So....4g then ?

joxby

joxby

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EE are not investing in their own fibre network, simply piggybacking either BT or Virgin cable, I'm stuck on 1.5mb BT wet string after being used to 20mb cable, with no prospect of improvement, I'm thinking maybe 4g is the only possible way of getting back to useful internet speeds.

Will 4g be the answer for those stuck with an internet service circa 1998.
Its not gonna help those that truly live out in the sticks but areas close to major cities with good 3g connection but crap everything else ought to be able to jump on the high speed bandwagon......right ?
 
I'd be surprised if we see any decent level of coverage or affordability in 4g for around a year.
 
Well there's no accounting for red tape, licensing rows, cost formulations and god knows what else, and I don't think for one mi nute 4g will be as cheap as 3g initially, but it seems to convert 3g to 4g doesn't hold the significant logistical problems or investment that wiring half the country up with fibre does.



Such an evolution is also reflected in the upgrading method from 3G to 4G. It is said that the existing 3G mobile base station can be smoothly transformed to a 4G one through simple equipment upgrading and the users feel nothing during the process of upgrading.
For average users, what is most obvious is that 4G is faster than 3G. During the TD-LTE network test in a bus in Hangzhou, the network speed can reach 80M per second, dozens of times of the current 3G speed. Time delay is significantly improved compared to that in 3G. Under a static state, the downloading speed of TD-LTE is as high as 100M per second, exceeding the speed of normal broadband of traditional fixed network, so as to really solve the trouble of cable and go on line at any time and any site in any way.
4G brings a quicker network speed with usability no worse than the one of 3G and service charge expected to be no more than that of 3G. People do not need to replace the mobile phones with different standards. With additional devices like network converter, you can convert 4G signal into WIFI to receive. And you can convert and receive it through special devices if in the public area or at home. It is said that the charge policy for TD-LTE is not yet formulated.


http://www.chinatechgadget.com/chinese-4g-standard-targeting-30-world-market.html
 
Is there any indication of what power requirements 4G needs? I know 3G kills my battery and I'm wondering if 4G is more powerful will it require more battery power and if so will this then be practical in mobile use?
 
Everything everywhere have had a 4g trial running in Cornwall for around a year now, and these are the people that have had no broadband at all, the best they have had is dial up, the 4g there has made a huge difference to businesses as its allowed them to run websites as well as having shops etc, I watched a program about it a while back and some people were saying it had changed their lives being able to communicate that way
 
I believe that the iPhone5 will only work on 4G with Everything Everywhere (who are the only people with a 4G capable network at the moment, which is in trial phase). When the likes of O2 and Vodafone roll out 4G it won't work with the iPhone5.

The cost is likely to be prohibitive to all but early adopters for some time yet, especially with a distinct lack of competition out there. You need new equipment as well as a new contract and the battery life of smartphones is likely to be even worse with 4G.
 
joxby said:
EE are not investing in their own fibre network, simply piggybacking either BT or Virgin cable, I'm stuck on 1.5mb BT wet string after being used to 20mb cable, with no prospect of improvement, I'm thinking maybe 4g is the only possible way of getting back to useful internet speeds.

Will 4g be the answer for those stuck with an internet service circa 1998.
Its not gonna help those that truly live out in the sticks but areas close to major cities with good 3g connection but crap everything else ought to be able to jump on the high speed bandwagon......right ?
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4G is in the process of being rolled out now, unfortunately the chances of anywhere remotely rural getting it anytime soon are pretty remote (excuse the pun ;)).

The first areas to get 4G coverage are London, Birmingham, Cardiff and Bristol and a proper commercial launch is probably only weeks away.


The other areas to go live this year (all by Christmas according to EE) are Belfast, Derby, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle, Sheffield and Southampton.

The coverage will be city centre and surrounding areas, it's not worth their while to cover remote rural areas. In fact, it will probably only happen after the spectrum auction (next year some time? Perhaps?) as there is a 98% coverage clause for the winner of the biggest chunk of spectrum.
 
