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Mobile Phone Predictions for 2017


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Old 25-12-2016, 22:12
lightspeed2398
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Bit of a tradition on here I think, I just went over mine for 2016 and I'm giving myself a B for how well I did. Thread here for the curious

2016 has been a bit of a fun year. Mergers allowed and blocked, new fun network technologies and 4G networks on perhaps 3 out of 4 networks beginning to fully take shape.

Looking forward to 2017 I wonder if anyone on here will be brave enough to step forward and predict the future.

Happy new year all no matter what happens
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Old 25-12-2016, 22:33
_m
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EE: Continue with 2600 and 2600-c2/3CA in more places, possibly signs of 4x4 and magic like that, more 800 being enabled and 1800 rollout nearing completion. (and a lot of ESN stress)

VF: Continue with 800 rollout and near completion, widespread L21, more L26 in high load areas - possibly similar to current L21, and capacity over in the East in some way.

O2: Continue with 800 rollout and near completion, widespread L18, some L21 in high load areas - possibly similar to current L18, and capacity over in the West in some way.

Three: Find some chocolate behind the sofa, eat it, then get the crayons out again. May invest in some rainbow crayons with unicorn pictures on the sides.
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Old 25-12-2016, 22:44
clewsy
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O2 and VF to reach nearly all areas with 3g/4g

Three to hold up any future sales of frequencies or takeovers claiming all is unfair.

Sky mobile to offer some silly prices to existing sky customers and have some success, however not set the world on fire.

Ee / BT / plusnet to increase prices over the year and probably match sky with their own version of the deal.

Nothing too wild and exciting on the phone development or network front
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Old 25-12-2016, 22:51
jonmorris
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Loving these predictions so far!
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Old 25-12-2016, 22:51
Gigabit
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Hopefully much more extensive and robust coverage with a wide 800MHz rollout from Vodafone and EE.

Three and O2 I think will do very little.
Well I'm not very good at predictions so I'm just going to say EE will roll out some 800 and leave it at that
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Old 27-12-2016, 15:32
CheshireBumpkin
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I can't really comment as it would give too much away, but some of you are quite close to my view of the world. Expect something in Q2-ish that no one has yet mentioned.
Anyone any idea what this was that Bookey referred to last year? I don't recall anything unexpected or of particular note being launched?
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Old 27-12-2016, 17:05
tghe-retford
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Price rises for sub £500 phones as Google tightens its control on Android in its continuing pursuit to compete with Apple after the collapse of Cyanogenmod and uncertainty regarding LineageOS pushes phone developers to Google, reducing updates, dropping older handsets earlier than planned (Lenovo did this with the Moto G range earlier this year) and having to raise prices as a result.
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Old 28-12-2016, 20:23
Aaron_McGowan
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I don't know what to predict; however I will guess a few things:

2100MHz across all operators will either slowly or completely be refarmed to 4G.
EE will leave some 2100MHz 3G whilst refarming some to 4G.
O2/Vodafone will refarm the lot as they have 900MHz for 3G. (O2 in particular as they don't have a lot of capacity in the 1800MHz band and they have no 2600MHz.)
Don't know what Three will do!

EE will stop selling non-VoLTE phones and will focus on filling in coverage not-spots with 800MHz/VoLTE, whilst also updating more devices to work with VoLTE ahead of a 4G 1800MHz power increase (to keep it at roughly the same coverage levels as 2G).

O2 and Vodafone will improve rural coverage even more with 3G and 4G at 800MHz/900MHz. Might even beat EE for rural coverage if they can upgrade the legacy masts and/or put new masts in.

Goodness knows what Three will do... If I'm being optimistic, they will attempt at rolling out more 1800MHz 4G, like what EE are doing. If not, they might do nowt. Hoping that the priority of 800MHz 4G is raised above that of 3G, to boost real-world coverage.

