I got two Voda SIMS one from Ebay which could be old but it said 4G and one from Voda themselves direct which took about a week to get here.

I'm in Sunderland on the coast and all the checkers say good 4G signal.

Most convenience stores sell £1 SIMs for all mainstream and some niche providers. Just add a PAYG amount to it.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Most convenience stores sell £1 SIMs for all mainstream and some niche providers. Just add a PAYG amount to it.

I think things have changed as there are SIMS for phones and SIMS for Tablets and dongles so I am led to believe certainly on 3 I have been informed.

I have Purple light on Voda but speeds are pretty poor. Wonder if there is a congestion issue with the 4g mast? I spent half an hour with Voda chat and they suggested adding Voda APN info to the dongle homepage which worked. But as for speed.

https://www.thinkbroadband.com/speedtest/16017968206... Voda 4g

https://www.speedtest.net/result/10192827228 4g good upload but down rubbish.

Edited by Banger (Sun 04-Oct-20 08:40:35)

In reply to a post by Banger:

I think things have changed as there are SIMS for phones and SIMS for Tablets and dongles so I am led to believe certainly on 3 I have been informed.

There are pay monthly price plans for these, but the actual SIM is the same. On PAYG there should be no difference.

This map shows the Vodafone masts in the Sunderland area.

The majority are transmitting Band 20 only, there are a couple that have Band 1 for additional capacity.

Here is the map of the O2 masts, and they have Bands 1, 20, 3 and 40. Your dongle won't connect on Band 40.

As you can see the Vodafone and O2 masts are in the same locations, they are sharing the towers and panels (at the top) but have different boxes of electronics on the ground.

The map of Three masts is here, as I suspected majority are Band 3

Congestion on a Sat night, in a Covid lockdown situation is quite likely sadly. Also your dongle is lowest category LTE.

Unfortunately I suspect the only way to find out more is to find someone with a 4G phone on the networks of interest whom can either loan you the phone to check signal in your home, or at least outside your home

In reply to a post by Banger:

I have Purple light on Voda but speeds are pretty poor. Wonder if there is a congestion issue with the 4g mast? I spent half an hour with Voda chat and they suggested adding Voda APN info to the dongle homepage which worked. But as for speed.

Whilst congestion is possible, given Covid and numbers of people at home, to get the same on Vodafone and GiffGaff is suspicous.

Unlike 3G which hardly changed (original UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+), the 4G technology has kept evolving, from Category 3 all the way to Category 18 or 20 now.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by Banger:

I think things have changed as there are SIMS for phones and SIMS for Tablets and dongles so I am led to believe certainly on 3 I have been informed.

There are pay monthly price plans for these, but the actual SIM is the same. On PAYG there should be no difference.

Quite .

IIRC it is even stipulated by Ofcom that a SIM can be used in any device. Only the way it is marketed changes.

In reply to a post by Banger:

I have Purple light on Voda but speeds are pretty poor. Wonder if there is a congestion issue with the 4g mast?

Vodafone & O2 have split the country essentially into areas, where the host network does all the engineering work, and also installs the kit for the partner. In your case, you are in an O2 controlled region (as it appears from this map is scotland):
https://static.pedroc.co.uk/images/vodafone_and_o2_b...

Given this I would recommend you get a real O2 PAYG SIM and test. The GiffGaff results are typical GiffGaff, nothing to do with O2.

You will still have poor performance compared to modern hardware, as your dongle does not support Band 40 (significant expansion for O2), or the higher order mimo features that make significant difference at the "cell edge" (long way from the cell site).

In reality more data is required, using an up to date 4G device (e.g. an android handset).

Edited by jchamier (Sun 04-Oct-20 12:10:41)

Ordered an o2 data SIM and EE as EE uses a different mast in the village according to cellmapper. All good fun, just done a speedtest and got 3mbps on Voda things are looking up.

I found out how to connect to Three in 4g, simply add the APN for China Telecom. Speed rubbish about 6mbps.