Vodafone 3G to close

GIMP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122386719#Comment_122386719

Checked in Rush today, no 3g

dollylama

I read it mentioned that they were closing 3G to improve their 4G / 5G networks. How does this work? Will they begin transmitting 4/5G on the old 3G bands or is it that they take the bandwidth blocks allocated to 3G (not sure the term... the 5 or 10 Mhz blocks) and start using this for extra bandwidth on their other networks?

KildareP

Page has been updated recently:

The next phase includes, Clare, Limerick, Galway, Mayo, Kerry, Roscommon, Sligo, Offaly, Tipperary, Westmeath, Longford and Cork.

GIMP

Watching this with interest, my parents rural house has very good 3g coverage despite a 4g enabled mast only a few km away, im predicting a drop back to 2g only coverage!

DopeTech

Do they usually install new masts for the 4g/5g antennas when they are switching off 3G?

breeno

I'm in south Dublin and notice that 3g seems to have totally disappeared lately. I'm nearly always on "5g" at home now but getting terrible data speeds at times circa 1mb/s sometimes Speedtest can't even connect. Well done Vodafone. Contract up in a few weeks and can't wait to move to Gomo.

DopeTech

I think they needed a much wider 5g footprint before turning off 3G. I know turning it off frees up more of the spectrum for 5g but their strategy doesn’t seem to be going all that well.

GIMP

Now that 3g has been switched off in a large area of the country, have people noticed much of a difference, I haven't on my journey to yet but alot of it is through rural Meath which I believe 3g is still active for now.

Cork981

I wouldn’t expect to see a huge speed increase as we’re only getting an extra 5mhz of B8 (900mhz) capacity which has a theoretical max throughout of 38Mbps.

I do see a big difference in the 2G fallback threshold, I’m able to hold onto LTE bands down to around -129dBm rsrp. I also see 20mhz of band7 is deployed fairly broadly around Cork City.

Micky 32

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122767182#Comment_122767182

What dBm were you seeing previously?

briancannon18

Screenshot_20241026_001356_Chrome.jpg

3g almost closed every county on vodafone

rachaelf750

The shut down of 3g has ruined vodafone mobile service in my area. Coverage in my house is non existant!

I'm going to have to change to a different network and hope for the best.

GIMP

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122769544#Comment_122769544

This was my fear as a result of this, my parents home for example is very rura,l Eir and 3 signal is non existent but Vodafone 3g had gotten very good overall the past few years!

17larsson

I drive all over Leinster and Vodafone was by far the best for coverage. Now it's terrible. I have to change network out of necessity at this stage.

What network is best for coverage now?

vapourer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122770907#Comment_122770907

3 after Voda. Eir last.

dollylama

Just reading some of the last few posts there about the coverage degrading with the removal of 3G. What is Vodafone's end goal here? Can they begin transmitting on higher power on 4G or 5G to plug the gap? Can they run 4G or 5G on (assuming ) lower frequencies vacated by 3G to increase the range?

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122772048#Comment_122772048

As Cork981 posted above they only have an extra 5 MHz available when 3G was switched off so not a lot extra. They also have to maintain a block of spectrum for 2G. They all have lower 700/800 MHz spectrum also for 4G/5G

GIMP

So in basic terms if the only signal you were recieving was 3g on 900 or 2100mhz should this not be replaced directly by 4g over 700 or 800mhz.

The whole idea of the switch off was to improve network availability and speeds not to leave people without any signal.

Going forward when the other two networks do the same its going to leave large parts of the country with coverage black spots , and bla bla 2g but that's like going back to the late 90s!

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122772442#Comment_122772442

Does any 3G remain in the 2100 band?

Did eir surrender their 3G 2100 licence at the last auction, which was due to expire in 2027? I get 4G in their 2100 band via GoMo.

thesandeman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122772442#Comment_122772442

I was talking to the girl in my local 3 store last week. She said that all the companies are in discussions about sharing each others facilities when 3G goes rather than building more individual infrastructure.

dollylama

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122772763#Comment_122772763

Makes sense, there's an awful lot of duplicate or triplicate infrastructure being thrown up lately to serve small patches of customers.

Not to distract from the topic but what would be stopping the Vodafone, 3 and eir from pooling their infrastructure and more so, their spectrum into a single entity and then renting capacity back from this entity? So you'd basically have a single national mobile network where each operator picks and chooses their coverage areas and bandwidth for those areas. Regulatory or technical hurdles perhaps?

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122774494#Comment_122774494

You'd loose some of your ability to differentiate your product through quality/speed, especially in more remote areas where coverage for some networks is marginal. And it may create complete dead-zones in isolated areas where in the past there may have been coverage from another provider from obscure mast positions. But yes, having a national infrastructure outside of the main population centers and transport routes could be in some way beneficial.

DopeTech

They already share masts though don’t they?

The Cush

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122776113#Comment_122776113

They do but of course prime position is top of the mast, second or third antenna on the mast can mean less coverage.

Locally there was an 18m mast with Three on top and eir second. Two years ago eir moved to a new 18m mast nearby to improve their coverage in the area

Cork981

Vodafone have now successfully switched off our 3G network across Ireland and upgraded our entire 3G service onto our 4G and 5G network

https://n.vodafone.ie/network/3G-upgrade.html#

Micky 32

My Vodafone contract is now up. Apart from the price is there any reason why i shouldn’t change to Eir or Gomo? Is their roaming especially in the usa as reliable?

Glaceon

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122813729#Comment_122813729

I'm finding GoMo's coverage to be quite poor where I use it. There's some places where I can get a gigabit on a speedtest but then others where I can't stream a radio station without dropouts.

I'm with them so I can use Wi-Fi calling and make use of it via a data eSIM while roaming.

dollylama

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122813596#Comment_122813596

I couldn't figure out why the quality on my calls was dreadful today only to see the phone was dropping down to 2G despite having strong 4G and 4G Calling enabled. Surely enough too, there's no 3G available where there once was. Hopefully it'll come good shortly but I imagine their support agents will be getting it in the ear from customers for the next few weeks!

KildareP

I've noticed around Kildare they've moved most of the harder to reach sites (churches, halls, etc.) to 4G by just refarming the former 5 or 10Mhz of spectrum. Speeds are unsurprisingly pathetic.

Their plan seems to be to build alternative sites rather than upgrade them properly as there are no less than 6 planning applications in by or on behalf of Vodafone/Vantage at the moment in a 15KM radius around me. 1 newly built site is pushing 300Mb+ on 4G, never mind 5G.

GerardKeating

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122813729#Comment_122813729

Assuming your phone supports it, pick the best network that works for you in Ireland, it's where you spending most of your time, and get an eSim for when you want to roam.