O2 may give Giffgaff some more capacity on their network so that speeds on Giffgaff are more than about 1-2Mbps during the daytime.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 will come out without a headphone jack, copying Apple with the iPhone 7's lack of a headphone jack - so sales will fall and people will go towards other manufacturers or the Galaxy S7/S7 Edge.
Apple will do something with the iPhone 8 - though don't know what.

Let's see if any of that is correct!
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Old 28-12-2016, 22:10
DavidGover
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I don't think there will be any exciting progress in either phones or networks for 2017, just the usual incremental upgrades for phones and slowly increasing 4G coverage for all networks (along with 3G coverage for O2 and Vodafone).
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Old 28-12-2016, 23:22
jonmorris
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Three will continue to use social media to get the public to bombard Ofcom so they can somehow be gifted more spectrum, as against bidding for it like anyone else.

This will coincide with a nationwide investment of upgrade work to existing sites, each with 'Ask Sharon' stickers and hashtags being applied to cabinets.

People indoors can then download and print their own posters at home, thus increasing coverage for their campaign further. Businesses will be invited to take part too.
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Old 29-12-2016, 08:16
clewsy
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Three will continue to use social media to get the public to bombard Ofcom so they can somehow be gifted more spectrum, as against bidding for it like anyone else.

This will coincide with a nationwide investment of upgrade work to existing sites, each with 'Ask Sharon' stickers and hashtags being applied to cabinets.

People indoors can then download and print their own posters at home, thus increasing coverage for their campaign further. Businesses will be invited to take part too.
In fairness thst can't be going well as you never see it mentioned or talked about at all. It's just a total waste of their time and money really.
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Old 29-12-2016, 08:55
jonmorris
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A fair few bloggers and 'social influencers' re-tweeted their campaign, so they got a few days of coverage - but I doubt the average consumer understands things at all.

Believe it or not, they even sent me a kit but I couldn't really endorse a campaign I don't believe in. I am sure Three will once again be upset with me, but blaming BT/EE for their woes is a bit desperate if you ask me.

https://goo.gl/photos/XiD2uanuiCUVFt9m9

I really don't get the cap. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is going to wear it. Can't even give it to my son to wear. A total waste of money.
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Old 29-12-2016, 10:50
CheshireBumpkin
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A fair few bloggers and 'social influencers' re-tweeted their campaign, so they got a few days of coverage - but I doubt the average consumer understands things at all.

Believe it or not, they even sent me a kit but I couldn't really endorse a campaign I don't believe in. I am sure Three will once again be upset with me, but blaming BT/EE for their woes is a bit desperate if you ask me.

https://goo.gl/photos/XiD2uanuiCUVFt9m9

I really don't get the cap. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is going to wear it. Can't even give it to my son to wear. A total waste of money.
They seem to spend more on this misguided campaign and others than they do on the network. Or, god forbid, actual spectrum they could make use of.
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Old 29-12-2016, 11:07
clewsy
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A fair few bloggers and 'social influencers' re-tweeted their campaign, so they got a few days of coverage - but I doubt the average consumer understands things at all.

Believe it or not, they even sent me a kit but I couldn't really endorse a campaign I don't believe in. I am sure Three will once again be upset with me, but blaming BT/EE for their woes is a bit desperate if you ask me.

https://goo.gl/photos/XiD2uanuiCUVFt9m9

I really don't get the cap. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is going to wear it. Can't even give it to my son to wear. A total waste of money.
LOL! That is just utter crap but clearly they have money to waste on this rubbish.

Here is an idea for Three. Instead of wasting money on this rubbish, invest in the network and use it to bid for spectrum in the next auction. Just like everyone else.

When you think about it. The consumer should want the auction as the money raised from it should technically go into the public purse to pay for services ... However let's not even debate that!
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Old 29-12-2016, 11:20
clewsy
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Some "big" claims in that video I've just seen on this via their website.

"BT broke your broadband"

Really?

I've never had BT broadband and in fairness the market of unbundled exchanges worked well for competition at the time. Yes there are issues with speed and fibre access for some, however that is just like the complaints of lack of 3g/4g for some on mobile networks.

