Everything Everywhere begs Blighty to back 4G push Everything Everywhere is planning a "grassroots" lobbying campaign for 4G infrastructure, but sadly 4G Britain hasn't the space to say who's funding it, or who stands to gain most from its success. The site isn't even live yet, though a mocked-up version has popped up a few times in the last week, and letters (seen by El Reg) …
What we want is EE being allowed to use its 1800MHz spectrum for LTE. In return for this, they must be required to sell that 30MHz they are required to sell *right now*, and the sale process must be something transparent so that the other operators are not prevented from buying it if they want. Joint ventures between the other operators allowing them to buy it and build a shared network (so that everyone can offer 4G to their customers as soon as possible) once again should be explicitly allowed and indeed encouraged. (Such a shared network might run out of capacity fairly quickly, but hopefully by the time it does the individual operators will also have LTE running at 2600MHz and it won't be a problem). Somewhere in all this, we get rid of all restrictions that exist on what operators may use their spectrum for. (Once you own it, you may use it for anything you want).
Why has this not happened? It seems blindingly obvious.
With current phones having barely a day of battery life in them do we really want a 4G radio in there sucking down the juice so hard that we go to barely half a day of battery life as normal? Technology advances are fantastic and as someone that loves technology in general I'm always keen for improvements and new things but it feels like far more effort is put into making things faster, smaller and thinner than is put into making longer lasting or more capacious batteries.
/rant
It makes me angry to see EE whine over this. The current network isn't what you'd call speedy but I do get around 2 - 3Mb/s on average which suits me fine. What makes me angry is that data is capped as such tiny figures and they're pushing for 4G which has higher speeds and consumes more data but their highest plan (T-Mobile) is 1.5GB a month. I'm stuck on a 750MB a month deal and don't consider myself a heavy user but even after doing all app updates and installs over WiFi and cutting down on what I do I'm averaging just over 25MB a day. That just about keeps me in my cap and means I'm now afraid to use the phone in case I go over.
Data has become the new text messaging for networks - stupid limits, prices that aren't really that good and costs if you go over. Withat said, and in T-Mobile's defense, they do say nothing happens if you go over and you can keep browsing but that just adds to my frustration. Mobile Twitter / other sites you use is not why I got a smartphone. I could do that on my ancient N95.
/rant off
agreed. 2 -6mb that I get routinely on 3 is easily enough for me. Might I recommend 3 or giffgaff? They have much more sensible limits (albeit not posted ones, however 10gb a month hasnt landed me in hot water or my friends with similar habits).
4g will simply slurp more battery and as you say the caps will eat up faster. I think internet radio streaming is my main use of bandwidth.
You could had I not heard of nightmares dealing with problems :/ From many things around both 3 and GiffGaff are great until you have a problem and need to contact their customer service. Even if you ignore that I just signed up to a 24 month (UGH!) contract despite swearing I never would previously. For a communication company they sure have a hard time keeping up with what should be obvious by now. Some people want more data allowance. Minutes and texts aren't that important to me and I'm fine with 100 mins (I have) and would be ok with even 1,000 texts (unlimited currently) if it meant I could get what I had back. T-Mobile, why did you change your smartphone plans from 3GB a month? :(
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