Huawei and O2 UK trial live LTE services

[DundeeDude]

o2 I used to love you...but now i have all you can eat data from Three :)

Who will be the first network to bring LTE to the uk?

[o2ukofficial]

Hi xLeagueOfFailZx - O2 Hotshot is the name for our mobile broadband product in O2 Ireland. We'd suggest to ask O2 IE or post the question on the O2 Ireland foum to find the appropriate answer.

[xLeagueOfFailZx]

I have an o2 hotshot but dont know how to change my nat type. Can anyone help?

[UberShinySheep]

its alright saying that you can stream HD videos. but there are going to be data caps anyway knowing whats happened with the 3G situation. they really have to be careful with how they market this. 4G will not be a cable internet replacement for heavy data needs

[MyRandomReviews]

@UberShinySheep - There will most certainly be data caps, they will likely upgrade their masts to LTE and keep their dial-up connection carrying data from/to the mast, so I wouldn't worry about hitting them quickly. Think about the likelihood of them rolling out LTE within the next 10 years though, I bet they don't even have 70% coverage by then, because all they care about is saving money.

[kurtego]

LTE is a good thing. It costs less to install than 3g and is better. Why pay extra to install more 3g base stations when its cheaper and better to have LTE.

[XC0MB4TXEV0LV3D]

@kurtego Because you will have to buy a new expensive phone.

[DundeeDude]

looking forward to the day i have 4G :) but i do hope i'm not limited to 500mb per month or something stupid.

[cjmillsnun]

OK I'm pleased that you're working on 4G. However should you not get your 3G (UMTS/HSPA) coverage up to a similar level to your 2G (GSM) coverage as I'm guessing that 3G is going to be he fallback. I live in Hampshire in Petersfield, a town that is on the Portsmouth to London main line and is a major commuter town. Yet we have GPRS coverage. Vodafone, T Mobile, Orange and 3 can manage 3G here, why can't you?

[gottalovecars]

Yes. Agreed. 3G in Aberdeen is a JOKE. Most of the time, for example, in the bus going through the city, I get GPRS or EDGE on my iPhone 3G at best. Yes, that;s right.. GPRS. I had that.. in IRELAND, on the Train from Dublin to Galway in the late 1990's!!!! 10 YEARS AGO. In the Countryside! Not in the UK's 3rd Most Expensive City to live in!!!

Sorry... fix your basic Network first... then worry about LTE Bulls**t.

[o2ukofficial]

Thanks for your comment. We do have a big network investment programme going on at the moment - if you leave a comment on our blog with your postcode I'll pass it on to our network team to look at the situation.

[dayl3]

o2 coverage is a joke.

[MyRandomReviews]

@gottalovecars - I sincerely agree, their network sucks, VERY badly. I bought an iPhone 3G from them and saw the 3G symbol light up a handful of times, you could NEVER rely on their network even being where you went out of town, and there was NO HOPE IN HELL of getting a 3G signal.

Don't try telling people you're at the forefront of technology when the UK government tasked EVERYONE with 80% 3G coverage by 2010, YOU are the only company that DID NOT manage that!

[adamtemp64]

But will this be yet another system only implimented in high density areas still not got parity of coverage between 2g and 3g.

It would be nice if we got this in rural locations. It would be good also to get o2 3g coverage in rural areas already covered by 2g masts.

[alexmac999]

But you'll still enforce traffic shaping, which means I won't get the full speed I want. How do you intend to charge for bandwidth, given the technology is capable of streaming 1080p?. The latency demonstration was impressive, although you can still have a decent game over today's O2 3G.

[Veeoh]

Agree - lets get the basics sorted first please?

[ian9outof10]

While I'm pleased that O2 is working on things like this but, there's a problem.

The top speed of 3G is far higher than I've ever seen on my 3G dongle. The problem, therfore, isn't really the technology, but the network behind it.

We all know that O2s network is the one of the smallest 3G systems out there. If you want faster speeds, improve the base station coverage, and more bandwidth to those stations.

LTE is no good to anyone if you're using 512k ADSL to move the data from the mast.