I'm surprised how anti BT they are. They seem to be foregetting that Vodafone sbd O2 are expanding at a rate which will leave them very much in last place and a sub standard network.

Are they not in a mast sharing agreement with EE after all?
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Old 29-12-2016, 11:43
packages
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Some "big" claims in that video I've just seen on this via their website.

"BT broke your broadband"

Really?

I've never had BT broadband and in fairness the market of unbundled exchanges worked well for competition at the time. Yes there are issues with speed and fibre access for some, however that is just like the complaints of lack of 3g/4g for some on mobile networks.

I'm surprised how anti BT they are. They seem to be foregetting that Vodafone sbd O2 are expanding at a rate which will leave them very much in last place and a sub standard network.

Are they not in a mast sharing agreement with EE after all?
They can use the same masts but their 4G rollouts are independent of each other
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Old 29-12-2016, 12:08
blueisthecolour
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So no one predicted that Samsung would release a phone so dangerous that it has to be separately listed alongside firearms and knives as a banned item for travel

I don't know or particularly care about any of the network technology so i'll give that a miss.

Nokia will release their new phones to some initial media hype but it will soon be discovered that they are stock mid-range androids with the Nokia badge on.

Sky aggressively advertises it's new network and makes impressive headway during 2017.

After significant price cuts, the Pixel range become the biggest selling Android phones.
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Old 29-12-2016, 12:12
Gigabit
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I am going to predict there won't be significant Pixel price cuts.
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Old 29-12-2016, 12:26
jchamier
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I am going to predict there won't be significant Pixel price cuts.
It would be good to see Google introduce entry level, reliable, updated, Androids to western countries, similar to Android One further east.
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Old 29-12-2016, 12:55
d123
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I am going to predict there won't be significant Pixel price cuts.
There have already been Pixel price cut promotions in the USA so unless sales pick up I think you might be wrong in that prediction.
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Old 29-12-2016, 15:26
niceguy1966
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There have already been Pixel price cut promotions in the USA so unless sales pick up I think you might be wrong in that prediction.
It really depends what happens to the £/$ exchange rate. We might be surprised if prices don't rise if everything else imported starts to get more expensive!
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Old 29-12-2016, 15:28
carguy143
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There have already been Pixel price cut promotions in the USA so unless sales pick up I think you might be wrong in that prediction.
Sales still seem to be much more genuine and generous in the US compared to over here.

My predictions for the future are that Talktalk mobile will use their mobile spectrum to launch their own mini femtocell network to increase indoor coverage for their customers. Why else would they buy spectrum and not use it?

Three will still complain about the spectrum allocations. With the backing of Hutchinson, they could easily compete in the next sprectrum auctions. Three should have really done this sooner and also not shit on their loyal customers with the harsh cuts to the one plan. If they'd have offered more generous but still limited tethering from the start, maybe they wouldn't have suffered from the bad press of the many unhappy customers.

Vodafone will look in to moving in to the TV market. They already have Netflix and Now TV deals so it seems the natural progression.

BT mobile will look to launch wifi calling for their customers. After all, it makes no sense to let the child (EE) have the whole cake and eat it.
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Old 29-12-2016, 16:15
blueisthecolour
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Oh, I also predict that there still wont be any mobile phone signal in my usual holiday resort of Woolacombe - north devon.
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Old 29-12-2016, 16:24
jonmorris
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Vodafone intends to use its 1400 spectrum soon, but I wonder what Three is planning? Does it remember it has any?!
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Old 29-12-2016, 16:36
lightspeed2398
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Vodafone intends to use its 1400 spectrum soon, but I wonder what Three is planning? Does it remember it has any?!
They'll annoy Ofcom if they do a widespread deployment soon. Ofcom classed it as not readily deploy-able for the 2300 auction caps if I remember correctly. Device support is getting there though and it can probably go almost as far as their 800 in urban areas, Is a panel swap for them to roll it out though.

800 + 1400 + 2100 + 2600 + 2600TDD in rural areas is a maul but it would match EE easily with some density.
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