EE's degraded service and coverage - time to leave after 15 years?

diamonds

d123 wrote: »

It actually doesn't, and a misconception commonly made by those who get their information by reading on the internet.

From the obligation:



O2 just has to supply a 2 Mbps download speed 90% of the time, on a lightly loaded network, using any technology it wishes.

3G can easily fulfil the obligation, so don't hold your breath waiting for a world beating 4G network from O2.

The obligation is pretty much just PR.

You can read the full OFCOM award statement to broaden your knowledge on the auction, if you wish:

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/award-800mhz/statement/4GCov-verification.pdf

It ain't my fault many well known publications gave incorrect info, I simply passed on the info from 18 Dec as no one had contributed the info.

diamonds

ZhugeEX wrote: »

It is worth noting though that the 90% geographical coverage will apply to calls/texts coverage. So this deal isn't specific to one type of technology. With just 2G you can have 90% geographical coverage which means operators may choose to invest in increasing 2G rather than 4G or vice versa. Either way it's just reliant on having calls/texts signal and not data and it doesn't mention anything about existing population coverage where signal may be weak.

So if this does go through before 2017 it'll be interesting to see where the networks are. So far we have:



*Three was at 35% outdoor population coverage on 4G by June 31st 2014
*Three is at 48% outdoor population coverage on 4G as of December 2014.

3 should have been forced by Ofcom to use the 1800 spectrum from EE on 2G coverage as well as 3/4G, thus creating a level playing field for consumers.... it prob have been a massive improvement over EE 2G lol

ZhugeEX

diamonds wrote: »

3 should have been forced by Ofcom to use the 1800 spectrum from EE on 2G coverage as well as 3/4G, thus creating a level playing field for consumers....

No point at all.

Three's current plan is to roll out 1800MHz to 80% of the UK population which will cover cities/towns and areas that require extra capacity.

Three's plan for 800MHz is to roll it out nationwide along with VoLTE. Three are hoping that their cumulative indoor coverage across 3G/4G will add up to 95%+ and in turn their geographical coverage will be increased as well.

Hence why 2G isn't needed on Three at all.

Here is what Three's 4G coverage map should look like at the end of the roll out-



Three currently have over 3.1m customers with a 4G device. Over 4.0m customers have a HD Voice compatible device and over 95% of Three's current customer base use a smartphone. As of the end of 2014, Three have over 15.4k cumulative sites with 13k+ upgraded to DC-HSPA+ and 2.5k+ upgraded to 4G. Three plan to roll out a further 2k sites to reach their target of over 17k total in 2015.

EE's plan is slightly different. That is to roll out 1800MHz to every site. 800MHz will only be rolled out to rural areas at first. 2600MHz will be used for LTE-Advanced in cities/towns.

diamonds

ZhugeEX wrote: »

No point at all.

Three's current plan is to roll out 1800MHz to 80% of the UK population which will cover cities/towns and areas that require extra capacity.

Three's plan for 800MHz is to roll it out nationwide along with VoLTE. Three are hoping that their cumulative indoor coverage across 3G/4G will add up to 95%+ and in turn their geographical coverage will be increased as well.

Hence why 2G isn't needed on Three at all.

Here is what Three's 4G coverage map should look like at the end of the roll out-



Three currently have over 3.1m customers with a 4G device. Over 4.0m customers have a HD Voice compatible device and over 95% of Three's current customer base use a smartphone. As of the end of 2014, Three have over 15.4k cumulative sites with 13k+ upgraded to DC-HSPA+ and 2.5k+ upgraded to 4G. Three plan to roll out a further 2k sites to reach their target of over 17k total in 2015.

EE's plan is slightly different. That is to roll out 1800MHz to every site. 800MHz will only be rolled out to rural areas at first. 2600MHz will be used for LTE-Advanced in cities/towns.

That's all great but 3G runs batteries down, esp in areas where coverage is poor and handsets are looking to hold on to a signal.


