Unfortunately you must be unaware that all EE threads on DS are run like the north Korean public information ministry...
Negative or unflattering views are not allowed!
Should you continue with these outbursts you will find your phone account transferred to The People's Network!

Have the people's network managed to roll out 800 yet? If so, EE suck a fat one.

I find it quite funny how un-clued up EE customer service & stores are on 800MHZ.... I wasn't expecting much from an EE store to be honest, more so wanted to test their knowledge. I mentioned about 800MHZ spectrum and the guy in the EE store looked blankly....'Whats that?' haha. EE Customer service & tech team are very similar too.

Surely they should be made to read their companies own press releases....if you aren't into a company; don't work for them lol.

Interestingly I got through to second line tech team who had to call over someone senior to ask about the 800 MHZ spectrum rollout (I'm trying to find out whether its live on any masts near me).... the senior advisor on the tech team floor advised that '800MHZ is only being rolled out in London gradually at the moment; to iron out issues before going live'.

Believe from that what you want; however that completely contradicts the EE press statement if correct; unless the provisioning of mobile phone accounts are being done in London first. I would take a guess the 'senior advisor' thought I was asking about 4G+ rollout.

I'll just continue to assume nobody at EE knows anything about their network; unless they are field technicians or on the executive board.

I went in to the Welwyn Garden City store this morning and asked if they'd heard anything about 800. The lady in the shop was actually down from head office to help, but didn't know herself and went to ask.

The guy who came out (who I've spoken to many times before) couldn't say when, other than it was turned on November 22nd, and that it should be live right now. He also confirmed that there aren't any 800 sites locally.

So some shop staff do know. I guess it's up to whether they take an interest in things, as they'll have had bulletins. As part of the launch, stores were being given advice on how to sell 4G calling (or at least explain it to customers).

I wouldn't expect them to be. I'm surprised enough that they know what anyone is talking about - most networks you will get someone running off a script overseas who will at best say "you only have 800 meg then you need to delete some things from your phone"

Haven't seen any 800Mhz anywhere in central London. Blackspots remain blackspots.

Hmmmmm I wonder if EE are having VOLTE issues hence the 800 4G delay. I now have a VOLTE device (Pixel) and I've not had many issues myself. I just checked the GFs iPhone 6S plus and it was set to data only for 4G. I changed it to voice and data and now VOLTE is working however 2 of the 4 calls failed almost straight away. I think maybe it was trying to switch back to 3G but failing as 4G reception is not the best here.

Anyone else noticed any issues?

I've had a few issues with my Pixel recently, but this over 1800 so nothing to do with 800

The guy I spoke to today was the same. It took me about half an hour to explain him what was 4G800 and 4G1800 band 20 and band 3. He had no idea what I was talking about. Different one I spoke to on Saturday yes he new a lot of stuff. But unfortunately I can not speak to the same person every time I call. So ended up with my sim card being faulty or my phone or the mast hahah. They need to monitor for 48h the mast/network/my account (that is what he told me)

Maybe it could suggested for his account to never be provisioned.. This may curb obsession, over enthusiasm and make everyone toe the line... Welcome to 2016.

Back on topic...

I'm assuming the 800MHz activation will be all devices at once? Not just limited to the iPhone say.

Will the 800 provisioning require new carrier settings on the iPhone / how will users know their accounts have been set up? The current carrier settings on my phone is EE 26.0 - does anyone have a more recent version?

No it's all done on EE's side

I have 27 on the iOS beta public profile. Think it's all about "provisioning" rather than carrier settings though.

Look folks, if it's anything like Wifi calling it won't happen properly for 6 months or more so I suggest chill out. It's probably not the easiest thing to roll out and I'm sure that EE engineers are on the phone to EVERY OTHER network in the UK which has 8004G working as we speak. Mostly asking them which colour wires go where and what are those big towery things with dishes and panels on.

It'll happen and when it does it will probably be better than those other networks for a while at least.

I think by the end of 2018 we are going to have a much better choice of mobile services around the UK. Like an actual choice, not just the least crap in your area.

