Three quietly rolling out HSPA+

It seems that Three are rather quietly rolling out HSPA+ upgrades to their mobile network, keeping mum about it at the moment. I am not entirely sure why the hush hush, maybe they want to put a bit of a splash on about it later on. So I hope that I'm not stealing their thunder, but this is newsworthy.

In a recent article on the Three Blog about [URL="http://blog.three.co.uk/2011/03/31/the-latest-dongle-technology-comes-to-three/"][U]their new Huawei E367 HSPA+ USB Dongle [/U][/URL] there is a reply to a question raised in the comments section which goes;
[QUOTE]HSPA+ covers upto 21.1mbps and HSPA-Advanced is the next evolution beyond that. The E367 is a HSPA+ device rated at upto 21mbps. [I][B]Our network upgrade to 21.1 is underway and will be completed during the year[/B][/I]. However, you will already see benefits over our existing 7.2mbps dongles like the MF112. Our current MiFi product (E585) is also 7.2mpbs capable and this is their maximum theoretical speed. So performance may improve as the network upgrades continue, but the E585 cannot take advantage above 7.2 mbps[/QUOTE]

There it is, as clear as could be stated, a network upgrade is in progress at this time.

This is exciting stuff. Here is a network that everyone has predicted [since the dawn of time] will go under or be sold off at a massive loss. Yet they continue to confound both opinion and speculation by growing their business into profit and technology to meet the upcoming challenges of the fledgeling LTE deployments anticipated in 2013 onwards. They are also meeting head on any challenge in the HSPA+ space from the other remaining UK network operators. Don't ask me how they're affording to do any of this, by all natural laws they should be a paragraph or two in the history books, but very evidently they are not.

[B]Dismantling the myth[/B]
So, what is all of this HSPA+malarky? Doesn't it give speeds upwards of 100Mbps?

HSPA+ has a theoretical speed of up to 168Mbps using multiple carriers. The new Huawei E367 dongle from Three uses multiple ariels to exploit these multiple carriers from the local mast and harvest as much speed as is available at any one time from the local transmitter mast.

But don't get too excited, you will not be seeing anything like three-figure speeds. Three, in common with the rest, are deploying 21Mbps maximum, which is still an almost trebling of the theoretical speed of HSPA (7.2Mbps). And for those with HSPA there may be an improvement seen inasmuch as attaining speeds closer to the 7.2Mbps could occur. At home I am frequently seeing speeds of 5.2Mbps now whereas previously I would be lucky to see much above 1.5Mbps.

There are many factors that will determine how much of this glorious new speed you will achieve. Firstly, much will depend on how far away you are from the local Three transmitter mast. Are any structures in between you and the mast that will attenuate the signal? How many people are accessing the mast at that precise moment? What is the speed of the backhaul circuit from the mast to Three's network? All of these, at least, will have some bearing on the actual performance you will receive.

[B]Is this 4G?[/B]
No it is not. The much eluded to 4G is a different airtime technology. What we are seeing here is 3G/HSPA being enhanced into the network speed territory of 4G, but it is not 4G at all. There are plenty of sound and good reasons for doing this kind of development. Typically, when 4G arrives we will see decommissioned 3G/HSPA technology pushed out into the so-called Third World nations. There will be little, if any, waste.

[B]When?[/B]
Already the HSPA+ network technology is out in the field. Three are pushing it out further and further across all of their sites in the UK. Their blog says that they will complete the update during the remainder of 2011. Going on recent experience I would say that is completely achievable.

Let us know your experiences with Three's network speeds in your area. Have they improved of late? Have you experienced any recent downtime followed by improved signal quality and speed? Do tell.

Great writeup Hands0n.

Three's progress is superb to be sure, and I don't doubt that this is in part due to their network sharing arrangement. At the point the network rollout started going hell-for-leather it appears some very wise decisions were made, and Three (and it's customers, of which I am one!) is clearly benefitting right now. Indeed, the UK's incumbent networks appear to have been leapfrogged entirely after such promising starts (well, Vodafone and Orange, anyway).

But with no spectrum and no money, what does the future hold for H3G after HSPA+?

The spectrum issue is really becoming a concern. Reports on another forum are that O2 is aggressively rolling out 900Mhz 3G coverage - already it's in many major cities, and I've just seen confirmed reports that it's gone live even in central Glasgow. (I can't test it myself as my 3GS doesn't support 3G on 900Mhz)

It almost seems like O2 have been secretly preparing for the day that 900Mhz 3G would be allowed, and are literally just going around flipping switches to roll it out. This is really bad news for Three and EE.

