Thought: how well will threes lte rollout go?

Unlike all the other networks three are offering LTE to all customers AND the iPhone 5 will be compatible with it (same as EE but you have to sign up for a new plan)

I imagine on day one there is going to be an awfully large amounts of phones going on to LTE. Are they going to gradually roll it out or not?

In reply to a post by mr_mojo:

Are they going to gradually roll it out or not?

Yes, city by city. I think Three's rollout will be a lot slower as they have the problem of no 2G fallback for voice - so you could end up in a situation where you have 4G data but no 3G voice in a building. I wonder if Three will launch with VoLTE enabled.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

Yes, city by city. I think Three's rollout will be a lot slower as they have the problem of no 2G fallback for voice - so you could end up in a situation where you have 4G data but no 3G voice in a building. I wonder if Three will launch with VoLTE enabled.

Did you mean 3G fallback for Voice rather than 2G ? I can't think why they would want to fallback to 2G rather than 3G ?

While they might launch with Volte it's not going to be an immediate solution to the above as there are no handset's that support VoLTE yet. VoLTE also requires a new IMS core network which given 3's attitude to 4G so far as a simple speed increase I doubt they have plans for yet.

In reply to a post by alanframe:

Did you mean 3G fallback for Voice rather than 2G ? I can't think why they would want to fallback to 2G rather than 3G ?

Take EE as an example, their 4G and 2G are both at 1800mhz, so they are both likely to have the same in-building coverage. Three only have 1800mhz for 4G, and 2100mhz for 3G, so this is where the in-building problem might occur.

While they might launch with Volte it's not going to be an immediate solution to the above as there are no handset's that support VoLTE yet. VoLTE also requires a new IMS core network which given 3's attitude to 4G so far as a simple speed increase I doubt they have plans for yet.

I thought Qualcomm's baseband all supported VoLTE today, it was the networks that weren't ready.

In reply to a post by pcoventry76:

3 have 2 chunks of 800mhz too.

It will be interesting to see if they use this for the initial roll out. EE seem to be waiting to use this, maybe in cities, but 1800 is all they're rolling out so far. Maybe because they have so much 1800 spectrum they can do the 2 x 20mhz which the others can't until aggregation comes in (LTE-advanced).

Yes, obviously it's city by city. But three might have 250,000+ LTE enabled devices in London (a guess, but assuming that 10million people will be covered by the London rollout, it's not hard to think between all the iPhone 5, 5C and 5S plus various android/windows phones).

That's a hell of a lot of people to support on day one - especially if they only enable macrocells like EE, O2 and vodafone to start... Can't see the network holding up well at all (especially in train stations).

Interesting point but three only generally have 3G enabled with no fallback in urban areas. The only time I see 2G is when I'm out in the sticks on a train. I don't think any of the lte cities will have a 2g fallback enabled.

Do phones display or have a state available for showing data coverage with no voice?

In reply to a post by mr_mojo:

Interesting point but three only generally have 3G enabled with no fallback in urban areas. The only time I see 2G is when I'm out in the sticks on a train. I don't think any of the lte cities will have a 2g fallback enabled.

No, I don't see three enabling any 2G sites, that would be a backwards step for them.

Do phones display or have a state available for showing data coverage with no voice?

No, they all currently use circuit switched fall back to jump from LTE to 3G or 2G automatically and transparently.

As Three don't have any 2G, and 3G in building penetration is lower, this *could* be why they are last to roll out.

It would be interesting having someone with a good 4G signal, being unable to make a call

Edited by deleted (Mon 14-Oct-13 20:06:41)

In reply to a post by pcoventry76:

I am glad they are also using 1800mhz I really didn't want to think my 2012 Ipad Mini was that old it had to be replaced.

EE was forced to give the smallest operator some of the 1800mhz allocation when they merged Orange and T-Mobile into one company. Governments sometimes do useful things

I am sure they will crack it - they were the first 3G network and whilst they are not the first 4G they will be fine I am sure.

If they don't launch VoLTE then they will rely on very very good 3G coverage. Obviously they are pretty good already but some places all networks have poor 3G which makes Three the least good choice, such as the two towns to my east, where everyone is using 2G mostly for voice calls indoors (and yes, this is only ~25miles from Heathrow).

To me the fact they are waiting for everyone else means they will be looking at the overall picture and probably going their own way.

You could be right. Who knows until they launch!

Edited by deleted (Mon 14-Oct-13 21:52:14)

Isn't Three the only UK network to support calls over 3G? I though all the other networks had to drop back to 2G just to make calls.

All the networks support voice over 3G. Vodafone's femtocell product SureSignal wouldn't be much use without support for voice calls.

On 3 and EE if you have 3G signal you can get HD Voice, incredible clear calls, as long as the other person you are calling is on the same network and has a compatible phone.

Shame is 3 and EE haven't linked this up, and V/O2 haven't even though of it. (O2 has some of the worst voice quality on any network).

Must have been thinking back a long time when 3G was new. Was there a time when O2/Vodafone didn't support voice on 3G or have I got it completely wrong?

HD Voice will pass between network operators if the other operator offers it can both handsets support HD voice.

In reply to a post by bookey:

HD Voice will pass between network operators if the other operator offers it can both handsets support HD voice.

At the moment that's not true. HD Voice uses AMR Wide Band as the voice codec. But the Interconnects between the networks are all TDM which cannot support anything but G.711.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by alanframe:

Did you mean 3G fallback for Voice rather than 2G ? I can't think why they would want to fallback to 2G rather than 3G ?

Take EE as an example, their 4G and 2G are both at 1800mhz, so they are both likely to have the same in-building coverage. Three only have 1800mhz for 4G, and 2100mhz for 3G, so this is where the in-building problem might occur.

While they might launch with Volte it's not going to be an immediate solution to the above as there are no handset's that support VoLTE yet. VoLTE also requires a new IMS core network which given 3's attitude to 4G so far as a simple speed increase I doubt they have plans for yet.

I thought Qualcomm's baseband all supported VoLTE today, it was the networks that weren't ready.

The problem with differing frequencies for 2g , 3g and 4g and the different coverage areas is certainly a problem. But EE dont fall back to 2G only 3G so they have the same problem.

Sometimes on an outgoing call you'll see the handset appear to drop back to 2G but what's actually happening is the fallback to 3g failing and the handset taking control and reattempting the call on 2G itself.

As for the handset's supporting Volte you may be right and the underlying hardware does support it but the handset software certainly dosent at the moment. So I doubt 3 will launch with support all their inital effort will be on coverage and Volte will come along when handset support is available.

In reply to a post by bookey:

HD Voice will pass between network operators if the other operator offers it can both handsets support HD voice.

This will be good to experience.