As the Thread title suggests, i would like to know what the best UK network for the S2 is? I have an order on hold with orange at the moment for £35p/m
after screening the forums a little bit it seems that orange isnt the best network provider to go with, because although coverage is great, their network speeds are rubbish...what would you guys recommend in terms of best network provider for this phone?
ps bear in mind i am in the london and braintree areas quite a lot
the million pound question??. Am O2 I think internet speed rubbish I have never seen 3g icon on my screen lol
as far as i have been able to read, vodaphone seem to utilize the s2's networking capabilities best,
reading on the general section, i found this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=14400787&postcount=30
in the thread "SGS2 now available on orange UK"
which made me wonder - three mobile seem to have good deals for cheapness....£26pm gets you a free phone, 1gb data, unlim texts etc, so i would go for them, however the network speed is something i have recently been coveting....anyone had any speedtests done while on three?
Well my contract with orange UK (that you wont be able to match as I am a special customer....very long story...) is
Dolphin 35 + 1gb extra data for £20 a month 18 month contract with a free SGS2
Just waiting for the SGS2 to be ordered as they screwed up!!!!
Lennyuk said:
Well my contract with orange UK (that you wont be able to match as I am a special customer....very long story...) is
Dolphin 35 + 1gb extra data for £20 a month 18 month contract with a free SGS2
Just waiting for the SGS2 to be ordered as they screwed up!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im jealous i must admit, but what about networking speeds? or do you cope just fine with the speeds as they are? this phone is capable of loading faster than most home broadbands if i believe what iv been told...i cant tell what speeds i have as my hd2 wont connect to the internet - hardware issue :/
Lennyuk said:
Well my contract with orange UK (that you wont be able to match as I am a special customer....very long story...) is
Dolphin 35 + 1gb extra data for £20 a month 18 month contract with a free SGS2
Just waiting for the SGS2 to be ordered as they screwed up!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thpefial? (Sorry - couldn't resist...)
Best network is relative to signal strength in the areas of phone use for each network .
Data its always said that 3 are best for data true not a clue .
http://selfhelp.carphonewarehouse.com/SelfHelp/request.do?view%28%29=c{179c7460-e8a9-11de-da00-000000000000}
jje
Three are the only network that offer truly unlimited data on the one plan with a free phone for £40 I think. I've seen my mate's speedtest with a Desire HD consistently hitting 9+ mb the past month as they've activated the HSPA+ network. Three's signal is crap indoors though, due to the part of the spectrum they use not penetrating buildings well (so I'm told).
I'm on O2 (central London), I'm guaranteed H or H+ signals, consistently above 3 mbps.
Well, if you care about heavy duty data usage, go with 3 (So long as you're in an area with decent signal - it gets a bit ropy up north).
I'm with 3UK, purely for the genuinely unlimited data (although I've been with them for years and always went over the 1gb limit without charge before), in London their speeds are great, usually have a ping under 100, down of 3-5 in perfect conditions, up of 1-1.5 (via the SpeedTest app)
I will say in the area i live (oxfordshie) 3 is exelent,i get hsdpa just about every where. I get 5700 on speed test app at work-on vodafone and orange i get 20
three mobile it is then i will go to the three store and pick it up (because i cannot wait for it to be delivered lol) once i get my new bank card and PIN code through
Yup, I'm on Three also and whilst their results vary (I get anywhere from 0.11 to 5.14Mbps Download speed here in Cumbria!) the main selling point for me is truly unlimited data on the One Plan with tethering allowed! There may be others offering true unlimited data (talkmobile? Giff Gaff?) but I don't think others allow tethering... I should note they acknowledge that they throttle their data at peek times (6pm to midnight) but I'd be surprised if other networks don't do the same, and my data speeds are generally fine.
I'm on 3 and its crap indoors. Do get 3g a lot. I buy the fone instead of contract because u pay for another fone as the contracts are like 2 year plans. Im on a SIM contract for 15 quid and get 600mins 1 gb internet 3000texts which is good but hate the signal
I was with three but dropped them because of awful building penetration, their signal is just rubbish indoors which was no good to me at work when my phone spent all day trying to cling onto a scrap of signal. I could receive texts at my desk but if I moved the phone or tryed a voice call it would drop signal altogether.
Moved to Orange, very happy now. Speeds aren't as fast as Three for data but come on, what are you doing running torrents off your phone or something?
ADSrox0r said:
come on, what are you doing running torrents off your phone or something?
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Click to collapse
Pretty much, yeah. Long commute, if someone tells me about a good film at work.. Piracy is a way of life
Related
I've been happily using my XDA for almost a year now, the only complaint being the amount i spend on the GPRS though O2.
What are the other UK networks charging these days? I've heard about others charging as little as £10 for 100MB's, is this true?
I'm about to come to the end of my contract and will be getting an XDA II as soon as it does but i may well get it sim-free and go with another network.
Do i have other options i.e. sticking in a pay-as-you-go sim from another network when i want to use it heavily?
