Three UK 4G and the Nokia Lumia 930

[Ian Too]

I had an interesting experience with 3 when inquiring about a SIM only 4G deal. The person in the shop told me that 3's HSPDA+ signal was faster than EE's 4G one locally, claiming 4 MIPs over EE's 3.8.

Smelling a rat, I went and spoke to the people in the local EE store, who downloaded a speedtest app on to his iPad and ran it for me, managing 38.5MIPs.

My Lumia 920 has a new lease of life and I have an aversion to 3.

 

[David P2]

Three don't know half of what they're talking about... they will happily say their service is marginally faster just to keep your custom. Also whoever at Three told you it's MIPS needs shooting... that's something totally unrelated to megabits per second (Mbit).

MIPS is a measure of processors, in millions of instructions per second.

 

[Ian Too]

Three don't know half of what they're talking about... they will happily say their service is marginally faster just to keep your custom. Also whoever at Three told you it's MIPS needs shooting... that's something totally unrelated to megabits per second (Mbit).

MIPS is a measure of processors, in millions of instructions per second.

Sorry, that was my mistake, though 3 didn't correct me.

According to Network Speedtest, my 920 gets 32.95Mbps indoors, about three times my home broadband speed.

 

[David P2]

I'd have words if your home broadband speed is slower than your mobile :wink:

 

[eepyaich]

Interesting to see this thread as I've also just moved to an unlocked 930 (from Clove) and a new unlimited data plan from Three. Based on my current experience, though, I'd say you're lucky!

As you, I haven't seen the 4G notification on my 930 - all I see is the 3, H or H+. However, I don't actually get much working 3G at all. What. Seems to happen for me is as follows:

- I reboot the phone and get data working for a minute or two - I can browse some web sites and, maybe, update the people hub.
- After a minute or two, I just get "server unavailable or DNS" errors in the browser.
- Unless... I browse to 3G & 4G Mobile Phones from Three - 3 Official Site, which works fine.

The latter makes me think it is a problem at their end. However, I tried my SIM in an old Lumia 800 and this seemed to work fine for half an hour.

I had a play with APN settings (by default there aren't any) and at one point received a page from 3 saying "you seem to be trying to tether" (which I'm not). But this error seems to have disappeared now.

Anyone experience anything similar? is it conceivable that three don't recognise the 930 and are blocking it at their end?

At the moment, I'm somewhat disappointed - love the phone, but if I can't get mobile data... I went with three as I liked their new "feel at home" Tardif, but wondering whether I should try Giffgaff or back to virgin, instead.

Any ideas?

Ed

 

[Ixia]

I'm PAYG, but that's what happens when my credit runs out. Errors, but I can still get the 3 website ( because they want you to be able to top up). Once this kept happening after I'd topped up and helpdesk recommended switching the data off then on again, which worked. Which makes me suspect your problem is at their end. I've never had the tethering issue, but I tethered a lot on my old N8 and 3 never did anything.

I'd give them a ring, it is India, but I've always found them very helpful.

 

[afgzee]

We're not in the 90s, Three have the largest 3G signal in the UK with 98% coverage, compare that to Vodafone 3G at 89% and O2 3G at 90%.

In areas where, like countryside and Wales you'll get a backup signal from EE 2G.

I'd double check with them to make sure you're on a 4G plan.

All Three plans are 4G., 3 offer 4G at no extra cost.

I have a lumia 930 on Three and it works perfectly fine.

 

[Ixia]

There are quite a few places locally where I can't get any signal and they're not in the back of beyond either. whereas friends on EE can at least make a call ( but no data). The 2g argument makes sense to me.

 

[eepyaich]

I have a lumia 930 on Three and it works perfectly fine.

Out of interest does your plan aallow tethering? I haven't had a chance to talk to three yet, but my plan doesn't include tethering. I wonder whether they don't recognise the 930 as a phone so are blocking it whereas if my plan allowed tethering it would just work...

 

[David P2]

It's done by talk plan I believe.

 

[alanrobinson5538]

Hey. I did that same last week with the one plan before it was stopped. I have a Lumia 1520 sim free bought from Amazon. I get 4g on my handset in most places (home, work and drinking haunts), which are in the region of thirty miles apart.

With the tethering issue, although it doesn't affect the one plan as there is unlimited tethering, you can speak with Three second line sort who are aware of the issue and can add a rule to your provisioning to prevent any issues. This is well documented both in the Nokia and Microsoft sites.

Alan

 

[MrWhiteman]

I had an interesting experience with 3 when inquiring about a SIM only 4G deal. The person in the shop told me that 3's HSPDA+ signal was faster than EE's 4G one locally, claiming 4 MIPs over EE's 3.8.

