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


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Old 25-06-2016, 13:31
Minardi
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Currently still having EE issues here. I've got onto CS and it's been raised as a fault. Now get no service in buildings where I used to at least get 2G, usually 4G. 4G building coverage is now 1 bar 3G or 2G. 4G outdoors is patchy. Phone usually reselects for 3G any time I try and use it. 3G is so congested you can't use it. Worst of all I can't make calls (nor can anyone up here!) that last more than about 30 seconds before the call drops. If you move the call drops. All in all a right mess. EE have passed it over to the network team to look into. I can't even use WiFi calling to make calls as my broadband and landline are down. Deep joy.
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Old 25-06-2016, 14:42
DevonBloke
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Thanks for explaining that, I figured 800 wouldn't be in every mast for EE. I'm glad to know it'll be more than the 4000ish already thought. As for 1800 powering up would that happen as 800 comes online? How would it affect P&G customers if they won't have access?


I'm guessing it would be in 3's best interest to rollout 800 on every mast as they simply don't have the capacity otherwise?
I'm just guessing it'll be more than the 4000 odd masts. EE haven't said anything about how they are going to get to 95%. Could be more existing sites, completely new sites or small cells perhaps like they started doing in Villages. I'm just speculating here. I have no idea.

We don't know when 800 is coming either but I assume soon-ish.
Once 800 is on then at some point in the future the 1800 power could be raised.
The only issue with doing that is that those with non VoLTE 4G handsets may find themselves very occasionally with a usable 4G signal but just outside the range of 2G for calls. I would imagine that wouldn't be too often though since the difference between 2G and 4G coverage will be small.
For PAYG customers the same (assuming they aren't ever getting access to VoLTE). They will continue to CSFB to a circuit switched layer.
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Old 25-06-2016, 15:21
jonmorris
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800 will surely be announced only when all the major handsets are ready to be supported. Bit of a PR nightmare otherwise.
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Old 25-06-2016, 15:48
Skippy2005
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800 will surely be announced only when all the major handsets are ready to be supported. Bit of a PR nightmare otherwise.
Doesn't mean to say iPhone users can't use it in the mean time. Not that I'm being greedy of anything
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Old 25-06-2016, 16:15
jonmorris
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True, but I think even 4G calling isn't being widely shouted about yet for much the same reason.
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Old 25-06-2016, 18:35
Skippy2005
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True, but I think even 4G calling isn't being widely shouted about yet for much the same reason.
Your right, the possible excitement of an 800 launch is too much to handle lol...
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Old 25-06-2016, 22:49
Pedro_C
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LG G4 Field test mode Just thought I would do a video with it being so useful for sniffing out 'hidden' mobile radio waves.
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Old 26-06-2016, 12:00
Skippy2005
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Hi just recorded my fastest ever speed on EE in the main shopping part of Wakefield, pretty impressive.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mshfv45whh...%2046.png?dl=0
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Old 26-06-2016, 12:54
matty1000kk
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EE 4G was running reasonably smoothly last night at the Lionel Richie concert at Colchester United Stadium. 16k+ people at this one.

Speeds were down to a couple of MBs at times so not your usual 4G experience but everything was loading and calls went through fine over 3G first time. 2600 4G on this mast I'm sure would have helped though and maybe one day will happen as it is still running the legacy 6 sector ex orange antenna array.
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Old 26-06-2016, 13:01
Minardi
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LG G4 Field test mode Just thought I would do a video with it being so useful for sniffing out 'hidden' mobile radio waves.
Fantastic - I've been looking for the code to get into field test mode on the G5, and swapping the model number (815) at the end for 850 gives me the same menus in the G5. Thanks again, been looking for that for ages!
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Old 26-06-2016, 13:03
Gigabit
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Fantastic - I've been looking for the code to get into field test mode on the G5, and swapping the model number (815) at the end for 850 gives me the same menus in the G5. Thanks again, been looking for that for ages!
Ah so confirmation the G5 supports band selection as well!
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Old 26-06-2016, 13:13
Minardi
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Ah so confirmation the G5 supports band selection as well!
Yes. Exact same menus as in Pedro's video. Have just used it in fact, proves no B7 or B20 where I am... yet.
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Old 26-06-2016, 16:07
DevonBloke
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True, but I think even 4G calling isn't being widely shouted about yet for much the same reason.
I don't think either will be shouted about at all. EE press release already stated that VoLTE would be fully on by the end of July. It's happened a month earlier of course.
800 I suspect won't be shouted about for precisely the reason you said in your previous post.
If they don't mention it they can turn it on tomorrow and there'd be no issues. Then just add handsets as you go.
They don't need to advertise it. User experience will do the job for them.
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Old 26-06-2016, 17:27
beans0ntoast
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LG G4 Field test mode Just thought I would do a video with it being so useful for sniffing out 'hidden' mobile radio waves.
Thanks - extremely helpful and informative video which may well confirm my next choice of phone if the Galaxy S4 of mine conks out!

Plus - it has that elusive LTE/WCDMA only mode that I require on this S4... no 2G for me thank you very much!
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Old 26-06-2016, 17:39
beans0ntoast
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And on a related note:

Went to Yelden, Bedfordshire, as they had a village fete on today. Took my S4 with me to test the network around that area (as well as for if I get any notifications). 3G was surprisingly strong, and 4G was present too. Looking on Sitefinder, there is a T-Mob/3/Orange mast, which is now used for EE 3G/4G and likely 3 3G (maybe 4G?).
Speeds were amazing - almost 90Mbps on 4G, and 3G at 27Mbps!
One of the fastest 4G results I've had, and by far the fastest 3G result!
Now that's what I call a success!