Thanks for your help.
i think the problem may be when you dont say where you are from
the only company's which people can be sure are represented most places are fodaphone, tmobile, o2 and orange and maybe a few others
and those are rearely the cheap ones
oop's sorry. I'm in the UK
t-mobile in usa - $19 a month - unlimited gprs
(not that that would help you 2000+ miles away)
-Mario
mario,
how do you find the gprs speed thru tmobile?
they say its 40k-80k
but i dont think thats true... it takes me too long to download a small 500k file. unless im doin something wrong!
do u have special settings?
to find the actual speed, i have no idea
the only settings i have, is for the gprs setting, it connects to internet2.voicestream.com
speed is up and down usually, right near a atenna (like near a mall or what not) perfect speed.
at work is another question... with 1 bar of signal i can stream 22k mp3s from di.fm (requires ipv6 which tmobile or ie for pocket pc comes with, cause it works)
work is a office full of computers, in a big brick building... signal is allways bad indoors.
-Mario
Just curious if it is my area I live in or me screwing around with my phone. I live in Fresno, CA and we've had HSPA+ here for a couple of months. I was averaging around 3mbps down and 1.5 up from my house and 4-5k at my office. All of the sudden I am getting extremely poor 3g speeds. 200-300k at my house and 600-700k at my office. Just wondering if anyone is from the area here and if they are experiencing the same issues.
The only thing I did was flash the JPM froyo to mess around. I am now back running Bionix fusion 1.1 with stock kernel and ji6 modem.
Edit: Going to Odin back to official JI6, I'll post results in case anyone is curious.
Edit 2: Didnt work, still getting the same speeds. Just talked to a friend of mine down in southern CA and he is no longer getting HSPA+ speeds on his vibrant. Anyone else having an issues like this?
Anyone else in HSPA+ areas having this happen?
yes. very strange. and its ****ing pissing me off too.
i work in addison, tx (dallas suburb basically) and i used to get 4 to alllmost 6mbps down at work. up speeds have always sucked a nut but that's fine with me because you're only sending http requests most of the time so 300kbps is fine.
past few months it has become VERY spotty. some days my down speeds are under 200, the ping times out, and my up speeds are 1.2-2mpbs (WTF!?) this is with four full bars most of the time. its so bad that with the awesome ups, pages IMMEDIATELY time out, i cant even browse little mobile sites like m.facebook.com a lot of the time.
outside of this area, everything seems to go back to almost normal again. i no longer get 4+ down speeds anymore, but they're better, 1.5-2 i can live with.
it started happening before i rooted the phone and flashed any roms. and has never gone back to normal with the other roms i've tried, so im pretty sure it is a network issue.
the only other thing i could think of is maybe my sim card is crapping out, but i dont have another sim to test, as all of my friends dont have tmobile smartphones with a data plan and i'm way too lazy to go back to stock and go argue with a tmobile store rep to get a new sim card for free. mine is probably at least 6 years old at this point.
see what i mean? this could be better i guess since it wont let me select a server near me (this is renton, wa)
pings, in order as those are shown in the screencap are:
92ms
160ms
111ms
93ms
also, instead of UMTS like it used to say, now it just says "Network: Cell"
this makes no sense.
I'm running stock jfd firmware still and my 3g has been sucking ass as of late as well and I'm near Dallas. I was in Addison Saturday night with full bars and good signal and couldn't do anything. Tried espn mobile and it was so slow. Forced it back to edge and it was a lot better. Tmo 3g here in dfw is hit or miss.....mostly miss. I was in Grapevine a cpl wks ago and was getting 5mbps down...never seen that before around here. But I still say its hit or miss mostly.
I have noticed that the 3g speeds I've been getting here in beaumont, tx are way below what I used to get as well. Sometimes 3g is even slower than edge!
I wonder if maybe the T-Mobile network is simply getting overloaded?
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
im in san antonio and im getting the same average of about 4.5/1.5 like i have since the network upgrade. no problems here so far...i did notice my friends G2 has the H instead of the 3G but isnt any faster than my Nexus or my Vibrant, i figured the g2 would blow away my phones but his g2 averages about 4.5/1....
ive asked this in several different threads and cant seem to get a straight answer. maybe im asking wrong, so I am trying to make my question as clear as possible:
I am trying to figure out if im getting tmobiles new network in my area; (4g/hspa+). before I get flammed, yes, i do realize that our phones wont get 21mps download speed on the new network and the best we should see is 7.2mps, but probably wont get that in real world experience.
So i have been getting better speeds in the past few weeks in my area (between 1.5 and 3mps download) but that alone does not tell me if i am getting a good 3g signal or poor 4g/what ever its called signal.
When you go into settings> about phone> status, it says mobile network type. I am assuming that the Mobile network type will change depending if on new network, 3g, or edge....? (hspa, hspa+, hsdpa) Can anyone confirm or deny that this should or will change depending on what area we are in and what type of data connection we are connected to?
