4G going live tomorrow

SpaceTime

I think you'll be waiting for them to add 1800MHz coverage where they don't need it.
I can't really see them putting money into transmission facilities purely for one legacy handset. They'll be more likely to drive iPhone 5S & 5C upgrades.

800MHz suits Irish non urban coverage much much better than the very high frequencies.

That sounds like a PR department response rather than a technical one to be perfectly honest.

Lots of the non Apple devices at a similar price range like the HTC One and Galaxy S4 will work just fine.

It's unfortunate but it's actually Apple's fault for not specing the 4G chip set for Europe

stooge

SpaceTime wrote: »

It seems Meteor are using 1800MHz in Dublin (and possibly might use that in Cork and elsewhere) but they're using Band 20 (800Mhz) in Athlone and Carlow.

How certain are you about this? Contacted Meteor CC directly and was assured Athlone is using 1800Mhz.

murpho999

SpaceTime wrote: »

I think you'll be waiting for them to add 1800MHz coverage where they don't need it.
I can't really see them putting money into transmission facilities purely for one legacy handset. They'll be more likely to drive iPhone 5S & 5C upgrades.

800MHz suits Irish non urban coverage much much better than the very high frequencies.

That sounds like a PR department response rather than a technical one to be perfectly honest.

Lots of the non Apple devices at a similar price range like the HTC One and Galaxy S4 will work just fine.

It's unfortunate but it's actually Apple's fault for not specing the 4G chip set for Europe

How do you work this out , when in the article I posted 3, didn't even buy any 800mhz spectrum but all networks have 1800mhz?

Makes no sense to me at all.

SpaceTime

They all *have* 1800MHz but it doesn't mean they'll use it everywhere.

Three's rollout could end up being combined with O2 as they've purchased it and are just pending regulatory approval from the European Competition Commission to allow them to merge the two networks.

That then gets complicated as Comreg could, in theory, ask them to hand back one of the networks' spectrum allocations on 3G and 4G. So, it could actually open the opportunity for a replacement player for Three with all three's customers going to the new entity. As yet, nobody's quite sure and I don't think that's a scenario that Hutchison Whampoa (3) would like either. They'd obviously prefer to keep both allocations.

So, with Three they could rollout as planned on 1800MHz or, they could combine with O2 and have a mix of both 800MHz and 1800MHz like Meteor.

On GSM (2G) they all (except 3) have 900MHz and 1800MHz and what tends to happen is they use 1800MHz only where they need more capacity i.e. big urban areas.

800MHz is much better at propagating signals around wider areas and around minor obsticles, through buildings, trees etc. So in general for wider areas, you would usually try to use lower frequencies and might opt for 1800MHz where you need extra capacity in dense urban areas. That's how the plans have tended to work for GSM.

They'll have different plans in different parts of the country too depending on who has what spectrum where and also because of potential issues with networks across the border etc etc.

For example, areas close to Ireland in the UK cannot use 2500MHz bands for 4G because of UPC's MMDS television network which pre-dates them by decades and takes precedence on the spectrum.

3G in Ireland and Europe in general has always been hampered by the choice of 2100MHz as the core frequency which is why it had such abysmal reception indoors and I don't think the networks are about to repeat that mistake with 4G.

The reality is that the iPhone 5 was not really intended for use on LTE networks in Europe and it's really only a kind of happy coincidence that it supports 1800MHz as it seems to have been designed primarily for US bands.

The most common bands in use in Europe on LTE are : Band 7 - 2600MHz (currently not used in Ireland), Band 3 (1800MHz) and Band 20 (800MHz)

The iPhone 5 is an exception in so far as it only supports 1800MHz. I have not seen any other 4G device on the market here that doesn't support at least Band 3 and 20, most support a few others too that are also used in Europe.

...

I would just be careful of what sales/marketing teams are telling you about the iPhone 5's compatibility. There's a lot of misinformation out there due to just lack of info and speculation.

I mean for example:

http://www.emobile.ie/phonesplansmore/phones/?view=ViewAll&make=16

Emobile's website claims the iPhone 4S is 4G!!!!?!!

I just cannot see the networks tripping over themselves to support a legacy iPhone when the iPhone 5C and 5S are 100% compatible as are most recent Androids.

The reality is that the iPhone 5 is just one model of phone. We'll have all moved on to something else in 12 months anyway.

Eire Go Brach

This 4g is very complicated. Don't remember these problems with 3G.

Roll on 5g (o;