4G going live tomorrow

guil

Surprised to see nothing about this

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/34307-eircom-to-launch-first-4g/

Zhane

guil wrote: »

Surprised to see nothing about this

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/34307-eircom-to-launch-first-4g/

iPhones will not be included at launch.

matt-dublin

Speedtest performed by the journal was impressive.

50mbps download.

L5

Meh. It seems to me that they're intentionally crippling 3G speeds to make 4G
appear faster than it is. At least Three are anyway. Their 3G service has dis improved
shockingly in the last 3-4 months it's barely usable anymore.

matt-dublin

L5 wrote: »

Meh. It seems to me that they're intentionally crippling 3G speeds to make 4G
appear faster than it is. At least Three are anyway. Their 3G service has dis improved
shockingly in the last 3-4 months it's barely usable anymore.

I don't think so, 3G is oversubscribed and signal strength has never been great. Also I've never seen it break the 8mbps marker

L5

matt-dublin wrote: »

I don't think so, 3G is oversubscribed and signal strength has never been great. Also I've never seen it break the 8mbps marker

Maybe so, but there's no denying Three's 3G has gone to the dogs in the last 6 months. I'm here in dublin city centre , standing outside with full 3G signal and barely getting over 0.5mb/s on speedtest

jenno86

When will Three be launching 4G?

drunkmonkey

€49 plan will have a cap of 3GB and a €59 plan will have a 6GB plan. :eek:

So basically the plan is to screw you stupid for going over your allowance, in theory if you got the tests speeds of 60mbps you could use up the 6GB in about 1 minute 40 seconds.

Graham_B18C

I've had 4g the last couple of weeks, since it's been available I've changed from iPhone though. My gf now has my 5 and has noticed huge battery drain with 4g. Having it just turned on, sitting in her desk with nothing syncing it's draining her battery ridiculously fast. Roughly 10% per hour. Turn LTE off and it drains by about 1% per hour, or less.

The speeds are very handy though, quick test just there

paddymc1

O2 is rubbish with its 3G for the last few months. Been on to them and was told we are aware of issue but no ETA for it to be fixed...think there all at it with the 4G coming...

eorpach

Vodafone Ireland have also made their 4G announcement - and I'm out of contract with Three. Happy days!

http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/34303-vodafone-to-offer-4g-data/

drunkmonkey

Graham she hasn't push email on by any chance, it could be the hunting on 4G zapping the battery..

Settings > mail, contacts, calendar > fetch new data ( switch to off) should see a big jump in battery.

Graham_B18C

drunkmonkey wrote: »

€49 plan will have a cap of 3GB and a €59 plan will have a 6GB plan. :eek:

So basically the plan is to screw you stupid for going over your allowance, in theory if you got the tests speeds of 60mbps you could use up the 6GB in about 1 minute 40 seconds.

It wouldn't even last that I don't think. If the speed is 50Mb/s then that's 6.25MB/s.

So 6000MB/6.25MB = 960 seconds = 16 minutes

I understand that you'd never get download speeds of 6.25 but is my logic correct? It's been a while since I done this kinda stuff!

Graham_B18C

drunkmonkey wrote: »

Graham she hasn't push email on by any chance, it could be the hunting on 4G zapping the battery..

Settings > mail, contacts, calendar > fetch new data ( switch to off) should see a big jump in battery.

I don't think so but I'll have a check when she gets home, thanks for the tip!

JustAddWater

Graham_B18C wrote: »

I've had 4g the last couple of weeks, since it's been available I've changed from iPhone though. My gf now has my 5 and has noticed huge battery drain with 4g. Having it just turned on, sitting in her desk with nothing syncing it's draining her battery ridiculously fast. Roughly 10% per hour. Turn LTE off and it drains by about 1% per hour, or less.