The other way someone told me to check is by downloading mobile signal widget and it will display 3g or H. For me this does not seem very accurate but it does display 3g or H...
The reason I dont know if Im on their newest/fastest network is because they have a coverage map on their website for HSPA+. my city is not on it, but a city about 15-20 miles away is on it. I did not really think i would be getting it since its not my city, but like i said ive noticed somewhat faster speeds, nothing like 4-6 mbs download that would confirm it for me, but enough to make me unsure and question.
so sorry for the long post. basically just wondering if network type under about phone will change depending on if im getting normal 3g or their newer/faster network and if that mobile signal widget is an accurate way to tell
thanks
velocd said:
Just curious if it is my area I live in or me screwing around with my phone. I live in Fresno, CA and we've had HSPA+
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have a vibrant you never got HSPA+, you just benefitted from its speed, the phone isn't capable of the +
Sent from my Galaxy S with GINGERBREAD using XDA app
turbosix said:
yes. very strange. and its ****ing pissing me off too.
i work in addison, tx (dallas suburb basically) and i used to get 4 to alllmost 6mbps down at work. up speeds have always sucked a nut but that's fine with me because you're only sending http requests most of the time so 300kbps is fine.
past few months it has become VERY spotty. some days my down speeds are under 200, the ping times out, and my up speeds are 1.2-2mpbs (WTF!?) this is with four full bars most of the time. its so bad that with the awesome ups, pages IMMEDIATELY time out, i cant even browse little mobile sites like m.facebook.com a lot of the time.
outside of this area, everything seems to go back to almost normal again. i no longer get 4+ down speeds anymore, but they're better, 1.5-2 i can live with.
it started happening before i rooted the phone and flashed any roms. and has never gone back to normal with the other roms i've tried, so im pretty sure it is a network issue.
the only other thing i could think of is maybe my sim card is crapping out, but i dont have another sim to test, as all of my friends dont have tmobile smartphones with a data plan and i'm way too lazy to go back to stock and go argue with a tmobile store rep to get a new sim card for free. mine is probably at least 6 years old at this point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got an extra sim from when I got my vibrant...I'm in arlington..plus my speeds have improved since I got rooted with the new updates and on fusion 1.1 with voodoo
gbakabg said:
I got an extra sim from when I got my vibrant...I'm in arlington..plus my speeds have improved since I got rooted with the new updates and on fusion 1.1 with voodoo
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Click to collapse
every single time ive bought a new phone from tmobile, the rep always takes the sim cards out of the box and uses my existing one.
a buddy of mine left tmobile because they wanted to charge him $20 for a sim card.
i actually brought that up with the tmobile twitter account and they just said "sim cards are usually not free"
turbosix said:
every single time ive bought a new phone from tmobile, the rep always takes the sim cards out of the box and uses my existing one.
a buddy of mine left tmobile because they wanted to charge him $20 for a sim card.
i actually brought that up with the tmobile twitter account and they just said "sim cards are usually not free"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's crazy I've always kept mind...
turbosix said:
every single time ive bought a new phone from tmobile, the rep always takes the sim cards out of the box and uses my existing one.
a buddy of mine left tmobile because they wanted to charge him $20 for a sim card.
i actually brought that up with the tmobile twitter account and they just said "sim cards are usually not free"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's strange. I've always gotten my sim cards free from t-mobile. Just tell them the existing one keeps giving you a sim card error and that when you purchased your vibrant they took the sim card that came with it (because they typically do). They will take your old one and replace it with a newer one.
I told the rep I would not buy the phone without a new sim. He immediately swapped it from my g1 to a new one.
doubt it will help, but have you switched to airplane mode, reboot and then turn airplane mode so it finds your network again? I didn't even have data this morning and that fixed it.
Remember t mo is in the process of a major upgrade to their network too...
Every time I buy a phone from a TMO retail store and they go to take the sim I tell them to keep their fingers off and leave it in the box because I paid for it already. What they will do is put it in their binder for when the next poor schmuck walks in having lost their sim so they can get charged for it.
They try to give you the same BS about it costing money and maybe that's true if you lose it, but not with a brand new phone purchase. Even my new Vibrant I ordered from loyalty came with a new SIM in the box. I just kept it as a spare. The things these stores do to double-dip a measily $20.
honestly i probably should have but i assumed it was normal since i have never had network connection issues when going to buy a new phone. i've never even batted an eyelash when they did this.
if i odin my phone back to stock and take it up to them i'll definitely bring it up if they try to charge me.
I picked up my sim free s2 today and it's awesome, but prior to picking it up I spent a load of money buying various payg sim cards to test for data performance. Minimum top up seems to be £10 these days (ouch) and this is what I got.
Please note when testing vodafone I used a contract sim and 3g was unavailable where I was in devon
Please note I did not test T-orange (as I'm already aware they are useless for data)
Please note all tests were done in west london and devon
Please note speed tests were done with www.speedtest.net
Please note all tests were done with full signal strength
Please note I used the "about: useragent" trick to let my phone view the true iplayer website
Tesco
This is actually using o2 behind the scenes.
