I put £20 on a Vodafone sim card and their 4G network In Wolverhampton is garbage. Soon as you leave the city it drops back to Edge.

In reply to a post by wolvesmad:

I put £20 on a Vodafone sim card and their 4G network In Wolverhampton is garbage. Soon as you leave the city it drops back to Edge.

Yes, but to paraphrase - the 4G network is good but when you're not on 4G the rest of the network is garbage. Voda also charge a premium for 4G and they don't yet have coverage anywhere near EE's.

No the 4G network is [censored]. Couldn't get over 8mb on various speedtest.net servers and the coverage is a lot worse than EE and Three!

In reply to a post by wolvesmad:

No the 4G network is [censored]. Couldn't get over 8mb on various speedtest.net servers and the coverage is a lot worse than EE and Three!

That's strange, the one person I know around here on Voda 4G is happy when he is on 4G, getting speeds around 18 to 20mb - but most of the time he is on 1mb 3G or GPRS / EDGE with no data. He is cancelling Voda when his contract is up. :-/

I was expecting good things considering they are mainly using 800mhz. Their coverage isn't as good as O2's, never mind EE or 3. Their coverage map is either way over optimistic or a complete lie.

It has my work down as strong indoor coverage where as I only get 2 bars of 3G. Vodafone have confirmed all 4G transmitters in the area are fine.

In reply to a post by wolvesmad:

I was expecting good things considering they are mainly using 800mhz. Their coverage isn't as good as O2's, never mind EE or 3. Their coverage map is either way over optimistic or a complete lie.

It has my work down as strong indoor coverage where as I only get 2 bars of 3G. Vodafone have confirmed all 4G transmitters in the area are fine.

They just need more transmitters then to cover the terrain. 800mhz isn't a magic bullet that some people think it is. It takes years to built a dense transmitter network. Voda and O2's old 2G network on 900mhz has in some places less coverage than EE's 1800mhz 2G network - purely down to the fact EE have more transmitter masts and coverage is hard.

The question is, will Vodafone ever catch EE?

EE have more transmitters than Vodafone right? So EE can just go to a transmitter and put a 4G antenna on it. Vodafone need to actually build a new one in certain areas which obviously takes a lot of time.

You can't even say Vodafone have the 3G transmitters out there that just need a 4G antenna sticking on them. They don't.

The historic positions of Vodafone and the predecessor networks to EE are very different.

Vodafone's 2G network was almost exclusively 900MHz with a small amount of 1800MHz to boost coverage in high traffic areas (which might have been removed when the majority of users switched to 3G). This meant that their 2G network macrocells were historically sparser in low traffic areas than the predecessor networks to EE.

Vodafone 3G, like all 3G networks, started off exclusively on 2100MHz. When the networks got permission to use any of their allocations for any technology, they deployed some 3G base stations on 900MHz. They theoretically had permission to deploy 3G in their 1800MHz allocations, though I don't believe they ever did so.

Vodafone have access to O2 sites under a site sharing agreement. They have said they are emphasising quality of coverage and capacity over geographical coverage in their early 4G roll out.

I do understand RF propagation to some extent, though I am not a professional in the field. It may well be that 800MHz and 900MHz propagation are similar enough for the Vodafone and O2 900MHz masts to be a good starting point for a 4G network, though they will not be a perfect solution.


EE had a head start on the other networks, as EE were able to use a lot of the spare 1800MHz bandwidth after combining the Orange and T-Mobile 2G 1800MHz networks to start their roll-out before the 800MHz and 2600MHz auction took place. Any other network rolling out infrastructure before the licence auction results were known was taking a huge risk.

EE started with the sites from two complete 1800MHz 2G networks that they could use to create a 4G network that could make extensive use of 1800MHz. The existing cell sites had been chosen to provide service using the older 2G technology on a band with spare bandwidth for 4G. Whilst backhaul links probably needed upgrading, this meant many of the RF propagation and site availability challenges had already been solved.