The speeds are very handy though, quick test just there

Are you with meteor? I went to the store 2 weeks ago and a very rude assistant told me

A) 4G is not available, no sims to give out. Basically, get lost

iPhone 5S is the only 4G phone on the market

I've an iphone 5 and hd blatantly said no way, won't work. 4G is not available on meteor or this handset

Graham_B18C

JustAddWater wrote: »

Are you with meteor? I went to the store 2 weeks ago and a very rude assistant told me

A) 4G is not available, no sims to give out. Basically, get lost

iPhone 5S is the only 4G phone on the market

I've an iphone 5 and hd blatantly said no way, won't work. 4G is not available on meteor or this handset

Well the guy was wrong on a few parts, the iPhone 5 100% certainly is 4g as my girlfriend is using one with 4g currently. I'm using a Galaxy S4 which (as my picture proves!) can also receive 4g.

But unfortunately I'm not on meteor. Living in brisbane atm. The guy you got in meteor sounds like an ignorant ass

EDIT, Just to add also, my screen lock button was acting up so I got the handset replaced in the apple store. The guy was seeing it up for herself then and he even pointed out he was going to turn off LTE because 4g eats your battery (that wasn't directed at drunkmonkey btw, it's just too clarify that the 5 does have 4g )

DylanII

Graham_B18C wrote: »

Well the guy was wrong on a few parts, the iPhone 5 100% certainly is 4g as my girlfriend is using one with 4g currently. I'm using a Galaxy S4 which (as my picture proves!) can also receive 4g.

But unfortunately I'm not on meteor. Living in brisbane atm. The guy you got in meteor sounds like an ignorant ass

But I thought that iPhones do not work on 4G until apple certifies the network first. Both eircom (meteor) and vodafone has said that apple has not certified them and so the iPhone wont work on their networks...

Graham_B18C

As I said I live in brisbane so possibly Apple have certified the networks over here. The guy in the shop was still wrong in saying the only phone available in Ireland that's capable of receiving 4g is the 5s. Sure the S3 is 4g ready afair

I never said anyone could receive 4g in Ireland yet (as this thread is the first I've even heard about it) but there's plenty of handsets available that can get it when the time comes

tigershould

http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/

List of countries that LTE works with iPhone 5 (No Ireland)

matt-dublin

tigershould wrote: »

http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/

List of countries that LTE works with iPhone 5 (No Ireland)

That's because up until today, no one has had it.

drunkmonkey

HTC One
Sony Z
Galaxy S4

Are all 4G ready.

Graham_B18C

Galaxy S3
Note 2&3 also

In fairness you need to have a fairly new phone to avail of it

Edit: just checked the girlfriends phone there, fetch data is off. 4g just seems to eat the battery

SpaceTime

The original iPhone 5 only supports EE in the UK which is using 1800MHz

The meteor system appears to be using 800MHz as will most of the UK networks.

Don't fret too much though because the lower frequency should mean that they get much better signal propagation.

800MHz is being made up from the old UHF analogue PAL TV spectrum that has been feed up

The iPhone 5S/C and most of the 4G capable Androids and Windows 8 phones seem to support all bands likely to be used here by all networks.

Meteor seem to be offering unlimited internet until next year. However their various caps are ridiculously low of they were implemented as is.

4G power usage is typically abysmal. It'll take a few generations yet to refine the chipsets.
3G used to be similarly power hungry at launch.

I would guess you'll see more efficient handsets as the years go on.

DubDJ

Meteor are listing the iPhone 5 as '4G Ready' so maybe it will work over here.

Plans also start at €30 for the Sim Only option.

Creamy Goodness

annoying that you have to take a 4G plan. Going to have to do the whole 'Actually i'm going to take my 10 years of custom else where' line.

DubDJ

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

annoying that you have to take a 4G plan. Going to have to do the whole 'Actually i'm going to take my 10 years of custom else where' line.

I'm on the 30 Day Sim only plan for €15 and don't want to lose it. Would love to try out 4G though. I wouldn't mind forking out for an extra €5 but anymore and I wouldn't be too interested. The only difference is speed after all, your gaining no more data so they should really offer it as a free upgrade for people on existing plans.

kenon

DubDJ wrote: »

The only difference is speed after all, your gaining no more data so they should really offer it as a free upgrade for people on existing plans.

