Well yeah, I see what you mean... When I had my first smartphone (a Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus), I didn't have a clue what G, E or H meant - nor did I know the differences between them all. I just expected the internet (and calls/texts) to work, which sometimes it wouldn't. Now, of course, I know why it wouldn't work, but that is 3 to 4 years afterwards... Many other people that I know also didn't know about 2G,3G,4G etc (until I told them, of course).

That kinda makes sense... if it was purely switched off, then people like me (and others) would lose access to certain services - particularly for those with 3G phones, or 2G phones. I know you said previously about 2G running on 15MHz in the future (aren't they on 25MHz now?), but when virtually everyone is using 4G for calls, I can see how both 2G and 3G would run on 5MHz each, just for compatibility with older devices. Speaking of, doesn't Vodafone/O2 just use 5MHz (or is it 10MHz?) for their current 3G900 services? As I heard from someone on here, that VO2 3G900 isn't yet DC-HSPA. Or am I totally wrong?

Thanks, though I thought that some (not many) masts went 2G/3G/4G for EE, but no Three access? In which case, would that be EE putting in the 3G, and not MBNL?


The two telegraph pole masts that I commented on earlier, are both reasonably close to a TM mast, but are positioned so that they would fill in a couple of coverage gaps/dips from the main TM masts. Certainly the Chelveston one, as Chelveston is in a bit of a dip, and not that great on 2G1800 or 3G2100. Don't know if VO2's 900 does any better.


Not a bad trick, I must say! Do iPhones not have a toggle for selecting 2G, 3G or 4G then? As I know that most Androids do, and that I've tried going to GSM only before (on my S4) and found a couple of Orange masts.
I thought that the Orange mast at Thorney, Cambs, was switched off, as there was an MBNL 2G/3G mast not that far away from it. Turned out, that forcing to 2G resulted in a very strong EDGE signal - so the Orange mast was still switched on.


Also, if you find one EE, and you don't find Three UK, then it's a likely indicator (though not certain) that the mast is an Orange mast, that is not integrated into the 3G MBNL share yet. Unless it's a 2G only area, in which case it could be TM 2G.


Thanks for posting that - very interesting as to how the temporary masts are set up for EE/3/Vodafone.
Highly contrasting though, in that EE/3 have dual band panels, so can do 2G/4G 1800 (potentially from both operators) and 3G 2100 from both operators. Yet Vodafone have gone for the separate panels approach, which is how they used to do the legacy masts.
What's more surprising is that VF decided not to put 3G900 on, when 3G2100 and 2G900 was already on the mast... and 2G1800? Would that be for capacity, as I don't see why there would be the need for 2G1800, when 2G900 is already there.
Oh, and legacy HSDPA 7.2? Can't see that breaking any speed records...


I've noticed this. On my S4 it gives a bars strength for emergency calls only. I don't know why though, as you can't actually do anything with an "emergency calls" signal, except for ring the emergency services (obviously).
I take it, that for dialling emergency services, if your home operator is unavailable (so EE in my case), the call has to go through any network that is available at the time? Meaning that, if the only thing available from any operator was 2G/3G 900, the emergency call would have to go through the VO2 network?

Yes, if your phone has any coverage from any network you can call the emergency services through it. However, despite phones claiming "emergency calls only" since the mid-90s, this was only enabled relatively recently in the UK.

The difference is that on every other Android phone I have had, "no service" (meaning no coverage whatsoever on any network) and "emergency calls only" have had the same no-network icon.

On the Samsungs, when there is coverage from another provider, but not yours, ("emergency calls only"), it shows the strength of the random other network that it's picking up. And the phono app even shows you the network that it is using. But it's really no use to anybody, and since Android has removed the network name from the home screen, it gives the misleading impression of having coverage when you don't.

No - MBNL always handles the 3G upgrade. Sometimes it takes a little time for 3 to appear, but if EE have requested 3G to be added to a mast recently, 3 will get access to it.

Went hiking yesterday up Mam Tor and the peaks nearby, was surprised to get a decent 4G signal and speediest of around 23Mb/s not sure if it was 1800 or 800 and didn't think to check at the time.

TL:UC

Please forgive me for not knowing what tl,uc means... Too long, (don't know what the other bit is)

I prefer using the multi quote so that I'm not making unnecessary posts.

You need the iPhone 7 girlfriend app from the other thread. Seriously. Spend some time on something else.

Experimented with my android phone in LTE mode only today with some interesting results.

In the office, with the phone set to auto 4G(preferred)/WCDMA/GSM, there is no 4G, poor 3G but very good 2G.

Going into the phone test mode and setting LTE only I now get indoor 4G reception in the office. The signal is admittedly not very good but still managing a reasonable speed:

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/1970589519 15.79Mb/s down 1.04Mb/s Up @ -126dBm

This is still better than the 3G signal it latches onto by default in the office:

http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/a/1970563241 2.78Mb/s Down 0.97Mb/s Up @ -105dBm

Outdoors the 4G signal is -112dBm which I get 30/10 Mb/s on my BT SIM.

