Vodafone UK has given more details on how they will be sharing masts across the UK with O2 UK. As reported here back in October and June, instead of having seperate masts for each network, they will be putting their masts and O2’s masts together, getting rid of duplicates and building out some new ones. Once done, Vodafone estimate that there will be 18,500 of them. Continue reading
This week the European Commission issued a decision, ordering all 22 EU states to open up the UMTS band for LTE services by mid-2014. The paired terrestrial 2 GHz band (1920 to 1980 Mhz paired with 2110 to 2170 MHz) has been reserved for 3G services since late 90s. The decision by the European Commission makes it mandatory for all member states to open the relevant spectrum by the end of June 2014, and also lays down technical conditions to allow coexistence of different technologies in the band.
Huawei on Tuesday urged the telecoms industry to foster a spirit of cooperation in order to make network rollout more economically viable.
″Who can afford to build a network?″ asked Kevin Tao, president of Huawei in Western Europe, taking the stage at Broadband World Forum 2012.
Telefónica UK and Vodafone UK welcome the news that the regulatory authorities have given them the green light to proceed with previously announced plans to strengthen their existing network collaboration. The two companies will now pool the basic parts of their network infrastructure to create one national grid which will support two independent and competing networks delivering mobile coverage and mobile internet services to the vast majority of UK households. Continue reading
BlackBerry users on the Vodafone UK network have been hit with an outage that has affected their data connection. This means that they are unable to send or receive emails, BBM or able to access websites.
At the time of this post, it would appear that services might be slowly coming back online, as users are reporting that some emails are coming through. However there will have been a backlog of pending messages that will have built up, and it could be some time before everything is back up and running normally.
For those users not with Everything Everywhere (who were granted the 4G LTE spectrum by Ofcom), all is not lost.
Apple’s iPhone 5 has a set of 3G / 4G data connection technologies that may fill the gap in speeds that Vodafone, O2 and other carrier customers have felt they have lost out on.
The iPhone 5 uses the following 3G technologies: HSPA+, DC-HSPA and LTE. Continue reading
A plan by the UK government to increase mobile coverage in rural areas has been delayed, as one network, Three UK said that it is worried that it will not have enough mobile spectrum to provide decent coverage, according to the Guardian. Continue reading
According to this PDF, the Olympic Committee are prohibiting many items such as knives, firearms, ammununtion and illegal drugs but also 3G Wireless Hotspots.
According to the rules, “smart devices” like iPhones, Androids and tablets are permitted in the Olympic venues but they must not be used as wireless hotspots/access points. Understandably, in crowded events these hotspots will use up available bandwidth in the area and cause a strain for the carrier networks. It could also be because BT are the offical partner for the Olympics and they are offering paid access to their WiFi network.
No noisemakers are allowed either. So no vuvuzelas, airhorns or drums.
Vodafone UK have released a new phone to the Pay As You Go market; the Smart II. At £70, this makes it one of the cheapest smartphones on the market today and is aimed at those who use mainly smartphones for social networking. Continue reading
O2 UK have brought out a solution to those customers who experience a low network signal, the O2 Boostbox. The device, which is released today, acts as a miniature 3G mobile cell tower within either the customer’s home or at their work.
Similar to Vodafone Sure Signal, the Boostbox connects to the O2 network via a broadband connection (a minimum uplink speed of 384 Mbps is required) & is designed as a plug & play device. Once the registration is done, the Boostbox takes up to 4 hours to self-configure. The customer stipulates a group of O2 mobile numbers that are authorised to use the signal booster. Continue reading