They are giving unlimited data until March.

SpaceTime

kenon wrote: »

They are giving unlimited data until March.

I would strongly suspect that's a 'test the water' type policy.

Their caps as described are way too low and I guess this gives them an opportunity to reassess the situation.

I wouldn't be surprised if more plans arrive with vaguer acceptable usage policies and no caps in March.

It will also depend on what the competition launches too.

Vodafone's very close to launch at this stage and it remains to be seen what happens with O2 and Three which are still 'merger pending' if the competition authorities sign off on it.

I could see that delaying their respective rollouts if they're going to end up as one merged network they'll want to make use of the combined network resources.

Beagslife

drunkmonkey wrote: »

HTC One
Sony Z
Galaxy S4

Are all 4G ready.

Nokia Lumia 820 and 920 too.

Hannibal6.0

drunkmonkey wrote: »

€49 plan will have a cap of 3GB and a €59 plan will have a 6GB plan. :eek:

So basically the plan is to screw you stupid for going over your allowance, in theory if you got the tests speeds of 60mbps you could use up the 6GB in about 1 minute 40 seconds.

Cant find where I read it now but I believe Meteor are actually offering unlimited 4G data on all plans until March of next year.

Sleephead

Why are iPhones not able to avail of this?

DubDJ

Sleephead wrote: »

Why are iPhones not able to avail of this?

Meteor says they can.

Hannibal6.0

Sleephead wrote: »

Why are iPhones not able to avail of this?

Both Samsung and Apple wont release the ability to use 4G on their devices until they have performed a number of tests on the network. Once a network meets the standards set by these manufactures they then push an update to enable phones to connect to 4G. Samsung have obviously already carried out these tests and pushed the update out, but I have heard that Apple in general are extremely slow in performing these tests and certifying telcos, which obviously seems to be the case here.

Sleephead

you'd imagine Apple would try to get this available as quickly as possible or else it might affect sales and hand an advantage to their competitors

matt-dublin

The Journal did a 4g test on meteor with a Samsung?

they will both allow it, its down to the provider whether they provide it or not, the handset just need to be capable of the frequency. Nothing to do with the manufacturer.

Sleephead

So Vodafone are holding back 4g from iPhones?

Despite all the boasts about being the fastest smartphone network?! kind of defeats the claim, maybe it should claim its the fastest on certain handsets!

Graham_B18C

Sleephead wrote: »

you'd imagine Apple would try to get this available as quickly as possible or else it might affect sales and hand an advantage to their competitors

I'm sure they'll have it ready by the time the 5s comes to Ireland so it ain't going to affect their sales too much I don't think

Hannibal6.0

matt-dublin wrote: »

The Journal did a 4g test on meteor with a Samsung?

they will both allow it, its down to the provider whether they provide it or not, the handset just need to be capable of the frequency. Nothing to do with the manufacturer.

As I mentioned Samsung have already approved it hence how the Journal did a 4G speed test. Your statement is incorrect as for certain devices like iPhone 5 and the S4 approval is needed from the manufacturer. If the firmware version doesn't enable 4G then you wont connect to it.. If you can find something that says differently I would be happy to admit I was wrong.

symbolic

L5 wrote: »

Maybe so, but there's no denying Three's 3G has gone to the dogs in the last 6 months. I'm here in dublin city centre , standing outside with full 3G signal and barely getting over 0.5mb/s on speedtest

I'm in Dublin too and over the last couple of months my data connection has gotten worse.

prettyboy81

I am going to pop into eMobile at lunchtime & see what all this 4G fuss is about. I am on the unlimited plan with eMobile & rep on the phone told me that to pop into a store they will issue me with a 4G sim. I am on iPhone 5.

I'll report back, if needed.

try

iPhone 5 model A1429 LTE bands 1, 3, 5 (2100, 1850, 800)
http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/


http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/34307-eircom-to-launch-first-4g/
Dublin launch on 1800 MHz - iPhone compatible
Carlow / Athlone launch on 800 MHz - iPhone not compatible


Am I right?

kenon

Rang Meteor there. They said I would have to take on the €49 or the €59 a month contract (24 months) to get 4G as I am in contract.

