In reply to a post by pcoventry76:

Why does everything have to be proved with a link? Can't people google this for themselves.?

As you wish

http://www.techweekeurope.co.uk/news/ee-three-4g-spe...

More because I was surprised (given they both own 50% of MBNL each) - and I've not seen it on any of the bigger tech sites.

Whoever ends up with what I don't mind. I have a phone which someone else gave me when they upgrade their 3 sim and mine runs out in a few months so I have an unlocked phone that will do 700/ 800 / 850 / 900 / 1700/ 1800 / 2100 / 2600.

let the battle continue!

Yep, EE or Three are the only contenders for me, as Voda and O2's fall back networks (outside of 4G) are currently so poor as to be non existent for me

Well my thinking behind getting this S4 was not because I like the whole google thing - I don't like google at all. but it was because whatever network I decide to try at least I know I am covered. Well for now anyway.

I doubt you will get 3 4G until 2014 - 2015

I expect 3 or 4 cities in December
Manchester
London
Birmingham
Reading
Nottingham possibly

3 don't have the customer base or profits to roll out quickly. It'll be a while.

Newports not going to be in the initial rollout

I've covered it in the other thread. it won't be here till possibly 2015 but I am thinking about going to Cardiff anyway - more work there.

Technically 8 in 2013 and 50 in 2014

It's at the bottom here.

http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Built_for_internetti...

Ahh fair play I was just making a guess Honestly at 20Mbps 3G I doubt 4G will be massively better.

Well some people say that about the HSDPA network when that was announced.

But no I'm happy with that and be nice to just test it when it is live and not have to actually pay for access.

unlike my EE sim which took me 3 hours to burn through 4GB - so sloooooooooooooooow!

I think EE needs some time, we are at the start of the 4G rollout.

Ultimately EE has loads of spectrum, lots of masts, an accelerated rollout, a huge customer base & a strong 2G and 3G network to fall back onto. It's going to take time to upgrade backhaul especially to the older Orange sites still in use. Once this is done and the sites are all upgraded to giga links & backhaul at the main site is sufficient the network will be flying ahead. In terms of the spectrum EE has it gives them the potential to be on par with the fastest LTE networks worldwide so they're planning ahead right. Right now it's not great though but it has to get better.

Even in London with the doubled speeds, plenty of masts still haven't got giga links so are stuck at slow speeds, one of the LTE sites is pulling an average of 3Mbps but once giga goes in the average estimate is 19 Mbps. So that'll be a huge improvement overnight.

Unlimited data would be nice but unrealistic given the EE rollout.

3 have a very strong 3G network and it's not congested like all the other networks 3G, largely down to the customer base being smaller & investment in the latest 3G. Put 27 million customers onto 3 and the network would be crippled.

For now 3 is a great option.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Mon 09-Sep-13 23:43:02)

It makes sense for 3 to offer unlimited data compared with the other networks.

With wireless spectrum there's limited bandwidth.

3 may install 2 masts in an area to cover 1000 people lets say.
This is 500 people per mast.
o2 may install 3 masts in an area to cover 4,000 people. If o2 install any more masts there would be significant interference between the sites so they become restricted with the 3 masts in place.
That would be 1333 people per mast. So many more than 3.

3 can offer unlimited data as their masts not got too many customers using it & there is plenty of spare bandwidth left.

o2 on the otherhand need to keep data usage at a minimum as otherwise the network will be crippled. o2 cannot install more sites as this introduces interference between sites & no matter how much backhaul they have the wireless technology becomes a limit.

It's kind of like having a 80Mbps fibre connection with a 54Mbps router.
With 5 customers using the 54Mbps wireless router it'll perform ok.
Put 20 customers onto it and it'll slow down massively.
Install more routers on the same frequency you introduce interference
Increase the backhaul to 160Mbps, it'll make no odds as the wireless routers restricting. It's the same with masts.

So the bigger networks face bigger challenges. Perhaps 3 is happy with its limited customer base as it means they can keep existing customers happy. Get 4 times the customer base and they simply could not offer that all you can eat data.

EE have done well to buy plenty of spectrum so they can limit this affect somewhat. On the contray o2 will have big problems with their rollout covering large areas (speeds will suffer).

EDIT: this is my somewhat limited understanding anyway from the EE network planning guy who I've known since school

Edited by ukhardy07 (Mon 09-Sep-13 23:59:04)