Spectrum holdings don't explain why Three still hasn't re-farmed any 3G spectrum to 4G at my local mast. I assume it would require new equipment and they don't want to spend any money until the 5G upgrade.

This mast recently started doing 2CA but in an odd way. If the phone is on 1800, which it normally is for 4G, it won't add 800. But on the odd occasion the phone is connected to 800 it will add 1800 as the second carrier before switching back to 1800 only after a few minutes.

Why would the equipment do B20+B3 but not B3+B20? Unless it's clever enough to know that B20 is so congested it's not worth adding. Another local Three mast will aggregate the same two bands in either order, so it's not a network-wide setup.

In reply to a post by CJ8:

Spectrum holdings don't explain why Three still hasn't re-farmed any 3G spectrum to 4G at my local mast. I assume it would require new equipment and they don't want to spend any money until the 5G upgrade.

They also will know how many phones are unable to do VoLTE and hence need 3G capacity for voice calls. Right now, during this pandemic, this is a real concern. You may be right that the existing vendor kit is not up to the job and is being replaced, as well as the 5G roll out.

This mast recently started doing 2CA but in an odd way. If the phone is on 1800, which it normally is for 4G, it won't add 800. But on the odd occasion the phone is connected to 800 it will add 1800 as the second carrier before switching back to 1800 only after a few minutes.

Why would the equipment do B20+B3 but not B3+B20? Unless it's clever enough to know that B20 is so congested it's not worth adding. Another local Three mast will aggregate the same two bands in either order, so it's not a network-wide setup.

The mast will always push people to B3 because there is 15mhz of spectrum here. B20 is only 5mhz, so if you can get both, then I'm not surprised you are pushed off B20, to allow those further away to get some coverage.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

They also will know how many phones are unable to do VoLTE and hence need 3G capacity for voice calls.

In that case I'll put my Three sim back into an iphone to encourage them along! As usual 3G H+ is running over 10Mbps tonight, while 4G 1800 is less than 1Mbps.

In reply to a post by bobbyboyuk:

My 3 signal has gone rubbish, the mast i usually connect to has vanished, well not connecting!

Not staying with 3 if this is permanent , getting about 2mbs now, 3G and 4G.

It's the same for me.

I think the problem is that they are reconfiguring for the rollout of 5G.

Some of that has taken some 3G and 4G cells offline, some of it is that they are trying to clear the 3G frequencies for 5G, so moving more traffic to 4G (if you have the misfortune to be in a "Supervoice" area, your 4G will be slower).

In addition, if they are removing good Huawei kit and putting in inferior Nokia and Ericsson kit, that won't help.

I've had to give up on Band 3 and stick to Band 20, which has limited bandwidth on my local Three cells, but seems less overloaded.

Band 3 has hopeless download speeds, but excellent upload.

Band 20 is just about good enough both ways, with much better latency. Of course, that's just on the cell I use!

In February, when the troubles started, the network routing was all over the place. Lots of failed connections. They seemed to fix that in a few weeks (not sure when, because I was away when they sorted it).

The lockdown has probably put paid to expectations of an early resolution of all the issues.

I'm hoping that when they have finally finished the changes, things will get significantly better. Of course, I don't have a 5G router, so that'll be another expense.

I've tried EE because they used to be far better (if more expensive). They were even worse than Three (EE used to use the same tower that vanished form Three - it's also vanished from EE)..

I've tried Vodafone. They are a bit better than Three, but at almost twice the price, and no publicly-accessible IP address. An A&A VPN failed to get round that - I'm not sure why.

I read they’re removing inferior Samsung and installing Huwaei kit connected to the new core.

Got a letter this morning stating that they are increasing prices,they have got a cheek for the rubbish connection i get.

Edited by elvisarron (Tue 14-Apr-20 08:36:08)

If they've got the nerve to send me one I'll literally set up a website cataloguing their every issue from disgruntled customers.

In reply to a post by buggerlugs:

If they've got the nerve to send me one I'll literally set up a website cataloguing their every issue from disgruntled customers.

That could be unwise.

Well, maybe they should actually come on here and defend their total inaction then? But in doing so Three would have to admit they have issues so I'm not holding my breath.

I don't take the credit for starting this thread, but at 12,000 views I don't think its asking too much for Three to be taking notice of what their customers are saying and responding to the criticism.

If they need a push in that direction, I'll be happy to oblige.

Edited by buggerlugs (Tue 14-Apr-20 09:47:46)

In reply to a post by buggerlugs:

Well, maybe they should actually come on here and defend their total inaction then? But in doing so Three would have to admit they have issues so I'm not holding my breath.

I don't take the credit for starting this thread, but at 12,000 views I don't think its asking too much for Three to be taking notice of what their customers are saying and responding to the criticism.

If they need a push in that direction, I'll be happy to oblige.

I could not agree more.