Which is best 3G network? Is it Three?

ssdlucas

ssdlucas

ssdlucas

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Which 3G network is the best in and around London for speed and coverage.

I was wondering about Three, or maybe Vodaphone or Orange are better?
 
Not sure about Voda, but we have Three and Orange handsets for our engineers in London. No problems with Three, but Orange is poor for reception, expecially around Soho and Covent Garden.
 
My problem is reception when not in towns on O2. 3G in Belfast and Ballymena but not on the M2 on the way between them. (Or the train as I actually don't drive). Always annoying dropping to GPRS.
 
Yesterday in Finsbury Park on Orange I only had a 2G connection, my brother had H on Vodafone. Last week in Covent Garden, once again just a 2G connection.

Strangely, at home in Finchley my brother has a terrible connection and mine's good.

I've just received a GiffGaff (O2's network) PAYG SIM for testing and have a Vodafone one on it's way.

I guess I need to get a Three SIM.

I've been with Orange 17 years, but I guess with data being so important, I need to just move to whoever is best.

How are Three outside of London, still the best?
 
I always get H+ in London central on Vodafone. I get H almost anywhere else outside of central parts.
 
Consistency is honestly just as important as signal type. The bigger problem is masts have a set number of max connections for lack of a better way of explaining it and as zones get crowded the more the phones are more likely to be backed down to 2G which has more connections (and can be half-rate codec'd to allow more calls through at the same time).

I can understand why you'd want to know average speed but how would it be measured? How could the networks do it in a fair way considering a bit impact to it is the user equipment/weather/distance-to-mast/LoS/Time of day?

You mentioned Convent so I'm going to guess the place was pretty crowded considering it was a weekend and the zone was likely swamped. Some of the <network X> people would have got HSxPA, some would have got 2g, it's a bit random like that when the network planners go for average coverage over a week.

I always get H+ in London central on Vodafone. I get H almost anywhere else outside of central parts.
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This is because they only rolled it out to certain metro areas (and their HQ in Newbury naturally)
 
Covent Garden was a Tuesday around 6:30pm.

Sure, but if I'm on a 2G connection because my provider has too many people on one mast and several other people on a different network are still on 3G and getting good speeds, I'd rather be on their network. It's not much consolation to know there might be some others in the area using 3G on my network :(

Hopefully I will get enough results than an average will be a pretty good measure. So far no-one has done it though, which surprises me, it literally takes 30 seconds. :(
 
I'll be moving away from Orange when my renewal is due.

I find the coverage awful where I live even though we are covered by 3G on their maps and I can't even manage an EDGE signal at work.

I'm sat next to 2 guys who are on Vodafone and Three and who both have full HSDPA signals. When I do have 3G or H I find the speeds very very poor.

On Thursday of last week I had 4 bars of HSDPA and it took well over 5 mins to download a 1.9mb pdf file from my email.

I'm also getting pretty pee'd off with the 'you have missed a call from xxxxx' texts messages from Orange when my phone is sat on the desk doing nothing.
 
I regret moving to vodafone each and every day. Their signal in this part of the country (east) is absolutely shocking if you are anywhere but in a major centre. T-mobile/orange were fabulous.

Just hoping that when I move to bristol it's a bit better!
 
I've found the complete opposite. Vodafone has been utterly amazing.
With signal in remote areas no other company has a signal in and even having signal part way into a tunnel, I don't even understand how that works.

It's a bit like delivery companies, it depends on your location.
 
AndyCr15 said:
I've had a pretty poor response thus far :( Really surprises me as it will only take 30 seconds to do and surely we all benefit... am I missing something?
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Can't you make it so the maps are available and results go straight on, emailing it to you and stating that you might release maps publicly. Isn't going to get much interest.

Perhaps the programming section could help you out if you can't code such a webpage, or even phone app.
 
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