5g expansion

[kcurrie65]

So. On an almost daily basis we get TV adverts from EE and other operators about having the best networks. I get out and about a lot with work and also with our campervan. What strikes me is that despite all the hype on TV that the reality is that 5g is thin on the ground and if I am honest so is 4g unless you live in or near a city. So the question is when or will operator's  actually expand their networks to the more rural areas I say rural but that's not really rural as in my case 5 Miles from one mast 7 Miles from another and no signal. Why do operators not mast share ? Is that to much like common sense ? So many questions. I get that coverage quoted is by population etc but many folk also don't live in a city. Simply upgrading a 4g mast to 5g I beleive reduces the range is that correct ? 4g did 7km radius from mast 5g does 5km radius ? So I read on Google but that may be fake news. So any plans for new masts ?

[Chris_B]

@kcurrie65  Mast that do 5G also output 4G,   The upgrade doesn’t turn off 4G isn’t an upgrade to include 5G. 

[kcurrie65]

So is 5g a software update or do they add more bits to the top of a mast ?

[Chris_B]

@kcurrie65  They add bits and software.    

 5G doesn’t reach as far as 4G and 3G reach’s further than 4G and 2G reaches further still.  

[kcurrie65]

Yes so I get that so here where I live no masts have been removed period. Yet coverage since 4g was implemented actually 4g+ in one town has actually got worse than it used to be. Its all very strange. So I wonder if EE will respond with sny idea of when further upgrades will take place for "rural" areas

[James_B]

Hi @kcurrie65,

Upgrading and improving our network in rural areas is an ongoing focus.

We will be upgrading 4G in more than 2,000 areas by June 2024 as part of the Shared Rural Network (SRN) initiative to extend coverage in rural areas across the UK.

SRN is a programme between the UK’s four mobile network operators and Government to extend 4G coverage to 95% of the UK’s geography by the middle of this decade.

James

[kcurrie65]

It absolutely makes sense to share equipment in rural areas. As I fully understand getting infrastructure in place is costly. In our village there is one mast. Only o2 use it ( they di build it ) but in a near by village same situation one mast yet it has all 4 networks attached to it. That's smart thinking by the networks. I do feel the rural areas get a raw deal by networks and their planning teams. Its good though there appears to be a plan for the future 

[bristolian]

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@kcurrie65 wrote:

So is 5g a software update or do they add more bits to the top of a mast ?

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That depends on the individual site-by-site config and which specific bands of 5G are being added.

There is no blanket answer that applies. It's also correct to say that there's no such thing as a "5G mast" - all EE's radio sites are multi-radio and multi-technology. All new sites carry 4G as a bare minimum, with 2G &/or 5G added depending on the specific requirements.

How far a specific site covers has nothing to do with the technology (i.e 2G, 4G or 5G) and everything to do with which frequency bands are carried. 2G is carried only on high-band 1800Mhz, but both 4G & 5G are deployed on high-bands and low-bands. As a broad-rule, low-bands are better for coverage but come with capacity restrictions, high-bands are the opposite.

[Jeff001]

Hi, this is also a source of great frustration for me as I have lived in France where the government enforces shared capacities of 5g masts between networks as it's seen as an essential service like electricity and water supply that's shared between companies and overall responsibility lies with a single authority for the maintenance of the masts. Here we have this for water, electricity, gas and fixed telecommunications but not for mobile networks.  I have been told that it's down to the "lobbying muscle" of BT blocking this as it would naturally be them which will be liable for this as they're already doing so for the fixed line network.  Ofcom and the government aren't tackling this unlike the French. Ah well....

[bristolian]

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@Jeff001 wrote:

I have been told that it's down to the "lobbying muscle" of BT blocking this

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You have been misadvised. All the UK networks site-share, but it's not always practical for various reasons.