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Mast Oversubscription Concerns

jmngonline

ULTIMATE Member
I have noticed that 3 does have oversubscribed masts, my known locations are

Newquay
Padstow (seasonal during summer, 3g only tourist town)
Swanage (seasonal during summer, last visited in Feb when speeds average 10mbits 4g.
London SW1
Winchester st cross road area

I'm not too sure how much of the UK is oversubscribed but anywhere that is dependant on tourism seems congested in my experience where other places either have fast 5g, good 4g and those unfortunate 3g only areas even though they usually have good speeds but bad down/up ping usually over 1000, narrowband calling and only band 1 coverage. I'm pretty sure o2 struggles the most with capacity as they are overally slower and well dependant on small cells maybe im wrong but i've never found o2 "fast".

Here's my main concerns
•If congested enough could it be impossible to make a call or text?
•Even if 3 uses the most newest mast with the best specifications can it still be oversubscribed?
•Have 3 actually genuinely tried to tackle network congestion or do they just wait for the next G to come out then upgrade?
•How badly congested are 3 coverage wise?
 
> If congested enough could it be impossible to make a call or text?

Can it happen? Yes, but it rarely does.

Calls and texts have higher priority than data, so data will stop working way, way before than phone calls/text.

> Even if 3 uses the most newest mast with the best specifications can it still be oversubscribed?

There's always a bottleneck somewhere. Sometimes it's the bands used, sometimes the backhaul connection to the sites, sometimes there's just too many users and not enough sites (due to lack of investment or because they're not allowed to build more), and so on. This is the case for all networks.

So yes, even the fastest +1500Mbps sites Three has could be oversubscribed. It doesn't seem to be a problem right now on these super fast sites though.

> Have 3 actually genuinely tried to tackle network congestion or do they just wait for the next G to come out then upgrade?

They invested a lot on 3G, then less on 4G, which was probably a mistake. Now they're investing on 5G and if they add 5G to a site, then usually 4G also improves because there's usually equipment upgrades, faster backhaul, etc.

Don't expect their 4G performance to be as good as other networks though. Not only their focus is on 5G, but they also don't have the radio spectrum to have the same 4G capacity as the other 3 networks. For 5G they have a big chuck of n78 and where available it's usually very good... As a data heavy user, if I was considering using Three, the main question would be if 5G is available or not because Three 4G and Three 5G can be very different.

Three has been behind from the start. They had way less spectrum than the other networks for 3G and 4G, and had to play catch up with other more established networks. They also have less users, usually offer more for less (they carry more data per user than other networks)... less revenue makes it harder for them to invest.

They're waiting on a decision to merge with Vodafone and it seems that they've scaled back upgrades. No one knows what's going to happen next.

> How badly congested are 3 coverage wise?

Like all networks, they have good and bad areas.

For me in London they're okay on the outskirts and bad in the centre. You'll also see people here saying how good they are in their area.

For someone that travels a lot or live in areas where 3 is not consistent, this might be a problem. For someone using them for home broadband, all it matters is the performance of the nearest mast.

On a side note, congestion doesn't depend on coverage. You can have good coverage and lack capacity. O2 is slow overall, but they're one of the best for coverage. EE doesn't have the best reach indoors, but are known for having fast 4G mainly because of the bands they use.

---

If you need to always be online, the best thing you can do is to use 2 networks. Many phones these days support eSIMs or have dual SIM slots, and can use the other SIM as fall back for calls, texts, and data.

Pick the best network in your areas and use it as the main SIM. Then get a cheap backup on a different network for when the main one doesn't work well.

There are 2 "groups": EE + Three and Vodafone + O2. They usually share masts, so you should pick one of each group to have the best coverage possible.

In my case, the best networks are EE and O2. Because of costs, I use EE and Vodafone (Spusu and Lebara). Where one doesn't work well, the other usually does.
 
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There are 2 "groups": EE + Three and Vodafone + O2. They usually share masts, so you should pick one of each group to have the best coverage possible.

In my case, the best networks are EE and O2. Because of costs, I use EE and Vodafone (Spusu and Lebara). Where one doesn't work well, the other usually does.
Couldn't agree more. For me, where Three doesn't work, generally EE doesn't either. The same can't be said the other way round however.
Where i do find a patch on Three with low/no signal then I'll use my backup Vodafone sim as that tends to fill in the gaps well whilst maintaining an internet connection that isn't competing for speed with a dialup modem.
 
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