Anyone tried 4G yet?

pctech · Aug 31, 2013, 18:23:39

Been reading up on the technology for a while and it looks like the marketing is now in full swing as happened with the launch of 3G.

Anyone actually tried it though, any good?

Simon · Aug 31, 2013, 18:37:51

Nope. Isn't it more expensive?

pctech · Aug 31, 2013, 18:47:11

Looks to be but I think they are trying to capitalise on the early adopters at the moment as 3 did in 2003, I suspect prices will fall pretty quickly.

zappaDPJ · Sep 01, 2013, 00:03:18

I'm considering it, in fact I'd probably sign up for it tomorrow but the number of handsets that support it is providing to be a limiting factor

Simon · Sep 01, 2013, 00:33:24

The HTC One is a nice looking phone which supports 4G. It still seems data allowances are fairly small, and would soon be eaten up at fast speeds, but I've only just quickly looked at O2.

zappaDPJ · Sep 01, 2013, 01:15:21

It's a tough one for me because I'm hooked into iOS but if I was to turn to the dark side or move towards the light (depending on your perspective

), the HTC One is a great looking piece of technology. I'm particularly taken by the 1080 x 1920 screen. My 24 inch PC monitors run in the same resolution which the HTC packs into 4.7 inches. Amazing!

pctech · Sep 01, 2013, 16:06:03

Having owned an HTC Desire S I'd not buy another HTC though the One does look nice.

I'm left handed and a bit clumsy so hold the phone quite tightly which meant I blocked the antenna which was in the bottom mounted on the battery compartment cover.

Samsung are apparently looking to make the S5 out of Aluminium though I'm not so keen on the fixed battery as it makes it impossible to do a complete reboot without clearing the data in the phone with a factory reset.

Gary · Sep 02, 2013, 09:48:44

There are quite a few phones that do 4G now, but I would wait, chipsets will get better, and battery life on 4G seems to suck for many. Also tariffs are stupidly expensive. Give it a year or two. On 4G you would need at least 5GB a month of more to get any meaningful use out of it, and also live in a select few cities as of now.

Glenn · Sep 02, 2013, 16:23:05

No price increase for a 4G upgrade with Three http://blog.three.co.uk/2013/08/29/get-ready-for-4g/?id=1183

pctech · Sep 02, 2013, 19:49:12

But just don't port your number to them as you'll have a hell of a job getting it out again if you want to move which is a shame as their PAYG looks attractive.

Gary · Sep 03, 2013, 05:45:46

Quote from: pctech on Sep 02, 2013, 19:49:12
But just don't port your number to them as you'll have a hell of a job getting it out again if you want to move which is a shame as their PAYG looks attractive.

Getting your nuber back to port to another provider should cause no issue, have you had problems Mitch? 3 is great on its 3.5G tbh 4G is a thing so far off for where I live I'm not bothered.

pctech · Sep 03, 2013, 18:37:45

Not personally but I've witnessed several marathon phone calls (90 minutes+) with colleagues trying to get their PAC from Customer Service.

I was also a mod on a mobile phone related forum (closed down now) and they had the lions' share of complaints of that nature along with them not cancelling contracts so we used to advise people to get a PAYG SIM, their PAC and port the number to the new SIM even if they had no intention of keeping the number as it would force Three to end the contract which is why their CS would keep people on the phone for hours at a time.

Their coverage here isn't brilliant anyway, O2 seems to be about the best.

Lance · Sep 04, 2013, 22:02:13

3 are the best for me and seem to have the best signal whereever i go. when I moved my phone and the wife's phones over to them I had some concern about their customer service. However, I've had to deal with their CS twice now and both times have been painless with very helpful and empowered representatives sorting out my problems in a very efficient manner.

Gary · Sep 05, 2013, 09:41:37

3 gives me the best coversage where I live, speeds for data are great faster then my current adsl2+ connection, and on a simplicity is so cheap with all you can eat data, it makes the rest look so expensive. O2 have the worst coverage, still 2G in my village and patchy 3G in the local towns which is awful considering how long 3G has been around.

wecpcs · Sep 06, 2013, 14:49:44

3 also gives us the best coverage where we live on the eastern end of the Isle of Sheppey and I have just moved my wife from O2 on to it, when I gave her my Galaxy S2 as I now have a new Galaxy S4. O2 has no 3G coverage whatsoever around here and Vodaphone is only good outdoors, but useless indoors.

