DS Forums

 
 

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


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 27-04-2016, 16:51
snappyleeds
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 10
EE Coverage map has just had an update, although not all tiles are loading at different zoom levels
snappyleeds is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 27-04-2016, 17:12
Broken Hope
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 314
The 4G Calling page has been updated

Belfast
Birmingham
Boston
Bristol
Cardiff
Darlington
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Grantham
Hatfield
Hereford
Hull
Leeds
Liverpool
London
Manchester
Newcastle
Plymouth
Redditch
Scunthorpe
Warwick

I'm still getting flakey VoLTE in Nottingham, was working all morning and even after work, went into a shopping centre which usually results in no service and no sign of VoLTE now.
Broken Hope is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-04-2016, 17:17
mrMick
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Cambridge
Posts: 1,259
EE Coverage map has just had an update, although not all tiles are loading at different zoom levels
Ah, so it has been. It's now showing the great big splurge of double speed 4G that covers me lol
mrMick is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-04-2016, 17:18
jonmorris
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: a land filled with trolls
Posts: 12,014
EE Coverage map has just had an update, although not all tiles are loading at different zoom levels
It's very annoying to see 4G+ showing on low zoom levels, and then disappear when you zoom in!
jonmorris is offline Follow this poster on Twitter   Reply With Quote
Old 27-04-2016, 17:32
packages
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 875
It's very annoying to see 4G+ showing on low zoom levels, and then disappear when you zoom in!
Yea mine appears, disappears then reappears!
packages is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-04-2016, 17:33
packages
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 875
The 4G Calling page has been updated

Belfast
Birmingham
Boston
Bristol
Cardiff
Darlington
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Grantham
Hatfield
Hereford
Hull
Leeds
Liverpool
London
Manchester
Newcastle
Plymouth
Redditch
Scunthorpe
Warwick

I'm still getting flakey VoLTE in Nottingham, was working all morning and even after work, went into a shopping centre which usually results in no service and no sign of VoLTE now.
Yep Hereford has been live for about 2 weeks now.
packages is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-04-2016, 17:38
packages
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 875
Has anyone worked out how they are rolling VoLTE out yet? (4G density, copying original 4g rollout maybe?)
packages is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-04-2016, 17:43
Broken Hope
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 314
Yep Hereford has been live for about 2 weeks now.
Fully live as in you can switch your phone to aeroplane mode and back again and it will pretty much immediately allow you to use VoLTE?

How long did it take from having VoLTE working sometimes, to being fully live?

Just wondering how long it takes from being sorta working to fully working.
Broken Hope is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-04-2016, 17:50
packages
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 875
Fully live as in you can switch your phone to aeroplane mode and back again and it will pretty much immediately allow you to use VoLTE?

How long did it take from having VoLTE working sometimes, to being fully live?

Just wondering how long it takes from being sorta working to fully working.
It went live on that day a couple of weeks ago (2 weeks ago on Tuesday I think when loads of others did around the UK), went off on Wednesday afternoon, then back on Thursday and never went off again. And yes works all the time virtually as soon as you connect to the mast.
packages is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-04-2016, 17:59
Broken Hope
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 314
It went live on that day a couple of weeks ago (2 weeks ago on Tuesday I think when loads of others did around the UK), went off on Wednesday afternoon, then back on Thursday and never went off again. And yes works all the time virtually as soon as you connect to the mast.
Nottingham was first enabled the same day, went off the day after and now it seems to be pot luck weather or not VoLTE will actually work, doesn't seem to be based on what mast your connected to as masts that were working fine this morning weren't working on my way home today.

I wonder why certain areas seem much easier to switch on than others.
Broken Hope is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-04-2016, 19:47
seatmad
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 35
It's just 4G going out of range. In a vast number of places 4g coverage is the same as the minimum footprint of 3G
I appreicate that but surely it should go from 5 bars and drop down till it has no signal. Not just go straight from 3 bars to 3g.

I see the opposite - hangs onto 0 bars of 4G (still 22mbps+ mind) for dear life rather than using the 3G signal box at work.

Anywhere else is either 4G or Edge.
No... mine clings to 4G for dear life before falling back to 3G. Which is great. Because if you're streaming data, and it drops to 3G, it won't go back to 4G until you stop using data.
I wish mine did that. As has been said even on 0 bars of 4g you still get decent speeds.
What phones are you all using?
seatmad is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-04-2016, 21:34
Minardi
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Midlands
Posts: 502
Does anyone else have it that there phone is quite keen to drop down to 3g. On 4g I never seem to have one or two bars. It was either shows 4 or 5 and then gos to 3g.