800MHz does offer some distance related advantages over 1800MHz and upwards in terms of building penetration, which is probably its biggest advantage. One of the reasons that 3G was a bit of a flop was the tendency to fall back to 2G in building.

800MHz also has propagation advantages in flat areas, especially if those areas are sparsely populated so capacity is not really an issue.



Ultimately, a user's choice of network is determined by the deal they are offered and whether coverage is available in the locations where they need it.


My phone is on Vodafone 4G on a 12 month SIM only deal - unlimited minutes, unlimited texts, 6GB of data and 12 months of Spotify Premium for £24.30/month.

I would pay for Spotify anyway if I didn't get it through Vodafone, so this makes the effective cost of the Vodafone deal £14.31 per month.

I make almost all my outgoing calls on my mobile - there's no per-call time limit and calls to all UK mobile networks are included as well as calls to 01/02/03. I no longer need a call package on my landline.

I only usually spend a day or two each month in Vodafone 4G areas at the moment, though there is early roll out in the major population centres around where I live. There is usable DC-HSPA in many of the areas where I commonly use my phone, so this isn't a huge loss. Vodafone 3G is weak at my home location, but a SureSignal box means I can make and receive voice calls at 3G quality.


I do spend time in some fairly out of the way places, and none of the 4G network operators currently offers sufficient HSPA and 4G coverage to meet my data needs. Vodafone meets my needs for voice, but only has 2G coverage in two key locations.

To meet this 'data deficit', I have a Three mobile broadband SIM on a 30 day SIM only contract - 10GB of data for £15/month. The SIM is in a portable Wi-Fi hotspot that I bought SIM free. Three has DC-HSPA in the two locations I mentioned, also at my home, where the mobile broadband acts as my backup for rare FTTC outages. Three's latest plans are to roll out 4G coverage in the area around where I live at home this year. That said, I have no great loyalty to any network for data, as I don't care about losing the number and am prepared to give 30 days notice at any time if another network with suitable coverage offers a better deal.


If 4G geographical coverage was the overriding concern, I'd undoubtedly be on EE. However, their coverage isn't good enough in those out of the way locations I mentioned to be the sole network I use, and I can't make their price plans work for me. The nearest equivalent to my phone plan is 12 months of unlimited calls, unlimited text and 5GB of data for £21.99/month, but I'd have to pay for Spotify Premium separately at another £9.99/month. 30 day EE data plans are either 3GB for £15/month, which isn't really enough, or 15GB for £20/month. There are no better EE data deals available with a 12 month commitment.

The greater geographic coverage of EE's 4G network isn't worth the extra monthly cost to me. I've never understood people being fans of a particular network - to me, it's a simple matter of deciding which network offers you the best deal, taking cost, package contents, the value of any extra features to you and coverage into account. Everyone will have different coverage requirements and will weight these factors differently.

Thanks for the very informative reply David!

Are the networks still allowed to broadcast at the same power levels they did on 2G and 3G on 4G? I've noticed in a couple of places, especially on EE I get strong 4G outside, yet indoors I drop back to 2G or 3G.

I am currently on 3, on the one plan and they have been great over the last 3 years. I used to be on Vodafone and 3's 3G coverage is far far better, you do get those buildings that their signal cannot penetrate very well and unfortunately, I work in one. I do get a Vodafone signal here, very strong 2G, quite a strong 3G and a very weak intermittent 4G signal. The pages don't load very quickly on 3G, although I get 8Mb/s on speed test.net and randomly 3G drops out and the phone sits on GPRS, for no apparent reason.

I have been testing EE on one of the promo 200gb SIM cards and they have been excellent in the majority of the areas I have been. They are leaps and bounds ahead of the other networks in terms of 4G coverage, as you would expect. I have had speeds of 90Mb/s down 40Mb/s up which is pretty damn fast on a phone! Been to a couple of areas without 4G coverage and 3G was quite sluggish. Think that may be due to EE still having a few old Orange 3G masts incorporated in their network.

On EE I will get visual voicemail, Apple wifi calling and LTE-A - all of which Three do not currently provide.