o2 Vodafone Cornerstone & GiffGaff

I understand that o2 and Vodafone have an agreement for mast sharing known as Cornerstone.

Now I can see a Vodafone 3G mast through my window where I am now sitting and I know that previously my Vodafone 3G dongle used to connect at very good signal strength.

However my Blackberry which is on the o2 network tends not to indicate a 3G connection from the same position, sometimes EDGE sometimes GPRS. The local o2 shop said that it may be that an o2 sim will hang on to a o2 mast and only go to Vodafone as a last resort.

Have just tried switching off the Blackberry and then switching back on when in definite line of sight of the Vodafone mast, yet still prefers non-3G.

So, besides that annoyance, am wondering where GiffGaff fits in this. Whilst GiffGaff operates on the o2 network, does GiffGaff get the "benefits" of Cornerstone?

Also, I have just been passed the application papers (I am a County Councillor) for Vodafone to replace their mast with one which I believe will also have 4G in addition to 3G (the paperwork is not clear on this).

Only downside is that from previous 3G planning application, my house is located in the maximum field strength of one of the three mast aerials, so wondering now whether I will suffer from TV interference issues, we use Winter Hill Ch 59 for MUX2.

Cheers!

The mast sharing I believe allows Voda/O2 to install cells on each others masts. That does not mean that all voda masts have O2 cells. So, it is likely that O2 have chosen not to put cells on that mast. It could also be that the 2 are using different frequencies/powers if they do both have cells on the tower in which case the coverage could be very different.

The agreement is not that the voda cell is used to extend the O2 network.

I also think that GiffGaff has exactly the same coverage as O2 as it uses all of their masts.

In reply to a post by Ancient_Mariner:

However my Blackberry which is on the o2 network tends not to indicate a 3G connection from the same position, sometimes EDGE sometimes GPRS. The local o2 shop said that it may be that an o2 sim will hang on to a o2 mast and only go to Vodafone as a last resort.

The 3 year old O2 mast near me has only started transmitting Vodafone 3G signals in the last 4 months. So give them them to do the upgrades. Cornerstone is a relatively young organisation / agreement and is now probably focused mostly on 4G upgrades.

In reply to a post by ian72:

I also think that GiffGaff has exactly the same coverage as O2 as it uses all of their masts.

GiffGaff is just an MVNO on the O2 network, and its fully owned by Telefonica so its just a way of the same company having a different set of tariffs.

In reply to a post by pcoventry76:

I'm also sure it gets less priority than O2 customers do - being virtual.

That would be a business decision negotiated at the wholesale level for the MVNO - in this case as a discount price brand, I wouldn't be surprised. But I don't think Virgin Mobile is less priority on the EE network, but Virgin Mobile itself runs their own management platform, but as the biggest MVNO they're about to split out even more from EE I have read.

It does indeed, hence the reason I left Giffgaff.

In areas where there is high load the O2 customer gets priority. Used to drive me insane my iPhone sitting on Edge when my work phone would be on full 3G.

Even on a cornerstone mast power levels can differ between the networks - so different signal. I found this with O2 and Vodafone a lot. O2 also have a fair bit of UMTS 900mhz 3G about which Vodafone have only really started to adopt.

GIffgaff is just a MVNO on the O2 network owned by O2...

The Cornerstone agreement is just a site share agreement not a RAN (RF) share.
If you would like to PM me your location I can see what cells EE have in the local area and advise on realistic serviceability.

Also you need to remember that comparing signal strength on a BlackBerry vrs a Dongle is not like for like as they have different antenna sizes and chip sets used to communicate with that network.