Strange happenings with T mob / Orange signals

bhavv

bhavv

bhavv

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I recently found out that T mobile cap their data bandwidth to 1.8 Mbps, while the Orange network runs at up to 7.2 Mbps.

So since I can use Orange's network on my T mobile sim card, I thought I would try this out and had the orange internet settings sent to my phone. Previously on T mobile I was only getting a amx of around 2.0 Mbps.

Now with the orange settings, I can keep t mobile as my network setting and change the APN to orangeweb. This is now giving me a lovely 2.8 Mbps!

But if I change my network setting to Orange, I can still connect using T mobiles internet profile, but I dont get any 3G signal using orangeweb.

I want to try and use Orange for both the network and 3G settings to fully remove any of T mobiles bandwidth capping. I can use orange web on t mobile, and t mobile web on orange, but I cant use orangeweb on orange? :confused:

I called 150 and apparently its only the 2G network that is shared between T Mob and Orange, but it still lets me use their 3G settings, or T Mobiles internet through Orange ... which is strange.

Oh well never mind, I just did a mast search near my postcode using this site, and its not wonder why I have great 3G signal on T Mobile:

http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/

There are 3 x T Mobile UMTS, 3 x 3 UMTS, 3 x O2 mostly GSM, and only a single orange and vodaphone mast around my location. So even if I did use Orange's 3G, I would be a lot worse off.

I'm pretty much surrounded with several 3 and T Mobile 3G masts :)
 
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The 3G share is still rolling out, i roam on 'Orange T-Mobile' when i don't have an Orange signal and i get 3g, H and even H+.
 
DIABLO said:
The 3G share is still rolling out, i roam on 'Orange T-Mobile' when i don't have an Orange signal and i get 3g, H and even H+.
Click to expand...

Same here, last night was in Southall having a meal with some family and friends and found on my BB 9900 that i had 3G but with Tmobile and Orange...was quite surprised as before id only get it as GPRS when sharing masts.

Im with Tmobile as it is.
 
Its so odd that I can use Oranges internet settings while roaming on T Mobile, I can use T Mobiles settings while roaming on Orange, but cant use Orange network + APN :x

I want my 7.2 Mbps dammit.
 
I'm happy with 1.8. That also would explain why my tmobile data connection is faster than my wifi
 
If I switch my Orange phone from "Orange" to "Orange-T-mobile" do I also need to put in a T-Mobile APN somewhere?

When I set my phone to automatically pick providers I often get shifted to "Orange-T-mobile", but I always get "G" for data instead of "3g" or "H" when I use Orange.

In the last couple of days I switched to "Orange-T-mobile", I also get 3g, H and H+. However, no data services (Internet, g-mail, speedtests) seem to work.

I was wanting to make use of the T-mobile 3G as I believe they have better speeds and coverage than Orange. I am using a SGS2 and the only APNs in my settings are "orangeinternet" and "orange MMS".


rp2000
 
rp2000 said:
If I switch my Orange phone from "Orange" to "Orange-T-mobile" do I also need to put in a T-Mobile APN somewhere?

When I set my phone to automatically pick providers I often get shifted to "Orange-T-mobile", but I always get "G" for data instead of "3g" or "H" when I use Orange.

In the last couple of days I switched to "Orange-T-mobile", I also get 3g, H and H+. However, no data services (Internet, g-mail, speedtests) seem to work.

I was wanting to make use of the T-mobile 3G as I believe they have better speeds and coverage than Orange. I am using a SGS2 and the only APNs in my settings are "orangeinternet" and "orange MMS".


rp2000
Click to expand...

If i manually select 'Orange T-Mobile' on my SGS2 everything works fine. :confused:
 
DIABLO said:
If i manually select 'Orange T-Mobile' on my SGS2 everything works fine. :confused:
Click to expand...

Just done it again and the data fails. I then de-activated/activated data and it works!! Speed seems to be the same as Orange in my current location (about 1mb down and 400k up.

I have set the phone to automatically select networks now, getting Orange-T-mobile atm.


rp2000
 
i get edge [which is 2 g classed in the switch over] on tmobile-orange and everything with t mobile

actual provider is t mobile but since orange does not have 3g in my area i do not know if i automatically get it. Edge is fairly fast to me anyway, will miss that when i move over to o2 soon
 
There's a few people at work on Orange. Our building can be a difficult place to get 3G on any network. Since about a week ago they have all been getting Orange/T-mobile 3G
 
Yea T mobile have loads more 3G coverage (I believe that all their masts are 3G now like 3).

Its also funny that Orange now state that they have 3G coverage for 93% of the uk population when this is due to being able to use T mobiles APN on Orange or vice versa.

I think T Mobile had to cap their bandwidth and vastly reduce their data policies because they expanded into 3G too quickly over the last few years and couldnt cope with the number of people using their data services. With orange the bandwidth is uncapped, but good luck with getting decent orange - orange 3G signal.

The thing I live a 5 minute walk away from a hospital that has one of every networks mast right next to it. Then the only other nearby masts are T mobile and 3 UMTS masts, plus two O2 GSM masts.
 
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bhavv said:
Yea T mobile have loads more 3G coverage (I believe that all their masts are 3G now like 3).

Its also funny that Orange now state that they have 3G coverage for 93% of the uk population when this is due to being able to use T mobiles APN on Orange or vice versa.
Click to expand...
Either you made this up or you're being fed bad info. Coverage figures are independent of partnershare due to rollout not being fully completed and the figures are the other way around - pop % coverage is greater for Ora. There are still 2G masts for T-M but the majority are multi-mode, three never had 2G sites because they always brought someone elses coverage for that so it's a poor comparison.

As for messing about with APNs, it's all to do with your home network and the routing that happens at the back end as to the question of what you are seeing from your experiments.

Remember, the design of the RAN share is based on people NOT doing this - you manually changing APNs to try this is expected and accounted for, but this isn't a good way to go about removing the cap I'm sorry :(
 
Oh, Orange do have better overall coverage than T Mob:

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/ofcoms-3g-coverage-maps-o2-embarrassed-49302921/

But where I live there are more T Mobile and 3 masts. So after T mobile and Orange merge their 3G networks, I still wont be able to use Orange to get more than 1.8 Mbps? :(

My speedtest app was going up to 3.1 Mbps through Oranges APN earlier, and my steam downloads sped up too.

Sky decided to send me a replacement router for free though because my broadband hasnt been working for over 2 weeks. We were out of warranty and they wanted £50 for a replacement router at first.
 
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