RWG coverage?

savergrant

So what do you infer from rwg's statement;

"We are working with EE to launch these and we are hopeful that 5G will be launching by the end of March. Once 5G is launched the further services for Band 20 will follow."

They don't say we are working to launch 5g, volte, and vowifi by the end of March, nor that volte and vowifi will be available once 5g is launched. They say "will follow"

verb (used with object)

to come after in sequence, order of time, etc.

PHK

If they launch 5G without VoLTE then anyone using 5G won't be able to make calls because EE hasn't launched standalone 5G. So they must have VoLTE at the same time 5G launches.

ProDave

PHK said:

If they launch 5G without VoLTE then anyone using 5G won't be able to make calls because EE hasn't launched standalone 5G. So they must have VoLTE at the same time 5G launches.

Does that imply a new 5G phone no longer includes 2G and 3G then?  Makes sense as they are being phased out.

savergrant

I would assume it would mean that you would receive a signal on Band 20 and be able to use data, but need to climb out of the valley to get a 2g/3g signal to make or receive a phone call.

PHK

ProDave said:

PHK said:

If they launch 5G without VoLTE then anyone using 5G won't be able to make calls because EE hasn't launched standalone 5G. So they must have VoLTE at the same time 5G launches.

Does that imply a new 5G phone no longer includes 2G and 3G then?  Makes sense as they are being phased out.

A 5G phone does receive 3G and 2G. But this doesn't mean the phone can switch to 3G/2G from 5G for several reasons. 

 3G is being switched off this year/early next year.

More relevant to this is that the coverage areas are different. Also a lot of the 2G spectrum has been refarmed. 

tinker411

alanjones60 said:

Regarding band 20 exclusivly being used for wifi calling,i have seen my 3 data reward sim connect to wifi calling on band 3, 20,and 28

Yes - that's because Three (unlike EE) is agnostic when it comes to band access and VoLTE. My Three sim would cheerfully use bands 1, 3, 20 and 28 for VoLTE. Band 32 would probably work too but there's none of that here so can't say for sure.

d123 said:

savergrant said:

But if rwg have "full access" to everything else how can your 1pmobile sim get a signal when the rwg sim can't? 

I think the answer is that B20 is off limits on EE if you don't have VoLTE. When RWG get access then the coverage will be similar to 1P.

Here's one discussion about it on the EE forum

https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Mobile-Network-discussions/Re-Using-a-PAYG-SIM-to-prove-Network-Coverage/td-p/1157771

Yes, that's right.

To summarise, as the thread has taken quite a turn:

If your handset doesn't support VoLTE then you won't get band 20 access on EE.

If your handset does support VoLTE but your EE provider does not (e.g. Plusnet, Zevvle, RWG) then you won't get band 20 access on EE.

If your handset and your EE provider both support VoLTE (e.g. EE, UW, 1p) then you'll get band 20 access on EE.

alanjones60

If 3 use these bands for wifi calling,can others do it too,or do they they choose not to?. I chose 3 originally,because they allow wificalling on payg.
I was impressed with 3 when my 02 branded s7 worked with wificalling straight away. I didnt think it would 

tinker411

alanjones60 said:

If 3 use these bands for wifi calling,can others do it too,or do they they choose not to?. I chose 3 originally,because they allow wificalling on payg.
I was impressed with 3 when my 02 branded s7 worked with wificalling straight away. I didnt think it would 

Yes, the networks can all do it on multiple bands for VoLTE, EE is just restricting it to VoLTE only on band 20 as it doesn't have much band 20 to use. As things stand though there can be restrictions, which may (or may not) be arbitrary, depending on your point of view, although this is going to change regardless with the big 3G (and eventually 2G) switch offs.

For example; here, O2 will provide VoLTE (4G calling) on bands 1, 3, 8, 20, 28 and 40 - but only for pay monthly customers.

Three on the other hand initially did it the other way round - their VoLTE rollout was initially band 20 only (remember Supervoice) and, because they don't have much band 20 either, had various restrictions on it. Eventually they liberalised it, rolled VoLTE out on their other bands, and are where they are now.

alanjones60

Great info. Very interesting. Thanks tinker411

d123

alanjones60 said:

If 3 use these bands for wifi calling,can others do it too,or do they they choose not to?. I chose 3 originally,because they allow wificalling on payg.
I was impressed with 3 when my 02 branded s7 worked with wificalling straight away. I didnt think it would 

Before this adds to the confusion, wificalling is VoWiFi, Voice over WiFi and is not the subject under discussion. This allows calls to be made/received over a WiFi network.

VoLTE is Voice over LTE (4G) and is what is used to carry voice calls over the 4G network.