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O2's poor 3G Coverage irks Ofcom


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Old 27-02-2008, 16:07
LibertyBell7
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Interesting story. Maybe O2 have been so keen to up their Edge coverage they have been neglecting the 3G expansion.
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Old 27-02-2008, 17:53
prking
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O2 made promises about coverage when they won a 3G licence. They are now trying to get out of it. Its rather strange as they are being left behind by the other networks. No music downloads, no mobile TV, limited data.
The urban area I live in has a population of just under 100,000 and yet O2 have no plans to ever offer 3G. Bizarrely a, nearby, very small village with a population of a few hundred has coverage.
Even more bizarrely, just 200m away from me is a 3G mast, next to it is a grey box that used to have an O2 logo on a small plaque. The plaque was taken off a few years ago.
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Old 27-02-2008, 18:26
stevej26uk
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02 attitude to 3g has been dreadful, o2 has very little interest in data, its one of the worst networks for data tariffs and as far as i know payg customers cant even access the full web.

I dont know why 02 take such a shoddy attitude towards 3g, they took a poor view of edge as well until they won the iphone contract.
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Old 27-02-2008, 18:54
tvlooker
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Who gives a toss. Just want a phone that works and texes.3G is a waste of time never going to use my phone as a tv got one at home to watch. In fact the 3G network shop near me is empty even though phones are like £5
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Old 27-02-2008, 19:17
LibertyBell7
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Who gives a toss. Just want a phone that works and texes.3G is a waste of time never going to use my phone as a tv got one at home to watch. In fact the 3G network shop near me is empty even though phones are like £5
Do you mean the 3 shop? The massive rise in mobile data usage shows how important 3G is. Also what about the much talked about 3G iPhone that's on its way? What's the point of O2 selling that when they can't compete when it comes in 3G coverage?
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Old 27-02-2008, 19:48
stevej26uk
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Who gives a toss. Just want a phone that works and texes.3G is a waste of time never going to use my phone as a tv got one at home to watch. In fact the 3G network shop near me is empty even though phones are like £5
Thats fine for your use, but mobile data is very useful and important to a large number of people, mobile broadband is becoming more and more popular and many people use data on their phone.
For myself i use the 3g data on my phone most days of the week and 3g coverage is of great importance to me.
2g and edge just dont cut it for data.

I admit i never use mobile tv, but I do frequently download podcasts straight to my n95 try doing that on 2g!!

It comes down to different usage models some people only need voice and text and hence 2g fine, but 02 is missing out on a growing market of mobile data.

Look at vodafone offeing 7.2mbs data thats twice as fast as a lot of peoples home broadband.
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Old 27-02-2008, 20:07
prking
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O2 do have some areas of HSDPA coverage. Where a friend works there is 3G and HSDPA(but he has fixed line access), but when he is on the road (and needs 3G) or at home there isnt! So when his company come to renew their business contract O2 will be losing the account.
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Old 28-02-2008, 11:04
Lawe13
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Makes a change to hear of O2 doing something wrong, and irking not only customers but Ofcom.

