Originally Posted by lightspeed2398:
“EE are doing 800 on enough masts and they're able to see current demand and plan appropriately. It won't be breakneck speeds but with 1800 for a large percentage of the population providing the primary layer and the fact that its high power will hopefully mean that users won't all be at the cell edge should mean that it won't be too bad. It's half of Vo2's main layer at the end of the day with another layer on top providing primary coverage.
It's an easy solution in many ways as well if it becomes congested, they can upgrade/build another mast if the demand is there or they can use multi beam panels.”
They'll definitely have to put L08 on all of the masts that are closest to Eye, otherwise there won't be much coverage at all in that area. In most areas, you're right, 800 would be rarely used, due to L18 (and U21 for 3G phones), but in Eye, U21 is exceptionally weak... By the McDonalds nearest to Eye, on the A47, you're lucky to get -111dBm outdoors.
Even G18 doesn't seem to be that strong, according to the coverage map... and if the L18 power boost makes L18 and G18 have identical coverage, due to identical powers (alright coverage won't be exactly identical, but lets assume so for ease of calculations/complications etc), the L18 will have little to no indoor coverage even with the power boost (let alone now). The area of Eye that is closest to the CTIL mast, is also closest to the (much further away) EE/3 mast, so should fare better in getting L18... but unless a new mast is put up, I can foresee the area having weak L18 outdoors, and having to fall back to L08 for indoor reception.
And although L08 for EE is half of CTIL's base layer, in areas where L18 will be severely struggling, then there won't be a primary layer. It'll just be L08. And if the theoretical max for 5MHz of L08 is about 35Mbps (think I remember that being said somewhere here before), then most areas, you're going to be looking at 10-20Mbps, depending on the load, and just how much coverage in the area is relied upon L08 to fulfill. If all of the EE customers in Eye are using L08, you might be down to about 5-10Mbps, which isn't great for 4G in a large village/small town (most 3G sites do at least 5Mbps now).
Originally Posted by jonmorris:
“800 would only be used as a last resort (of the 4G bands) so loads should be balanced quite nicely. If you're in a basement or in the middle of the countryside, just having a signal and a reliable data flow will be more important than speed.”
I agree with you on how the priorities are set up, L26, then L18, then L08 (then U21 and G18, though L08 will reach a lot further than U21/G18) - but this isn't in the middle of the countryside. I agree that, if you're in the middle of nowhere, 4G800 is better than the current 2G1800 (or nothing), and speed won't be a priority (so long as you can get basic things done, which is about 2-5Mbps, all is good) - however, Eye has always been a rather poor spot for all providers, except O2 who has a mast closeby. The O2 mast has been upgraded to full CTIL UG09/L08 (possibly U21), though MBNL's nearest mast is quite a long way away. Hence L18 and U21 are very weak, and I can't imagine that G18 will be much better (certainly indoors!). In which case, you'll be relying on L08 when it's rolled out. And 5MHz of L08 might not be enough.
Who knows, when the 4G has been fully rolled out, and the power of L18 increased to match that of G18, there might be no problems. There might just about be enough signal to cover Eye Village with L18. But then again, it might not be sufficient, and L08 might be swamped if it's what most/all indoor devices are using. In which case, nothing short of a new mast will fix that.