For comparison's sake, I just checked O2's coverage checker for Yelden and it said:
Patchy outdoors. Patchy indoors. Not good for mobile broadband.
Oh, poo!

And for Vodafone?
On a phone you can expect to be able to use email and internet on our 2G network.
Um... still misleading customers by describing 2G as 3G, eh? Anyway, that's a "No Service" for 3G/4G on Vodafone. Ouch!

Just proves that not many masts at 900MHz can be worse than more masts at 2100MHz.
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Old 26-06-2016, 18:54
ozz
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Thanks - extremely helpful and informative video which may well confirm my next choice of phone if the Galaxy S4 of mine conks out!

Plus - it has that elusive LTE/WCDMA only mode that I require on this S4... no 2G for me thank you very much!
I've locked down my Sony xperia z1 compact to 3G/4G mode now as I only use this for data services.

Static streaming over 4G is fine, if on the move you loose 4G and fall back on to 3G the phone never returns to 4G even though you can pass within metres of a 4G mast.
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Old 26-06-2016, 18:56
mrMick
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Stating 2G isn't misleading. It's stating you'll be on 2G. In many cases email and internet can run on that.
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Old 26-06-2016, 19:02
jonmorris
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It can on an upgraded site, but then you should have at least 3G too.

EDGE isn't too bad when it works.
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Old 26-06-2016, 19:35
beans0ntoast
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Stating 2G isn't misleading. It's stating you'll be on 2G. In many cases email and internet can run on that.
But the 2G coverage is on the 3G tab - which is wrong. How every other network has it, which is the correct way, is for the 2G tab to say only 2G coverage (indoor, outdoor, weak, limited etc); the 3G tab should only say the 3G coverage (again, indoors, outdoors, weak, nonexistent) and the 4G tab should show only the 4G coverage. The 3G tab shouldn't be showing 2G coverage.

And in any case, EDGE will not be sufficient for most Internet tasks. Basic web browsing on plain text pages (with virtually no additional content), possibly. Emails with little to no attachments? Quite possibly. But anything more than that, and EDGE is going to struggle. You're only going to get about 150kbit/s, which is virtually nothing. GPRS, at about 30kbit/s (commonly found on older, non upgraded masts) will be even worse and will barely load anything.
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Old 26-06-2016, 19:37
beans0ntoast
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It can on an upgraded site, but then you should have at least 3G too.

EDGE isn't too bad when it works.
On all modern day mobile sites, you really ought to have either 3G, or 4G, or ideally both.

I tried Giffgaff EDGE once (about a year ago) and it barely worked, even Tunein wouldn't work. And that was EDGE. So imagine what GPRS would have been like.
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Old 26-06-2016, 19:59
mrMick
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Depends on the stream bitrate, but i've had TuneIn working on EDGE. Might see how far I can push that though, lol
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Old 26-06-2016, 21:13
sills
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if on the move you loose 4G and fall back on to 3G the phone never returns to 4G even though you can pass within metres of a 4G mast.
All phones will do that, it won't go back to 4G while you are using data. Stop streaming and it will go back.
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Old 26-06-2016, 21:23
Minardi
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Thanks - extremely helpful and informative video which may well confirm my next choice of phone if the Galaxy S4 of mine conks out!

Plus - it has that elusive LTE/WCDMA only mode that I require on this S4... no 2G for me thank you very much!
I've set mine to LTE/GSM only to get rid of pesky 3G in the hope that it might partly fix the endless call drop problems I've had recently. Will report back on how it goes tomorrow. Would be nice to make a call of over 30 seconds.
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Old 26-06-2016, 22:26
blueacid
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And in any case, EDGE will not be sufficient for most Internet tasks. Basic web browsing on plain text pages (with virtually no additional content), possibly. Emails with little to no attachments? Quite possibly. But anything more than that, and EDGE is going to struggle. You're only going to get about 150kbit/s, which is virtually nothing. GPRS, at about 30kbit/s (commonly found on older, non upgraded masts) will be even worse and will barely load anything.
Perhaps it's better to say that much of the 2G data services are perhaps sufficient (ish) to background data. E.g. someone driving through the area whose navigation app is loading traffic information (few KB of data) or chat applications which only need a few hundred bytes per message - WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, iMessage and the such. Emails would probably transfer in the background; when my phone receives one I've no idea how long it spent downloading it. Similarly, hitting 'send' on an email buries it in the outbox, it might take 1 second or 10 minutes to send and I'd usually have no idea.

Interactive use would indeed be a likely frustrating experience - especially if the user has travelled to the 2G area from somewhere with decent 3G/4G and thus knows what is possible in other areas.

Granted, I write that from the standpoint of being on Three for the past 4 years. So I have not actually experienced 2G data in that time; in the areas their 2G fallback still exists it's only active for voice and SMS.
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Old 26-06-2016, 22:33
jonmorris
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Streaming would be painful on 2G, but you've described perfectly how 2G can work for many other things that aren't dependent on speed, but steady connectivity.

If a site has a slow backhaul, it will be as good as useless. If no data flows, you may get timeouts and errors - then your email won't be sent at all, sitting with an error in the outbox until you get back to 3G or 4G, or maybe when you get home and reconnect to Wi-Fi.

Such experiences are bad because by then you might actually have a problem if the email was important.

It's like when Orange suffered such congestion at one time, text messages would come through days later (a text being retried for transmission at ever increasing intervals, so eventually it may be many, many hours before it even attempts to re-send).

Thankfully I think with the drop in SMS usage and other network improvements, it's near impossible to have a text message fail to get delivered promptly.

But as I said, for most people (i.e. those who don't have a 2G only phone) once you get an upgraded site that delivers usable 2G, you'd be connected to it on 3G or 4G.
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