Good because currently EE is the only sensible choice out here in the Lakes if you want to have data and still decent voice coverage. Vodafone is better for voice coverage but is literally voice only outside of town centres (nothing works on 2G data any more, it's too slow and whatever you try times out) and even some small towns/villages are still on 2G. O2 is the same but with the worst 2G coverage of the lot (including EE) so is basically useless. Three has excellent 3G coverage (same as EE's) but has shut down 2G fallback in places where they think it's good enough (they're wrong). Literally the only network you would ever want around here is EE unless you're on a tight budget or are one of these "I only use a £5 phone for calling and texting" people (i.e. a luddite)

Same down here in Devon really. I got around it with dual SIM (VOD for calls, 3 for data) which did work fairly well but you are then limited on phones etc. EE is the only realistic compromise if you want decent calls and data but your phone will still not ring in places where VO2 will. Then there is 3 who have to be fair rolled out a lot of 4G800 down here. Problem is they have put it at such a low priority that most phones dip in and out of 3G and never really hook up to it. So it's rubbish and a waste of time. Oh well.

I signed up to EE for 2 years assuming that 800 would solve all these frustrations and after that had run it's course, VO2 might have bothered to get some actual rural coverage down here to compete. But alas, we wait and we wait and we wait.

Not really having a go at EE, it's just a shame that all the networks are so ****ing useless.

Ditto!

OnePlus 3 (dual SIM), O2 as primary SIM as I get 4G/800 in buildings at work (whereas 3UK/EE, zilch/nada,nowt) and a 3UK SIM secondary for data when O2 has inevitably dropped back to 2G anywhere outside of a big town.

I was really hoping that EE would come up trumps with 4G/800+VoLTE.

It does seem to me that 4G was a mare from the very beginning, no voice services out of the can. I guess this is where operators are now feeling a mass of pain with integrating VoLTE :-O

For now, I think Dual-SIM is my best option.

Was probably mine too but I jumped to EE as 800 was supposed to be soon. Now spending a lot of money for a poorer service. Live and learn. At least wifi calling is good. I suspect that now BT have bought EE it will all go down the toilet anyway.

LTE was late coming and then was incomplete when it did.
VoLTE should have been available from the start with all devices supporting it although that would have delayed it another 5 years probably.
If it had launched with voice then EE wouldn't have had to be running the 4G1800 on a low power for the last 4 years. 2G and 3G would have all but disappeared for most people now and that would have accelerated the refarming of other spectrum to 4G.
Three could have had their 1800 on full power reaching further than 3G and then the 800 wouldn't have to be restricted like it is.
VO2 would also not have to have their 10MHz of 800 on a lower power either nor would they have to be rolling out 3G900 underneath it.

LTE was one mammoth **** up!

Great summary and the last line could not be more appropriate

Yes, but if VoLTE is still causing problems, there's no way anyone would have ever made us wait until 2017 to get 4G. Can you imagine using Vodafone and O2 3G sites in towns and rural areas today?!

Perhaps, however what if they all turned around and said "we won't adopt 4G unless it has a proven voice layer" or not at all.

Would they have then been concentrating on proper 2G/3G rollout with future-proofing built in, 4G/5G enablement at a flick of a switch. Increased power perhaps (no 4G footprint to worry about) so that 2G/3G was a lot better. Along with a bit of Ofcom pressure, perhaps it may have actually allowed for a more concentrated advancement of existing technologies vs. pushing out incomplete tech that leads to years of firefighting?

All very well having the fastest but it ain't a lot of good if you don't get the penetration and cannot make simple phone calls, reliably. A good 5-10mbps 3G connection will stream HD and give you voice.

I know there are certain limitations with 2G/3G but really, they all could have done a lot better with it.

In rural areas I don't think you need to imagine, it is still 2G and 3G in so many rural areas.

Yeah, Jon, kinda with Thine on this one.
Up until about now 3G/4G on VF hasn't actually been a thing here at all.
Most areas here still GPRS. 3G/4G is starting to happen but where I live is VF 2G and Totnes the main hub of south Devon is VF 2G. O2 have U21 in Totnes but the backhaul is from 1972 so no data basically!