T-Mobile & Orange = EE

Nothings changed then. I never used to get any signal in BDP after they shut down the cell connected to the BDP switch. Even being close to Eagleswood didnlt help.

Yep. I'm over in Aztec now, PG wasn't too bad but over here it's terrible :(
 
I only ever had the pleasure of going to Aztec for the very occasional meeting, but I spent 1/2 my time in PG, the other half in BDP. I did occasionally go to the switch in Eagleswood, or the stores that were in Unit 6 but that was about it.
 
Ah cool. No matter here as I got the S3 back at launch.

Someone I know is looking at the S3 but was asking about 4G version. TBH I said it probably is not worth it just now. Coverage will be patchy, costs higher, battery life impacted and why would the average user really need that kind of speed over and above the 3-6MB you can get on 3G??

Is 4G REALLY that big of a deal in the UK just now in comparison to 3G FOR THE AVERAGE USER?

Who here genuinely NEEDS 4G and why? (genuine question)

Once you can tether 4G you could play games on the go, watch tv, browse faster e.t.c the usual why why why question. ;)

Why have a faster PC, why have more ram, why have an ssd, why ? why?
 
Ah cool. No matter here as I got the S3 back at launch.

Someone I know is looking at the S3 but was asking about 4G version. TBH I said it probably is not worth it just now. Coverage will be patchy, costs higher, battery life impacted and why would the average user really need that kind of speed over and above the 3-6MB you can get on 3G??

Is 4G REALLY that big of a deal in the UK just now in comparison to 3G FOR THE AVERAGE USER?

Who here genuinely NEEDS 4G and why? (genuine question)

It's a big deal for us in the countryside, a massive deal.

I have the choice between 3g with one bar and with 60% Coverage of any signal where I go
or
No 3g and 90% signal coverage

I choose 3g

It's not the speed of 4g its the coverage. Even 3g is about 3-4 times speed of our home broadband
 
It's a big deal for us in the countryside, a massive deal.

I have the choice between 3g with one bar and with 60% Coverage of any signal where I go
or
No 3g and 90% signal coverage

I choose 3g

It's not the speed of 4g its the coverage. Even 3g is about 3-4 times speed of our home broadband


I get that (I live in the country as well) but, given you live in the country, it may not be until the end of 2013 (70% coverage) or into 2014 (98% coverage by end) before you get LTE coverage anyway. Oh and that is % population, not % geographical area so you may still not have great LTE coverage



Can you explain this bit some more? -

You connect to 3G and get 1bar with 60% coverage of any signal. Do I assume this means 2G as well (voice/SMS signal)? but if you connect to just plain 2G then you have better coverage?

3G coverage and 2G coverage are not linked that way AFAIK. You could have crap 3G but, assuming the 2G was great before 3G was added to the area, this does not affect 2G coverage i.e. it will still be great.
 
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3G coverage and 2G coverage are not linked that way AFAIK. You could have crap 3G but, assuming the 2G was great before 3G was added to the area, this does not affect 2G coverage i.e. it will still be great.

I have no idea about this so I'm guessing....

Doesn;t your phone decide what is acceptable and what is not. If it sees a 2G and 3G signal it would "prefer" the 3G and switch to that, however if the signal is marginal then it take a far bit dropped calls, poor data and missed texts for the phone to drop back to 2G.

This is how it seems for me and I live in an marginal 3G area.
 
It's 2 separate signals effectively. Voice calls and SMS are routed over the 2G network, only data is routed over 3G. The phone SHOULD basically see them as different signals hence why it has 2 readouts - the standard signal bars for 2G and the G/3G/H/H+ etc for the data network (G is actually 2G, the other 3 are 3G).

Most phones are designed (via the software it is running) to drop back to 2G when in standby to lower power usage and extend battery life. If you keep an eye on the 3G signal indicator, it should jump back up to the H/H+ when you start to use the data connection IF the 3G signal is strong enough of course.


That is another aspect of 4G - Will the extra battery usage it uses over 3G be balanced out by the less time it needs to transfer the same amount of data e.g. 1 min of 4G takes 5 mins of 3G for same data, will the battery impact be the same? Or, for the people that need 4G (people who's job has them out in the field a lot and remote logging in etc), will they have to carry chargers and batteries with them?
 
It's 2 separate signals effectively. Voice calls and SMS are routed over the 2G network, only data is routed over 3G. The phone SHOULD basically see them as different signals hence why it has 2 readouts - the standard signal bars for 2G and the G/3G/H/H+ etc for the data network (G is actually 2G, the other 3 are 3G).

Most phones are designed (via the software it is running) to drop back to 2G when in standby to lower power usage and extend battery life. If you keep an eye on the 3G signal indicator, it should jump back up to the H/H+ when you start to use the data connection IF the 3G signal is strong enough of course.


That is another aspect of 4G - Will the extra battery usage it uses over 3G be balanced out by the less time it needs to transfer the same amount of data e.g. 1 min of 4G takes 5 mins of 3G for same data, will the battery impact be the same? Or, for the people that need 4G (people who's job has them out in the field a lot and remote logging in etc), will they have to carry chargers and batteries with them?

Not quite, 3G is used for both voice & data traffic if the signal strength/quality are good enough. The network will try to steer your handset towards 3G if it can, but will fall back to 2G if necessary.

LTE is only going to be for data (initially) with fallback to 2G when you make a voice call. Though eventually LTE will handle voice and data just as 3G does (it's more efficient use of the spectrum to use 3G/4G for voice since the data is all packets rather than a dedicated virtual circuit.

Most operators need to have separate transmitting hardware for 2G/3G/4G, these are often co-located at the same physical sites, but not always. Huawei BTS hardware (used by EE) for example has both 2G & 4G transmission equipment in the same cabinet.
 
Ah right, fair enough. I thought it still handled voice calls the same way it did when 3G initially came out. I guess with the better hardware and coverage/capacity, they switched it over.
 
I get that (I live in the country as well) but, given you live in the country, it may not be until the end of 2013 (70% coverage) or into 2014 (98% coverage by end) before you get LTE coverage anyway. Oh and that is % population, not % geographical area so you may still not have great LTE coverage



Can you explain this bit some more? -

You connect to 3G and get 1bar with 60% coverage of any signal. Do I assume this means 2G as well (voice/SMS signal)? but if you connect to just plain 2G then you have better coverage?

3G coverage and 2G coverage are not linked that way AFAIK. You could have crap 3G but, assuming the 2G was great before 3G was added to the area, this does not affect 2G coverage i.e. it will still be great.

Oh sorry,

2 different networks

three: get one Bar H signal in one room of my house, so works nicely as a hotspot. but in my day to day travel etc i only get signal about 60% of the time, 3 have stoppped a lot of their 2g sharing leaving big holes

o2:no 3g anywhere except where i work but their 2g coverage is far far better.

but considering i use my phone as device 90% of the time i use my 3 service almost exclusively

yeah i am aware 4g may be a while away as yet and possibly years and years. but as i have said in other threads id pay 50pm maybe 60pm if i got an unlimited data cap with tethering permitted whatever network was first to provide it
 
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