The infamous 3G licence bidding that raked in billions for the British Government included more than one frequency for some of the licences that were up for grabs.

Vodafone purchased the 'B' Licence which was the most expensive available for an existing mobile operator.

Licence A: Three (Hutchinson 3G, TIW) £4,384,700,000
Licence B: Vodafone £5,964,000,000
Licence C: O2 (Cellnet) £4,030,100,000
Licence D: T-Mobile (One2One) £4,003,600,000
Licence E: Orange £4,095,000,000

Hi I am aware there were a few different frequencies, but i though they only had one each? Out of interest - is the B licence better then? Are some of the frequencies better than others? They are only about 10-20mhz apart aren't they?

I still dont understand why orange would be using a second frequency?

Cheers

Licence A - 2x15MHz paired spectrum+5MHz unpaired spectrum
Licence B - 2x15MHz paired
Licence C - 2x10MHz paired + 5MHz unpaired
Licence D - 2x10MHz paired + 5MHz unpaired
Licence E - 2x10MHz paired + 5MHz unpaired


The main reason to use a 2nd carrier for HSDPA is extra capacity in major cities.

There is a limit on the number of users per 3G cell, and HSDPA uses a lot of bandwidth.

Too many users would cause slower data speeds, reduced cell coverage, and cell blocking, and handovers back to slower GSM/GPRS where available.

Does anyone know a tweak on the registry to show the H all the time?
I remember doing a tweak to me spv c600 to enable the E.

I thought that to increase capacity they used IMA grouping?

Well Orange and Voda signed a network share agreement months back which hopefully will go live in 2009, this should help both parties

I was under the impression that the Orange / Voda deal had gone tits up?
Is it still going ahead?

Hi
Does this mean we will eventually be able to either pick up a O signal from a voda mast and vice-versa or will we roam on to each others networks? Does this apply to 2G only sites aswell?

Why ???????

Why not ???????

Cos with a permanent "h" icon you don't actually know where you do and dont actually get H...


I know the other networks offer H wherever there's 3g but with O, its handy to be aware of the places where H works.

I think what he wants is the H signal to show when HSDPA is available not just when it's in use but 3G to show when 3G is available but HSDPA is not.


If you see what I mean...

The only share agreement is for masts and sites, and not network share, so nothing much will change.

The original concept to share the radio network fell through ages ago.

I know we will be using the voda sites and masts on a differant frequency to them, and them using ours.
But surely although its not the same actual network your logged onto, but the coverage would be allot better than it is now?
Im not very techie on this kind of thing! lol

The coverage won't change that much except where the Vodafone masts are in a better location than Orange, and vice versa.

The idea of mast share is to reduce the number of masts to save costs.

Where either network has the best mast/location within a defined area, that operators site will be used for both networks.

I've just been from Aberystwyth to birmingham and all the places that had orange 3g (except aberystwyth) had HSDPA, so that obviously includes Birmingham and also Telford, shrewsbury and most interesingly Newtown in mid-wales. So it would appear that they are rolling along at quite a pace.

I wish they'd head up North, I get only 3G in Newcastle and coast.

I thought Birmingham was up north....

Newcastle is on the upgrade schedule for next couple of months, midlesborough, and redcar are currently under way

Its in the 'mid' lands

Blackhorse, are you able to find out when certain areas are due to go live?