Edge on O2

center15

I've a Nokia N73 and when I use the internet outside a 3g area sometime a E appears under the signal, which I presume to mean Edge. I didn't think O2 had edge only Meteor did as O2 decided to go with 3g. I've only ever seen the E in the Ballincollig area of Cork never in the city anyone else seen this? Also on a side note has anyone else experienced the issue where a caller can't hear you but you can hear them perfectly when your call gets handed over from the 3g network to 2g. O2 have said that is is a network issue, a reboot of the phone solves the problem.

Tom Dunne

That's interesting, as I have an Edge compatible smartphone.

I've only seen an E on my phone when I was abroad, or when I tried a Meteor SIM, never on O2. I wonder have they some sort of roaming agreement with Meteor?

Or have they been sneaking in a few EDGE cells without telling me? There certainly doesn't appear to be any in west Dublin, or the city center, where I would be most.

JNive

O2 have EDGE cells. and there is certainly one covering the O2 NOC lol ( John Rogersons Quay, dublin docklands, dublin 2)

Shredneck

Yep, O2 Do have some EDGE sites

Urban Weigl

O2 are rolling out a massive upgrade to their network. As a side effect of going 3G with Ericsson, all cells that are being upgraded to 3G are also getting EDGE.

Tom Dunne

So where are they? Given the nonsense that is the O2 website, would I be correct in saying this information is not available online anywhere?

I am intrigued. I am also bursting to use the EDGE functionality of my phone.

JNive

yup, im currently browsing some hsdpa coverage maps at the moment for my own curiosity, roflmao. :-)

And yes, this year there are relatively big moves in the network capacity area which is really needed before its too late

center15

Well we've found 2 edge cells one in Ballincollig in Cork and the other John Rogersons Quay, Dublin. Now where to find the others...

JNive

lol

Tom Dunne

JNive wrote:

yup, im currently browsing some hsdpa coverage maps at the moment for my own curiosity, roflmao. :-)

Ok, quit lol'ing and starting talking - where are the hsdpa cells?

JNive

Cork EDGE Sites.

###############
Curaheen
Model Farm Road
Ballincollig West
Greenfields - ESB
EMC Cork
Ballincollig
Blarney
Mylane
Wilton ESB
Wilton Hospital

#########

center15

JNive wrote:

Cork EDGE Sites.

###############
Curaheen
Model Farm Road
Ballincollig West
Greenfields - ESB
EMC Cork
Ballincollig
Blarney
Mylane
Wilton ESB
Wilton Hospital

#########

That would explain it Im out in EMC but if there's a 3G/Edge mast so close the phone should be on a 3G network all the time not 2G with edge, no?

Tom Dunne

Ok, you are messing with me now. I don't live in Cork. I'm looking for Dublin, especially anywhere along the Sligo train line from Enfield on.

On a serious note, though, I am interested in hooking up my laptop to my phone to do stuff on the train. It's my one hour of peace in the morning.

JNive

did i say it was 3G :-) , the EMC mast im referring to is a dual band site. I avent browsed the UMTS site list quite yet.

JNive

tom, i feel you pain, i do the exact same thing on the bus to and from cork via hsdpa on the ole laptop, its fantastic lol.

so you want to know what the EDGE or 3G/UMTS coverage is like on the train line from sligo to dublin ?

EDIT: in response to center15, the EMC mast is GPRS/EDGE only, the closest 3G is ballincollig west coming from the city out towads you.

govinda

I get EDGE coverage on o2 in the Baggot Street area of Dublin; haven't come across it anywhere else so far...

JNive

yes, Baggot Street/Waterloo Road and the Burlington are EDGE-enabled, how far around dublin have you tried getting edge coverage cause there is quite a few sites with edge, and is it with a 2.5G or 3G device you are trying this with ( never know with weird settings these days )

Solair

A lot of European networks just skipped EDGE completely. It was popular in the USA as there was a complete mess made of the allocation of spectrum for UMTS and other 3G services and EDGE was rolled out in a big way as an stop-gap measure.

Meteor was supposedly going to roll out an edge network in the absence of a 3G licence, but now that they have one you can be sure that their EDGE roll out will be put on hold and they'll just go over to UMTS

Tom Dunne

JNive wrote:

tom, i feel you pain, i do the exact same thing on the bus to and from cork via hsdpa on the ole laptop, its fantastic lol.

so you want to know what the EDGE or 3G/UMTS coverage is like on the train line from sligo to dublin ?

EDGE, please (I feel like a junkie on the cusp of a fix!).

I'm using an O2 XDA Atom, so no 3G for me. Though for what I want, it will do just fine. I use the laptop on the train already, so a bluetooth linkup with the atom would be the dogs proverbials.

It's interesting that you mention Baggot St. I only seem to be able to get a GPRS signal in that area (near Tesco). I know EDGE works on my phone because I tried it with a Meteor SIM some time back.