Colin

pctech · Sep 07, 2013, 19:52:47

My point was its a pain IF you want to leave

Niall · Sep 10, 2013, 23:03:00

I was watching Sky news before work about 3 weeks ago (don't know why I bother, the retarded cr*p they talk about on there, clearly with a hidden agenda) and Eamonn Holmes said (and I'm surprised he didn't make the papers for the comment) that he was with EE and it's terrible because he can hardly ever get a signal. He didn't mention EE by name, but they were the only company offering 4G at the time

3G is bad enough around here, and only recently seems to have become more reliable. That being said, more pubs, etc around town have free wifi so I generally use that as most of my friends have an iphone so I can use imessage to text them instead of 3G and standard texting

Well, either that or message them on Facebook (see, it has it's uses!)

Gary · Sep 11, 2013, 09:39:38

Quote from: Niall on Sep 10, 2013, 23:03:00
I was watching Sky news before work about 3 weeks ago (don't know why I bother, the retarded cr*p they talk about on there, clearly with a hidden agenda) and Eamonn Holmes said (and I'm surprised he didn't make the papers for the comment) that he was with EE and it's terrible because he can hardly ever get a signal. He didn't mention EE by name, but they were the only company offering 4G at the time

3G is bad enough around here, and only recently seems to have become more reliable. That being said, more pubs, etc around town have free wifi so I generally use that as most of my friends have an iphone so I can use imessage to text them instead of 3G and standard texting Well, either that or message them on Facebook (see, it has it's uses!)

You should see the complaints on EE's facebook page, lots of dropped calls slow 3G patchy coverage when it used to be good, I think they grew to fast and consolidated to many masts while stretching themselves pushing out 4G

pctech · Sep 11, 2013, 21:25:40

My neighbour who was persuaded to switch from an O2 business contract to a T-mobile one on the promise of a Femtocell to improve his coverage at home is in the process of writing to the CEO as the Femto hasn't turned up and they are now denying they offered it to him over the phone.

I''ve got him the CEO's name and the contact address, he's not a happy chap at all.

Technical Ben · Sep 12, 2013, 10:12:48

Quote from: pctech on Aug 31, 2013, 18:47:11
Looks to be but I think they are trying to capitalise on the early adopters at the moment as 3 did in 2003, I suspect prices will fall pretty quickly.

In most instances it's a 3g contract on with a higher price, as you'd need a 4g phone in a 4g area...

pctech · Sep 12, 2013, 18:16:12

Indeed, will let them get the teething troubles out of the way before I upgrade again

esh · Sep 14, 2013, 11:13:21

My area is still 2G. Please someone tell me what 3G is like

Niall · Sep 14, 2013, 14:09:13

I was looking on Vodafone's site the other day to see what info they had about the new iphone and noticed you can have an 4G ready package which is more expensive than the 3G package, but there seems to be no mention of getting a lower tariff for all the months you'd be without access to 4G when it's not available. It makes me wonder how many have been suckered into this tariff.

pctech · Sep 14, 2013, 18:55:30

I can't help thinking that, like 3G it'll be fine until customers start hammering it then there will be complaints as looking at the sites of the network equipment vendors for LTE (Long Term Evolution) which is the technical name for what is being rolled out in the UK similar sales patter is being used as was for 3G.

Increased capacity, higher speed, more profit.

Niall · Sep 23, 2013, 19:48:55

All I want is a reliable connection. I don't care if it's 3G or 4G, but for what I do with my phone 3G will suit me until 4G is either the same price and coverage, or the standard.

Also I noticed when I was on the Vodafone site that around here there's a new version of 3G that has better reception and they're slowly improving it. I think they've done a bit more this week as people are saying their connections are better indoors, which is exactly what this new thing does apparently. They are actually claiming IOS7 has caused this improvement, but I can't say my connection has improved at all.

pctech · Sep 23, 2013, 19:57:03

They have probably started to roll out 3G at 900 Mhz (O2 and Vodafone lobbied Ofcom for a long while for their licences to be changed to allow this as previously only 2G was allowed on this frequency)

It does give better indoor coverage than 2100 Mhz which is what 3G was restricted to before.