2G coverage really would have said something to consumers about 3, even using some 800mhz would have been crushing to o2 and Voda on 900mhz 2G. Its all very well these^ plans but 4G on EE and 3 in my extended regional area runs at below 3G+ (7.2) speeds because MBNL does not have the backhaul capacity so it would be wise to compete on 2G coverage.


Given EE provide 3 2G coverage in these areas and yup you have guessed right, where there is no 3G there is also no EE 2G for the most part.

ZhugeEX

Not quite sure I see your argument Diamonds. Especially as this is 2014 and not 2004. Building a 2G network is pointless when 1)you've had a 3G network since opening and that's the whole point of Three 2) you already have roaming on 2G via EE in the places that don't have 3G services.

There is no ROI with 2G at this point. It'd be like Virgin Media suddenly going back to offering ADSL as a selling point.

The fact is that 4G can offer Data, Voice and Text over IP much better than 3G or 2G. More than 35% of Three's userbase already has a 4G device and with their whole "no extra cost" for 4G promotion that number is only going to grow.

Also everyone is investing 4G for the very reason to eventually phase out 2G.

GooliesOfFire

d123 wrote: »

No one is being forced to switch to 4G.

I'm still officially with T-Mobile for another 2 months (I've got their SIM in my spare phone now). If I didn't auto reject EE numbers they would harass me to switch to EE on weekly basis. I'm about to leave T-Mobile once the contract is over.

I find EE's 4G offer ridiculous anyway. I'm currently with Giffgaff on my main phone, about to switch to Three.

d123

diamonds wrote: »

2G coverage really would have said something to consumers about 3, even using some 800mhz

You do realise Three only has 2x5MHz of 800MHz? If they were to do as you suggest what spectrum would you want them to run 4G on?

d123

GooliesOfFire wrote: »

I'm still officially with T-Mobile for another 2 months (I've got their SIM in my spare phone now). If I didn't auto reject EE numbers they would harass me to switch to EE on weekly basis. I'm about to leave T-Mobile once the contract is over.

I find EE's 4G offer ridiculous anyway. I'm currently with Giffgaff on my main phone, about to switch to Three.

You might be getting sales calls and offered incentives, but as long as you don't want an upgrade you won't be forced to migrate to EE (at least not yet).

grumbler

ZhugeEX wrote: »

.... 2G coverage isn't being actively reduced.

Why is it getting worse than 3g in some areas then? Were some decommissioned masts 2g-only? If so, I don't see how this can be seriously called "optimisation"

>> Orange or EE

d123 wrote: »

No one is being forced to switch to 4G.

OK, I'll rephrase this.
They offer 4g with EE only, don't they? And, IIRC, at extra price.
And they use every opportunity, even cold calling, to push Orange and TMob customers to switch to EE.

ZhugeEX

grumbler wrote: »

Why is it getting worse than 3g in some areas then? Were some decommissioned masts 2g-only? If so, I don't see how this can be seriously called "optimisation"

>> Orange or EE

Orange masts are being decommissioned. That will include both 2G and 3G masts.

Surely you understand that when they say "optimisation" they're talking in favour of EE. It's just a nice way of dressing it up. In the same way that Vodafone and O2 are currently "optimising" their network.

In regards to that other thread. It's a very simple answer.

Some phones, especially older phones won't have the SIM settings to roam onto T-Mobiles network. As you're aware EE now has 2G/3G sharing between T-Mo and Orange. But these really really old phones with Orange SIM cards will only ever pick up an Orange signal from an Orange mast as they don't have the ability to roam onto T-Mobile's networks.

So in the case that an Orange mast is taken down the user will lose signal as it can't roam onto the T-Mobile mast. For everyone else they won't notice a difference as they'll just connect to the T-Mobile mast.

In this case it's the OP who needs to buy a cheap £5 2G phone and swap their SIM card to a new one in order to fix the issue.