Oh good lord, that weird monument mast is still providing a nice coverage gap for 3G handsets, as well as anyone on Three!

These weird masts, like the A11 monument mast, is the reason why every single 4G capable phone should have an LTE/WCDMA setting in them, so if you're like me and want maximum data reliability at reasonable speeds (150kbps on EDGE opr 30kbps on GPRS is NOT classed as reasonable!), you can lose the 3G from the previous mast and then pick up the 4G from the weird mast.

Or, just do the sensible thing and include 3G and 4G from the start!

I still can't believe that EE would do such a thing in an area where there is no 3G at all... I mean, if it is a mast for capacity, then of course make it 4G only (i.e. no 3G) but if it is for raw coverage, in the case of the weird monument mast, 3G and 4G are a must!

3G phones are still being sold and are not obsolete yet!

Good lord , give it a rest about 3g , seriously its had its day ee clearly went to focus on 4g!

That's a diplexor cab; it has combiners for the 1800/2100 in it which frees space in the other cabs.

Is your Orange telegraph pole mast just as bad as meirion_jones1's telegraph pole mast, in terms of trees? Or is it slightly better? I'm just wondering if the power levels are set for these masts just to be fill in masts (with smaller coverage), or whether the trees are severely limiting the power and coverage.

Most of these tend to be G18 only... which needs upgrading to modern day U21/L18, if they are still in operation!

Whilst not caring about anyone on Virgin Mobile (Virgin Mobile don't have 4G access), not caring for anyone who doesn't have a 4G phone, or not caring for anyone on Three via the MBNL mast share agreement!

Since this is also a coverage hole for Three, I'm hoping that one day in the future Three will want access to the mast to have their 3G/4G on... then EE will HAVE to fit 3G!

This isn't a thread for three or virgin mobile though.

It's not 'not caring' for x person, it's not wanting to waste resources on a legacy technology.

OK, I took a look. There are now 3 cabs (there were 2 last week). Using your website pics, one of the existing ones is a Huawei BTS 3900A in grey, and the other one I can't identify. If you look at this https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.80...7i13312!8i6656 the one on the left is the one I can't identify. The one on the right was replaced with the Huawei earlier this year.
The new cabinet is an Alifabs Pagona cabinet which is to the right of the Huawei. Would I be correct in assuming that this is for Three 4G and that the Huawei is the EE 2 and 4G cabinet? If the new one IS for Three, then it is interesting that the work was listed on the roadworks website as T-Mobile.

The fact Virgin Mobile doesn't have access to 4G (except for business customers i believe) is a problem of their own doing, though.

I'm not at all educated on this stuff, but maybe it's an MBNL thing. That is perhaps a former T-Mobile site so any work on that site is attributed to them?

EE aren't going to fit 3G for the benefit of a few MVNO users though, and as has been said time and time again, when it's time to shut down the 3G you should be on a 4G phone. You don't even necessarily need VoLTE, if EE is planning to keep the 2G running for eternity

It's far more likely that Virgin users will get 4G and VoLTE in due course. BT users have 4G but no VoLTE as I understand it

But Virgin Mobile use EE's network so their customers should also be given consideration. And I'm sure that VM mobile can be included here as they use EE's network.

Your beginning to ruin this thread..

Possible BT Mobile will get VoLTE and WiFi Calling before other MVNOs, since BT own EE. Speculative thought of course...

Moreover, the MBNL agreement does not dictate that because one MNO has/doesn't have one technology, the other MNO has to/can't have it. There are sites where EE have G18, U21, L08, and L18 and have room on the panels and floorspace for the cabs for Three to have L08 and L18 but instead only have U21. There are also sites where EE have G18, U21, L18, and L26 while Three are not present at all.

The branches of the trees swamp it you can see a little bit of it. The cabin is pretty much hidden by nettles weeds and climbers area covers about 4000 population. Really needed to be a proper mast but conservation area, area outstanding natural beauty and opposition this is what we got.

Left one looks a bit like an RBS 3107.
The Huawei will be EE 2G/4G 1800MHz yes.
The Pagona will be carrying 3 4G 1800.

Oh, so I guess its another example of the trees getting in the way of things! Hopefully things will get upgraded eventually, but as you said in a conservation area it's a case of what is, and isn't, allowed in the area.

I'll have to check my local Orange Telegraph Pole mast to see (a) if it's still broadcasting G18, and (b) what the coverage of it is! Hopefully more than 700m, otherwise we know that telegraph poles are always ran at a low power.

edit: According to sitefinder, the orange telegraph pole nearest to me was broadcasting at 22dBW - maximum power allowed was 32dBW - maybe it is broadcasting at low power.

Sitefinder is so far out of date it's likely not worth looking at lol

Sorry to have to bring up a location-specific issue again, but EE-TS got back to me tonight on my "can't make/receive any calls on Orange 3G" issue. It was a voicemail left after a missed call, and I'm not sure what to make of it.

So the symptoms I'm having, others may be able to help shed some light. This is all since the morning of June 21st, but two Orange-3G phones in the house ever since then..

if you're on 2G, there is no problem. If you're on a 3G site that's ID'd as "T-Mobile" all is fine, but if you're on a 3G site ID'ing as "Orange./EE" then incoming and outgoing calls are failing - regardless of time of day or number dialled. Incoming calls don't even go to voicemail, they get triple tones or the call just drops at the other end. Data just times out, texts usually work out but have odd moments of just getting stuck and sending/receiving a few minuutes later when you toggle flight mode or presumably change Cell IDs and do a location update.

On my main phone I can force 2G-only and so this is just a pain - on my wife's phone you can't and so this renders the phone nigh-on-useless at home (it doesn't have WiFi calling, but even if it did...). I've hunted round for any apps that would identify the offending CellID, but can't find one and even then I'm not sure what good it would do.

After 2 weeks of nagging them, CS have now said (in an answerphone) this is not a fault but is congestion caused by increased usage over summer. Words just fail me, but I'm not sure where to go next - if this had happened over time, then I could partly understand it - but it was literally overnight. Only this afternoon I posted a letter to EE complaints about the problems.

Sorry for the long post, I'm literally running out of ideas but seem to reaching the end of the road with CS/TS.

Though having said that, some of these old Orange telegraph poles may be quite out of date too, as in they haven't been upgraded since Sitefinder stopped updating the masts locations/powers etc.

Definitely need to try and find out what's going on with these telegraph poles... if my closest one is still broadcasting, that is!

Useful for getting a rough idea of where a site might be, but definitely don't trust it for accurate information

So go and start a thread about the wonders of Virgin and 3G and do as everyone else asks and leave this thread for discussion on EE and it's current rollout...

Briefly connected to some 800mhz today, checked the Serving Layer Priority in Field Test Mode where it was 0. First time I've seen that, every other time I've connected to it another place it was set to 4.

Maybe it might be that EE are testing L08 on that mast, rather than allowing everyone to jump on it - as normally L08 would have a priority above that of U21 and G18?

Or am I totally wrong?