Not quite true… its about capacity. When 4G first launched (EE in 2012) it was only 10MHz of spectrum allocated as the rest of the radio waves were used by 2G and 3G. Same with O2 and Vodafone whom (2013) launched with 10 MHz spectrum. Over time the capacity increased, and depending on your area/town/city each operator has different amounts they can deploy.

In my part of my town, EE has 75 MHz of spectrum deployed to 4G across 2 carriers of Band 3, and two carriers of Band 7. Whereas Vodafone has 25 MHz across one carrier of Band 20 and one carrier of band 1.

5G today is more efficient (even non-standalone) but there is only limited capacity deployed because a lot of people still using handsets that don’t do 5G….

In reply to a post by E300:

We are probably 3 or 4 years away from wide availability of a finished 5G version, which is 5G standalone.

My understanding is that this isn’t quite true…. (Not that simple).

Standalone means a 5G core network as well as 5G NR (new radio) signal being transmitted.

Non-Standalone means using the 4G core network, but using 5G NR (new radio) signals to provide additional capacity, whilst using the 4G signals (LTE) to manage the setup and calls.

The 4G core is pretty good, some parts of the UK people see speeds over 500 Mbps on 4G, but to get all the benefits of 5G, including low latency (which many people really don’t care about) the whole new core has to be built. Which is expensive.

Also the 5G antenna panels are mostly ‘active’ and ‘Massive MIMO’ which is quite different to the passive antenna panels used for 2G/3G/4G and these things are massive (size of large doors) mounted high up in the air, or on buildings.

4G (actually LTE) was a massive jump forward from the old circuit-switched days, to the packet switched world. Same as moving from dialup to an ISP to a broadband system. It also means you can share the capacity with many more people, slower speeds but still connected, instead of getting saturation.

Those whom remember London railway stations before 4G will remember the congestion/saturation effect.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

What good is 5g if its oversold like crazy?

The purpose of 5G is to allow the networks to get more for the same spectrum and provide efficiencies to them.

You aren't the beneficiary. You just got duped into thinking it so you'd get 5G things.

Got a dual sim phone so going to order a 5p mobile sim which is on uncapped EE bandwidth, as I am curious if this is something related to me being on essentials, I suspect it might not be a mere 100mbit cap but also a lower priority during peak hours, I have barely use mobile data since moving over to that and the previous good performance was on uncapped.

I already observe e.g. that giffgaff is consistently faster than O2.

Edited by Chrysalis (Thu 23-Nov-23 15:20:18)

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

I already observe e.g. that giffgaff is consistently faster than O2.

Quite some finding, usually the opposite everywhere else in the UK

Well its ordered now, so I guess some time next week we find out if the performance characteristics change.

Already shipped and first class.

Edited by Chrysalis (Thu 23-Nov-23 19:13:36)

Ok sim has been here since early afternoon, I have some data. These are all with phone in 4G mode since we established I dont actually have 5G connectivity.

2.40pm

EE 76 down 64 up
1P 148 down 74 up

3.52pm

EE 48 down 44 up
1P 72 down 65 up

4.32pm

EE 54 down 36 up
1P 92 down 49 up

After 5pm everything changed massively on EE

5.02pm

EE 7.2 down upload failed.
1P 145 down 78 up.

5.14pm

EE 7,9 down 0.78 up
1P 142 down 72 up

5.18 pm

EE 16 down upload failed
1P 144 down 74 up

5.35 pm

EE 11.2 down 0.72 up
1P 114 down 64 up

Pre 5pm EE download speed gradually speeds up during test before it peaks, after 5pm it has an initial spike then flatlines at a very low speed, Pre 5pm upload is fast, after 5pm it either fails or is sub 1mbit. 1p keeps the same pattern, and actually sped up after 5pm, perhaps due to traffic shaping prioritising its traffic on a uncapped tariff?

Edited by Chrysalis (Fri 24-Nov-23 17:47:11)

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

Pre 5pm EE download speed gradually speeds up during test before it peaks, after 5pm it has an initial spike then flatlines at a very low speed, Pre 5pm upload is fast, after 5pm it either fails or is sub 1mbit. 1p keeps the same pattern, and actually sped up after 5pm, perhaps due to traffic shaping prioritising its traffic on a uncapped tariff?

Interesting 1p is faster when EE slows down. If you are on essentials it looks to me that as one of the downsides of reduced price is you get reduced speed when the local cell site is heavily loaded. Insane when you can just switch to 1p and a) save money and b) get faster speeds. Worth tweeting that nonsense to @EE and @MarcAllera (the EE/Consumer CEO) as that is just corporate insanity.

Since you have a 5G indicator, it is possible that upgrades are coming soon, and some masts very local to you may have 5G enabled already just not reaching your home.

The upgrades are complex, first the backhaul to the mast has to be radically increased (e.g. 1 or 2Gbps to 10Gbps) and then the antenna panels have to be changed or new ones added, along with the additional radio equipment. These things are expensive.

Your list of frequencies confuses me.

1846mhz - Band 3 - EE - general 20 MHz block on Band 3 used most of the UK
1861mhz - Band 3 - EE - one of the 10 MHz extension blocks on Band 3
2162mhz - Band 1 - Looks like O2's band 1 signal - do you have an O2 SIM as well in the same phone?
2662mhz - Band 7 - EE - one of the 15 MHz blocks

Potentially 45 MHz of spectrum deployed on EE, but that O2 signal is random.

Edited by jchamier (Fri 24-Nov-23 18:15:14)

I do plan to report it, but as always its getting past first line support, good idea on tweeting it, speedtest app also saves the graphs now so I can show the traffic pattern as well.

No O2 sim, I dont think cellmapper is particularly user friendly to use so not keen on diving back into the app again.

I did screenshot it and read from the screenshot, the 2162 is RX frequency and 1972 TX frequency.

MCC MNC TAC all had ? so is it possible it was just reporting a detected band within range but not connected? Its one of the many that appeared when speedtest ran.

Edited by Chrysalis (Fri 24-Nov-23 18:31:34)