News - 4G infrastructure rolling-out next month in UK

[HEXUS]

For Everything Everywhere, on the 1,800MHz band, that is.

Read more.

[abaxas]

How about some 3g coverage first... thanks.

[pctech2012]

Never mind the quality, look at the speed!

Every network bar O2 has naff coverage here so not got much of a choice who I use.

[circuitmonkey]

And just when I was getting up the courage to leave Orange

[3930k]

First time I hate being in O2.

[pctech2012]

I actually use GiffGaff

[crossy]

We could possibly see a rush of GALAXY S III LTE devices hit the UK all of a sudden, much to the dismay of new owners, or it could still be quite some time before a good range of 4G devices is available on the market.

I think the latter is most likely option - given that this EE announcement seems to be an extended trial.

Personally I'm not that bothered about 4G:
- (free?) wifi hotspots are springing up like mushrooms in autumn;
- folks are complaining that boring old 3G doesn't seem to have universal coverage now, so how likely is even half decent 4G;
- going on what I've heard from the US, 4G radio's drain the battery pretty badly;
- what's the use of that "fantastic" speed if the carriers are either going to apply a usage cap and/or throttle, (so we don't hurt their ickle-wickle networks - ah diddums);
- a good 3G radio seems to be enough to satisfy my moderate (mainly browser based) needs.

And if they are going to bring LTE versions of the GS3 to the UK, any chance we could get the Korean version rather than the US one? (Specs are reputedly better on the KR model).

[HalloweenJack]

3g coverage is awesome , cant wait for 4g!!

[Blademrk]

Never mind the quality, look at the speed!

Every network bar O2 has naff coverage here so not got much of a choice who I use.

It's the reverse here - O2 (3G) coverage is dire, I'm lucky to get Edge at times never mind 2G. While Three seems to have ~90% 3G coverage around here.

[keithwalton]

What we really need is a nationalised 4G coverage. Like the way we get our gas / elec.

So instead of everyones signals competing for the same airspace there will be just the one signal with blanket coverage.

The frequencies in use would be determined by location rather than who has the license, higher frequencies (1800mhz+) for urban areas where speed matters and lower frequency (800mhz) for rural areas where range matters.

Costs would be drastically reduced as the number of masts required would be cut by 2/3rd's.

It's not as if network sharing is unheard of
- Orange and T-mobile share both 2g & 3g with each other
- Three use O2 for 2g signals
- Giffgaff use O2
- Tesco / Adsa etc use O2

4G if done correctly will replace both 2 and 3g as it has both speed and range variants, those with weak 3g signals will get a better 4g signal.

[pctech2012]

Tesco use O2 and ASDA use Vodafone

[pollaxe]

It's the reverse here - O2 (3G) coverage is dire, I'm lucky to get Edge at times never mind 2G. While Three seems to have ~90% 3G coverage around here.

^Exactly the same for me.

[crossy]

3g coverage is awesome , cant wait for 4g!!

Major sarcasm? Actually from my experience it's really depends who you're with.

It's the reverse here - O2 (3G) coverage is dire, I'm lucky to get Edge at times never mind 2G. While Three seems to have ~90% 3G coverage around here.

Same here - when I was looking to quit Three, I looked at O2. But their 3G coverage is worse than Three's (although O2's 2G coverage is actually very good)

What we really need is a nationalised 4G coverage. Like the way we get our gas / elec.

I remember some pressure groups suggesting exactly that - mobile data coverage was perhaps more important than the universal broadband provision that the current govt seem to love. In which case it needed to be regarded as a "strategic" investment, and as such not left to the whims of the "market".
Needless to say that's not going to happen - this governments hell bent on squeezing the mobile carriers for every single penny (shame they couldn't be so diligent in collecting taxes owed)

- Orange and T-mobile share both 2g & 3g with each other

Understandable given that they're both parts of EE.

- Three use O2 for 2g signals

Erm, not as far as I know. When my old Three phone lost it's signal it used to roam off to Orange. Just did a quick check and that seems to be the SOP (although Three claim that their basic coverage in 3G has much improved - and I'd tend to agree).

[Primey0]

Better 3G would be nice before introducing 4G.

[NitrousX]

thats sweet hopefully smartphone manufacturers can implement 4G in the UK, you know what that means though. T-mobile & Orange will rub it in the faces of the other networks and advertise 4g availability, hopefully they keep their end of the bargain actually delivering the bandwidth speed.

[pctech2012]

Orange (Everything Everywhere) used to provide 2G fallback for Three but it is being withdrawn in areas where Three think 3G coverage is satisfactory as they have to pay EE to carry the calls.