I'm pretty sure it's the network that set the handoff threshold so would there be any reason behind EE doing this?
Like others have posted, my Lumia hangs onto no bars of 4G and still provides data throughput!
Minardi is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-04-2016, 21:39
Minardi
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Midlands
Posts: 502
EE Coverage map has just had an update, although not all tiles are loading at different zoom levels
So it has! Flaky zoom present here too. Hopefully it will be fixed in time.

No new coverage at Donnington Park yet - was hoping for something in time for Download Festival in a few weeks. If bookey reads this - any news on CoWs at the festival this year?
Minardi is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-04-2016, 23:38
uno
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Leicestershire
Posts: 507
EE finally put a 4G mast in Market Harborough where I work back in March and since last week this mast has also been allowing VOLTE yet none or the nearby masts or towns have this enabled so just on this one random mast I presume as its so new it was easy to do.
uno is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-04-2016, 23:42
beans0ntoast
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 932
Does anyone else have it that there phone is quite keen to drop down to 3g. On 4g I never seem to have one or two bars. It was either shows 4 or 5 and then gos to 3g.

I'm pretty sure it's the network that set the handoff threshold so would there be any reason behind EE doing this?
Actually, it depends on the device that you are using. Different devices have different thresholds for dropping to 3G (or even 2G) - the EE network should allow you to use whatever the phone wants to use, regardless of signal strength.

For example, if you lock your phone to 4G only mode, you'll keep hold of 4G right until you lose signal, though at -130dBm you are really better off on something else, as throughput is going to be very low at such signal levels.

My Samsung Galaxy S4 does this when going from 3G to 2G; there are certain areas that have a very strong 2G, but a weak 3G, and the phone just jumps to 2G - why? 3G is still usable there and faster than 2G....

I also think on certain handsets, it depends on the signal levels of other technologies... for example, there's one place on the Midland Mainline (on the last 100GB SIM) whereby 4G was reasonably weak (1 bar) and 3G (from Orange, in fact) was strong, so the phone always jumped to Orange 3G. There was another point where 4G was at two bars, and there was a 3G mast very close by, so the phone went for the 3G. Though if 4G and 3G are both weak, the phone will either stay on 4G, or (stupidly) jump to EDGE/GPRS....

Has someone actually found a way to allow 3G and 4G on a Samsung S4 whilst blocking 2G? That would help a lot!

It's just 4G going out of range. In a vast number of places 4g coverage is the same as the minimum footprint of 3G
Yep, but in some cases it's the phone jumping to 3G (or 2G) too early, see above... And in a lot of places, 3G coverage will be more than it's minimum, due to it being a lightly loaded mast (so no cell breathing).

I see the opposite - hangs onto 0 bars of 4G (still 22mbps+ mind) for dear life rather than using the 3G signal box at work.

Anywhere else is either 4G or Edge.
That's strange, does your phone connect to 3G at all anywhere? Seems like it might be set to 2G.4G, if that is at all possible?

Though 22Mbps is still pretty good.

No... mine clings to 4G for dear life before falling back to 3G. Which is great. Because if you're streaming data, and it drops to 3G, it won't go back to 4G until you stop using data.
I once tried forcing LTE Only mode on my S4, to see how that performed up the Midland Mainline. It'd still work up to about -125dBm; after that, performance dropped off significantly. But I have found the same; 4G will drop to 3G, but 3G won't go back up to 4G unless there is no data running at all - which will mean either pausing the stream, or forcing 4G and probably dropping the stream.

Btw, I've now got my EE SIM up and running (switched from Virgin to EE), have already had my number ported across, and did a 4G test upstairs. 4G strength is showing as up to 2 bars/50%, though usually it was on 1 bar. Approx -105dBm - so not my local mast, but a more distant mast. It provides 18Mbps down and 10Mbps up (on 4G) - which is pretty good for the signal strength available. And although 18Mbps isn't much better than my local 3G mast (3G can be anywhere between 10 and 20 Mbps), the upload speed of 10Mbps is definitely worth having. As a comparison, 3G is about 2.5Mbps up in my area, and Virgin Media Wifi (30Mbps package) is 2Mbps upload, with a speed restriction kicking in after 750MB of uploading (and a further speed restriction at 1GB upload). Thank goodness I got the 16GB deal when it was on special offer!
beans0ntoast is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 27-04-2016, 23:45
beans0ntoast
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 932
EE finally put a 4G mast in Market Harborough where I work back in March and since last week this mast has also been allowing VOLTE yet none or the nearby masts or towns have this enabled so just on this one random mast I presume as its so new it was easy to do.
I wonder if any other Market Harborough masts have been done?

