Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: 3G (423 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - 3G

O2 UK Follows Vodafone into Testing an OpenRAN Network

16th January, 2020 (1 Comment)

Mobile operator O2 (Telefonica UK) has today announced its own plans for an Open Radio Access Network (OpenRAN), which works to standardise the design and functionality of mobile network (3G, 4G or 5G) hardware and software (i.e. making network deployments more cost effective). Vodafone also plans O-RAN trials (here) in rural areas.

EE and Vodafone Come Top of New 2020 UK Mobile Benchmark

14th January, 2020 (7 Comments)

Mobile operators EE and Vodafone have today come top in umlaut‘s (formerly P3) annual 2019 UK Mobile Network Test, which used a range of different benchmarks to test 3G and 4G (voice and data / broadband) services across 21 cities, 29 towns and along 10,700km of major roads.

Farmers Survey Highlights Poor UK Rural Mobile and Broadband

13th January, 2020 (36 Comments)

Once again the National Farmers Union has published the results from its annual online and telephone based survey of several hundred members, which found that just 17% of farmers had access to “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) speeds (up from 16% last year and 4% in 2015) and 15% have no indoor mobile signal at all.

SHOCK – Councils Find UK Mobile Coverage Estimates Unreliable

10th January, 2020 (21 Comments)

The Local Government Association, which represents hundreds of councils across England and Wales, has finally figured out what almost everybody else has known for years, that those mobile network coverage (3G, 4G, 5G etc.) checkers – usually run by operators – are not a particularly reliable gauge of signal quality.

A Quick Snapshot of EE UK’s Mobile Christmas Internet Traffic

31st December, 2019 (1 Comment)

The CEO of BT’s Consumer divisions (BT, EE and Plusnet), Marc Allera, has posted a limited look at anonymised internet data traffic across EE’s mobile broadband network during Christmas Day and Boxing Day, which mainly focuses upon the key impacts for social media and video streaming usage.

RootMetrics Show UK 5G Mobile Broadband Speeds in London UPDATE

19th November, 2019 (0 Comments)

RootMetrics has just published their third report into the tentative early availability and mobile broadband performance of UK 5G Mobile networks, which this time focuses upon the UK capital city of London. As before EE came top for both average download speeds (149.2Mbps) and network availability (60.6%).

Some Three UK Customers Get Working IPv6 Internet Addresses UPDATE

13th November, 2019 (13 Comments)

A number of data (mobile broadband) connected users on Three UK’s 4G mobile network have now reported that their connection has been assigned an IPv6 internet address, as well as the usual IPv4. At present this looks to be a limited customer field-trial, which often comes ahead of a major roll-out.

O2 UK Replaces Classic Pay-As-You-Go Plans with New Bundles

7th November, 2019 (22 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 UK appears to have scrapped their Classic Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) plans for new customers in favour of a refreshed range of Big Bundles, which include unlimited calls and texts as standard; these require you to top-up every month in order to get the allowance.

EE UK Spot Impact of 2019 Rugby World Cup in 4G Mobile Traffic

5th November, 2019 (0 Comments)

Mobile operator EE (BT) has revealed the impact that the 2019 Rugby World Cup tournament has had on their mobile broadband (mostly 4G) network traffic, which for example delivered a 20% surge in data usage during the England v New Zealand semi-final on 26th September. Games involving Wales also created an increase.

RootMetrics Reveals 5G Mobile Broadband Speeds in Cardiff UPDATE

5th November, 2019 (7 Comments)

RootMetrics has today published their second report into the tentative initial availability and mobile broadband performance of 5G Mobile networks, albeit this time focused upon the city of Cardiff in Wales. Overall EE UK came top for both average download speeds (163.1Mbps) and network availability (43.4%).

Three UK Fire Mast Monopoly Concern at Arqiva Sale to Cellnex

28th October, 2019 (0 Comments)

Mobile operator Three UK has warned that investment in future 5G based ultrafast mobile broadband networks could be hurt by Arqiva’s recently agreed £2bn sale of their UK masts and rooftop sites to Cellnex (here), which they say would give the new owner a “monopoly” over 80% of independent mobile sites.

RootMetrics Benchmarks 5G Mobile Speeds in Birmingham UK

28th October, 2019 (5 Comments)

RootMetrics has today published their first tentative report into the initial availability and mobile broadband performance of 5G Mobile networks in the West Midlands city of Birmingham, which sees EE delivering the fastest data speeds and strongest coverage.

New Report Examines the UK Impact of Switching Off 2G Mobile

17th October, 2019 (14 Comments)

At some point in the future Vodafone, O2, Three UK and EE (BT) may take the decision to start switching off their old 2G (GPRS, EDGE etc.) mobile networks; mostly used for voice. A new report from the UK Spectrum Policy Forum and Real Wireless helps to highlight some of the challenges this could create.

Mobile Operator Three UK Suffers National Network Outage UPDATE2

17th October, 2019 (32 Comments)

Customers of Three UK are reporting that the mobile operator appears to have suffered a significant network outage overnight, which began at just after 11pm and is still on-going for some users. Most of the problem appears to be centred around data (mobile broadband) connectivity, although access issues with text s and voice calls are also reported.

Virgin Media UK’s New PAYG Mobile Pricing Causes Concern UPDATE

15th October, 2019 (41 Comments)

Some of Virgin Media’s mobile (EE MVNO) customers on their Pay-As-You-Go platform have expressed concern after the operator started notifying them of an unusual new charging structure. The change appears to penalise infrequent users of the service by effectively charging £2 for the first call or text on each new day.

Church of England Helps O2 and Vodafone to Boost Mobile Cover

14th October, 2019 (7 Comments)

The Church of England has reached a new agreement with the network sharing division of Vodafone UK and O2 – Cornerstone – to help boost 4G and future 5G mobile network coverage into poorly served areas (both rural and urban locations), which should make it easier for them to install discreet antennas.

Ofcom Reveals Key UK Mobile Calling and Data Usage Trends

10th October, 2019 (0 Comments)

Ofcom and benchmark firm P3 have examined a sample size of 150,000 UK mobile users, which revealed that people in Liverpool make the longest calls (average duration of 6 mins 51 seconds) and more than half of us (60%) use less than “1 gigabit (GB)” – we think they meant GigaByte – of mobile broadband data a month.