However I have long used this as a reference for large business sales in that Orange do have the largest intergrated 3G network in the UK.
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Old 28-02-2008, 13:00
goomba
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Never mind 3G, where is our HSDPA - on O2 or Orange!
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Old 28-02-2008, 13:56
Lawe13
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Orange has HSDPA, it isn't available as widespread as we'd like at the moment but it's their live and I receive a signal in Newcastle where I am based.
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Old 28-02-2008, 14:47
goomba
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Orange has HSDPA, it isn't available as widespread as we'd like at the moment but it's their live and I receive a signal in Newcastle where I am based.
A bit off topic - but do you have a map of where its available? I have travelled round a good bit of the country since I have had an HSDPA handset and never come across it yet.
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Old 28-02-2008, 15:25
wicksta
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02 attitude to 3g has been dreadful, o2 has very little interest in data, its one of the worst networks for data tariffs and as far as i know payg customers cant even access the full web.
7.50 a month for the unlimited web bolt-on (to any tariff) isn't bad, and where did you read that PAYG customers can't access the full web?
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Old 28-02-2008, 17:25
Sananda Maitreya
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7.50 a month for the unlimited web bolt-on (to any tariff) isn't bad, and where did you read that PAYG customers can't access the full web?
i use that £7.50 bolt -on (200MB and above and they say they will start charging on top) on pay and go and i have the full internet except i can't access my email.
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Old 28-02-2008, 17:56
prking
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Officially, O2 only allow WAP (ie O2 Active on PAYG). However with some some clever use of proxy servers you can access the full internet. Indeed some phones now come with the settings to allow this.
If you want to do anything other than use your built in browser to view sites (eg. Email, java apps like gmail and Opera), then on some phones the proxy settings just can't be entered. For example, on Nokia Series 40 there is nowhere to enter a proxy server except in the in-built browser. There is a way around this using provisioning files, but discussion of that is beyond this forum. Anyone interested should see the Nokia Developers Forum, or search on HowardForums for "Nokiajavaproxy.zip".
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Old 28-02-2008, 18:22
Sananda Maitreya
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Officially, O2 only allow WAP (ie O2 Active on PAYG). However with some some clever use of proxy servers you can access the full internet. Indeed some phones now come with the settings to allow this.
If you want to do anything other than use your built in browser to view sites (eg. Email, java apps like gmail and Opera), then on some phones the proxy settings just can't be entered. For example, on Nokia Series 40 there is nowhere to enter a proxy server except in the in-built browser. There is a way around this using provisioning files, but discussion of that is beyond this forum. Anyone interested should see the Nokia Developers Forum, or search on HowardForums for "Nokiajavaproxy.zip".
i haven't entered any proxy servers; i don't even know what proxy servers are. but i seem to have full internet access on pay and go except mail.
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Old 28-02-2008, 19:08
Lawe13
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Well WAP is really full internet just accessed through a slower and different way.
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Old 28-02-2008, 21:04
wavejockglw
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02 know where their bread is buttered..... they have been raking it in selling folks what they want.... cheap calls and texts on GSM!!!

Meanwhile the rest have been chasing hi-tech nonsense that few want to buy.

It could cost them a 4 month loss of licence in 2021..... I bet they (02) are worried as technology by then will probably make the whole UMTS 2100Mhz thing a distant memory.

Who will be right? The hare or the tortoise?
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Old 28-02-2008, 21:14
prking
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i haven't entered any proxy servers; i don't even know what proxy servers are. but i seem to have full internet access on pay and go except mail.
So you haven't go full access then.
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Old 28-02-2008, 21:19
prking
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Well WAP is really full internet just accessed through a slower and different way.
With the greatest of respect, no it isn't.
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Old 28-02-2008, 22:07
Sananda Maitreya
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So you haven't go full access then.
it seems that i can't get to aol mail. whether i only have WAP as you suggest, i don't know. and i don't know what o2 active is, so i don't know if i only have that as you suggest.
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Old 29-02-2008, 08:55
prking
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I haven't seen the settings for the iPhone, so I don't know whether yours has the workaround. The only way to tell, is to try accessing a site (that doesn't work using GPRS) using your home wi-fi. If it works then your settings need tweaking. If it doesn't then there is some other issue.
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Old 29-02-2008, 09:00
_amanda_
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I dont think any company would intentionally want to lose its licence, so I bet O2 will be working to boost the number of 3G cell sites they have. I read somewhere that they plan to upgrade over 100 cellsites before this came out anyway so they would be on target...
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Old 29-02-2008, 10:20
Lawe13
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With the greatest of respect, no it isn't.
I knew someone would say something on that

You know what I mean tho, I don't mean full internet as in the iPhone full internet but it is some semblance.
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Old 29-02-2008, 12:22
prking
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I knew someone would say something on that

You know what I mean tho, I don't mean full internet as in the iPhone full internet but it is some semblance.
I have a great deal of respect for your answers, they are normally spot on and add much to the discussion. I feel quite awkward stressing the point. But WAP really is nothing like full internet. Even the sites you can visit are in a different markup language. (WML or XHTML instead of HTML).

There is a very good description of the types WAP on Wikipedia, with some explanation of the problems and why many providers allow proper internet access using the APN.
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Old 29-02-2008, 13:14
Lawe13
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No no no! Don't feel awkward, I'd never suggest I knew everything and whilst I do try and learn as much as I can doing the job I do in the industry I am in, I can't possibly cover it all. My only knowledge of WAP is through my vary rare usage of it when I was back in my teens, since joining the industry we have always worked on GPRS onwards so my knowledge isn't that great on it as I've never needed to know. Thanks for the info tho I'll read up on it.
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