Orange & T Mobile 3G Share

Chives

Chives

Chives

Soldato
Joined
17 Dec 2009
Posts
3,664
Location
Wales
Has this gone live yet?
I remember someone saying earlier in the year that it was going live at around this time, anyone got any update on that? :)
 
Is this the whole "you can use Orange's network if you have no T-Mobile signal"? I always thought that was 2G only, not 3G...?
 
I was just reading something on digitalspy: http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1453047&page=19

A year ago today, EE launched 2G national roaming. I can now confirm that we are now commited to rolling out 3G national roaming, AND 2G seamless call handover in "the coming weeks". It was announced internally this morning that all obstacles had been overcome (technical and legal) and the rollout is happening in the weeks ahead.

Although I have only been able to provide bits here and there up until now (most of it what I have already stated), I am happy to confirm officially it is now happening, and there will be more info as soon as I get it.
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Bit more of an update....

2G in-call seamless handover will start rolling out on 12th October. This will be on a regional basis and will run until the year end.

3G roamiing will follow soon after and will be activated the same way as 2G roaming was. In batches of accounts at a time.
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I don't understand, ive been using orange edge network at home permanently since the switch, i know its not 3g but i thought it all applied
 
so to confim. soon the phone will think of 2g tmobile/orange as one network and not drop all reception for 10 seconds to switch? then 3g will be the same? i hate how it is atm my phone spends all day trying to 0 bars of tmobile over full on orange, then it'll decide f it go to orange which means i am without reception at times, then it'll try again to switch back to tmobile and repeat
 
It will include HSDPA as if you can make it work for CDMA you can make it work for all codecs basically - this was the issue rather than the tech level. The network, AFAIK, will still behave the same Mammalian - seamless handover for calls is where one tower takes up the call as another drops it. Think of it as passing towers on a motorway, you need to keep the call going so the towers "hand over" the call to the next tower along. This is going to happen with T-M and Orange now. AFAIK it's still going to have 2 network IDs, don't think it's going to be called the EE network yet (and when it's finally merged you can expect a similar trick to the one MVMO's use to rename a network).

Marketing have a push ready to drop for 3G partner roaming, wouldn't want to miss out on an opportunity to stick the knife in now would we. Our new CEO has gone a bit overboard on the announcements for 3G roaming internally, I'm sure he can't wait to tell the press.

EDIT: I just removed the bit about speedcaps as I read it as monthly bw caps when it's not what you said sorry - this is a good question and although I can't obviously get one of you on the trial we are running to test it, I think the speedcap can't transfer to the Ora network as we don't have the limiter in the same place on the network as T-M so I SUSPECT the cap may not function when roaming. I can't confirm this as I go through handsets like people go through weeks of the year but it should be OK.
 
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This appears to have gone live in my area, my phone is now showing T Mobile & Orange along with a 3G symbol in some areas with a weak orange signal :)
 
It would always show that anyway, at least on mine, but speeds would be edge.

Kind of like how when limited to 3G by t-mob, the phone would still show H.

You'd have to do a speed test to be sure - 0.35Mbps is max of 3G compared to about 0.04Mbps for Edge.
 
englishpremier said:
It would always show that anyway, at least on mine, but speeds would be edge.

Kind of like how when limited to 3G by t-mob, the phone would still show H.

You'd have to do a speed test to be sure - 0.35Mbps is max of 3G compared to about 0.04Mbps for Edge.
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Done a speed test, got around 2mb download speed, so its defiantly 3G
 
I actually got T-Mobile 3G in Plymouth this week and i'm an Orange customer, so it's either switched over or is in the process of happening.
 
Surely Orange are going to lose loads of customers to T-Mobile IF t mobile users can use orange's network / signal strength?

Orange have always been the best for signal quality but they've also been the most expensive network of the top 4 as a general rule. T-mobile are the reverse, extremely cheap but imo - CRAP signal.

I've always been happy to pay the little extra as an orange customer for this reason of good signal coverage.

However if i Can get cheap phone deals with t-mobile and use orange's signal masts then I see no reason to continue my loyalty with orange and might as well jump ship!

Anyone else feeling me on that?
 
Oddly enough I was just thinking about this earlier. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be active yet here, as although T-Mobile shows a better dB figure, it won't go above G data connection yet.
 
jm240 said:
Anyone else feeling me on that?
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It's like you cracked the marketing code! This is the general direction both brands are going in for now, there's a brand review in 2012. When it comes down to it no network is really better than another currently, marketing has a much bigger sway in the populations opinion on coverage than real coverage increases does.

For serious, when we (orange) run adverts saying our coverage is amazing peoples perception of it goes up without us doing a sodding thing.

And 3G roaming is on down south, roughly :)

Chives - you on a standard web'n'talk+ with no speed cap?
 
Myshra said:
It's like you cracked the marketing code! This is the general direction both brands are going in for now, there's a brand review in 2012. When it comes down to it no network is really better than another currently, marketing has a much bigger sway in the populations opinion on coverage than real coverage increases does.

For serious, when we (orange) run adverts saying our coverage is amazing peoples perception of it goes up without us doing a sodding thing.

And 3G roaming is on down south, roughly :)

Chives - you on a standard web'n'talk+ with no speed cap?
Click to expand...

I'm with Orange on an iPhone contract :)
Web n talk is a t mobile contract isn't it?
 
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