Vodafone and Three

MouldyOldDough

Will Vodafones merger with Three positively affect my phone signal with Talkmobile - or the share only relevant to Vodafone and Three themselves and not virtual operators ?

or will they just use this as an excuse to dispense with unwanted repetition of towers ?

At present - at home Vodafone is the best of a worst bunch - download averaging around 3Mbps on 4G !

I find that the network coverage maps - either lie or are considerably out signal strength wise

flaneurs_lobster

From front page of their website

Automatically access both Vodafone and Three networks for more coverage, at no extra cost.

MouldyOldDough

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81986595#Comment_81986595

So, apart from 5G ultra (we don't have 5G) - they should be identical ?

https://www.simsherpa.com/networks/compare/talkmobile-vs-vodafone

oldernonethewiser

You'll be able to connect to the nearest strongest cell tower which should be identical for customers of the merged companies.

Interesting that Lebara are not part of the sharing arrangement.

brewerdave

I'm on ID mobile ,nominally 3, but for the last few months I've been connecting to a Vodafone tower whilst at home. No more problems with calls or data than before the merger ,although the signal isn't good enough indoors so use wifi calling.

tinker411

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81987121#Comment_81987121

Other way round-ish here as I'm on Talkmobile (runs on Vodafone) as backup, and it's quite… well... I'm not sure what the best word is to say what they've done here. At home I'm primarily covered by 3 different masts and changes since the merger so far (over the last few months) are:

Mast 1 - full share, running on a Three mast

Mast 2 - Three's equipment has been moved over to the Vodafone mast (they share a location) but they're not using all of each other's spectrum (both share pretty much everything except, from cursory testing, 2600 on Vodafone while Three use additional 5G instead).

Mast 3 - no change, Three and Vodafone running seperately.

One thing I'll say about mast 2 though - data speeds have rocketed, especially to how they were seperately.

MouldyOldDough

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81987210#Comment_81987210

How do you know which specific mast, you are connected to at a specific time - because they constantly change ?

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81987513#Comment_81987513

Is your question

a) can you connect to more than one mast at a time?

Yes, particularly in cities and particularly with 5G, although 4G too. One will be primary with others maintaining connection in case they need to take over (if say you were moving or someone parks a lorry next to you or the local school kicks out)

or b) can you identify which mast(s) you're connected to?

Yes, there's apps for that - CellMapper or NetMonster are two that come to mind - there's others.

brewerdave

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81987744#Comment_81987744

I use Cellmapper - but the main issue I've found is that my phone connects randomly to one of 3/4 masts that are "local" - (altho not really near to us) and can even switch between them whilst I'm surfing -makes doing comparisons of download speeds nigh on impossible !

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81988533#Comment_81988533

Yes, that's exactly what they are designed to do, trying to load balance while maintaining an optimal connection.

It's particularly true of 5G, which is primarily optimised to give greater capacity/coverage by using more masts/mini aerials at lower power, not particularly to give greater speed.

The "standard" test - can everyone in a 30k capacity sports stadium message their pals at the same time when their team scores.