No the reason EE LTE is in Cardiff and Newport is Virgin media backhaul to some sites then those sites with Virgin backhaul connect to the other sites via a giga microwave link,

In Cwmbran the MBNL (Join 3/EE) site at Melbourne court greenmedow Cwmbran is in a area that has virgin media and is linked via virgin fibre backhaul then the mast is connect via microwave link to one other site in Cwmbran via Microwave and soon the rest of the MBNL sites will be linked to the site at Melbourne court via microwave backhaul,

Edited by LA7 (Tue 03-Sep-13 16:29:22)

Im in Cwmbran tomorrow ill check it out

The shopping centre is wifi'd too so I don't see the need for 4G around that area.

My only gripe is that in plenty of areas they've upgraded to LTE before upgrading to gigabit microwave links. In time anyway...

The way O2 are doing it I assume is the same as EE
They used to backhaul sites individually to the operators main network
Nowadays they seem to be using a more multi point approach
So you have one main access point hard wired to the core network and then link all the other sites around via this over microwave.
It's cheaper, easier to deploy and faster.

I personally still prefer hard wired approaches in life.
Until all sites get 1 giga links speeds are suffering slightly & almost certainly backhauls lacking in some areas. I've had as poor as 0.6 Mbps on LTE in central London this week. Whatever they're doing its not cutting it right now.

I'm interested to see what happens overtime

Cwmbran also has cable broadband and some areas have FTTC where i live 1 miles from the town centre I have very slow adsl around 2-3 mb and no access to virgin cable both virgin and FTTC stop around 1/2 a mile away there are alot of area in cwmbran that do not have cable and have slow adsl due to long line distance from the exchange,

My friend lives have a mile away and has access to FTTC and virgin media

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Do you still pick up an orange signal?

Using the Field Test mode on the iPhone shows the network code (234-33 and 234-30). I recall that -30 is T-Mobile and -33 is Orange. I gather EE(4G) or EE(3G) is using -30 as well, as the -33 will be eventually turned off.

Ahh, here's the thread:
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1832592

If you can still connect to the old orange signal it indicates that the orange mast will be getting LTE very soon (or it may already have).
All orange masts that were going to be decomissioned have been already. The remaining ones will be getting their orange equipment changed to t mobile standards for 3G and LTE so it'll become one giant T-mobile type network, the old orange signal will be rendered not connectable, although it may still show up in a network search at first. Trying to connect to it will just show no service.

In short if you can still connect to an orange signal it shows more work is yet to be done.

Interesting data - thanks!

My iPhone SIM has a strange programming (useful to me) that shows "EE" for T-Mobile 2G/3G and "T-Mobile Orange" for Orange 2G/3G signals. I noticed that if I get a "T-Mobile Orange" network name, then my 3G speeds are about 1meg, and on the "EE" network name (ie, T-Mobile) i get 5meg or more. Using Field Test confirms my findings with the network codes.

My area only went live with 4G at start of August (on coverage map) but friends across town have already noticed their signal (Orange brand customers) is noticably reduced. One is thinking of migrating to 3 (bad move in their home) and the other O2. :-/

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Do you still pick up an orange signal?

This is what I get on my T-Mobile contract SIM only (3g) phone, in the same place I had very good 4G yesterday:
http://prntscr.com/1p60re

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Do you still pick up an orange signal?

This is what I get on my T-Mobile contract SIM only (3g) phone, in the same place I had very good 4G yesterday:
http://prntscr.com/1p60re

Firstly you don't have the newest carrier settings as it should show EE and EE(3G).
In your case, as you're on T-mobile...
The T-mobile would show as EE(3G)
The T-mobile orange would show as EE.
Even if both were actually 3G. It displays the home network first as EE(3G).

Now, in time you will still find T-mobile Orange - but if you try to connect to it, so try clicking on it, you will see No service. Eventually the network T-mobile Orange will go completely leaving just T-mobile or EE(3G) on T-mobile.

If you can see T-mobile Orange and connect to it, it indicates an orange mast is in place and was kept there as the orange site is going to be 4G enabled. When the LTE upgrade takes place, at first you will still see the network but there will be no service, and with time you will not see the network at all.

In parts of Westminster you struggle to find an orange signal and where you do it's not connectable. In time it will go entirely.

This is good because currently to switch from an orange signal to a t-mobile signal, the connection has to physically drop. So say you're making a call on an Orange signal and go into an area with only T-mobile. As it stands your call would drop out whilst you physically switched networks. Once everything goes through there's going to be LTE and T-mobile type 3G and 2G only, so it'll be one network with no messy switching, meaning hopefully less dropped calls and a unified signal.

This is why EE is better than 3 signal wise (overall) because they kept Orange sites as well, in places MBNL sites didn't reach too well.

Some orange devices seem to be sticking to Orange signal & holding on too long before switching to a T-mobile signal. As orange sites are decommissioned or replaced with LTE this causes them to have bad signal when there's a brilliant T-mobile signal available. There's nothing that EE can really do about this as it's the device at fault. People using older carrier settings find issues as going onto T-mobile makes the device believe it's roaming onto a foreign network, so it's less likely to happen, their devices hold onto a weak orange signal before doing it... Those with newer EE carrier settings, their devices no longer see the other network as roaming and this somewhat solves the issue. The combination of the EE carrier settings and the smart-sharing works somewhat well but it's not perfect.

EE in time will have one network and no orange signal, at this point problem devices will be forced onto T-mobile as there will not even be a weak orange signal available. At this stage all problematic devices will be fine, although decommissioning of orange sites may cause some people to lose service entirely but that's not a large chunk by any means.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Firstly you don't have the newest carrier settings as it should show EE and EE(3G).

I thought that, but I have the same version as everyone else, I've even tried reloading the .ipcc file from the last carrier update iTunes offered me, but nothing changed. Its been like this since I got the nano SIM in Nov last year, and its survived 3 or 4 iOS updates. All my friends on T and O don't have it !

In your case, as you're on T-mobile...
The T-mobile would show as EE(3G)
The T-mobile orange would show as EE.
Even if both were actually 3G. It displays the home network first as EE(3G).

Ah-ha, that's how it works, thanks!

thanks!

Edited by jchamier (Tue 03-Sep-13 21:26:36)

Click settings - general - about

It should then check for the latest carrier settings and a message should come up asking you to update.

If it doesn't what does it say on that page after carrier:

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

Click settings - general - about

It should then check for the latest carrier settings and a message should come up asking you to update.

Nope, I've seen that prompt before, but I get nothing. I've rebooted/reset the device, and tried my SIM in another unlocked iPhone5 (my Dad's) and he has an Orange business SIM and he has EE all the time - mine came up the same as it does on my iPhone 5. I have carrier settings "EE 14.0"

If it doesn't what does it say on that page after carrier:

T-Mobile

but it still shows as EE top left. I quite like it, saves having to go into the Field Test to see what mode I'm on, and I suspect iOS 7 will fix it.

Edited by jchamier (Tue 03-Sep-13 21:47:53)