Three Announces 4G Rollout Plan in Four UK Cities

Chrjy said:

Not sure where you are in the SE but I have never not had a 3G connection wherever I go in the SE, it's the very reason I have just signed another 24 month contract with them.

I tried all the other providers which were okay but it was hit and miss with signal coverage and Three was my last ditch attempt at getting something reasonably decent and even then I didn't hold out much hope...never looked back since, not only that their offers dump all over the other networks!

The only place I didn't get a very good signal was in my house but that was the same with all the other networks I tried, the only difference being was when I explained this to Three they sent me a Home Signal box and I now have 5 bars wherever I am in the house.

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Darrensk8 said:

Out of interest where are you?

I'm in Wimbledon and I only get between 3 and 7mbs

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JarScott said:

So are 4G and LTE the same thing? When we're connected will it say 4G or LTE in the corner? What's the difference? Really good on Three to do this. After EE monopolised the market and ripped people off, it's a breath of fresh air to see a network which just wants to give its customers the best. Three has always been really great value.

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dark knight said:

In the south east, Vodafone can't even manage 2G most of the time. I long for the time when i see a 3G symbol on my iPhone.

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The Phazer said:

It's a real shame Three don't offer Visual voicemail... :-(

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MacRumors said:

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The UK carrier Three*has announced that it will begin its 4G LTE rollout in four major UK cities starting in December of this year, with a further 42 cities due to be added by the end of 2014. According to its website, London, Birmingham (including the surrounding West Midlands), Manchester, and Reading will receive 4G coverage by the end of the year. Unlike other British carriers, Three is not charging a premium for its 4G services, as long as customers have compatible devices.

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Customers who have compatible devices (Three's 4G network will work on the 800 MHz and 1,800 MHz frequencies on LTE bands 3 and 20) will be automatically upgraded with no extra fees. The carrier is also notable for being the only UK operator to offer truly unlimited mobile data with no exceptions, dubbed 'all-you-can-eat data' by the company.

Three already claims the fastest 3G network in the UK due to the implementation of HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA technology, which allow theoretical browsing speeds of up to 6 and 12 Mbps respectively. The company claims its 4G network will allow browsing speeds of up to 14 Mbps, which although is almost five times faster than standard 3G speeds, it still puts it behind the leader EE, which has doubled its LTE browsing speeds in several UK cities, allowing for theoretical browsing of up to 60 Mbps.

Three, along with the other British carriers EE, O2 and Vodafone, will all support LTE browsing on the new iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s, both of which were announced yesterday at Apple's iPhone event in Cupertino, California. Both devices are compatible with the 800 MHz and 2,600 MHz frequencies, which were unsupported by the iPhone 5. Both O2 and Vodafone now allow customers to register their interest for the new devices, which are due to be released next week.

Article Link: Three Announces 4G Rollout Plan in Four UK Cities

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guzhogi said:

Kinda wish the US would build up its infrastructure more. It seems like every other country has way faster 4g/LTE service, faster broadband and other internet services. Plus, a lot of countries have high speed rail systems, and other faster forms of communication, transportation, etc. But the companies are too cheap to upgrade their infrastructure. I know, the US is a big place and it's expensive, but don't these companies bring in millions, if not billions, of dollars of profits? Plus, couldn't we do more of a public/private partnership?

Sorry for the rant, just kinda stressed out about some stuff & need to vent.

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OutSpoken said:

"slow" eek.. Don't say that, I'm getting sky broadband installed on Friday.

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SimonMW said:

NIce that companies like Vodafone are investing in 4G. Lovely for those in major cities. Maybe they should sort out the rest of their network though. I can only just get Edge, if I'm lucky, in most place, and usually GPRS.

Fed up of paying high carrier prices to subsidise peoples fast connections in big cities. It's about time people paid a price representative of what kind of connection they can get in their area. Then maybe these companies would get off their arses and provide a decent service.

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Shaun said:

Good luck with that I hope it works better for you. I've been using Sky broadband for the past 3 years. I'm currently on my third router as they seem to last about a year and then die. Fortunately each one died just before the warranty ran out so it didn't cost me anything to replace them.

I get on average 6-7Mbps although Sky tell me I should get 16Mbps. However whenever I call them they have no idea why I get less. My computer is upstairs and my router is on the floor below. I know that slows things down a bit. What's worse is if I download a lot of iTunes content the speed gradually gets slower and slower.

Apart from that the only other gripe I have with Sky broadband is that every time you call their support team they insist that you plug your computer directly into the router, which means I have to dismantle my desktop move it downstairs, plug everything in again just so they can ping my connection.

My advice would be to either position your router so you can plug it directly into your computer rather than using wireless or find some way to network it so it doesn't rely on the wireless connection. I know you can buy these things that plug into your electricity sockets and use that as a network. I've never used them personally but they look good.

As for your problems at home with 3, are you aware that you can buy indoor signal boosters for all the networks. 3 don't advertise it but they do sell one. I think it costs about £100 and it's designed to improve your signal indoors.

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dark knight said:

So strange. In Oxfordshire i very rarely see 3G. Often its the 'o' symbol of doom. Most of the way to London (High Wycombe) i can find myself without signal at all. I thought it was the iPhone 4 antenna thing, but its a similar story with the 5. London is at least covered fine. However, just went to France and never once found myself without 3G on the SFR network. So its probably not the phones fault. Confused

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northernmunky said:

lol, I live in Wimbledon too.. I'm amazed you even have a signal on Three! I just switched over and I've never need 'No Service' on my iPhone so often..

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declandio said:

Those femtocell things will work wonders for your signal but I could never understand why, if you need one, you don't get at least a small discount on mobile line rental. You're basically using your paid for Internet to make up for bad mobile signals. The 'operator' should be paying The end user in these situations! But no... no discount and they won't give you one unless you're on a 24 month contract!

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Darrensk8 said:

Really?!?
The service may not be upto the 6mbs they say I should get but I honestly can't remember ever not getting service anywhere I've traveled in London

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