pubs and churches) then you might want to launch something with the biggest impact.

To have added 5000 square KMs, I assume they're not ALL in central London, Birmingham etc.

For EE to reach its target, it will no doubt have 800 on all sites eventually (or almost all) and all those legacy 2G sites will get 2G and 4G, plus 800 at full power.

The switch-on next week isn't it, and I really did think they'd hold off launching until next year - but it wouldn't make any difference either way to those who aren't yet covered.

Yes but those who are covered 4G800 will benefit from it. EE can keep upgrading and adding new sites

[thecjgcjg]

Any updates on cross carrier HD Voice?

I've just had 2 phone calls with someone on O2, and it sounded much better than normal (That's not that difficult to do though, maybe a tin can or something).

Not quite the HD voice i'm used to with Facetime Audio or EE <-> EE. But a lot better than normal nonetheless.

It sounded very similar to using Facetime Audio on a slow connection with occasional stutter.

[GavinAshford]

In anticipation for the 800mhz 4g layer I thought I'd update the comparisson maps of the exising 4g frequencies.

1800
Green = 30th July 2016
Red = Today 18th Nov
http://gdurl.com/o3mG

2600
Grey = 30th July 2016
Red = Today 18th Nov
http://gdurl.com/lRoo

Finally comparisson of 2600 (red) vs 1800 (green) as they stand today (18th Nov)
http://gdurl.com/Yr9g

[jo_m1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GavinAshford

In anticipation for the 800mhz 4g layer I thought I'd update the comparisson maps of the exising 4g frequencies.

1800
Green = 30th July 2016
Red = Today 18th Nov
http://gdurl.com/o3mG

2600
Grey = 30th July 2016
Red = Today 18th Nov
http://gdurl.com/lRoo

Finally comparisson of 2600 (red) vs 1800 (green) as they stand today (18th Nov)
http://gdurl.com/Yr9g

Thank you very much!

Does an area with 2600 automatically have LTE-CA?