Data rate 0.5 mbps this was pathetic but much worse than being slow, the data transfer was horribly uneven when downloading, you would get a burst of data and then wait literally a minute or 2 for the next burst, this behaviour meant that when attempting to download a newspaper (free press reader app from samsung) it would never complete.
Some kind of https (secure internet) issue meant it is unable to log into hsbc bank
BBC iplayer video streams were completely blocked by the network.
www.tvcatchup.com also does not work
I then tethered (via wifi) my phone to my laptop and repeated the tests to check if it was a device competency issue, the results were exactly the same.
O2
The results were exactly the same as tesco, unsurprising seeing as it's the same network except logging into hsbc worked perfectly.
I have it on good authority that giff gaff (also on o2) has similar poor data rates.
3
All I can say is WOW what a difference
Data rate steady at around 2.5mbps I can download a newspaper in a couple of minutes, no problems with secure websites the only nuisance was removing the content lock because apparently (according to 3) even torrent like websites are too mature for youngsters and are lumped into the same restricted category as hard porn websites
BBC iplayer works perfectly both on my phone and when tethered to a laptop as does www.tvcatchup.com
In general tethering to my laptop was a positive and speedy experience (for mobile) I actually went on to download a couple of gigabytes of data which was made possible because if you top up with £15 you can get unlimited data for 30 days, and I don't mean a fair use policy of 500 mb or 1gb, I mean TRULY unlimited. Also included with your £15 is 300 any net minutes and 3000 texts.
Lastly vodafone the king of data, peaking at 4mbps everything works well (until you run out of your measly 500 mb of data for the month and stump up more money for more data) also whilst vodafone has better coverage than 3 for voice 3 is winning for 3g coverage. The bottom line is vodafone is the best performer (when you can get it) but you will have to pay for it
In conclusion I'm keeping my 3payg sim all you can eat data for £15 including talk minutes and thousands of texts, seems like a good deal to me.
I use Giffgaff for my Galaxy Tab and I quite often get speeds of up to and around 1.5-2Mbps. Found them to be the best value for money considering what you get for your £10. I'll be switching to them full time once my Orange contract is up. I guess you kinda have to be lucky to live in an area with good O2 3G coverage.
Good testing though, mate. I was quite shocked to see Voda was getting up to 4Mbps. That 500MB limit would be a real killer for me, though.
Vodafone is completely useless in my area, they took down the mast when they destroyed the old Peugeot plant across from my house.
3 is not bad, always get a 3G signal apart from in the town centre.
But Orange is the best for me, and I'm not saying that because I work for them, I always get a good 3G signal and fast speeds.
I currently have my iPhone 4 with Tesco and the signal is so weird, one minute you get full 3G, then nothing (that's without enforcing the death grip).
Can you please post your speedtest.net results here, I am curious about orange, but im really intrested in what DVC 1985 said, as several other users have reported shocking performance on giff gaff, I will post my speed test when I get a chance.
BTW speedtest provide a url to your results that you can just copy and paste here.
One thing you might want to know:
Vodafone are trialling 14mbps mobile data later this year, the kind of speeds that the GS2 was built for, and currently the only phone in the UK capable of using these speeds.
Get a Sim Only contract from them to get 1gb of mobile data.
Mr_Mjolnir said:
One thing you might want to know:
Vodafone are trialling 14mbps mobile data later this year, the kind of speeds that the GS2 was built for, and currently the only phone in the UK capable of using these speeds.
Get a Sim Only contract from them to get 1gb of mobile data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is cool to know, but they already won in my test on performance, maybe they should redirect some of the funds away from increasing performance and more to increasing coverage !
PS I doubt they will allow 14 mbps on their phone sims, I bet it will be restricted to the broadband dongles, I know o2 dongles get better results than I posted earlier.
ice_coffee said:
That is cool to know, but they already won in my test on performance, maybe they should redirect some of the funds away from increasing performance and more to increasing coverage !
PS I doubt they will allow 14 mbps on their phone sims, I bet it will be restricted to the broadband dongles, I know o2 dongles get better results than I posted earlier.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty sure they will allow it on phone, the number of phones that will actually be able to use that speed will be small so it won't matter too much. The current dongles can already use up to 14mbps, but the realistic max. is 10.8(both stated on the dongle box), and of course the real-world max will be around 7.2, which is what most phones can currently use.
AFAIK there is no limit imposed on the sims, and no plans to add any, but of course the realistic speeds are never the maximum possible.
well with att and my current SGS1 i get 6.5mbps on speedtest.net, and have actually personally seen download speeds of 9300kbps using TubeMate
Network 3 have been awesome since I joined
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
I live in Belfast and Vodafone is the best for data here. 3G availability widely and it's pretty fast. Used my mate's o2 Desire yesterday (compared to my girlfriend's VF Desire) and I ran out of patience with it.
