EE to allocate more spectrum to 4G to boost speeds
With an ambitious target of 1 million 4G users by Christmas 2013, EE is to increase bandwidth from 10 MHz to 20 MHz on its 1800 MHz band to increase capacity and improve speeds for new and existing subscribers.
The Double-Speed 4G is set to be introduced to ten cities by summer 2013, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield. The result for customers should be that average speeds will rise to around 20 Mbps and headline speeds may reach 80 Mbps.
The speeds of 4G are looking to offer significant improvements compared to ADSL2+ for many, but the big problem currently is that as soon as you look at the usage allowances you realise that using the connection for streaming HD video, or uploading HD video you've shot will become very expensive (8GB plan at £56 a month and 20GB for £76 a month).
Comments
@zyborg47 That's a bit of a silly thing to say. For one, EE is focussed on 4G for the moment. Yes, 3G is the fallback but their main focus to fixing "3G" issues will be to get people onto 4G, which has much greater capacity.
Also, you've not even mentioned what issues you're speaking of. I'm on Three and I don't have any issues.
@zyborg47 - EE have already said they're putting lots of money into their 3G network. Here I get 10meg and often higher on EE (T-mobile) but Vodafone and O2 can only manage about 2meg maximum. They've nothing to worry about !
@jchamier I get 22meg with THREE on 3G :-) with DC-HSPA ! all for £12,90/months unlimited data, don't need 4G yet and once THREE has 4G they promised it will be the same price as 3G :-) THREE all the way !!!!
4G might seem great whilst no one is using it. But wait until it's more crowded and slows right down. I can't understand why fast speeds on mobile are so important when download amounts are so restricted and expensive, and 3G is perfectly good for web browsing and emails. £76/month for 20GB ?
None of this will do me any good as I do not lice in a city... I can not even get 3G where I live. Not O2, not Vodafone, not 3, not EE... I get a signal if I am lucky, and more than 60% of calls are dropped. I do realise that they will not fix this since I am only 1 customer. Oh well...
Vic
If you want 3G at home get a Suresignal or similar device
@herdwick
Only reason for getting Suresignal is if you have a company mobile.
@shaunhw
They know they can't compete with Three on a broad front so they are relying on marketing hype.
Also it wouldn't surprise me if 3 as part of the EE spectrum deal offered to lay off 4G until Q4.
To be fair to EE they are making efforts to try and combat this. For instance they have zero rated the traffic to download films from their store until the End of the year which makes it no more expensive than Itunes at £3.99 a film
That's why I am using EE rather than Itunes to rent movies at the moment.
On the sim only tablet side.
8GB for £25 is expensive but is 3GB for £15 really so? Bearing in mind a 3 PAYG data sim with 3GB on is £15. And it delivers no where near speeds like this on the upload atleast
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/4918/14055269.png
I agree when 3 bring out 4G they wil be unbeatable but EE will try to compete I am sure
@otester 10 if what 3 say is true they can't get hold of it until September which will be Q3 for them?
Ee is terrible for 3g in my area
And 4g is also live here. I am with T-Mobile which works fine. However even when I have strong signal on T-Mobile I get moved over to orange instead
. And despite having good signal on orange I believe the orange masts in this area to be over subscribed or don't have big enough back hall... the data performance is basically non exist ant
.. I'm moving to 3 at on the 26th when the galaxy s4 comes out.
I'd get your pre order in now then. I was told there's likely to be a 3 month wait for contracts after the pre orders are done. and then 6 months for buying outright.
@CaptainHulaHoop
"don't have big enough back hall"
They should get a builder in and build an extension then! hahaha....
@pcoventry76 - you need to switch plans.
I am with Three, using the "Ultimate Internet SIM 200 1 month" - £12.90 a month for UNLIMITED data.
And I'm happy with that.
@pcoventry76
How much to rent per film?
Yeah September, Q3/Q4 or w/e.
£15 for 3GB? It's £15 for unlimited (1000GB)...
Also there shouldn't be a shortage of S4's as Samsung used a different chipset for that specific reason.
Already ordered
@all
pcoventry76 is talking about the data only PAYG (that is £15 for 3gb of data for 30 days or witch ever comes first), your better off just buying the 3gb for 3 months PAYG sims from your local computer or phone shops (think they are £12-£13)
voice plans that offer way better deals for the same price (£15 AYCE or £12 on contract, the one plan for £25 that allows tethering officially)
once three get 4g, Orange/EE will have to lower prices, there network may have very good coverage but price is shocking for what you get (your better off on t-mobile with out 4G, £26 an month for The Full Monty)
where as three is the other way round prices are very good but coverage has to many holes in it (in dense areas bit pot look if it works, if your in open area or green belt land you should be good)
i be on three if it was not for coverage issues (as i need my second phone to work if my main phone does not)
@leexgx
Coverage with Three isn't an issue if you travel within...civilized areas.
Well I had to send mine back it was maxing out at 8.24mbps down and 20.93 u pin the end. Up is useless can't even tether on it on an Ipad.
The woman was patronising, kept calling me "mate" which annoyed me. She offered to reduce the cost, desperate to keep me. I'm currently paying £0.00 at the mo
@hypertony I have the one plan on 3 already mate. Going to wait until they do 4G and then get the free upgrade - 3 kick out 16mbps in my area and the mast is 100 yards away :)
I just wanted to try 4G
@otester sorry my last one was slightly high as I had to leave some out.
EE is £3.49 per film. Zero rated data downloads untit leh end of the year then I have been told it'll be £50 including the data so £3,99 still 50p cheaper than Itunes
50P not £50,
This was literally the last speedtest I did seconds before my SIM was disconnected
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/7729/photocx.png
That's what I have not been able to get above since a few hours in. Apparently I used over 1.5GB too doing my speedtests so if you get one beware. I can remember a time when I paid 3 £45 to get 512MB and had trouble getting that that all on 3G!
I was told earlier all EE store have boosters in to sell the 4G - so is that dishonest selling? As it's no where near that outside the store door!
I'm furious at this company right now after being treated like a clueless idiot in a store today as they failed to disconnect me. Instead telling me that the reason my service is slow is that they " cap" they cells in new areas until they have enough subscribers to warrant the upgrade
So compaint 2 of the week to the ASA on it's way! what flannel!
@pcoventry76
Alternative being £15 with Three and use an Android torrent client to download what ever media you want for free.
While I know your not going to want to hear this but you've paid the ignorance tax, two other things, £45 for 512MB(?), how did you manage that? And also that speedtest app looks dodgy, definately not the official speedtest.net app.
If it's not the original one then I wonder how I got it? It was an update of the old one that was updated. I am now back on my 3 handset but it keeps stopping as we are currentlyt discussing and it's annoying.
Also that's what 3 first charged for 3G when it came out data only. Remember i've been with them since the 5th/3/2003 2 days after they launched
That speedtest I have on my Iphone is the Speedtest.net app by "ookla" and I can't find any other. But on 3G and wifi it gives me the right speeds.
Before all this effort being spent on 4G, they really do need to get the mess being caused to DTV sorted once and for all. See http://www.ukfree.tv/starthere.php and notice just how much disruption and problems are being caused to Freeview users just because some want slightly faster data speed for their mobiles! Because of that many more are having serious problems with Freeview (losing BBCA multoplex reception for example) and no one seem to care so no help at all for the non-technical (most) people.
Priorities are all wrong here.
Maybe they should sort out their 3G first since the majority of their customers uses it and will use it for a few years yet, Ee is nto the only ones mind you. the other networks should sort out 3G as well, if they can't do that then 4G will be a waste of time and money.