I like this

My first EE 4G Extra speed test. Inside the house.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

My first EE 4G Extra speed test. Inside the house.

That's quite nice. Not massively Extra or DoubleSpeed speeds however. Which phone/device and roughly where are you in the UK ?

The sales branding seems to have changed in March, where "Extra" which is only available to contract device purchases now seems to include what was formerly DoubleSpeed and also 4G+ if you're in the central london coverage area. My SIM only contract from last year is "double speed" which apparently means access to faster than 30mbps, if coverage allows.

I'm in Farnborough, Hampshire.

My EE indoor speed test on an iPhone 6 (64gb personal) with SIM only plan:
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html...

and my work phone which is also an iPhone 6 (16gb) with corporate 4G plan:
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html...

Sony Xperia Z3. Hazel Grove. Using my postcode I get:-

UPGRADED TO DOUBLE SPEED 4G

Great news, the 4G network in this area has been upgraded to double speed 4G. This means everything is even faster than before, like uploading large files or downloading a film from EE's Film Store.

Which is a bit irrelevant of course given my FTTC.

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 12-Mar-15 20:11:31)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Sony Xperia Z3. Hazel Grove. Using my postcode I get:-Which is a bit irrelevant of course given my FTTC.

The Z3 is an LTE Category 4 device, max theoretical speed of 150megabit, which is the same as the iPhone 6 / 6+.

I've read elsewhere that DoubleSpeed is two things, on the network coverage maps (in yellow) it means you are in an area where 2x20mhz (ie 20mz downlink, 20mhz uplink) is provisioned for LTE services, whereas in the green areas its 2x10mhz. This means more capacity for more simultaneous higher speed users and in lightly loaded times for higher speeds. Some have seen over 100mbps on Cat 4 devices on 2x20 areas but where there are very few users. On the price plan "double speed" means no speed cap at 30mbps.

The "EE Extra" price plan when you buy a phone means you get double speed, and you get access to the new LTE-Advanced network which EE call "4G+" and is only currently in central London. This needs a device with a Cat 6 chip, and that is really the Samsung Galaxy Alpha, or the Samsung Galaxy S6 due for release in April - or one LG model.

On the EE coverage checker once you've entered a town or postcode, you can click on each section on the left side, 2G, 3G, 4G and the map colours change. Once you click on 4G you will see the two colours green and yellow.

http://coverage.ee.co.uk/ee/coveragechecker.html

Edited by jchamier (Thu 12-Mar-15 21:02:35)

The bit I quoted was, (and is) showing on a yellow background. You didn't say the difference between green and yellow, so I'm stuck. But I don't think it's 4+.

Edit - As soon as you said it I started singing that! School-days.

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 13-Mar-15 00:16:52)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

The bit I quoted was, (and is) showing on a yellow background. You didn't say the difference between green and yellow, so I'm stuck. But I don't think it's 4+. Edit - As soon as you said it I started singing that! School-days.

green is 2x10mhz so a lot less capacity and under reasonable load you may see upto 10mbps or slower.

4G+ is only in central london and doesn't seem to be on a fast rollout - they have other priorities I guess.

(I see I had a typo and missed out the G from 4G+, but you understood).

Yellow is the full whack I think? Apart from 4G+.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

(I see I had a typo and missed out the G from 4G+, but you understood).
Yellow is the full whack I think? Apart from 4G+.

Yes

Not happy with those speeds for a double speed area and the latancy is far too high.

In reply to a post by bookey:

Not happy with those speeds for a double speed area and the latancy is far too high.

Interesting; hopefully as the signal strength is increased, or as other improvements made there may be more to come?

Would need to know more detailed location info to answer.

It was done at 19:30, and indoors. Does that make a significant difference? It did to O2 3G and HSDPA.

Just done a speedtest.net one and got 33.41/7.61/64ms. Haven't managed yet to get a link to it. (This is on the phone, not tethered to a computer).

you doing phone TBB tests in browser, or is there an app?

ok in browser good for 9pm?

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/results.html...

phone is S5 LTE-A and on EE extra. Also am indoors.

Edited by Chrysalis (Sat 14-Mar-15 21:08:56)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

It was done at 19:30, and indoors. Does that make a significant difference? It did to O2 3G and HSDPA.

Just done a speedtest.net one and got 33.41/7.61/64ms. Haven't managed yet to get a link to it. (This is on the phone, not tethered to a computer).

Being indoors should not make too much difference 1800mhz is not too bad at indoor prop. All 3G (generally) is on 2100mhz and that tends not to make it indoor very well...

Based on where I think you are (I think) in Greater Manchester i'd expect an overlay on the 4G network of 2600mhz to provide additional capacity uplift.

I keep forgetting to try a mile away, in an M & S car park. On HSDPA+ (?) there I would get 4Mbps+, whereas outside at home it was nowhere near that. Sometimes wouldn't even manage 3G.

I'm not over-fussed. It's mainly interest about how good it is. Mobile Data use is mostly for very occasional SatNav or similar. If I hadn't got a good plan to get 4G I could have stuck with 3G. But I decided I was ditching O2 because of poor phone coverage where I often go on holiday, and including sometimes dodgy at home. I used to have Orange and never had a problem .

In reply to a post by bookey:

Being indoors should not make too much difference 1800mhz is not too bad at indoor prop. All 3G (generally) is on 2100mhz and that tends not to make it indoor very well...

Based on where I think you are (I think) in Greater Manchester i'd expect an overlay on the 4G network of 2600mhz to provide additional capacity uplift.

Paul - do you see the overlay being national eventually, or is this a high population area overlay only?

Can only confirm high population areas currently but of course EE review this often based on network usage.

Thanks makes sense.

Is 2600Mhz running in Birmingham now on EE?

I believe it is on Vodafone now.

Not yet, currently just 1800mhz in double speed form.

In reply to a post by wolvesmad:

I believe it is on Vodafone now.

Vodafone will need it more as their 800mhz allocation is only 2x10 which with enough users will slow down, I'm getting around 8 to 10mbps in the town centre on Vodafone 4G (800mhz) today. They need to deploy 2600 as they have 2x20 at 2600.

Where are you based?

Those have been the typical speeds I have seen on Vodafone 4G too.

In reply to a post by wolvesmad:

Where are you based? Those have been the typical speeds I have seen on Vodafone 4G too.

Farnborough, Hampshire, pretty much Surrey border. 25miles from Heathrow.

It's not much faster in the Midlands. Not seen anything above 30Mb/s really.

In reply to a post by wolvesmad:

It's not much faster in the Midlands. Not seen anything above 30Mb/s really.

I saw 50mbps once, but it was late at night/early morning

I don't use my work phone much due to the security controls on it make it annoying, and my personal phone is on EE, and I see average speeds between 24 and 35 during the business day (in my office) and in the evenings I can get 50mbps. I don't need these speeds, but its interesting to watch