As promised here is an example speedtest with 3, it surprised me too
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Im jealous of 6.5 mbps, it's also nice to see confirmation about o2, it wasn't just me, I might publish my findings in other parts of the forum as it does not only apply to samsung galaxy s'
Edit as promised more speedtest proof
This is o2 payg with full signal strength in west london I repeated the test several times as I couldn't believe my eyes
Edit more from speedtest this time I have managed to borrow a virgin contract sim (uses T-Mobile) same as the o2 test west London full signal
was with o2. their speed are terrible around my area less then 0.5 mbps. now i am considering three, they have very good 3g coverage and best of all their AYCE data.
I would also like to vouch for Orange. The speed appears to vary depending on the signal rather than the network as a whole. For example in central london I was getting super fast 3g (streaming live sport and even tethering it to the laptop to get live sport) but in Northampton the 3g was quite slow. In Leicester the 3G is moderately quick but in some areas (despite being in the centre of the city) I didin't get 3g at all.
So in conclusion its the network coverage that varies rather than any kind of cap or poor service network wide.
benjatt said:
I would also like to vouch for Orange. The speed appears to vary depending on the signal rather than the network as a whole. For example in central london I was getting super fast 3g (streaming live sport and even tethering it to the laptop to get live sport) but in Northampton the 3g was quite slow. In Leicester the 3G is moderately quick but in some areas (despite being in the centre of the city) I didin't get 3g at all.
So in conclusion its the network coverage that varies rather than any kind of cap or poor service network wide.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fair comment, maybe I was to quick to dismiss orange, I already knew t mobile was pants, please post up speed test results.
Yea I just gave my subjective opinion so I'll put up the speed tests in the next week or so (I'm away at the mo)
Oh and I meant to ask - was there a particular thread you were referring to about the poor t-mobile/orange data?
benjatt said:
Yea I just gave my subjective opinion so I'll put up the speed tests in the next week or so (I'm away at the mo)
Oh and I meant to ask - was there a particular thread you were referring to about the poor t-mobile/orange data?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it's the thread where a group of forum members on here have managed to prove that t-mobile are supplying heavily reduced data performance unless you phone them up and twist there arm into enabling pda data rates on your sim.
I can't remember where the thread is though !
I was on O2 for 3 years until a month ago and I took their data speeds for granted.
In central London I was getting 3-4mbps solid no problems.
Went onto T-Mobile, the mast for which is pretty much next to the O2 one, best I could ever get is about 1.5mbps, averaging about 500-700kbps in exactly the same place. That was after ringing them several times to get the bloody 300kbps speed cap taken off.
I miss O2 and their overpriced contracts.
renegade1488 said:
I was on O2 for 3 years until a month ago and I took their data speeds for granted.
In central London I was getting 3-4mbps solid no problems.
Went onto T-Mobile, the mast for which is pretty much next to the O2 one, best I could ever get is about 1.5mbps, averaging about 500-700kbps in exactly the same place. That was after ringing them several times to get the bloody 300kbps speed cap taken off.
I miss O2 and their overpriced contracts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
from what your saying, it seems that contract O2 performs much better than PAYG O2, I guess this is poissible as contract phones use the apn mobile.o2.co.uk and PAYG is payandgo.o2.co.uk, this would allow them to split their service ? if any peeps on here are on contract O2 please post your speedtest results.
im having a chat with o2 right now heres part of the conversation as im looking to get the sgs2 with them
You: sorry thats allowance i get allowances i work for talktalk broadband, what im looking for is download speeds
Shelley: Speeds of up to 21Mb per second.
Shelley: That better?
You: that hsdpa+?
Shelley: HSDPA. not +
Shelley: Would you like a link for all of the information you need?
You: yeh thanks, is that available on the mobile phone side? i know the dongles are faster, i know the sgs2 can support higher speeds but as far as i knew most networks actual speeds were upto 10meg, with only voda uk trialing 14meg later in the year, can you tell what speeds id get in my cell location
You: 3 tell me i can get 4meg
Shelley: Let me check for you.
Shelley: What i can make you aware is at the moment O2 is trialing a 4G network up and down the country, with estimated speeds of over 30MB/s. So you can expect massive speeds through this handset.
Shelley: How does that sound for you?
You: yeh wow thats cool
Shelley: Excellent!
theyre erecting a new mast near me yay lol - o2 = 4g = jizz lol
StickyGeko said:
im having a chat with o2 right now heres part of the conversation as im looking to get the sgs2 with them
You: sorry thats allowance i get allowances i work for talktalk broadband, what im looking for is download speeds
Shelley: Speeds of up to 21Mb per second.
Shelley: That better?
You: that hsdpa+?
Shelley: HSDPA. not +
Shelley: Would you like a link for all of the information you need?
You: yeh thanks, is that available on the mobile phone side? i know the dongles are faster, i know the sgs2 can support higher speeds but as far as i knew most networks actual speeds were upto 10meg, with only voda uk trialing 14meg later in the year, can you tell what speeds id get in my cell location
You: 3 tell me i can get 4meg
Shelley: Let me check for you.
