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0 pointsReason0776y ago0 comments

I've found 5G speeds on Vodafone to be quite variable. I have a weak 5G (Vodafone) signal at my flat, and at times I've seen it as high as 130 Mbit, but at other times it drops to 1-2 Mbit or vanishes completely. Where as on 4G I get a consistent 20-30 Mbit all day long.

I suppose this will improve when they build out the network more, but even in locations with strong 5G signal the speed seems to vary a lot.

Seems like 3's 5G network has still not actually launched, but they're now promising it "by the end of February".

Is 3's SDL in addition to their carrier aggregation ("4G+") rollout? Because I already have that and it doesn't seem to have helped much!

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martinald6y ago· 1 in thread

Keep in mind that current 5G deployments in the UK (and I think the world) bond 4G and 5G together. This often causes problems if the 4G is heavily congested. Vodafone's London 5G deployment is still pretty spotty, it will get a lot better. Plus it uses a very high frequency band (3.5GHz). When the 700MHz band gets added in a couple of years it will be a lot more consistent.

Yes, SDL is on LTE1500, LTE Band 32. It is another carrier to aggregate with the other ones. Both 3 and Vodafone have some spectrum in that band, IIRC 3 has a lot more. It will really help with overloaded cells in the short term.

Reason077OP6y ago

My router (Huawei E6878-870) apparently supports LTE band 32, but I've never seen it used on either Three or Vodafone. At my flat, Three seems to use band 3 (1800 Mhz) always.

Vodafone floats between bands 7 (20 Mhz channel!), 20, and 1, but gets good speeds on any of them.

Three always slow at peak times, sometimes unusably slow, despite having by far the strongest signal.

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