What is the actual benefit of 4G over 3G if you're using a smartphone?

I.e. those not needing huge speed increases to browse the web and stream video/music, which is fine on 3G anyway. Does 4G sort out the main issues 3G has - better building/bridge/tunnel penetration, better range, better in areas of high usage (such as train stations)?

Or is it just going to be a case of being able to download bit faster if you're torrenting or downloading films when tethered?
 
Amp34 said:
What is the actual benefit of 4G over 3G if you're using a smartphone?

I.e. those not needing huge speed increases to browse the web and stream video/music, which is fine on 3G anyway. Does 4G sort out the main issues 3G has - better building/bridge/tunnel penetration, better range, better in areas of high usage (such as train stations)?
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It will do so eventually, when the system is eventually complete it will have better range and in building penetration especially in the 800mhz band. As I understand the system, LTE is also more efficient at the amount of data it can carry and of course when the new spectrum comes on line there will be far less congestion than now.
 
PhotoMonty said:
I believe that the iPhone5 will only work on 4G with Everything Everywhere (who are the only people with a 4G capable network at the moment, which is in trial phase). When the likes of O2 and Vodafone roll out 4G it won't work with the iPhone5.

The cost is likely to be prohibitive to all but early adopters for some time yet, especially with a distinct lack of competition out there. You need new equipment as well as a new contract and the battery life of smartphones is likely to be even worse with 4G.
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Im with Orange and just upgraded to the iPhone 5 - should get it next week. £109 upfront and then £36 a month with unlimited calls, texts and 1GB monthly data usage. As far as i was told by Orange customer services i will simply transfer over to an identical tarriff on EE when the 4G network is available.

Also re: battery life the iPhone 5 (if reviews are to believed) uses less power, even using 4G.
 
In my part of the world (Wales) 3G coverage is simply not that good. I really wish they would sort this out before moving on to 4G... In my house, O2, Vodafone and Orange do not offer 3G, however, Tmobile and 3 do at very slow speeds of 0.5mb. My friend who lives 1 mile away from me, on a different cell site can get the same networks but speeds range from 3mb daily to 8mb at the early hours of the morning.
 
PhotoMonty said:
I believe that the iPhone5 will only work on 4G with Everything Everywhere (who are the only people with a 4G capable network at the moment, which is in trial phase). When the likes of O2 and Vodafone roll out 4G it won't work with the iPhone5....
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That would be a bit silly & pointless for o2 & vodafone to release a version of 4G that will not work with one of the most popular 4G handsets :wacky:
 
I've been consistently being getting HSPA+ on my Galaxy S2/S3 for the last couple of years and can notice the difference between this and 3G. LTE is going to be a game changer in a few years time if the coverage is good enough. I think alot of people would drop home BB if they can get 25Mb+ on their phone.
 
swordjo said:
I've been consistently being getting HSPA+ on my Galaxy S2/S3 for the last couple of years and can notice the difference between this and 3G. LTE is going to be a game changer in a few years time if the coverage is good enough. I think alot of people would drop home BB if they can get 25Mb+ on their phone.
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This may work but the reality of super fast connections is a little ... meh unless you live in Inner cities or close to them.
 
Dylanlewis2000 said:
This may work but the reality of super fast connections is a little ... meh unless you live in Inner cities or close to them.
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Exactly, hence the reason alot of people will consider this. Going to be huge in London if they getting running as they expect, 5 million + people who could bundle their Mobile and BB contract into one. If people can get true BB speeds on their phone (with a tether allowance), I can see VM and BT having to think about moving into LTE of drastically dropping their BB price.
 
I wouldn't go that far just yet... Although you can get pretty decent speeds on 3G closer to the city I certainly wouldn't want to make it my primary broadband. Network congestion has more of an effect on mobile networks than it done on fixed line. The other point is usage limits. A lot of the mobile networks offer very small allowances and with the use of YouTube and other video services on the rise, limits will not last that long.

What is interesting is if you read through some of the terms and conditions of the networks usage. T-mobile for example have an unlimited policy which says unlimited internet and email... But if you read closely you will notice that it only has a provision of 500mb for streaming per month.

