4G allows the same slice of spectrum to yield more bandwidth in the same area as 3G. It can be used properly to give out more speed to the users, or it can be abused to cram more people onto the same tower, but as a result the speed they’re getting will not improve.
In this case the 4G spectrum is crowded well enough to hide any benefits of 4G as far as you are concerned (it does have a benefit for the carrier, which means they can get away with not adding more towers to cope with the load).
It is actually up to the network which technologies and frequencies are preferred by the phone - and Three do indeed have it set up to prefer mobile connectivity over wi-fi calling, and also to use any other frequency over LTE800 (which is the only frequency they have VoLTE enabled on).
Thanks for the insight!
Three do indeed have it set up to prefer mobile connectivity over wi-fi calling
In this case, why the change? It should be up to the user. My Wi-Fi is always flawless and worked perfectly, but suddenly after their change I had to endure the awful 3G call quality and the longer call setup times for no good reason. It also does not excuse the nonsense regarding “incidents in your area” without them even knowing which area I was actually in!
I agree, if you enable wi-fi calling then that’s the users choice and calls should go that way.
The only thing I can think of is that not everybody’s wi-fi is that good and they’re trying to reduce calls to support.
Three aren’t the only ones to do it this way, I believe Vodafone do too.
Thanks for that info. It explains a lot. I was already aware that there must be contention issues here. My phone can be sitting there quietly with 2 bars of 4G, and for no apparent reason, change to 1 bar of 3G.
Hmmm… this is a really good point. I found page about 4G frequency bands and it made me realise that the spectrum that EE have chosen might just be the reason for the poor signal that I’ve been getting…
It states this:
…with that in mind EE is well prepared for future data demands, with a whole lot of 1.8GHz spectrum, which covers an ideal middle ground, as well as quite a lot of 2.6GHz spectrum and a bit of 800MHz spectrum.
O2 is on paper in the worst position, as while it has more 800MHz spectrum than any network other than Vodafone that’s all it has. So its 4G network should be good at covering rural areas and providing indoor coverage, but it’s not likely to have the same capacity as its rivals. On the other hand O2 has a large network of Wi-Fi hotspots to help out in city centres.
Vodafone has an identical amount of 800MHz spectrum but also has a lot of 2.6GHz spectrum, so it should be quite well served to cover data requirements in the future, as well as being better positioned to provide reliable coverage to rural areas than EE or Three.
Three meanwhile only has a little 800MHz spectrum and no 2.6GHz spectrum, but with 2 x 15MHz of 1.8GHz spectrum it should be fairly well equipped to provide both indoor and outdoor coverage
With the number of people voting on the first poll, I’m curious to see what factors you guys take into consideration 
I know that I take signal strength, stability and call quality first over things such as speed…
What factors do you consider when joining a network?
On the other hand O2 has a large network of Wi-Fi hotspots to help out in city centres.
To be honest, public Wi-Fi (both O2’s and any other one like BTWifi) is garbage; it intercepts your first unencrypted (HTTP) connection to serve you an ad page which breaks apps and is a privacy & security risk - I would not recommend even using it, let alone considering it as a valid option when evaluating coverage.
At the end of the day the network & spectrum should be all owned by the government and carriers should be able to buy capacity on that at a fair price, otherwise we end up wasting a lot of spectrum since phones will only connect to their home network, even though there might be a huge slice of unused spectrum nearby from a competing carrier. Phones should be able to make use of all the spectrum available regardless of the carrier.
@Anarchist your phone might also fall back to 3G if it’s received a phone call or text if neither VoLTE nor Wi-Fi calling is active.
Even if you Mullvad it?
You mean a VPN? Yeah that works around it but my point is that I shouldn’t have to do that for an official service provided by the carrier. If I’m an O2 customer then O2 should be on my side instead of shitting all over my unencrypted traffic.
I’m with o2 but the little I know is that EE seem to have the best coverage although they tend to be slightly more expensive. But I guess you pay for what you get. Three is generally the cheapest but quite oversubscribed.
I’m on Three and not had any issues tbh
I just got Vodafone Mobile Wifi… it’s faster than my parents Sky broadband 
I had a bit of a crap time getting it though. Was advised next day delivery but it wasn’t… I argued for an hour and they were stupid so I ended up hanging up.
I’ve never been with EE as EE, but I was not a massive fan of Orange.
I’m with Virgin…up here in the west coast of Scotland I can’t complain with coverage at all…never get dropped calls, had a few failure to connects on occasion but in general ok and the data is pretty reliable… my only issue is when you need to speak to them. If you can’t do what you want online and need to call up be prepared for a time consuming farcical scenario to happen… Even the most basic of tasks are hassle…
For example… I changed banks… as my handset and airtime are “separate” I could only change my airtime Direct Debit online and not the one for my handset…the website told me to call up…so I did, got through and then got a CSA who could only change my airtime (which I could have done myself!) and then had to go through the whole shebang again with another CSA in the “Freetime” department… total call duration 24 mins… madness!
To top it off the advisors appear to be a mix of Philippines/India so prepare yourself for needing to use the phonetic alphabet, especially if you have a thick geordie accent like mine!
I was on one2one, t mobile then BT cellnet and have stayed with them since the changed to O2. Customer service over the phone is more than a bit ropey (45 minutes to try and cancel insurance) but online chat is fine, the app for billing is user friendly and coverage is better than any other provider in this area. Only 500mb data which isn’t great but i can live with it.
I always found the Vodafone app terrible. Most of the time it never worked on my Pixel, which I got from Vodafone…
Annoyed me more with the ‘open the Vodafone app to enter this competition’ when it doesn’t work on my phone…
I think the app has recently been updated and improved. Although the webchat team seem to be separate (oversea) from their Twitter Team. Seem to get more sense and success via Twitter, though!
Now if only the operators invested that money into customer service and upgrading their legacy systems…
Was that headline written by a 12 year old youtuber? Is there an adult translation?
I’ve never felt so old
I just had a live chat with three to fix a pac transfer mistake and the guy I spoke to was absolutely excellent (so noticibly good that I’m now typing it here). I dread having to contact utility firms (do they count as?) but a live chat from anyone giving you 100% attention, typing fast and fixing/answering questions without hesitation was a refreshing experience!
With three, I’ve had an ancient unlimited data (no tether) plan on a 30day rolling @ £12 for many years, I hope it never gets noticed/changed.
Just switched my wife from giffgaff to a 12mo sim contract, think it’s 12GB for £10 plus some topcashback.
Price is by far the most important thing to me, the reception and speeds around here are much of a muchness.