I wonder where Vodafone stands ? They have the spectrum, but I haven't seen any confirmed reports of live 900Mhz 3G on Vodafone yet. The 800/850Mhz spectrum auction can't come soon enough for EE and Three.

As things stand with O2 it is completely irrelevant whether they roll out 3G/900 or anything else for that matter. The mobile data allowances are meagre and miserly by comparison with Three and even their MVNO giffgaff. They justify these allowances with statistics that most of their customers don't need or want greater than 500MB a month. Even if that is true then it will be only through the public's fear of out of bundle charges being levied.

Only, and finally, with Three's "All You Can Eat" proposition is the customer truly freed from any doubt or uncertainty about their mobile data usage. And as the public get increasingly mobile it is incredible to witness O2, along with others, actually suppressing the mobile data market rather than enabling it as they shoiuld be.

No, sorry, I remain unimpressed with O2 and in fact do not really trust them at all. I would trade the occasional lack of Three's network availability against O2's miserly mobile data allowances.

I'm not sure I really follow your logic Hands0n. You say "As things stand with O2 it is completely irrelevant whether they roll out 3G/900 or anything else for that matter" but that's not true at all as giffgaff have very generous and competitive data offerings therefore the quality of their partner network (o2) is of huge importance.

If o2 sort out their 3G coverage with 900Mhz 3G then giffgaff customers will benefit and you'd have a very nice combination of tariff + 3G network coverage + seamless 2G fallback.

Sorry i have to agree with handson. As a user of 02 in NI their 3g coverage is CRAP tottaly fcuking CRAP it was no beter the week I spent in edinburgh and newcastle. for one of the major UK networks to be in that postion is not a joke, they can roll out 900 3g or what ever they want currently for me Ive losted faith in them one min I have 3G coverage drive down another part of the town Im lucky to get EDGE in most places GPRS.

Add that to their usleess data allowance and their increase due to VAT plus out of bundle call charges at 35ppm they really are taking the piss.

@andyukguy - Strictly speaking about O2 and not one of their MVNOs. Back in time O2 did something very similar with SMS prices. They launched Genie which saw, for that time, extraordinary large text bundles for a fraction of what was charged by the host network.

Fast forward to 2011 and we see it all again with the O2 and giffgaff pair.

My point is that O2 have savaged their mobile data allowances to the most meagre levels that make the availability of their 3G network somewhat moot. What is the point of having access to 3G if you cannot afford to use it? Well, not unless you are happy to either buy a bolt on or pay the punitive out of bundle charges.

I am at a loss to see the #win in O2's current policy in respect to in bundle allowances.

The relevance of 3G/900 may well be very significant to giffgaff's customers. But to O2's customers it does not stand apparent.

Unless, of course, there is a perspective that I have overlooked :)

3 is going to step ahead looking at the 4g technology...fingers crossed

Three have made absolutely no mention of any intention to bid for the 4G licences at the auctions in the UK. Other UK networks have made their intention to bid very clear. Even if Three did, it will still be another two years at least (2013) before we see any substantial 4G roll-out. That may well change in the near future. But what we do know is that Three have been very aggressively updating to HSPA+ to deliver better service in terms of capacity and speed.

One has to wonder if MBNL will be utilised optimally for 4G (including bidding). I assume that the gloves are off and each network will bid separately, and commercial discussions will begin again once the dust has settled with those taking the most/best spectrum using it to their advantage.

3g could be upgraded to 84mb in the time it will take the UK to make 4g relevant

Vodafone must be rolling out higher speeds as the latest speedtest reported 5108kbps download and 2597kbps upload speed at home. This is with a four bar signal (the mast is about 1 mile away across a river!)

Not bad at all!

That is a fair indicator of HSPA+ although it could equally be a HSPA (unto 7.2Mbps) with a good backhaul and low to zero other users :)

All 3G operators will update to HSPA+ simply because they cannot push LTE out. We need not expect to see commercial LTE until 2013 or so. Meanwhile HSPA+ colloquially 3.5G will be the battlefield for the next few years.

Three have taken a good lead and will have completed their network update around middle 2011.

Interestingly Three have now made their 4G intentions known. Another first in the UK for customer engagement. They have made it clear that they will be a 4G player within the same timescales as the other operators.

For all or any of their faults you have to give it to Three of late. They are perceptibly changing from within, and for the much better.