Smelling a rat, I went and spoke to the people in the local EE store, who downloaded a speedtest app on to his iPad and ran it for me, managing 38.5MIPs.

My Lumia 920 has a new lease of life and I have an aversion to 3.

On EE 4G i get 20mbps

 

[MrWhiteman]

In areas where, like countryside and Wales you'll get a backup signal from EE 2G.
.

They stopped their partnership with EE about 5 years ago. There is no longer 2G backup from Oranges masts.

 

[PabsTheGeek]

Actually he is right, the network share deal was for 3g only. It should have been called mast sharing rather than network. Fact is their 3g network is big enough that their customers shouldn't need to switch to 2g. They did previously have a deal where if threes network was unavailable you would switch to orange for calls and texts but that expired a few years ago.

I've used 3 on a PAYG sim and where I worked I had no 3G signal, but the phone did drop to 2G and I could make calls/text

 

[Chris B42]

See this thread http://forums.windowscentral.com/windows-phone-8-1-preview-developers/277165-5.htm & Constant Loss Of Data Connection After 8.1 update - Microsoft Community This problem is with Three users on windows phone 8.1. The problem appears to be the upgrade to Internet Explorer 11 on windows phone 8.1, I think Three's servers have a block on Internet Explorer 11 as they think that you are tethering to a laptop. It makes no difference if you have tethering in your plan or not. Three have known about this problem since the developer preview in April but have done nothing about it and still deny there is a problems, preferring to blame the user. I am on my third call and the last chap I spoke to has escalated this to tech support scheme. They do seem to be fixing this on an individual user basis (by unlocking your tethering), however if they are going to do this for all the thousands on Windows Phone 8.1 instead of implementing a proper fix this is going to cause major problems. I have explained all this to them but am still waiting for a solution. In the meantime you can switch on and off airplane mode to re-launch your signal temporarily, or put battery mode on full time which seems to allow data access but obviously loses most of the functionality of your phone. I would however get in touch with Three and refer them to this and other forums. If (as is more than likely) they deny there is a problem ask to escalate your call. Do not take any notice if they tell you to do a soft reset, a phone reset, sim card switch e.t.c. as none of these works. I have already reset my phone (Nokia 625) twice and makes works for about ten minutes before problems start again.

 

[Will6371]

I have a 930 and I'm on Three. Have had 4G on it in Birmingham.

Your lucky then, I never seen 4g on my 1520 in Solihull. I was getting fast speeds with giffgaff 3g

I'm on EE now and I get over 20mbps even inside. Yes I know it costs more but I don't mind paying extra for a good service.

 

[afgzee]

Out of interest does your plan aallow tethering? I haven't had a chance to talk to three yet, but my plan doesn't include tethering. I wonder whether they don't recognise the 930 as a phone so are blocking it whereas if my plan allowed tethering it would just work...

my plan is a legacy plan which ended on 15th July which allowed unlimited tethering for ?15 per month.

Three will say it is not supported because its not a phone they stock, but that's rubbish, I've used many phones on Three over the years which work perfectly. Try hard resetting the phone and see what happens, or order a new sim card, but keep the current one active until the new one arrives, its free.

 

[David P2]

my plan is a legacy plan which ended on 15th July which allowed unlimited tethering for ?15 per month.

Three will say it is not supported because its not a phone they stock, but that's rubbish, I've used many phones on Three over the years which work perfectly. Try hard resetting the phone and see what happens, or order a new sim card, but keep the current one active until the new one arrives, its free.

Reinforces my claim of what a bunch of clueless t***s Three are. Just because it's not in their stock doesn't mean to say it's not supported. Which could imply that they operate a whitelist containing only IMEIs of models they have in current stock and if your device isn't on the list.... Whereas in the real world, if a device can connect to the network in the correct manner, then it's supported. Maybe not on the technical support side, but it is still supported on the functional side.

 

[eepyaich]

To be fair. At no point in my conversations with the have they said that they won't fix the issue because the phone isn't supported.

So far, while they haven't been able to fix my issue yet, they do claim that they will work on it. I only raised it with them yesterday (a Sunday), and their level 2 support did escalate the issue so I'm prepared to give them a day or two...

 

[Racing Snake]

Hmmm
Am on the phone to EE at the moment, as I have no 4G (am in central London), and no internet at all.
The 930 is not available on their system to find the settings, but I think there is something bigger wrong here - someone mentioned here about the networks not 'recognising' the phone.

Their troubleshooting the line at the moment, but are going to have to escalate it to "higher technical support"