4G - is Vodafone technically differently ?

I have a ZTE MF93D which is a 4G portable router thing.
It works fine with an EE data sim, but the Vodafone data sim only gives 3G.
I've spent the last 2 afternoons in the Vodafone shop, and they reckon that my unit does not handle Vodafone.
Vodafone do a 4G device, the R216, but none of their shops within many miles have any.
So I went next door and bought a TPlink unit, the 4G LTE-Advanced Mobile Wi-Fi M7300.
Of course the Vodafone sim does not give 4G in that either.

Now I would blame coverage, but that is not the case, I've travelled miles testing in different places, even the airport, and even in the Vodafone shop (they have a booster apparently) it still only gives 3G.

So the question is - does anyone know whether there is some technical difference between the EE and Vodafone 4G services ?

Is it a 4G SIM? They are different.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Is it a 4G SIM? They are different.

Is it? I still have my old SIM, before the days of 4G.

It might not be a 4G plan, instead of a 4G "SIM".

Matt

You are probably right.

It seems the probable problem though.

Hi RobertoS
Yes, alledgedly.
Purchased on Saturday as a data sim, and I quote off the receipt : "UK 5GB 4G 90days"

Most networks milk 4G for all they can. I used to be on a 8 year old Vodafone tariff that was just unbeatable but I wanted 4G (and EuroTraveller) so had to give in - but it was just an upgrade on their system and then 4G access was allowed.

I think O2 still sell a SIM pack as "4G" and it has that written on the side of it. Probably to prevent a 4G plan being tied to a non-4G pack. Who knows.

Matt

Thanks Uno
I really need Vodafone for a particular job, which is why I need to pursue this line.
There's a Voda mast just outside the place, and mobile phones get like 20 Mbps on Voda.
I've spent a lot of time in the Voda shop, and spoken with various staff, so would assume all the right questions have been asked.
I even got a replacement sim yesterday - no difference.

Yes there are differences, Google for 'vodafone 4g frequency'.

Vodafone and EE use different bands

does you're portable hotspot support Vodafones bands?


Vodafone - 800 MHz & 2600Mhz (4G)

EE - 1800MHz & 2600MHz (4G)

Thanks Michael
That ties in with what one guy said. I'm googling now.

Vodafone 4G coverage is also terrible in my experience I don't get 4G in many areas of London with it. Even in zone 1.

Thanks epyon
This new TPlink unit says it supports FDD-LTE being 800 / 900 / 1800 / 2100 / 2600

Also TDD-LTE on 2300 / 2500 / and 2600

So should be fine on Vodafone using 2600.
When I call up the web management, it tells me it's on WCDMA

Googling that is a bit unclear whether or not that is 4G.

The original unit, the ZTE MF93D supports 4G LTE FDD: 800/900/1800/2100/2600MHz

Vodafone use 800 and 2600 so the first unit should work fine.

Seems Vodafone do not have 4G coverage, which does not surprise me. In central London often I get stuck on 3G even when I know there is full 4G available, and Vodafone seemingly does not even allow me onto the 4G, then after 25 to 30 minutes I get onto the 4G and all data grinds to a unbearably slow speed.... Here, the mast is clearly at capacity (I think) and refusing me onto the site.

Thankfully my EE phone is my main driver.

The SIM may also be faulty or 4G not provisioned correctly on the account.

As for airports, in Heathrow airport I get 3G for most of my time on VF, even 2G around a lot of the airport... So that doesn't mean much.
As for the shop having a "booster" - the vodafone booster that uses WiFi is generally just 3G and requires you to be registered on the device - so that could be nonsense.

EDIT: W-CDMA is just Wideband 3G, you want to see LTE or 4G.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Tue 01-Nov-16 19:43:23)

In reply to a post by clyde123:

Googling that is a bit unclear whether or not that is 4G.

