pinkteddyx64 wrote:spotify95 wrote:pinkteddyx64 wrote:You may also be interested to know that mobile phone tariffs are actually on average more expensive in the US than here.
Though that's probably because the US have better networks than we do.
Even EE, the UK's best network for 3G and 4G coverage, haven't managed to get 99%+ 3G and 4G - meaning that some villages etc still rely on 2G.
What makes me unhappy about the UK's networks is that the US are turning off their 2G in 2017, countries like Singapore are also considering switching off 2G - yet in the UK, we're not switching off 2G until at least 2025 (probably even longer) and it could well be that 3G gets axed before 2G does!
Which is no good at all if you are on an MVNO that doesn't have 4G (e.g. Virgin) or you don't have a 4G compatible phone!
And although this does sound like UK-bashing propaganda, it is the reality of things and unfortunately people like you and me can't do anything about it.
A better way would be to refarm all 2G frequencies (and all 2G capacity) to 3G and 4G, i.e. 2G900 (Voda/O2) to be refarmed to 3G900, and 2G1800 (EE/small amount for O2) to be refarmed to 4G1800. Then whack the power levels of 3G900 (O2/Voda) and 3G2100 (EE/Three) up, so that 3G coverage matches or exceeds the ex-2G coverage. If necessary, add a few more fill in masts to cover blackspots. Done! 2G gets switched off.
Not necessarily in all areas of the US.
Can I train my dog to savage James_W because Japan has already long since switched off 2G and has
plans to have an all 4G only network by 2019?
Yes, but here's the problem: an all 4G network isn't really a good solution!
Firstly, there's quite a lot of people who don't have 4G compatible handsets. In terms of iPhones, anything earlier than the iPhone 5 (that's the iPhone 4S and older) doesn't have 4G support. For Android, anything earlier than about 2012/2013 wouldn't have 4G (I think the first Samsung to have 4G is the Galaxy S3?). The people who have 3G handsets (that still work now) wouldn't want to buy a £100+ phone for 4G. As an example, my parents have a ZTE Blade 3 and a Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus (they both used to be my phones) - both are 2G/3G only (so no 4G) and date from 2011 onwards. They don't make too many phone calls, however it is vital that they are able to make and/or receive calls. They don't use that much phone data either. They'd be rather unhappy (to say the least) if someone told them to buy a £100+ phone each, that supports 4G.
Secondly, not all 4G phones support VoLTE. If a phone doesn't support VoLTE, how do they make a call? Simples - they drop back to 3G! Anything that's older than the iPhone 6, or the Samsung Galaxy S5, will not support VoLTE. That means that I'd have to buy a new phone - and my Samsung Galaxy S4 wasn't cheap! (Cost £380 a year and a half ago.) No VoLTE would mean not being able to make or receive calls - disaster!
Thirdly, (certainly in the UK) phones that support VoLTE have to be flashed with the carrier's firmware, for VoLTE to work. If you bought your phone on a contract, then all you'd need is an update from the carrier. However, for those who buy their phones outright (so they can switch to a different network if necessary), they'd have to find the carrier branded firmware, and flash it on to their phone, in order to get VoLTE working. Do I know how to do that? Nope! Do most people know how to do that? Again, nope! (Note, this doesn't apply to iPhones, certainly the iPhone 6 and newer.)
What they should have done is got 4G LTE working with voice from the offset, so you wouldn't end up with situations where you have a phone that doesn't support calls over 4G. And furthermore - if LTE was launched with voice capabilities from the offset - the power on the 4G frequencies wouldn't have to be heavily restricted, so as to have to fit within the coverage range of 2G or 3G. As an example, if you had, say 4G800 running at full power, with no restrictions on what device can access it, and your 2G network was on 1800 MHz, and 3G on 2100 MHz, then you'd have lots of instances where you'd have lovely data across 4G800, but you wouldn't then be able to take a call because your non-VoLTE phone has no 2G1800 or 3G2100 to drop back to. Hence, why Vod/O2 have had to heavily restrict their 4G800 power; because their 800 band is their primary 4G coverage band and it has to fit within 3G900 in order for calls to work across all devices.