Shelley: What i can make you aware is at the moment O2 is trialing a 4G network up and down the country, with estimated speeds of over 30MB/s. So you can expect massive speeds through this handset.
Shelley: How does that sound for you?
You: yeh wow thats cool
Shelley: Excellent!
theyre erecting a new mast near me yay lol - o2 = 4g = jizz lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol gota love o2 chat ...... this is hilarious
Shelley: Are you not thinking of getting this today and getting rid if Orange?
Shelley: They are not very good as a provider, they ripped me off. And i am not just saying that because i work for 02, i do not like them at all!
You: yes ive had enough with orange to be honest, too many dropped calls and incorrect bills, they gave me a gesture of goodwill of £50 a month or 2 back because the kept incorrectly billing me
Shelley: They broke their contract with me and wouldn't help me with a broken handset,
Shelley: Yes, same with me and over charging and i got a lot of bank charges which weren't in my account and so i was getting charges left right and centre for a handset i couldn't even use! So i told them to stick it!
You: not good, lol hahaha
A lot of text further below, but a simple question or two I would be interested to get a response to: anyone else on the Three UK network noticed any signal issues and performance problems from new to recently? Did you find an answer that made sense? Did you receive one or two Samsung firmware updates from the day the Pebble Blue arrived (on 9th June I think?)
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I've had a good read through some similar threads here and elsewhere, but there is no gold standard answer so far that makes sense to me or anyone it seems. I have many thoughts running through my mind being new to Android coming from iPhone 4.
Phone is the S3 on Three UK network on the Dorset coast, typical signal strength at home is 3 of 4 bars and it now seems to cycle from H to either H+ or 3G, (but I could have sworn that I had more H+ when new?)
Initially Speedtest gave me a download of 6Mbps which knocked the socks off my O2 iphone (2Mbps), but over the past week/ten days I'm lucky to get 1Mbps at home (at work it has dropped from 1Mbps to 0.1) I've also had phone call issues where I can't hear them, but they can hear me (I know, it could be my provider, but I've checked their website daily and no issues are reported) and this is often with three or four bars. The amount of times websites can't load is frustrating and my other half's Blackberry seems to have no issue on Three. Data roaming is also set up.
Other threads have made me wonder about the firmware update. I know could flash, but there's no suggestion that this works. I also read somewhere that there should have been two updates for me, one at 21MB (which I downloaded) and a second at 31MB, which I have never seen or found OTA or on Kies.
Any opinions appreciated.
The problem is most likely the same as mine.
Since 22 May Three can roam 3g data (not just 2g calls/txts) onto the Tmobile/Orange network. Problem is if the nearest (strongest signal) cell is TMob/O it may well have a much lower bandwidth plus congestion which will dramatically affect internet useage. My dl speeds have gone from 5-6 mb down to 250kb with frequent timeouts. Unfortunately this doesnt constitute a network problem as far as Three are concerned, in fact they are [email protected]@ters because they have just told me thay have been trying to contact me for days re this on my landline number when I have never had a landline number to give them!!
Atb
Chris
SSThing said:
The problem is most likely the same as mine.
Since 22 May Three can roam 3g data (not just 2g calls/txts) onto the Tmobile/Orange network. Problem is if the nearest (strongest signal) cell is TMob/O it may well have a much lower bandwidth plus congestion which will dramatically affect internet useage. My dl speeds have gone from 5-6 mb down to 250kb with frequent timeouts. Unfortunately this doesnt constitute a network problem as far as Three are concerned, in fact they are [email protected]@ters because they have just told me thay have been trying to contact me for days re this on my landline number when I have never had a landline number to give them!!
Atb
Chris
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Click to collapse
Thanks Chris, that all makes sense given what I've experienced and picked up in parts elsewhere. I am guessing that Orange are the other carrier as when I check available networks they do not show up, but instead a "second" Three network does (which does not allow a connection).
Having said that my DL speeds only changed since about mid June?
Not impressed
http://everythingeverywhere.com/
http://forums.reghardware.com/forum/1/2012/05/23/ee_network_intergration/
Im not impressed either. Whole reason for signing up on the One Plan was to do away with my landline (which I did as soon as I confirmed I was getting better dl from my phone). Now I am lucky if I can look at more than two or three webpages before my connection times out, BBCIplayer, 4od and other streaming sites are completely out of the question, as is the updating of my phone with CM9 or updating maps or other large file downloads.
As I have mentioned though, this does not constitute a problem as far as Three are concerned, increased coverage is their priority, they dont ACTUALLY want us to be using up data bandwidth. I have spoken at length to Ericsson who maintain the network who have confirmed the issue I am having, I mentioned to them I was considering cancelling my contract and swapping to TMobile and even they said no point, the issue ISNT with Three, its the fact I am connecting to the closest cell which is Tmob/O. I am quite rural and for years the ONLY network available here was Orange, so naturally most people around here are on Orange (who as we know only offer very restricted data allowances anyway). But all the Tmob/O customers are hogging the bandwidth with their FaceBooking and stuff leaving nothing for me, lol.