Googling will get you a lot of confusion from the USA which is different. WCDMA is 3G. You should call Vodafone customer services, or use the online chat. They may have forgotten to enable your 4G properly on that SIM / account. I had this with a PAYG data SIM in the spring. I knew there was Vodafone 4G signal as my work phone was showing it, but the PAYG data SIM in my personal iPad was refusing to connect to 4G.

Today:

Vodafone are using 800, 1800, 2100 and 2600 mhz frequencies for their 4G LTE service.
EE are using 800, 1800, 2600 MHz for their 4G LTE service.
O2 are using 800, 1800 for their 4G LTE service
Three are using 800, 1800 for their 4G LTE service.

thanks ukhardy07 for the confirmation that the ZTE unit should be fine.
Looking at Vodafone's coverage chart shows good 4G coverage around here.
In fact I have a mast just about maybe 400 metres from here . Cellmapper.net gives me the following info for it :
System Subtype LTE
PCI 216 (72/0)
Maximum Signal (RSRP) -73 dBm
Direction E (96°)
Estimated Band Band 20 (EU Digital Dividend)
Estimated Frequency 800 MHz (FDD)

and
Mobile Network Code 15 (which is Vodafone)
System Type LTE (4G)
System Subtype LTE

So that looks to me like I should be getting 4G/LTE no problem.

It's beginning to look more & more like as you say "The SIM may also be faulty or 4G not provisioned correctly on the account."

Yes thanks jchamier
I'll be getting on to Vodafone's customer services first thing in the morning.

In reply to a post by clyde123:

Yes thanks jchamier
I'll be getting on to Vodafone's customer services first thing in the morning.

The live chat on the website solved the problem for me and they're open in the evenings too

"Unfortunately none of our Advisers are available to chat to you at this time. Please try again shortly."

That means they are all watching this forum and "I don't want to handle that one!"

Follow up - Result !
At some point yesterday afternoon the 4G kicked in.
This was a few hours after I'd had Live Chat with a very helpful person from customer services.
The TP-link unit M7300 is working well, giving 4G. Last night I got a speed of 21.84 Upload from inside the venue. Same place that was getting maybe 5Mbps on EE.

However the ZTE MF93D is still only showing 3G.
I'll check it during the day in various locations when I'm out & about. If it ever gives 4G I'll update this thread.

So, many thanks to all who responded here, with some very solid helpful advices which is a hallmark of this forum.

Lesson to be learnt : buy my data sims off ebay rather than directly from the Vodafone shop. I've never had any problems with ebay supplied sim chips.

Good to know its working. If the ZTE device came originally from the Three network then it is possible they may have had a special firmware that limits frequencies.

I had the same problem with my Huawai E5776 http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/mobilebroadband/f/4... even though their 4G mast is only a couple of hundred metres away.

I bought an O2 SIM and 4G works fine. Then, total madness, found out that although erected by Vodafone, this mast is shared by O2!

With the O2 SIM, all I did was insert it in to the E5776 and away it went on O2 4G

Cheers!

In reply to a post by Ancient_Mariner:

I bought an O2 SIM and 4G works fine. Then, total madness, found out that although erected by Vodafone, this mast is shared by O2!

Not unusual for masts to be shared by operators, there are masts with Voda + EE(orange) and masts with O2 & Three, and masts with all four operators.

There are also two infrastructure sharing organisations, CTIL (www.ctil.co.uk) (Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Limited) and MBNL (www.mbnl.co.uk) (Mobile Broadband Network Limited).

CTIL is an infrastructure sharing company half owned by Telefonica (O2) and Vodafone.
MBNL is an infrastructure sharing company half owned by EE and Three (for 3G services MBNL does more).

These agreements have come about due to the costs of sites and the need to expand coverage to meet the agreements made with the government (some may remember when Cameron couldn't receive a call in Devon - he was obviously on the wrong network!).

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by Ancient_Mariner:

I bought an O2 SIM and 4G works fine. Then, total madness, found out that although erected by Vodafone, this mast is shared by O2!

