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Articles for Category Tag - 3G

Vodafone UK Reveals Plan to Switch-Off 3G Network from 2023

25th January, 2022 (23 Comments)

Mobile operator Vodafone UK has today announced that they will begin to retire their “legacy” 3G network from 2023 onwards. The gradual phase-out will enable them to repurpose the related radio spectrum bands to help boost the performance (faster broadband data), reliability and coverage of their existing 4G and 5G services.

Mobile Operator EE UK Confirms Closure of 3G Signal Box Service

22nd January, 2022 (30 Comments)

Mobile operator EE has quietly confirmed that their indoor femtocell based signal booster device (‘Signal Box‘), which used an existing fixed line broadband ISP connection to create its own indoor 3G mobile signal over a specific band (e.g. 2100MHz), will be “fully closed” (for existing customers) by 30th June 2022.

Mobile Operators Unhappy as Ofcom Set Licence Fees for 2100MHz

13th December, 2021 (9 Comments)

The UK telecoms regulator has today set new annual licence fees (ALF) for spectrum licences in the 2100MHz band, which was originally auctioned off in April 2000 to support the rollout of 3G mobile (mobile broadband) networks for the eye watering sum of £22.5bn. But mobile operators aren’t happy about the change.

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All Public 2G and 3G UK Mobile Services Switched Off by 2033

8th December, 2021 (37 Comments)

The Government has unveiled a new agreement with the four primary mobile network operators, including Vodafone, EE (BT), O2 (VMO2) and Three UK, which among other things will see existing 2G and 3G signals being “phased out” by 2033 (benefitting 4G / 5G services and mobile broadband) and a new target for OpenRAN adoption.

Ofcom UK Expands the Range of Indoor Mobile Signal Boosters

4th November, 2021 (5 Comments)

Ofcom has today confirmed that they will next year introduce new changes to help expand the range of licence exempt “mobile phone repeaters” for UK consumers to adopt, which can be used in locations where people want to boost mobile signals for indoor and in-vehicle (low gain) use.

EE Tops Tutela’s Q3 2021 Benchmark of UK Mobile Networks UPDATE

14th October, 2021 (1 Comment)

Crowdsourced benchmarking firm Tutela has published their latest Q3 2021 study of mobile broadband (4G and 5G) performance across the United Kingdom, which found that EE “dominated the majority of the metrics tested,” but Three UK are challenging when looking at the latest ultrafast 5G services.

Another U Turn as Three UK Reintroduce EU Roaming Charges

9th September, 2021 (101 Comments)

Mobile operator Three UK, which last year said that they planned to “retain” EU roaming at no extra cost “regardless of Brexit negotiations“, has today followed the U-turns from rivals EE (BT) and Vodafone by announcing their intention to reintroduce roaming charges on texts, data (mobile broadband) and calls.

Vodafone UK 5G Trial Cuts Energy Use and Refarms 900MHz to 4G

2nd September, 2021 (6 Comments)

Vodafone UK has teamed up with network supplier Ericsson to conduct a new trial in Central London, which demonstrated an impressive 43% reduction in the energy consumption of their 5G mobile broadband network (reaching up to 55% at off-peak times). The operator has also re-farmed some of their 900MHz band to boost 4G.

U Turn as Vodafone UK Reintroduce EU Mobile Roaming Charges

9th August, 2021 (72 Comments)

Well, that was one of the fastest U-turns in history. Mobile operator Vodafone UK, which in June 2021 (here) told ISPreview.co.uk they had “no current plans to change our approach to roaming in the EU” (this after rival EE reintroduced roaming charges), has now decided to introduce such charges after all.

Study Benchmarks the Best UK Mobile Networks for H1 2021

22nd July, 2021 (3 Comments)

Mobile testing firm RootMetrics has published their latest biannual H1 2021 study of mobile network (4G and 5G) and broadband performance across the United Kingdom, which once again named EE (BT) as the best overall operator. But they were beaten in one category, with O2 (VMO2) coming top for accessibility.

Ofcom Propose Annual Licence Fees for the 2100MHz Mobile Band

14th July, 2021 (5 Comments)

The UK telecoms and media regulator, Ofcom, has today published its proposals on the annual licence fees for spectrum licences in the 2100MHz band, which was originally auctioned off in April 2000 to support the deployment of 3G mobile (mobile broadband) networks for the eye watering sum of £22.5 billion.

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Status of UK Mobile Signal Boosters from O2, Three, Vodafone and EE

10th July, 2021 (33 Comments)

The spread of Wi-Fi Calling across the UK’s major operators, which uses your home or other WiFi (broadband) service to run mobile calls and text (SMS) messages, has resulted in the gradual phasing-out of indoor femtocell signal boosters. But some people still want these, so we set out to find which operators will support them.

Mobile Operator EE UK to Reintroduce EU Roaming Charges UPDATE

24th June, 2021 (43 Comments)

EE (BT) has followed this morning’s confusion over O2’s tougher excess data charges for EU roaming (here) by revealing that they will be reintroducing EU roaming charges for new or upgrading customers from 7th July 2021. In short, you’ll be charged £2 a day to use your allowances across 47 European countries from January 2022.

Clarifying O2 UK’s Tougher Excess Data Charges for EU Roaming

24th June, 2021 (23 Comments)

Mobile operator O2 (VMO2) appears set to introduce a tougher Fair Usage Policy (FUP) for data (mobile broadband) usage when roaming around the EU. From 2nd August 2021, Pay Monthly customers will now be charged £3.50 for every GigaByte of data used over a cap of 25GB. But this is not a new approach.

Tutela Study of UK 4G Mobile Broadband Speeds Ranks EE Top

8th June, 2021 (0 Comments)

Crowdsourced benchmarking firm Tutela has published their latest H1 2021 study of mobile broadband (4G and 3G) performance across the United Kingdom, which broadly finds that EE (BT) delivered the best download speeds and fastest latency times, although Vodafone came top for uploads.

Ofcom UK Seeks to Expand Range of Indoor Mobile Boosters

19th May, 2021 (22 Comments)

A few years ago the UK telecoms regulator, Ofcom, took the decision to licence exempt certain “mobile phone repeaters” for indoor and in-vehicle (low gain) use (here), yet today only the kit from Nextivity (Cel-Fi) is known to officially meet their requirements. But their new proposals could be about to change all that.

Ofcom Spring 2021 – Full Fibre Covers 21% of UK and Gigabit 37%

12th May, 2021 (9 Comments)

Ofcom’s latest Spring 2021 update for UK broadband and mobile networks has revealed that “full fibre” (FTTP) coverage has grown to 21% (up from 18% in Sep 2020) and 37% or 10.8 million homes are within reach of a gigabit-capable (1000Mbps) network (up from 27%). But sadly 4G coverage has not improved and there’s no mention of 5G.