If I find any additional 4G coverage (since my last test, with a 100GB SIM), I'll be sure to update this thread
beans0ntoast is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-04-2016, 00:01
uno
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Leicestershire
Posts: 507
BeansOntoast- As far as I can make out they have just enabled one matst at the top of Kettering Road which looks down over the whole town. I have been into the centre and the one near the KFC is still 2G only,

The one by the Police station which is shared with Vodafone and Tetra is still 3G but has had backhaul upgrade as now 10-12 Mb speed down and finally the mast by the train station is still 3G with Sub 2mb speeds I expect this to be removed anyday now has never been upgraded. This is a strange one as it serves the train station which is very busy with all the commuters and lots of trains stopping here
uno is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-04-2016, 00:22
DevonBloke
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Totnes, Devon
Posts: 6,693
EE finally put a 4G mast in Market Harborough where I work back in March and since last week this mast has also been allowing VOLTE yet none or the nearby masts or towns have this enabled so just on this one random mast I presume as its so new it was easy to do.
See, what you need to do there is start a call on that mast and then move (handover) to other ones. The call will stay on VoLTE until you hang up. problem solved!
Oh alright then, not really but it's fun testing it!
haha
DevonBloke is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-04-2016, 00:24
d123
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 3,987
See, what you need to do there is start a call on that mast and then move (handover) to other ones. The call will stay on VoLTE until you hang up. problem solved!
Oh alright then, not really but it's fun testing it!
haha
Ooh, Devon is posting!! I thought someone must have broken your internet (or your fingers ).


Amd to stay on topic, I think all the masts in my area are now completely VoLTEtified, they can all start calls and hand over calls
d123 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-04-2016, 01:07
wrexham103.4
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 3,140
According to the coverage map my area, my street ! Is covered with his double speed 4G - well it's not , even outside there isn't any 4G
wrexham103.4 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-04-2016, 01:41
d123
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 3,987
Just found this help page for 4G Calling which lists the cities where it has been officially switched on:

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

Belfast
Birmingham
Boston
Bristol
Darlington
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Grantham
Hatfield
Hull
Leeds
London
Manchester
Newcastle
Redditch
Scunthorpe
Just noticed the list has been added to.

Belfast
Birmingham
Boston
Bristol
Cardiff
Darlington
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Grantham
Hatfield
Hereford
Hull
Leeds
Liverpool
London
Manchester
Newcastle
Plymouth
Redditch
Scunthorpe
Warwick
d123 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-04-2016, 08:14
beans0ntoast
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 932

Can confirm that 4G is available at Market Harborough train station. Speeds 33/15
Also a bit of 4G outside the station too,between mkt harborough and Leicester.

4G at wellingborough station is good as well. Speeds 80/10.
beans0ntoast is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-04-2016, 08:45
beans0ntoast
Inactive Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Posts: 932
BeansOntoast- As far as I can make out they have just enabled one matst at the top of Kettering Road which looks down over the whole town. I have been into the centre and the one near the KFC is still 2G only,

The one by the Police station which is shared with Vodafone and Tetra is still 3G but has had backhaul upgrade as now 10-12 Mb speed down and finally the mast by the train station is still 3G with Sub 2mb speeds I expect this to be removed anyday now has never been upgraded. This is a strange one as it serves the train station which is very busy with all the commuters and lots of trains stopping here
Thanks for the info. I've just found a bit of 4G at the train station, which I think is from the main mast. I can also connect to one of 2 masts for 3G, one is MBNL and is now 12Mbps (used to be slow), the one right next to the station is old Orange and 0.2Mbps. Still on copper backhaul I think. And still on HSPA instead of DC. Hoping it is upgraded!

4G in Kettering was good last time as well. This will be an awesome network!

Now all I need is some techie on here to tell me how to keep both LTE and WCDMA, whilst also ignoring GSM. This phone sometimes has a mind of its own when selecting network type!
beans0ntoast is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-04-2016, 08:50
packages
Forum Member
 
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 875
Can confirm that 4G is available at Market Harborough train station. Speeds 33/15
Also a bit of 4G outside the station too,between mkt harborough and Leicester.

4G at wellingborough station is good as well. Speeds 80/10.
So it has been upgraded!!
packages is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 28-04-2016, 08:54
kev
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: South Notts (Waltham TV TX)
Posts: 20,200
I wish mine did that. As has been said even on 0 bars of 4g you still get decent speeds.
What phones are you all using?
Sony Xperia Z5 Compact (I used to observe the same on my Z1 Compact too).

That's strange, does your phone connect to 3G at all anywhere? Seems like it might be set to 2G.4G, if that is at all possible?
In Nottingham and the surrounding areas no - however on the Midland Mainline and at my parents in Preston it's on 3G most of the time.

IME the places it's on 4G are the places that used to have 3G (back when I had a 3G phone on T-Mobile) and the places it's on Edge are where it used to be on the T-Mobile Orange network. That being said the places where it does fall back to Edge are shrinking by the week (Holme Pierpont Country Park, Cotgrave Country Park and the old RAF Newton base being noticeable areas of improvement).
kev is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 17:27.