Not unusual for masts to be shared by operators, there are masts with Voda + EE(orange) and masts with O2 & Three, and masts with all four operators.

There are also two infrastructure sharing organisations, CTIL (www.ctil.co.uk) (Cornerstone Telecommunications Infrastructure Limited) and MBNL (www.mbnl.co.uk) (Mobile Broadband Network Limited).

CTIL is an infrastructure sharing company half owned by Telefonica (O2) and Vodafone.
MBNL is an infrastructure sharing company half owned by EE and Three (for 3G services MBNL does more).

These agreements have come about due to the costs of sites and the need to expand coverage to meet the agreements made with the government (some may remember when Cameron couldn't receive a call in Devon - he was obviously on the wrong network!).

or he was on 4g

all sorts of issues with calls on phones that have 4g enabled as sometimes it fails to correctly drop to 3G and [censored] up the connection and hangs up after 2-3 seconds or network gives up trying to connect to to phone after 5-7 seconds and you get voicemail (works fine if the call drops to 2G from 4G witch my windows phone does/did quite often, until i just set highest speed as 3g so rarely drops to 2g now)

had one company that was going to move all there phones over to another network because voice calls was been very problematic (ee 4G) just told them to set all the phones to 2g/3g auto, a week later when i come back mostly no problems at all (odd locations where signal was acutely the problem)
they was on an old orange or t-mobile business group plan before and as they dont allow 4g on them contracts they never had problems before until they change the plan which had 4g and was running into problems where calls would not connect if the other person was on 4g network as they was failing to step down to allow voice call

EE and 3 both allow calls over 4G.

No need to step down your handset just needs to have the option enabled to take calls over 4G.

Certainly my iPhone makes virtually all its calls on 4G.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

EE and 3 both allow calls over 4G.

No need to step down your handset just needs to have the option enabled to take calls over 4G.

Certainly my iPhone makes virtually all its calls on 4G.

Android/windows phone need EE branded firmware or a iphone (most people have cheap android phones not iphone)

the problem here is step down to 3G does not always work on inbound calls (3G it self is not 100% reliable and been able to connect the call inbound)

Have you observed these issues with EE 3G handover recently?

I only turned on VOLTE around 3 weeks ago when I got a new phone, prior I have had fallback to 3G for around 2 years with only a couple of calls not coming through. In 2012 when EE just started 4G virtually every phone call in heavily populated areas (oxford street london etc) went to voicemail but that seems to be entirely resolved for me.

I did experience it at a music festival over the summer but I got an SMS telling me they had called and was able to dial back.

i still get the odd call thats broken (more so cracking audio now, i turned off 4g set 3g as highest speed as i use all my data on my 3 sim) for business use i would not recommend 4g been enabled on the phone unless it has 4g calling support (witch is likely fine as runs over the data itself, even very low 4g signal seems to work very well on data side)

ee/orange/t-mobile is one of the number of networks that have it as standard for Very long time (missed call text) O2 and vodafone only in last 5 years i beave

3 still lacks missed call notification text and they need it more than any other network, good thing is they don't block call forwarding so i use Hullomail (not sure why they don't enable it on there voicemail as it supports it i guess they don't want to expose how many calls fail to connect)

Virgin mobile i think has just added missed call notification text (need to test it) i would of been with Virgin mobile probblery years ago if they allowed call forwarding or had missed call notification text

you cant rely on people leaving a voicemail message (i know you get people saying call must of not been important if they did not leave voice mail but for work related a missed call is lost money) missed call notification text should be standard on all networks (you have to assume it does not ifs its a virtual provider) the networks that do support it have the option to disable it if for some reason they dont want it

Edited by leexgx (Mon 07-Nov-16 09:20:04)

Post deleted by MrSaffron

Mr Handsome, perhaps people would be more inclined to help you if you removed all the
S P A M links in your post.

Have done that for them as far too spammy to be a real poster

his profile still has the link in there thought