4g availability

Nomis21

I have just completed a tour in my campervan of Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Camping in mostly remote rural areas of those countrues and without exception I was able to receive strong 4g coverage wherever I was in any of those countries good enough to stream video.

So it begs the question: Why are vast swathes of Ireland without any data coverage at all?

ED E

Just a few of the reasons:

Holland and Finland and parts of Denmark are DEAD flat. That helps a lot.
Finland is the home of Nokia and has always been ahead
We don't use 700Mhz extended range cells like they do
COMREG fees are expensive AF. We charge hundreds for what OFCOM charges 50 quid for.
Site fees are huge.


We could be a lot better in most areas but NIMBYism and lack of leadership from the DECNR has left us a bit deflated.

Lackadaisical

When you're roaming you've also got the benefit of multiple networks. My cousin was wowing over how good 4G was in the SW of Ireland relative to rural England where she lives. It was entirely down to having access to Vodafone, 3 and Eir simultaneously while roaming, as opposed to only her own network at home.

Simi

Lackadaisical wrote: »

When you're roaming you've also got the benefit of multiple networks. My cousin was wowing over how good 4G was in the SW of Ireland relative to rural England where she lives. It was entirely down to having access to Vodafone, 3 and Eir simultaneously while roaming, as opposed to only her own network at home.

This.
Driving across America last year, I roamed on a three UK SIM, whereas my friend bought a US network SIM. More often than not, I had better data coverage. When it did have coverage, the US SIM was much faster however.

Lackadaisical

You're wouldn't have the same issue with regard to slowness when roaming in the EU with an EU SIM as they don't tunnel back to your home network. So you'll get whatever speeds are available on the network you're on.

Outside the EU they often still do tunnel back to your home network - so you're choked by whatever link 3 UK were using.

ED E

Thats incorrect, MNOs do tunnel you home or at least some do.

If you're say a VF Ire sub roaming on VF Italy they may not have to tunnel you home as their billing platform can check and limit you locally. With Three though you're packets are headed back to Dublin.

Lackadaisical

Depends on the setup, increasing in the EU roaming regime they don’t as volumes of data are much, much larger than the old roaming regimes and it’s far more cost effective to use local network as the ISP.

You’ll generally find your speeds are severely hampered by that bottle neck when roaming in the USA.

Nonoperational

I find Vodafone as good as any country I've visited.