What is the threshold for 4G going down to 3G? Seems like the handset or network is overly keen to bump you down to 3G even though a weak but usable 4G signal is available.

In LTE only mode the EE coverage map does appear to be accurate

I presumed he meant tl;dr, it's the nearest abbreviation I could think of.

Yeah, that makes sense and I know what that means anyway.

In regards to the post that @ozz made, before a mast close to me went 4G, I used to get a very weak, like -125 or so dbm, signal and the download speed wasn't that bad, about 18Mbps. Now, the 4G signal is 50%, or 2 bars, or about -100dbm. Speed can be up to 30Mbps and upload is remarkably better, now above 10mbps.

Also, rather than using the local 3G mast, the phone now goes for the weaker 4G signal. Previously, it went to 3G as the 4G was too weak to be reliable.

Though, in ozz's situation, at -105 3G, -126 4G, and strong 2G, there's no prizes for guessing what the S4 would choose as default!

Just my recent observations to throw out there whilst I've been travelling with work.

EE 3G in Melton Mowbray quite weak... A couple of 234-30 masts it seems cover the whole town, but a whole host of ex-Orange ones (234-33) are still alive and kicking and mostly users are chucked back onto them the minute they try and use data/call anyone.

Three users also have full access across town to the Orange 2G service, and again because of their poor network in this area, they are regularly shunted onto these masts (no data )

Wonder why there's been so little evident in investment in this area?

Travelling between around the Waltham area down the A607 towards Grantham, the coverage is mainly Orange 2G until around the Denton/Harlaxton area which is about 7 miles. As soon as Grantham is in site 4G kicks in.

Should get 3G from the Waltham TV mast and 3G/4G from a site at Croxton Kerrial. Not sure if the MIP mast at Woolsthorpe would reach over to the A607.

No 4G in Melton which means no mast integration has taken place yet so you do go back and forth between network codes. I Think Melton hasn't got 4G on any network yet.

Out towards Asfordby and Six Hills most masts have been 4Ged indeed EE is the only network to maintain signal over the the A6006 Shoby wolds section.

Drove out to Peterborough via Melton earlier in the year. Tune in was fine from home, across country onto the A607 but as you get close to Melton it drops and there was no way of picking the stream up again in the town. Coverage is, as you say, very poor. Once I got about halfway to Oakham it was fine again all the way to Peterborough. Three was just the same 2 years ago too!

Nope, it's my own special creation. Too long, usual crap.

Ah, ok, that's quite novel. I might even use it myself in the future .

iPhones above iOS 9.2 (I think, someone correct me) no longer allow you to select just 2G. It's 2G/3G or 2G/3G/4G.

Yeah one of the commenters on the YouTube video picked up on that as well, spotify95 I think his/her name was. Used to be around here but got a permaban and tried to submit a petition to the government to get unbanned. I often wonder if like other people who got banned like Wavejock if they made an account and came back.

But yeah 7.2 is a bit slow really, maybe when they find a better place for the new mast they'll upgrade it.

Haha, nice saying there...

Btw, it looks like everyone in my area has gone to sleep... 32.78 down and 13.56 up on EE 4G with a strength of -105dBm (47%). Not bad!

OMG, did they really do that? Don't think the government would be interested in the slightest!

Yeah, hopefully the plan will be to CTIL the mast, when the new mast is put in... that will give O2 better coverage in the area, as well as giving 4G to the area, and more modern 3G. The last time I saw HSDPA 7.2Mbit/s was an old Orange mast in Oundle, Northamptonshire, which I believe is still switched on. Used to give around 2Mbit/s. Nowadays, whenever I pass that area, my phone seems to ignore the Orange mast, and stay on the MBNL 3G, which is DC-HSPA+ (I think).

There have been two masts there for a while, one legacy Vodafone and the larger one CTIL and MBNL.

Pedro visited it today and MBNL have upgraded to dual band Kathreins doing 1800MHz 4G for EE at over 30Mbps and likely Three 4G in the future.

It depends on the operator too. I could set my iPhone to 2G only with O2, but it disappeared when I moved to EE.

Well I made a call on my IPhone this morning and the signal stayed on 4G. So VOLTE has rolled out to Haverhill in Suffolk.

Sorry if this has been asked already. Which phones on EE apart from the IPhone support VOLTE ?

At the moment the official list is:

* Apple iPhone 6, 6 Plus, 6S, 6S Plus or SE
* Microsoft Lumia 550, 650, 950, 950XL
* Blackberry Priv - bought directly from EE in one of our stores, online at ee.co.uk, or through our telesales team

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

Sheffield is on the list of supported locations for VoLTE but it's still not working here. It has previously worked twice for a few days, but now stopped again. Wifi handover works, though.