JNive

well baggot street is pretty long in terms of 3G and EDGE coverage in urban areas, you have baggot street upper& lower, not sure which parts are covered.

Anyways, when i'm back in the office tomorrow im sure i can check out what sites are carrying EDGE along your path. In its absence you can always stick with lovely GPRS at 50-60kbps :-) at i think 2c / kb these days lol

govinda

Good point about Baggot Street, it's Baggot Street Lower (near Tesco @ the Harvest Moon Centre) where I pick it up. My phone is a Blackberry Pearl, so no 3G for me either ;-)

Random

Every time I've asked them I'm told it's coming with the HSDPA rollout in the next month or two - I guess they've activated some already?

This will finally improve browsing on my Nokia e50!

JNive

currently the only GSM EDGE cells are located in Cork, Dublin, Wicklow and Meath. 3G coverage is far more extensive than this though.

center15

What speed is EDGE? Seems fairly fast when I have used it. I was speaking to an O2 agent about video calling on the network and they don't have a date for it but he said they are looking into alot of stuff like mobile tv. I get the feeling when O2 do come out with a proper 3G offering it will be very impressive.

Tom Dunne

center15 wrote:

What speed is EDGE? Seems fairly fast when I have used it.

All info here.

@JNive: Any idea if I need to get data activated on my account? I'm pre-pay with O2 and I can't seem to get an EDGE signal (as mentioned previously, I got it on Meteor without problem). I would seriously consider changing to bill-pay if I could use EDGE.

And yes, I was the twat on Baggot Street this morning walking in front of cars, switching on and off my mobile phone, trying to get an EDGE signal.

JNive

EDGE is 2.75G basically. and is essentially to GPRS/2.5G what HSDPA is to 3G, an accelerated version, in terms of speed. ( HSDPA is basically regarded as 3.5G ).

Good article about GPRS/EDGE -> http://www.3g-generation.com/gprs_and_edge.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Data_Rates_for_GSM_Evolution.

As for further development of EDGE sites, i do not know, however as i said, the 3G network is much more extensive than the EDGE network at this time.

Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway are pretty much well covered already by 3G and possibly HSDPA, along with plenty other places too ( for obvious reasons i dont want to get into too much detail about 3G/HSDPA coverage before a commerical product is fully launched )

@Tom Dunne: Lol lucky then that i dont walk that way to work lol, i might try it tomorrow just to point you out :-)

Edwordo

center15 wrote:

What speed is EDGE? Seems fairly fast when I have used it. I was speaking to an O2 agent about video calling on the network and they don't have a date for it but he said they are looking into alot of stuff like mobile tv. I get the feeling when O2 do come out with a proper 3G offering it will be very impressive.

273.6kbit/s is max speed of EDGE (with 4 TimeSlots) which is what Meteor have deployed and O2 are in the process of deploying. Realistic speed to expect is 100k/bits

Max speed of 3G is 384kbit/s in Downlink and 64Kbit/s in Uplink. Realistic speed to expect is 320Kbit/s
HSPDA is an upgrade of 3G and will offer 2Mbit/s. Again realistic speed will be about 15% less than this.

CS (Circuit Switched) Streaming (this is needed for Mobile TV) is not yet available as it is very resource hungry and would result in congestion on the operator's 3G network.

O2 have a decent 3G offering, you can get 320kbits per sec with a data card if you have good signal strength and there aren't too many others using the service. However it is expensive to use if you are downloading large amounts of data.

Edwordo

Solair wrote:

Meteor was supposedly going to roll out an edge network in the absence of a 3G licence, but now that they have one you can be sure that their EDGE roll out will be put on hold and they'll just go over to UMTS

EDGE is avaiblable on 95% of Meteor 2G/GSM/GPRS Network currently. EDGE rollout is not like 3G - new sites/antennas/equipment are not needed. EDGE is deployed on the GSM network so to speak. EDGE will act as a back up for 3G users while the 3G network is being deployed - O2 have probably realized that GPRS is not fast enough to backup the 3G network and so this is why EDGE is being rolled out on the O2 Network.

foggy_lad

your all better off with meteor as while they are not a great network they are infinitely better and more reliable than o2 for 2.5/3g and customer care free and more pleasant and helpful when things go wrong.

Random

foggy_lad wrote:

your all better off with meteor as while they are not a great network they are infinitely better and more reliable than o2 for 2.5/3g and customer care free and more pleasant and helpful when things go wrong.

How can they be better at something they don't do (3G) ? Or am I missing some bad joke?

Tom Dunne

foggy_lad wrote:

your all better off with meteor as while they are not a great network they are infinitely better and more reliable than o2 for 2.5/3g and customer care free and more pleasant and helpful when things go wrong.

So you dig up and old thread and start blathering on about something you obviously haven't a clue about? Since when did Meteor do 3G?

You don't work for Meteor, by any chance, do you?