Are Three using O2 for 4g?

I just called O2 for my PAC code so that I could switch to sim only on three for £18pm 12month contact. I was told that Three use O2 for 4g and O2 get priority on usage, in the end I was offered a £24 contact reduced to £19pm 12 month and 5gb data. My average is 230mb but I have a Iphone 6+ and plan to use a bit more now.

I thought Three used EE network for 4g.

Three use their own network for 4G, they don't use O2's or EE's

Lets be clear 3 do not use o2s network for their 4G. There have been talks about a merger with 3 and o2 but that's not in place right now.

EE are part of a network called MBNL which is a joint venture between EE and 3. This DOES NOT mean that EE and 3 have the same reception, they do not. It simply means that 3 often put their transmitters on the same physical mast that EE will also use. Often EE will be 10 metres higher up on that mast, with 4 transmitters pointing in all directions whereas 3 will be 10 metres lower, with just the 1 transmitter on that mast. ALSO you often find that EE have an output power of 30+ db whereas 3 are only outputting at 18db. So generally this is why EE has better coverage than 3. YES sharing same physical masts. Very different setups. It can work the other way around ofcourse.

Also plenty of orange sites do not have a 3 transmitter on them.

In terms of the o2 and 3 merger, that would be complicated as o2 and vodafone are in a joint venture called Cornerstone. This is where o2 and vodafone share masts like EE and 3 do.
So having an agreement for 3 to merge with o2 would confuse the MBNL and cornerstone relationships and is unlikely.

Hope I helped

Edited by ukhardy07 (Tue 23-Sep-14 13:11:06)

Thanks for the info.

Why would the guy at O2 just make us a load of BS on a recorded call? Probably to keep me as a customer but still.

Sales ... they always speak out of their ass and hope that the customer on the other end of the line doesn't know better.

He probably heard it from somewhere and believed it himself. I think he is confused. In IRELAND 3 and o2 did merger but NOT in the UK. That's probably where he got this from.

Cornerstone agreement
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/voda...

MBNL agreement
http://mbnl.co.uk/

News article confirming 3 isn't merging with O2-UK
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/medi...

The key point to note is that whilst Vodafone and O2 share the same infrastructure and EE and 3 share the same infrastructure (that is the masts), the individual networks install their own transmitters onto the physical mast, they choose how many transmitters to put on that mast, they choose the angle of those transmitters, the power output of those transmitters and also whether to use every mast available to them. So the networks still end up very different. 3 customers cannot connect to an EE signal, they connect to a 3 signal (often on the same mast as an EE transmitter) but this signal can be worlds apart from the other network. Same applied to o2 and vodafone, a vodafone customer does not use an o2 signal. The agreements are literally just sharing the same sites.

See this mast here: http://bristolbulletinblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/...

There may be an agreement for EE and 3 to use this mast. Say that EE is right at the top and 3 is using the bottom set of transmitters, generally the EE signal will be better.

So those that say we only really have 2 networks are wrong. Plenty of people nowadays are saying EE and 3 signal will mirror one another and o2 and vodafone will also. Not true

Edited by ukhardy07 (Tue 23-Sep-14 13:42:10)

In reply to a post by furman:

I just called O2 for my PAC code so that I could switch to sim only on three for £18pm 12month contact. I was told that Three use O2 for 4g and O2 get priority on usage, in the end I was offered a £24 contact reduced to £19pm 12 month and 5gb data. My average is 230mb but I have a Iphone 6+ and plan to use a bit more now.

You could complain to Three head office about being told complete lies by their call centre, and ask to be released from your contract.

Three has more spectrum for 4G than o2 has bought and Three has a lot less customers, so should have better performance.

In reply to a post by ukhardy07:

So those that say we only really have 2 networks are wrong. Plenty of people nowadays are saying EE and 3 signal will mirror one another and o2 and vodafone will also. Not true

Exactly. The fact that the two MBNL 3G networks have a lot of sharing going on doesn't mean they are the same, and for 4G they're both a lot different. The two Cornerstone networks are quite different for both 3G and 4G, and its really just a physical site share.

Where it will help is motorways where hopefully we won't need to see 4 towers next to each other

The guy I spoke to at O2 will be calling me in a few days to find out how I found the 4g service, I will ask him if it is in fact O2 sharing with three or as he said the other way around. So far, Three 4g speeds have been pretty poor in NW London, my O2 3G speeds were higher. Also I never get 4g in my house with Three, waiting for O2 sim to compare.

In reply to a post by furman:

The guy I spoke to at O2 will be calling me in a few days to find out how I found the 4g service, I will ask him if it is in fact O2 sharing with three or as he said the other way around. So far, Three 4g speeds have been pretty poor in NW London, my O2 3G speeds were higher. Also I never get 4g in my house with Three, waiting for O2 sim to compare.

Three is slowest to roll out 4G. I find Three 3G to be easily twice as good as O2 3G but that is outside London. Never seen any O2 4G outside the M25. In the longer term O2 has the least spectrum but most users, so will probably have slowest 4G.

It all depends where you need it to work, in reality you should try a prepay SIM from all the networks in all the areas you need the phone to work.