So far I think three and their one plan is offering the best with unlimited Internet but it comes at a price.

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few years, but my initial feeling is that inner cities will have the best whereas everyone else will be stuck on edge or a poor 3G service.
 
boliston said:
That would be a bit silly & pointless for o2 & vodafone to release a version of 4G that will not work with one of the most popular 4G handsets :wacky:
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Vodafone and o2 just don't have an allocation in the frequency spectrum required, when GSM first launched Voda and O2 were allocated 900 MHz spectrum and later when Orange and T-Mobile launched they received 1800 MHz spectrum.

Of course, when 3G services launched on 2100 MHz the networks ended up with surplus space on their original allocation. Unfortunately this spare spectrum is at 900 MHz for O2 and Voda and so therefore not usable for 4G, it was just lucky for Orange and T-Mobile that 1800 MHz was re-designated for 4G use.

The fact is, by time Voda and O2 have a 4G network (probably either in the 800 MHz band or 2600 MHz band) the iPhone 5s or 6 will already be on the market and will support those frequencies.
 
swordjo said:
I can see VM and BT having to think about moving into LTE of drastically dropping their BB price.
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It isn't quite that simple, BT and VM can't just decide to do LTE, they would have to bid on, and win a spectrum allocation in the upcoming auction and then build a complete mobile network from scratch.

The odds of a non cellular mobile network provider offering LTE service (other than perhaps as a MVNO) is virtually impossible..
 
swordjo said:
I've been consistently being getting HSPA+ on my Galaxy S2/S3 for the last couple of years and can notice the difference between this and 3G. LTE is going to be a game changer in a few years time if the coverage is good enough. I think alot of people would drop home BB if they can get 25Mb+ on their phone.
Click to expand...

Most of the 4G provision will be in areas that already have FTTC (fibre to the cabinet), so I can't see many people trading a rock steady 80mb/s for a variable 25mb/s service. Also I can imagine latency will be higher than FTTC if it's like 3G - I would not want to trade 10ms ping times for 100ms ping times either.
 
boliston said:
Most of the 4G provision will be in areas that already have FTTC (fibre to the cabinet), so I can't see many people trading a rock steady 80mb/s for a variable 25mb/s service. Also I can imagine latency will be higher than FTTC if it's like 3G - I would not want to trade 10ms ping times for 100ms ping times either.
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This ^

All you're looking at is significant speed bumps in two areas. In reality most will use 4g for mobile uses and fibre for static/home/small office. The sla's etc are not comparable.
 
boliston said:
That would be a bit silly & pointless for o2 & vodafone to release a version of 4G that will not work with one of the most popular 4G handsets :wacky:
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The problem is with the iPhone, not with the networks. It hasn't been designed to use any range other than that which EE has. This is, apparently, fine in the US but not in the UK.

They have offered users who buy an iPhone5 can have a free upgrade to HTC or Samsung, which will work with O2 and Vodafone 4G.

This seems very odd to me too!
 
joxby said:
EE are not investing in their own fibre network, simply piggybacking either BT or Virgin cable, I'm stuck on 1.5mb BT wet string after being used to 20mb cable, with no prospect of improvement, I'm thinking maybe 4g is the only possible way of getting back to useful internet speeds.
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going right back to the first post - never mind 4G you need to kick BT up the arse - down here in rural devon i'm getting a downstream speed of 7.8mb over a BT phoneline - 1.5 is a joke
 
2208841107.png



:razz:


I'm 6 miles from Leeds Town Hall and 5 from Wakefield Town Hall, I'm burb, not even close to being rural.
I've recently moved to a new house 3 miles from my old house, my old house had cable, my new house is on the same BT exchange as my old house, but like I said, I used 20mb Virgin there not BT.
I don't think BT give a wet fart what I want because there is no alternative, unless you count not having internet an alternative.
That's why I was thinking 4G might be an alternative, couldn't care less about iphone 4G, I want it for home BB, then I can tell BT to cable me or shove it.
 
complain vigourously - we used to get less than 2mb , so I threw my teddies regularly and got all my neigbours to do the same, and they flipped a few switches and presto nearly 8mb
 
4G doesn't really interest me unless they can ensure decent battery life. My phone was fully charged last night when I hit the hay but I'd left 3G on and this morning it was at just over 10%. It's usually about just under 90%.

