[a_ukboy]

Hear me out on this one...

I live in East London, now o2 says i live in a high quality 3g area and should get great signal, but i reality i dont..

Now i have been on the www.sitefinder.radio.gov.uk website and looked at all the cell sites around my area, i have 5 surrounding me that belong to o2, and all 5 are gsm and 3g, now all the 5 gsm are transmitting at around 30dBW with the maximum power allowed of 32dBW..
The 5 3g ones are all transmitting at much less with one, my nearest one at 2.27dBW, the other 4 are between 10 and 20..

So why are the 3g ones alot less in power? that would explain why i get 1 bar if im lucky 3g in my house and full signal 2g

I have also 3 belonging to Three UK surrounding me and all 3 of them are transmitting at 32dBW, that would also explain why i use to get a great signal with 3....

So come on o2.... Crank up the power!!!!!!!

[gorilla]

Interesting post. A check on my post code returned similar results, not quite as low as yours, but around 20 dbw. I also was able to see that O2 have less masts compared to their competitors and operate a lower power levels. Both 3 and vodafone were outputting at maximum umts power levels.

So are we saying that the iphone's 3g problems aren't just limited to dodgy hardware/firmware/lack of 3g masts, but now also that O2 are transmitting on the cheap?

[Hands0n]

Bear in mind that each 3dB is a doubling/halving in power, depending on which way you are going. The effect in radio terms would make the difference between signal reaching out to cover areas better or not.

If these figures are the actual transmission powers that are being used, and it is clear that O2's are small fractions of their competitors, one has to wonder why. The iPhone (and other handset) 3G experience on O2 has always been of a poorer quality and standard than the other networks.

There may be good technical reasons, but I fail to comprehend any that would explain the gross difference between O2 and the others.

A good find, a_ukboy. Nice one :)

[3g-g]

Here's an insight chaps...

The one transmitting at 2.27 will be one of the street located cabs with the mast that tries to look like a lamppost, the most they can transmit (depending on what equipment O2 have installed) is 5dBW, the ones that are putting out 30/32 are large macro cells, covering a large geographical area, hence the power, and will be located on a large tower no doubt. The reason the sites belonging to Three are all at those powers is that they'll only be macro call deployments. The Radio Authority tell the operators what power to set their sites at, it's not down to O2 to decide. Also, Three and O2 may have their site antennas set up differently, and the matter of a couple of degrees difference in set up can mean the difference between coverage and no coverage for you! That also stands for 2G and 3G reception on the same network, as for every operator bar Orange, they use different antennas for their 2G and 3G coverage. That might explain why your 2G/3G experience varies so much, it may be that the 3G antennas just aren't facing you, or pointing up enough to give you decent coverage.

[a_ukboy]

Im off to Gran Canaria on the 21st for 3 weeks so i will be interested to see what kind of 3g signal strength i get there with my iphone.. i've been many times before so i know what the signals been like previously.. Generally get full 3g signal over most the island.

So while i'm enjoying the sun (something we've seen very little of this summer) it will give me something to focus on....


Please guys and girls, don't be too jealous!!! :-) LOL....

I will report my findings!!!

I here on the grapevine that version 2.1.0 is getting released tomorrow?? any info on this?

[Ben]

Excellent, do let us know how you get on.

Yes, there's a big Apple event tomorrow, but, of course, as it's an Apple event nobody knows exactly what's going to happen. A new iPod Nano seems very likely, and a new version of iTunes.

Anything else will be a bonus, but I'm hoping for information on iPhone v2.1, more DRM free tracks on iTunes and one more thing ;)

[blush]

In my experience the 3G on the iphone is rubbish. Having been a Nokia owner for years and having used 3G for several years with Nokia and now having switched to an iphone I have had to turn 3G off.

With my Nokia E51 I could use 3G and got good signal but with the iphone the signal shows as very poor and most of my incoming calls go to voicemail so I've turned 3G off. I now receive calls but data is slow.:mad:

[Ben]

I think that has everything to do with O2 and not much to do with the iPhone... :(

[blush]

How come my Nokia was ok on 02 3G though, it was actually useable. Do you have 3G turned on with your iphone Ben?

My battery lasts way longer in just 2G I must say. Even 3g in central London was pretty poor on my iphone compared to Nokia.

[gorilla]

I thought it was pretty much accepted that the iPhone wasn't as good at picking up 3G signals as it's rivals?

[blush]

oh I didn't know that but then I am new to the iPhone. I wouldn't go back to a Nokia now, love the big screen and simplicity of it. Only complaint other than 3G is texting. My sausages are too big! 3g is not that fast anyway eh;)