3uk 4g

Hi guys

Not sure of this has been asked but when 3 roll out 4g for me in Glasgow will it have any positive effects on the congestion issue I have ever as I believe 4g has more capacity than 3g?

Could make it worse. Congestion will probably be on the backhaul therefore getting faster data connections from base to mobiles could increase the congestion from base to Internet. The question will be whether they upgrade the backhaul to take account of the additional potential for data.

Edited by deleted (Fri 11-Oct-13 16:40:27)

Not correct, 3 has gigabit back links to most of its cell sites (EE are aggressively going down this route too, voda and O2 are way behind them on this).

That means that congestion is generally spectrum related more than back haul. So yes, throwing more spectrum at the problem will probably have a good effect to start with.

However, since LTE allows much quicker downloads it's likely that use will eventually creep back up. It's an endless battle. Three do have 800MHz spectrum to turn on at some point.

In reply to a post by mr_mojo:

Three do have 800MHz spectrum to turn on at some point.

The spectrum allocations of the various mobile operators are quite complicated, being the combined result of the original 2G allocations (900MHz and, later, 1800MHz), the 3G auction (2100MHz), the merger of T-Mobile (nee Mercury One-2-One) and Orange into EE and subsequent forced sale of part of EE's combined 1800MHz holding which went to Three, and the 4G auction (800MHz and 2600MHz).


Vodafone and O2 have similar amounts of the lower two frequency bands - both have 10MHz paired at 800MHz, and a little bit less than 10MHz paired at 900MHz (Vodafone have 8.6MHz paired, O2 have 9.7MHz paired). Three and EE have much less spectrum here - each has 5MHz paired at 800MHz and no 900MHz allocation. These two lower bands are, broadly speaking, the best at penetrating buildings and the least attenuated by distance.

The remaining bands are more readily attenuated by buildings or distance, which makes them good for providing capacity but less good at providing coverage. The size of holdings in the three higher bands is EE > Vodafone > Three > BT (no idea what they intend to do with their 2.6GHz holding) > O2.


Generalisations based on spectrum holdings aren't especially helpful. There are numerous factors determining coverage and capacity in a particular location. Ultimately, it's a matter of deciding which network offers the best coverage, capacity and pricing in the areas that matter to you.

In reply to a post by David_W:

These two lower bands are, broadly speaking, the best at penetrating buildings and the least attenuated by distance

It will be interesting to see how the computer models of predicted coverage for LTE ends up working out. The theory is the low 800mhz will give fantastic in building coverage, but EE has so much 180mhz spectrum and they have a lot more masts than the V/O2 networks (due to their 2G coverage back in the 90s) they might manage to achieve the same or better in building penetration. Until its built nobody knows.

In terms of speed, and the future with LTE-advanced and carrier aggregation, EE have the most spectrum at all the frequencies joined together. 20mhz at 1800 already rolled out in London and the other double speed cities. Will be interesting to see if they can sustain the peak speeds seen already. 70mbps download on EE versus 19mbps on O2 for example in the city of london.

Thanks for the replys

I have stumbled across a potential issue the mast that's closest to me is a tmobile one and I'm led to believe it's shared with 3 now a friend of mine got the exact same speed test and ping as me and he's on tmobile theso could be a tech nical problem with the mast.. On the other hand the 4g another friend gets on his mobile is 45meg down and 10up