Atb
Chris
I am also having this problem. I've had two SGS3s on Three and they're both been the same.
The thing is, my wife's is the same on Orange. I see a lot of other users are having this problem.
I'm browsing the Internet, with 'H', then it goes to '3G' and it just drops out. Phone calls are choppy at best. I can stream video for about a minute before it drops out.
Not impressed.
Hi Guys,
I thought I was going mad, I'm using a galaxy note and at the beginning I thought it was an issue with the phone.
I've had 4-6mb speeds going down to 1-1.5mb and upload speed not going above 100k and dropping, thus making voip telephony or skype virtually impossible.
I called up their tech support they tried to bull**** me with all kinds of excuses, I then told them I have a note a nexus and also tried the sim card on a sony p tablet all of them have the same issue, disgusting speeds.
Something is wrong with their network and this happened suddenly around the 25th of June around the Hampshire area.
I'm thinking about complaining to ofcom and see what happens... not happy
Hi all,
I have just switched to 3 in the UK and have noticed that there appears to be no data when the phone rolls back to 2G (out of 3G/HSPDA coverage) so I get no GPRS.
Is this right?
I am aware that 3 uses Orange for voice and calls when out of there own coverage areas, but should I not be getting GPRS on Orange?
Thanks.
Yep three are 3g or 3g+ only
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Oh dear..
Thanks for your reply.
Is there any solution to get GPRS while on Oranges 2G network?
gavin watson said:
Oh dear..
Thanks for your reply.
Is there any solution to get GPRS while on Oranges 2G network?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
nope!!!!
Oh dear, dear!
This isn't good news for me! Slow connectivity is better than no connectivity!
Hmmm, seems like I am not 'On the network for built for the internet' if I get NO internet!
to be fair, i rarely find myself in an area of no signal, but when I am, 3's internet speeds are outrageously fast.
well worth it
It's ok in 97% if the UK when it's good it's very good but when it's bad it's bloody awful
I went to Scotland a week and found the 3% of the country without coverage it killed me no.internet or phone for that matter
In defense of 3 they are superb value where else could you get 2000 mins 5000 text 5000 3 to 3 minutes and unlimited internet for £36
I.use around 7gb per month via my phone and tethering
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Hi guys,
I'm not denying when there is 3G (and above) coverage it is very good. I was just shocked to learn that there is no GPRS backup, for me I'd rather have very slow data than none at all... It would appear from what I've found out that they don't want the users to have 'a bad customer experience' when on GPRS thinking that it's a slow network... Not sure I agree with that, especially when you desperately need data, even it is it GPRS...
I would really like them giving users the option to fallback onto GPRS by maybe manually entering APN settings, this way at least having a choice (knowing that it is GPRS and not their own 3G network)...
Interesting...
mancuk29 said:
It's ok in 97% if the UK when it's good it's very good but when it's bad it's bloody awful
I went to Scotland a week and found the 3% of the country without coverage it killed me no.internet or phone for that matter
In defense of 3 they are superb value where else could you get 2000 mins 5000 text 5000 3 to 3 minutes and unlimited internet for £36
I.use around 7gb per month via my phone and tethering
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exactly i couldnt put it better myself
mancuk29 said:
It's ok in 97% if the UK when it's good it's very good but when it's bad it's bloody awful
I went to Scotland a week and found the 3% of the country without coverage it killed me no.internet or phone for that matter
In defense of 3 they are superb value where else could you get 2000 mins 5000 text 5000 3 to 3 minutes and unlimited internet for £36
I.use around 7gb per month via my phone and tethering
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
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Click to collapse
I agree with you 100% I went with three's one plan for the data, this month I have used 8.7GB from the 14th yes their signal can be sketchy at times but if I had a 1GB plan I would have clocked up hundreds on my bill so its bearable for me.
When I say their signal is sketchy I get a full signal on my window ledge but on the sofa under the window I get 1 or 2 bars literally less than one foot distance.
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I'm not complaining about the price or the allowance, nor about their network speed. I was just saying it would be nice to have the option to fallback to GPRS data when 3G isn't available. I had no diea this would happen when I signed up 5 days ago, and it is a problem for me to not have that...
So far I am happy enough with the speed and the allowance, etc... Which is why I moved over to 3 in the first place...
If you are in a marginal signal area, you may have a reasonable signal outside your property, but because 2100mhz signal doesn't penetrate walls well, it may not get inside your house. Walk around the outside perimitter of you property, checking the signal strength as you move - if there is a good signal, then there are solutions for getting that signal inside using 2100mhz signal boosters, their use seems to be a legal grey area - but no one has been prosecuted for using them in the uk as I understand to-date. I too have no signal in 80% of the inside of my house yet am very close to a 3uk mast, but I live in a building with 2ft thick walls. I have just installed a signal repeater and, although I am still playing about with the siting of the antenna and booster, it has deffinately made a difference.