But then my broadband is fairly decent:

2208891675.png
 
gman said:
4G doesn't really interest me unless they can ensure decent battery life. My phone was fully charged last night when I hit the hay but I'd left 3G on and this morning it was at just over 10%. It's usually about just under 90%.

But then my broadband is fairly decent:
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That sounds like you have a problem there, that's not right.
 
I'm beginning to think so as well. Since updating to the latest Gingerbread Man or whatever it is, 2.3.6 or something the GPS sucks big time and takes ages. The wireless range is now crap and the battery is pants. I've rooted it so as to use that GPS fix and at last it actually works, although it take about 5 mins to get a lock.

But.... the wife's sad pad keeps dropping its wifi connection and emails just disappear when she clicks send and aren't in the sent folder or anywhere else. Another persons pad got that dreaded No Sim problem today which turns off your wireless ability. Fortunately by inserting another micro-Sim card it allowed me to sort it but others haven't been so lucky apparently with them having to get a replacement - usually just out of warranty and at their cost (according to the various forums).

Looks like all the devices can be as bad as each other. But, my tiny £9.99 LG phone which is just a second phone (not a drug phone) never fails.
 
I noticed my battery life has taken a drastic step for the worst could it be IOS 6??
 
nikonuser said:
I noticed my battery life has taken a drastic step for the worst could it be IOS 6??
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everyone I know (and what Ive read) seems to indicate the opposite.

Might be worth doing a reset (or even a restore) again to see if it settles it.
 
Dave1 said:
everyone I know (and what Ive read) seems to indicate the opposite.

Might be worth doing a reset (or even a restore) again to see if it settles it.
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Make sure you only have location services enabled for apps that absolutely need it. Also dimming your screen brightness rather than using auto helps. Double click home and kill any open apps can help.

In my experience most smart phones are only designed to last through a day with heavy usage. It's the screen that draws most power.
 
According to a thread on the O2 forums, O2 are upgrading there 3G network to run at I think from memory 20/25mbs down , so all is not lost if you don't gave a 4G compatable phone.
 
I would gladly stay with O2 if they could say that within the next 6 months they were putting 2g in my area.
 
I'd still rather keep my slow but relatively steady broadband than go with a faster 3g or other mobile broadband service. 3G is just awful, it drops constantly, the latency is so high that the connection is useless for streaming, online gaming or even uploading a lot of photos for facebook.

If after all of this time 3G still isn't right then obviously 4G is going to take ages to settle down too. Fast speeds are no good if the connection is forever dropping in and out.
 
from what i can gather any smart phone with the tegra 3 chipset ( htc 1 x uk model , samsung s3 etc ) will not be 4g compatible although they have hspa + which some are regarding as 4g compatible but then we are going into true 4g or some variation of 4g

it's gonna take a while before it becomes common place anyway
 
cosmicma said:
from what i can gather any smart phone with the tegra 3 chipset ( htc 1 x uk model , samsung s3 etc ) will not be 4g compatible although they have hspa + which some are regarding as 4g compatible but then we are going into true 4g or some variation of 4g

it's gonna take a while before it becomes common place anyway
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To be 4G LTE compatible, the phone has to include a LTE radio, both phones you mention don't.

The only current phone with LTE capability is the iPhone 5, but a number of be phones will launch shortly (including the Samsung S3 LTE, a new version of the S3, and a new HTC oneXL with the required radio built in).

The launch phones for EE are the Samsung Galaxy SIII LTE, the Nokia Lumia 920, the Nokia Lumia 820, the HTC One XL, Huawei Ascend P1 LTE, Huawei E589 Mobile WiFi, and the Huawei E392 Mobile Broadband stick.
 
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