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Three UK Network Updates

Will the antennae on existing masts support 700MHz?
it's a business contract with go roam further on it too... I'll be tethering my life away in Spain in a month or two!
crikey, i've got two £2 unlimited data sims... I wonder if they have go roam or not. I thought it was an add-on now.
 
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Will the antennae on existing masts support 700MHz?

crikey, i've got two £2 unlimited data sims... I wonder if they have go roam or not. I thought it was an add-on now.
nah my contract details state it is go roam and go roam further enabled, I'll test it when I'm in Spain.
 
nah my contract details state it is go roam and go roam further enabled, I'll test it when I'm in Spain.

I can't even log into mythree to find out :( they only give it to business contracts dated after when I got mine.
 
I can't even log into mythree to find out :( they only give it to business contracts dated after when I got mine.
I got my 3 business contract after that date and it still doesn't work.. I rang CS and they said accounts with more than 10 Sims are the only eligible ones at the moment.
 
Thats a shame, I know a few others on here managed to get the same deal when it was available.
Guess who got it first? 🤫

Post #14 from the link below.
 
Wonder if Vodafone would use this upgrade if they merge with Three? And if they did will Three use Vodafone’s network for 4G?
 
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Afternoon everyone,
resurrecting this thread so that the other testing ones don't get clogged up.

Was having a bit of a think about this yesterday - hopefully someone with a bit of infrastructure knowledge can weigh in. How do we think Three will be rolling out B28/n28 going forwards?

I seem to remember loads of people weren't too happy that EE wasn't rolling out B20 nationwide, but the reasoning for it back then was that there would be too much interference for it to work effectively...

Having stayed in an 1860s house these past few months, I find that the B3 signal outside is brilliant, but indoors it starts to taper off and eventually falls back onto a weak B20 signal covering a different part of town if you go in far enough. Works fairly reliably, but the speeds are a little tragic. Should I keep up hope for a solid B28 signal at some point? Currently living with symmetrical 10/10 broadband with no real scope to have it changed.
 
@bustedvans Should I keep up hope for a solid B28 signal at some point?

Three are definitely upgrading their network rapidly.

On my local Three site, the cells were 3G only from 03/2003 to 10/2022 at a maximum of 5-6mbps.

Two weeks ago, upgrades started, and the site is now broadcasting 4G (B1+B3+B20+B28+B32 SDL) on what I imagine is 10gbps backhaul.

Do keep up hope, I live in the middle of nowhere (also in stone house) and would have never expected such an improvement.

13603.jpg
Speed outside, inside around 70mbps
 
Three are definitely upgrading their network rapidly.

On my local Three site, the cells were 3G only from 03/2003 to 10/2022 at a maximum of 5-6mbps.

Two weeks ago, upgrades started, and the site is now broadcasting 4G (B1+B3+B20+B28+B32 SDL) on what I imagine is 10gbps backhaul.

Do keep up hope, I live in the middle of nowhere (also in stone house) and would have never expected such an improvement.

View attachment 4051
Speed outside, inside around 70mbps
Fingers are very much crossed. Only a handful of towers seem to have B20 at the moment, but they're all spaced pretty far apart, and the closest one isn't pointing in my direction...

I've dug up some discussions from a few years ago and I'm starting to suspect B28 will only be added on select towers to fill in the gaps outdoors (particularly relevant for 5G), rather than being put on quite literally every single tower.
 
Afternoon everyone,
resurrecting this thread so that the other testing ones don't get clogged up.

Was having a bit of a think about this yesterday - hopefully someone with a bit of infrastructure knowledge can weigh in. How do we think Three will be rolling out B28/n28 going forwards?

I seem to remember loads of people weren't too happy that EE wasn't rolling out B20 nationwide, but the reasoning for it back then was that there would be too much interference for it to work effectively...