If you have only just taken out your contract with 3uk - you may be able to get out of it if you wish - they are obliged to check that there is an available signal at your registered address and should have refused your application if not. Hope this helps
gavin watson said:
I'm not complaining about the price or the allowance, nor about their network speed. I was just saying it would be nice to have the option to fallback to GPRS data when 3G isn't available. I had no diea this would happen when I signed up 5 days ago, and it is a problem for me to not have that...
So far I am happy enough with the speed and the allowance, etc... Which is why I moved over to 3 in the first place...
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Click to collapse
Three only use 3g I would when I first signed up to them I did ask about 3g coverage and they said they only use 3g, ask the right questions and you would have known, if it's only been 5 days you should be able to cancel if you want (I think three say 14 days and get another contract, but I personally wouldn't I'm happy with them because of the unlimited data.
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gavin watson said:
Hi guys,
I'm not denying when there is 3G (and above) coverage it is very good. I was just shocked to learn that there is no GPRS backup, for me I'd rather have very slow data than none at all... It would appear from what I've found out that they don't want the users to have 'a bad customer experience' when on GPRS thinking that it's a slow network... Not sure I agree with that, especially when you desperately need data, even it is it GPRS...
I would really like them giving users the option to fallback onto GPRS by maybe manually entering APN settings, this way at least having a choice (knowing that it is GPRS and not their own 3G network)...
Interesting...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i wouldnt get too attached. 2G will be turned off and reassigned for new spectrum auctions in the very near future. i have been on 3 for 2 years and i have never not had 3G for long.
GPRS cant cope with normal web anyway. it was designed for WAP. its not a big loss trust me. At least you can still make calls.
delsus said:
ask the right questions and you would have known, if it's only been 5 days you should be able to cancel if you want (I think three say 14 days and get another contract, but I personally wouldn't I'm happy with them because of the unlimited data.
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Click to collapse
I did ask, they told me that when out of their coervage it reverted to Orange, which I was on before. What they didn't say was that when it reverted to Orange, it wouldn't include data. I'm not saying they lied, they were however, a little economical with the truth!
I have spoken with them, they are allowing me a little more time (over 7 days) to see how it all works out. As I travel quite a bit I will have to see how much this affects me. I think I will end up staying as it makes more sense for me to have unlimited data than pay Orange quite a bit over my monthly plan for the extra data used...
gavin watson said:
I did ask, they told me that when out of their coervage it reverted to Orange, which I was on before. What they didn't say was that when it reverted to Orange, it wouldn't include data. I'm not saying they lied, they were however, a little economical with the truth!
I have spoken with them, they are allowing me a little more time (over 7 days) to see how it all works out. As I travel quite a bit I will have to see how much this affects me. I think I will end up staying as it makes more sense for me to have unlimited data than pay Orange quite a bit over my monthly plan for the extra data used...
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Click to collapse
Ahh I would recommend staying, while three have a lot of drawbacks the well priced unlimited data makes it worth it imo up to now on a 1GB plan I would have an extra £700+ on my bill and I still have 13 days on this billing cycle. Anything other than unlimited data is unacceptable now in my eyes.
The only other option for unlimited data is t-mobile but it will cost more (I think £40+ with the phone)
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Three has been 3G only for quote a few years now, when they first launched they used to use Orange or O2 for 2G fallback but they didn't renew these agreements as their own 3G coverage was deemed strong enough.
It would not have taken much research to find out they have no 2G coverage, also if you just asked someone before taking the contract out...did the name Three not give you any indication?
the only thing going for three is the 'cheaper' priced tarrifs, much faster 3G network and no fair usage, apart from that their offers are on parr with other special offers on other networks.
The lack of 2g is a bit of an issue if you are in a no coverage area, however if you do have coverage your fine.
A|ex said:
the only thing going for three is the 'cheaper' priced tarrifs, much faster 3G network and no fair usage, apart from that their offers are on parr with other special offers on other networks.
The lack of 2g is a bit of an issue if you are in a no coverage area, however if you do have coverage your fine.
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And that's what matters these days, data costs a lot more than voice and texts, you can rack up a larger bill in a shorter time with data than with anything else, also in the world of data speed matters a lot. Lets not forget the economy I get 5000 texts, 2000 mins and unlimited data for £34/month nothing beats that with a galaxy S3 and lets not forget the £700+ on my bill for data I have saved with 3, I don't think it's possible to do that with voice and texts.
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I went through hell to get a 3 contract cancelled and a MIFI portable broadband dongle contract scrapped because I couldn't get a 3G signal. They dropped 2G in places they deem to be "good coverage" and are turning more and more of their back up network (Orange) off.
They are the worst provider by far. Now with T-Mobile and I get T-Mo and Orange coverage since the merger. Can switch as I please.
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