topic Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far in Discussions & Feedback

What do you think of O2 4G so far

darrengf — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 00:56:06 GMT

I know that there are lots of Topics of when I will be getting 4G etc, but I thought It would be interesting to see if people do like 4G?

So where i live, I can get 3G, if I walk 200 yards outside up the street I get 4G (From a Mast a couple of Miles away), but even though I cant get 4G in my house, I have however noticed that since 4G is some what in the area, other people must be using it as my 3G speeds have increased, not by much, but they have got better.

However my overall impression on O2 4G is very good. I have noticed more and more places getting 4G and some places now have 3G when they only had gprs.

The speed of the roll out is impressive too I have to say. 3G took for ever, infact I gave up on it, but 4G is rolling out much faster.

However I have come to notice that its very sporidic in areas, so for instance. one mast may get updated in the town and then the others are a couple months down the line.

Not sure how some places get it before others, I can only think that the backhaul to the mast is their and ready.

4G is patchy as well, its like a patchwork quilt lol. But it can only improve.

So some of my views,

Whats yours? Good or Bad

Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far

Cleoriff — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 07:39:39 GMT

Hi @darrengf

I can't claim to have had much experience of constant 4G. It hasn't reached my town yet.

However, I have used it in Birmingham.... and yesterday I was in Coventry using it all day. I found the speeds of loading stuff pretty damn good

Funnily though, a lot of us had a discussion about 4g in Coventry and one guy claimed it was very patchy there...in that if he moves out of his house a mile to another Coventry suburb, the 4G drops out and he isn't happy about it at all. (He has his own business in Coventry and can't get it there for instance)

So from what I heard...even in places that claim to have it....coverage ranges from excellent to patchy

By the way, this guy was actually with O2.... but had two other phones on EE and Vodaphone

Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 08:11:43 GMT

Upto now (and its only gone on this week from home) I am delighted and did a speed comparison test against the land line where it was over 2 x faster on dowloads and much much faster on uploads. I had suspected this may be the case from experience in other areas.

A friend has been testing out the viability of replacing his landline with MiFi so when he is away he isnt paying landline rental on an unused service at home. Upto now findings have been 100% +ve.

Whilst my mobile phone is with O2, my MiFi is with 3 and it will be interesting to see how they fare when they get my area on 4g as I will certainly consider dropping the landline service.

Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 09:13:45 GMT

The idea of replacing home broadband (which for many may also mean dumping unused landlines which you are obligated to pay for) is, for me, EXTREMELY appealing if only the networks would give enough data allowance. They really could make a fortune if they had the network capacity.

Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 09:33:31 GMT

4g 3g would be nice to see first

Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 09:44:41 GMT

Hence the rollout. 4g currently also needs 3g to give a customer experience as 4g is data only and 3g provides the calls.

Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far

viridis — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 10:00:21 GMT

It's alright yh.

Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far

Cleoriff — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 10:55:48 GMT

@viridis wrote:
It's alright yh.

Such a man of few words...

Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far

jonsie — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 11:05:48 GMT

Well I have 4G but it's hardly been life-changing....

Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far

paulbacon — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 12:41:46 GMT

4G has great coverage and is fast, but because it uses the 800MHz frequency it really does suffer from congestion at peak times. Where i work we have 4g but always use 3g as 4g is too unreliable, and friends who live in different areas say the same

Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far

cyrillicguy — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 12:46:30 GMT

@jonsie wrote:
Well I have 4G but it's hardly been life-changing....

Agree here. If I would be able to move around the UK (bus, train, whatever...) and mantain a constant, say, Skype conversation whilst on the go (more important), or listen to my favourite online radio station (not so important but still nice), without any connection drops, I'd then take my hat off to the network provider which made it possible.

Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far

jonsie — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 13:08:30 GMT

These are the results from sitting in my armchair watching sky sports on the phone and laptop. Not brilliant but consistent at least. Interesting that upload is far better than wifi.

4G on phone

Wifi on laptop

Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far

viridis — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 13:15:29 GMT

That's virgins upload throttling for you,
At a ratio of around 10:1 it's below most other providers but is necessary to ease congestion just that little bit.
General reasoning being, more people want to download more stuff than they want to upload.
People will wait for a video to upload to YouTube, but have more desire to receive something quicker.

I have noticed with my 4g I often get higher upload than download,
When you think about it, the need to upload is higher on mobile platforms, with social uploading and constant pics of lunch on instagram. This could be why mobile networks have a much higher split of bandwidth

Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 13:40:30 GMT

4g in this area is patchy. In some places 4g can be picked up but then you can't send or receive calls/texts. At my home address I get 25 to 30mbs upstairs with 4g but no calls or texts and o2 tell me I can't get 4g!

Where it works it is good but it is just faster that's all. It was never really going to be life changing for most, even die hard internet users. Its strength is in steaming and tv use our large files. Day to day not much difference except quicker.

Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far

jonsie — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 13:56:00 GMT

Streaming is the big plus but to be honest a phone will only work as fast as the processor allows or is capable of in many cases.

Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 13:57:17 GMT

Very true @jonsie but with our Notes we should be fine.

Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far

darrengf — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 17:04:17 GMT

It's good to see that 4G where Ava has been received positively. I wonder say in 6 months we have the same opinion? Only time will tell.

But so far so good.

😉 now where's my Easter egg gone lol

Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 19:25:56 GMT

4G has only recently arrived in Cardiff, but for my own post code it still doesn't offer a reliable connection for mobile broadband (at least that's what the coverage checker tells me). To be honest though, as a light user on PAYG, it's not really worth spending an extra £5 for 4G, particularly as I'd be paying for an increased inclusive allowance that I don't really need. I think Three have got the right approach, in not charging extra for 4G.

It may be a coincidence though, but I've noticed that my download speeds on 3G have improved in the last week or two. I'm sure I've read somewhere that they're investing millions of pounds on improving the network, so perhaps we're finally starting to see the benefit of that work.

Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far

Anonymous — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 20:19:35 GMT

I live in Keighley, West Yorkshire and I did a speed test using my nexus 5 on 3g and got 0.83mb download speed. I then did another test on 4G and achieved 13.4mb download speed. My home broadband runs at 8mb download, so the 4G is awesome.
It's tonnes faster, but for everyday browsing, I honestly can't tell much difference. But for watching videos etc... it's pretty instant

Re: What do you think of O2 4G so far

jonsie — Sun, 22 Mar 2015 20:23:24 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I live in Keighley, West Yorkshire and I did a speed test using my nexus 5 on 3g and got 0.83mb download speed. I then did another test on 4G and achieved 13.4mb download speed. My home broadband runs at 8mb download, so the 4G is awesome.
It's tonnes faster, but for everyday browsing, I honestly can't tell much difference. But for watching videos etc... it's pretty instant

Significant difference and improvement for you