Having stayed in an 1860s house these past few months, I find that the B3 signal outside is brilliant, but indoors it starts to taper off and eventually falls back onto a weak B20 signal covering a different part of town if you go in far enough. Works fairly reliably, but the speeds are a little tragic. Should I keep up hope for a solid B28 signal at some point? Currently living with symmetrical 10/10 broadband with no real scope to have it changed.
Cellmapper was updated recently with n1 and n28 for Three UK, the only reported sighting of n1 is near Oxford.
But I have hope that we will see a high coverage representation soon.
 
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B28 is available everywhere in [edit: central] London now, so they're deploying it. I've only seen it being used for 4G though.
 
Last edited:
Cellmapper was updated recently with n1 and n28 for Three UK, the only reported sighting of n1 is near Oxford.
But I have hope that we will see a high coverage representation soon.
Indeed. I have to say, even though B28 itself seems to be rolling out fairly slowly, every place I've seen it the improvements have been incredible.

Slightly mixed emotions about it being shared with 5G, but time will tell how it actually performs in the real world.
 
B28 is available everywhere in London now, so they're deploying it. I've only seen it being used for 4G though.
Still a handful of deadzones in SE London unfortunately. B20 only in quite a few places on the bus into central London from Deptford.

But yes, we haven't really seen n28 on a grand scale yet. Currently we only know of one site in Manchester which hasn't been properly mapped yet.
 
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Afternoon everyone,
resurrecting this thread so that the other testing ones don't get clogged up.

Was having a bit of a think about this yesterday - hopefully someone with a bit of infrastructure knowledge can weigh in. How do we think Three will be rolling out B28/n28 going forwards?

I seem to remember loads of people weren't too happy that EE wasn't rolling out B20 nationwide, but the reasoning for it back then was that there would be too much interference for it to work effectively...

Having stayed in an 1860s house these past few months, I find that the B3 signal outside is brilliant, but indoors it starts to taper off and eventually falls back onto a weak B20 signal covering a different part of town if you go in far enough. Works fairly reliably, but the speeds are a little tragic. Should I keep up hope for a solid B28 signal at some point? Currently living with symmetrical 10/10 broadband with no real scope to have it changed.
I do believe that Three is looking into using DSS for their N28 deployment, so in other words 4G and 5G are deployed from the same mast and the same frequencies simultaneously, I believe DSS uses an algorithm to split 4G and 5G.

In regards to Band 20 on Three. It's intended purpose was to increase coverage footprint and to deploy VoLTE to help people in Rural areas. Three's made a right mess of Band 20 and there are far too many 3G Band 1 and 4G Band 20 only sites. Three are going to have to do a heck of a lot sites before the 3G turn off happens otherwise when 3G does get turned off, the network is going to cripple under it's own weight in places where there is no 3G fallback.

Band 20 is capable of about 32mbit/s per 5Mhz, I have seen these type of speeds in some rural areas of Scotland, travelling down the M74 in a car or on the west coast mainline. However most areas where Band 20 only happens I've noticed is in smaller towns where even a few concurrent connections can overwhelm the Band 20 airwaves adding even one Band 32 carrier onto these masts would make the world of difference to the connection speeds in these areas (backhaul permitting also).

Edit: After reading more of the posts in this thread.

It's good to see that some people are reporting an improvement in their service lately with some upgrades making gains. Seeing 3G only sites being given B1+3+20+28+32 upgrades is very positive and I hope that moving forward when any mast gets an upgrade they do get considered for these types of upgrades. I've seen as much as 400mbit/s on these sites around Glasgow.
 
It's good to see that some people are reporting an improvement in their service lately with some upgrades making gains. Seeing 3G only sites being given B1+3+20+28+32 upgrades is very positive and I hope that moving forward when any mast gets an upgrade they do get considered for these types of upgrades. I've seen as much as 400mbit/s on these sites around Glasgow.
Just wish they'd get a move on in my area. Really can't see the point of starting in urban areas where most of the population have fibre, cable or good decent internet connection via "land line" and don't really need a mobile connection.
 
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