Hannibal6.0

try wrote: »

iPhone 5 model A1429 LTE bands 1, 3, 5 (2100, 1850, 800)
http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE/


http://www.siliconrepublic.com/comms/item/34307-eircom-to-launch-first-4g/
Dublin launch on 1800 MHz - iPhone compatible
Carlow / Athlone launch on 800 MHz - iPhone not compatible


Am I right?

Indo article on the iPhone 4G questions
http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/vodafone-to-launch-4g-mobile-phone-services-next-month-29610522.html

"One reason for this is that Apple has not yet ‘certified’ Irish 4G networks for use with iPhone 5 models."

eircom: Tony

Hi prettyboy81
Though 4G launch is today, this is not yet available on iPhones.. We will announce when 4G is available for iPhones.
I hope this saves you a trip...
Tony

SpaceTime

The iPhone 5C and 5S are more European 4G capable. The 5 is very limited.

800MHz is a MUCH better option. I don't think the networks are going to worry too much if it doesn't work with one legacy handset.

Signals at lower frequencies give you much better coverage. That's part of the reason who the very high frequencies used with 3G 2100MHz tended to provide rubbish indoor coverage vs 900MHz GSM

Sleephead

SpaceTime wrote: »

The iPhone 5C and 5S are more European 4G capable. The 5 is very limited.

800MHz is a MUCH better option. I don't think the networks are going to worry too much if it doesn't work with one legacy handset.

Signals at lower frequencies give you much better coverage. That's part of the reason who the very high frequencies used with 3G 2100MHz tended to provide rubbish indoor coverage vs 900MHz GSM

But will the iPhone 5 be able to pick up the 4g signal in Ireland?

SpaceTime

Sleephead wrote: »

But will the iPhone 5 be able to pick up the 4g signal in Ireland?

It depends where and which network.

Ireland's networks are using Bands 3, 8 and 20.

The iPhone 5's only supports Band 3.

It seems Meteor are using 1800MHz in Dublin (and possibly might use that in Cork and elsewhere) but they're using Band 20 (800Mhz) in Athlone and Carlow.

As yet, we don't know what the other operators would use and eircom/meteor may use 800MHz at other sites around Dublin. The frequency plan won't be messed up just to suit one legacy iPhone model. They'll be designing it to maximise coverage and capacity.

Basically, the iPhone 5 is compatible with some Irish sites, but not all of them. It's not fully compliant with European 4G frequency plans basically and it's only a bit of random pot luck that it happens to work with EE in the UK which uses 1800Mhz (Band 3) too.

The 5C and 5S are 100% compatible though.

Apple really shouldn't have marketed that device in Europe without the 800MHz band in particular.

Sleephead

Thanks,

Will need to watch out for what frequency Vodafone use in Cork so then

justindublin

So basically, we need to wait for this apple approval.

How do you launch 4G for smartphones when the worlds most popular smartphone model isn't supported?

Looks like we've gotta wait for a custom carrier bundle.

Sleephead

justindublin wrote: »

How do you launch 4G for smartphones when the worlds most popular smartphone model isn't supported?

Maybe the Vodafone rep can clarify what will or wont be availibe

Creamy Goodness

Just off the live chat to meteor...

B: Welcome to the meteor-sales webchat, my name is B how can I help you today?
B: Hi N
N: Hi there I'm looking for more info on the 4G plans? none of them really suit me and prefer my 1month rolling plan with 10Gb internet add-on that I have at moment.
B: I understand N, are you in a 4g area?
N: Yes, I'm in Dublin
N: the Mega Simo 4G is closest to my plan at the moment, but 1GB of Data isn't enough.
B: Perfect , I understand these plans are set here online N.
N: Ok, But is there any way I can get 4G on my current plan?
B: you will have to upgrade your plan and change the sim for the 4g.
N: Oh ok, time for me to find a new operator. Thanks for your help.