Will Three address mast contention? Lets find out!

[Bubblesthefish6]

Thanks very much, three!

 

[Bubblesthefish6]

All I can say is Three has been aware of my mast contention for 15 months now, and its got worse every month since it started. I've called them, web-chatted, wrote to head office, they've rung me back numerous times, they admit it's my local mast contention and always say it'll be sorted soon, but it don't improve and they don't address it.

If I come across as annoying on here then good. Maybe you work for three and i'm getting so annoying that they are taking an interest finally? I live in hope.

If you have a great quality of service and fast speeds from Three then good for you, but the reality of the situation for three customers nationally is not what you see. The annual speed test surveys and customer satisfaction say it all, three know they need to invest more in an ageing infrastructure and back-haul and are good at talking the talk, but until I see a difference for me on my mast you're going to have to learn to ignore me in future Tim.

I understand what your saying and I don't think this targeted hate for your actions is at all acceptable (from Tim obviously) as I stated in one of my previous messages. Three need to get their act together in YOUR AREA. They are fine for me and quite a few others. They recently took my grandparents mast off microwave as it was only giving 20 meg and now it's giving 170. Its just a sign of things to come. By any chance are you in a highly populated area (a city or town for e.g.)?.

 

[Buggerlugz]

Not really, 5 miles out of a major town, a village of 8,000 people. Thing is, I can get 100Mbps during the morning (sometimes even higher, I've seen 200Mbps at 2am!) its in the afternoon it slows, 20Mbps by 3pm and by the 6pm it always drops sub 10Mbps, often as low as 2Mbps down, 0.5 up.

 

[Bubblesthefish6]

Not really, 5 miles out of a major town, a village of 8,000 people.

Ah ok, same situ as me really then. Dont really know that there is much you can do unfortunately but your situations don't seem as bad as I thought.

 

[Timboy]

All I can say is Three has been aware of my mast contention for 15 months now, and its got worse every month since it started. I've called them, web-chatted, wrote to head office, they've rung me back numerous times, they admit it's my local mast contention and always say it'll be sorted soon, but it don't improve and they don't address it.

If I come across as annoying on here then good. Maybe you work for three and i'm getting so annoying that they are taking an interest finally? I live in hope.

If you have a great quality of service and fast speeds from Three then good for you, but the reality of the situation for three customers nationally is not what you see. The annual speed test surveys and customer satisfaction say it all, three know they need to invest more in an ageing infrastructure and back-haul and are good at talking the talk, but until I see a difference for me on my mast you're going to have to learn to ignore me in future Tim.

And there we go, the accusation I work for them!

 

[Buggerlugz]

 

[CarlO1460]

Disgusted with the terrible speed that 3 supplies me. What's the best way to complain?

IMG-20210522-192553 hosted at ImgBB

Image IMG-20210522-192553 hosted in ImgBB

ibb.co

I am shooketh at the poor connectivity speeds there.

 

[GavinAshford]

Three are beginning to light up their B28 this week... yep, using their 700mhz spectrum for 4G use (not n28 5G, or even DSS).

Take a look at cellmapper for the extensive coverage found so far

 

[Buggerlugz]

Does that mean we'll be able to use it with CA on the B535 Gavin?

 

[GavinAshford]

Yes!
Hardware wise B535 supports B3+28 and B1+28 (and B7+28 and B28+38, though those are of no interest for Three)

 

[CarlO1460]

Three are beginning to light up their B28 this week... yep, using their 700mhz spectrum for 4G use (not n28 5G, or even DSS).

Take a look at cellmapper for the extensive coverage found so far

I see you B28 (700mhz)

 

[MrRaveyGravy]

I think I'm in a decent location for Three, although there's a Vodafone tower closer to me (about 1/4 of a mile vs 1/2 a mile). The main benefit is cost though - Three is cheap as hell! Especially with cashback deals. Get about 25Mbps which I'm ok with, but that was tested with the connection under load (someone is downloading stuff).

It could be better. I work in telecommunications where I hear horror stories from Three customers, way more than other UK networks so there's definitely issues. Location is key. I keep having to tell people that if something isn't working for them, then it may not be the best location for their requirements, whilst they bash their forehead against the wall trying to chase the Mbps asking about external antenna. The price is too good for them to give up though.

 

[Lucian]

Three are beginning to light up their B28 this week... yep, using their 700mhz spectrum for 4G use (not n28 5G, or even DSS).

Take a look at cellmapper for the extensive coverage found so far

Whoa.. interesting!
Hm, so extra 10mhz (paired) for 4g, hope the backhaul holds.

Shame Mikrotik don't support b28 (also b32 ).

 

[IgNG]

Can phones be enabled for bands retroactively? Like b28 via updates.

 

[GavinAshford]

Can phones be enabled for bands retroactively? Like b28 via updates.

It's fairly unlikely to happen even for flagship devices (almost certainly not for low/mid end ones). Even if a modem that has been used in a device might be capable of more bands than the manufacturer of the device has decided to build and develop for (antennas, firmware, etc), the numerous global certifications for RF emissions will have been based on the original specifications/frequencies, enabling more bands may require the device to go through certification again.

Saying that, it sometimes does happen:

Google Pixel 3 to get LTE Band 48 support via software update

An FCC addendum made public today (even though it was filed back in November) shows that the Pixel 3 will support LTE Band 48 via a software update.

www.xda-developers.com

T-Mobile's OnePlus 8 is receiving a software update that enables two additional 5G bands - GSMArena.com news

T-Mobile's OnePlus 8 is receiving a software update that enables two additional 5G bands - GSMArena.com news

www.google.com

And sometimes is planned, but backtracked on:

OnePlus confirms OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro will not get additional 5G bands via software update in India

And finally if you have an Android device and band restrictions are applied via a carrier policy rather than are a limitation of the modem you may even be able to root it and alter the enabled bands yourself

 

[IgNG]

My Mi 10T Pro has in its specs Band 28 (4G) and often there's a carrier services update, so I was hoping...

 

[GavinAshford]

Well if the device supports it (and there is no carrier policy specifically disabling it) then it should just work - there'll be no need to hope - carrier services doesn't have any impact on it.

 

[IgNG]

I had a text the other day from 3 saying they were working in my area, so I was hoping that 3 would eventually improve their network. Wonder what exactly decides which bands your phone uses?

 

[GavinAshford]

The network.
From the signal conditions as measured by your phone the network does set priorities of what frequency/technology it wishes you are connected to for those given conditions.

In a simple example, for a phone that cannot aggregate - if you're in an area covered by B3 with lots of bandwidth -15mhz - and B20 with relatively small amount of bandwidth - 5mhz- your phone will likely report in the metrics that B20 is stronger in terms of outright RSRP/SINR due to it being a lower frequency and better at propagating/penetrating.
However the network 'knows' that B3 has more capacity and set priorities accordingly, so when the B3 metrics are within certain bounds then your phone will connect to that.
As you move away from the site, the B3 metrics will drop lower to a point where they are out of the defined bounds and cell re-selection will occur, either to another band on the same mast (B20 in our example) or perhaps to another mast entirely (where the B3 metrics from that site is within the defined bounds).

Edit: this is why band locking can prove effective, to avoid low capacity bands the network is putting you on, to connect to higher capacity ones, even though the metrics from the higher capacity bands may not be as high.

 

[Buggerlugz]

Wow.