Still seems more of a business-oriented product than anything else IMO. Damn pricey – unless I’m looking in the wrong places.

Anyone had much experience? Currently toying with the idea of getting am iPad 4 (4G ready), but need to justify the extra dosh + monthly outlay. John Lewis offering £15/m for 5Gb via EE which appears to be a bargain 🙂 Coverage and speeds looking good but I’ve no idea how realistic this is.

What say thou? Worth investing now? Worth future-proofing?

EDIT: iP4 contract with Vodafone expired last year so am on rolling 30 day contract. Apparently Personal Hotspot can (usually) be activated for little or not cost so long as you ask the right CS rep. Which means I can at least tether at 3G (still pretty sh1t in the uK) if need be.

Personally I would avoid 4G for a year. It’s expensive and not available everywhere. Remember it’s easy to upscale a tariff but difficult to downgrade.

I disagree that it’s aimed at business. It really isn’t its aimed for consumers streaming data on the go.

I find in urban areas 3G+ is pretty quick for my needs. I’m not opposed to 4G just read to many reviews saying… Not yet.

If you haven’t yet google “4G is it worth it?” lots of tech reviews. I was reading up on it last week but decided it just not worth it yet.

A work colleague says his always bouncing to 3G and more interestingly voice calls are 3G not 4G. Something short term network related apparently.

i get unlimited 3g data, and i stream music daily, I don’t ever come across issues of dropping the signal, or the speed not being quick enough. i wouldn’t bother, until there are unlimited 4g data plans available

Is it worth it? No.

4G mobile dongles for computers would be extremely useful for the mobile worker though. Do they make them? NO!

They’re pushing 4G at the must-have-gadget-consumer, who really has little use for it.

Ok, maybe I was being a bit flippant about it being aimed at business users. But whichever way you look at it, not many ‘casual’ users are gonna pay IRO £50/m for some glorified on-the-go data package.

JL deal seems great value – rolling 30 day contract as well. But could end up being one of those “Sorry Sir, your service is sh1t because you’re a budget customer plus our CS agents aren’t interested in helping you as we make no money from you” deals.

Be aware that O2’s 4g frequency when it goes live later this year is not iPhone compatible.
Apparently iphone5 and possibly iPad (I don’t know for sure on that one) only work on one 4g frequency, and that’s the one assigned to Orange / EE
Only found out when discussing upgrades/ tariffs with O2 this week 😥

EE do dongles and mobile wifi with 4G, there was an offer to try it for 30 days

In a word no, I have my tablet linked to my phone via 3g just as fast as my work colleauges dongle, he was very smug with his new ee phone and 4g till he couldent get the 4 g signal and the following week he had run out of data on a £50 pm contract, I’m on 3 I always have signal and 3g and I work all over the UK no issues, there are 2 versions of the ip5 one 4g ready and one 4g out of the box so ask if anyone ever decides to buy one, with three I received an email stating that 3 customers on the one plan get 4g free anyway unlimited as 3 is the “inter netting” company, 3 sold part of the rights to ee for 4g and off com allowing all other networks to release it as its unfair, three will be the only one who will offer unlimited 4g at a reasonable price.

I wouldn’t bother and I’m installing the bloody stuff for EE. If you live outside of the major cities in the UK it’ll be a while before it’s available as we are swapping the old 2g kit in the process.

My mate has started working on the Vodafone LTE rollout in London and they are not bringing sites on air yet!

02 will be running on 800 MHz for 4g.
EE will be on 2600 MHz.

IIRC..

4G mobile dongles for computers would be extremely useful for the mobile worker though. Do they make them? NO!

Er yes, they do, been available for a few years now. Whether EE is selling them is a different matter.

Ah yes, THEY do make them, correct, but they weren’t available on EE last time I checked. Although they are now apparently.

Until they offer cheaper rates on 4G (vs 3G), I can’t see why you’d want to subscribe. Initially the very few 4G cells that they have installed will be under loaded and so very quick, but that will change rapidly to being completely saturated and it will take them years to roll out the same number of cells as 3G and they’ll need something 4x as many to deliver an improved service over 3G, so it’s a long way from being a mature deployed technology in the UK.

02 will be running on 800 MHz for 4g.
EE will be on 2600 MHz.

EE 4G is at 1800MHz
Three 4G will be at 1800 with some at 800 later on
Voda and O2 will be at 800MHz

Current 4G EE IPhone 5 will not work on Voda / O2, it might work on Three when they launch. Voda and O2 will most likely bring in a different version that does work at 800mhz.

The problems of having 30 odd approved frequencies for LTE!

Just to correct a few misunderstandings above – EE have already deployed 4g at 1800mhz and with their new spectrum will deploy it in the 800MHz and 2600MHz bands as well later this year – as for coverage I think they are still aiming for 50% population coverage by late summer this year and close to 98% by the end of next year ( to put this into context, O2 are only at 91% 3G coverage nearly 10 years after they promised almost universal coverage within 2 years).

4G worth it if it is available where you are now. If not, wait.

O2 and Vodafone have joined up to deliver 4G together and will network share so really if they deliver on their promise they will quickly have the better network. BUT I currently work as a provider for all of the networks and have to say their 3G is haphazard at best. You only have to take the train from Edinburgh to London to see this in action.

I have used 4G in Italy and it is brilliant. If all the uk got this then it would be amazing bit I can’t see it being a realistic proposition for at least 2 years yet unless you live and work in a major city. Save your money and wait

I have it in Australia and its awesome, web pages load up instantly, YouTube streams faster than my ADSL line can do it. Can use it to do FaceTime with my parents when I am out rather than having to schedule a time to speak to them.

All round it gets a thumbs up from me, no price premium for it here either, work pay and provide my phone, but my girlfriend just has a payg unlocked iPhone 5 which she uses on 4G.

Will the advent of 4g mean a freeze on any further roll out of 3G? I can’t get too excited about 4g whilst the places I live and the place I want to go (mostly rural) have never had a sniff of 3G (or fast broadband too, but that’s a different conversation). Twin speed Britian!

The missus has it and I dont over here in oz. Its faster but not that much as the back ends are not fully upgraded yet. In the end of the day the faster the connection the more data you can use….check the limits

You don’t need many cell sites to reach a high percentage coverage as the UK population is quite urbanised. The issue is capacity, to deliver capacity needs a huge number of cell sites. I’m guessing EE has just upgraded their Macro sites to 4G to get coverage, but if there is a decent take up it will saturate capacity wise really quickly. Luckily, for them, take up has been pretty poor so far.

Update my post is wrong as well – EE have announced today they are already way ahead of their aggressive rollout schedule and have got to 50% population coverage this week.

So far with the data EE allows you I see no point. If you get anything near advertised speeds you can burn through that silly 5 or 8GB cap in no time with not much effort.

I’d wait for the other three to roll out 4G before I even consider it even though I have a 4G phone.

Three will also be compatible with idevices not sure about Voda.

Pfft,

Still waiting on full 3G in my locality.

What a joke Orange

4G?, pfft…I’d be happy wi a 3G service……..in the 5 years i’ve owned a 3G capable phone (iphone) i have never used nor been within an area to use 3G with any form of reliability……..ahh forget that…I’d just settle for a mobile phone service that covers this area without dropping the signal.

I doubt there will ever be universal 3G coverage, just too expensive. They’ll rely on Edge for rural areas.

Mind you, O2’s 3G coverage is utter rubbish in busy areas, on the train from Cambridge to KK, which something like 15000 commuters use each day, you can’t maintain a 3G call or data connection for more than a few minutes!

Can they not install mobile hotspots on trains, rather than rubbish paid-for wifi?