For these ten years in the making, I have been frustrated with the poor quality signal that I have been receiving. I did not once suspect that the network is optimised for Android OS until recently.
For this test, I have used the iphone 6, 6s, 7, 8 (All designated for EU consumers) and compare it with Samsung Galaxy S7, S8 and S9 plus. All Samsung Galaxy phones are equipped with Samsung's own Exynos chipset and not chipsets from Qualcomm. I have only used one SIM card (with the appropriate adapters) from 3UK for all mobile phones that I have mentioned above. All tests were conducted from the same spot for ten minutes with me running Speedtest via Google Chrome browser on all mobile phones three times. I also made calls from one location to see whether the signal is stable or not.
From my observations, all iphones had the tendency to drop from 4G to 3G when trying to run Speedtest. Moreover, I can't make use of 4G Calling on the iphone 7 and iphone 8 despite the assurance by 3UK that it is available. I then realise that the reason for the inability of me to use the iphone 7 and iphone 8 to make 4G calls is due to the fact that the iphones are locked to LTE Band 3 (1800mhz) for most of the time. 4G calls are only available to 3UK consumers if the mobile device is locked to the LTE Band 20 (800mhz) frequency. 3UK customer services will tell you that your area is covered by HD Super Voice (It means that you can make 4G Calls) but they would not tell you that your mobile phone must be connected to LTE Band 20 to be able to enjoy HD Super Voice. In order for you to make use of HD Super Voice, you must also disable wifi. Please make sure that you have a valid SIM card. If you want to know more about which frequency your iphone is currently locked to, please follow the instruction by accessing the telephone dailer and type in the codes below:
*3001#12345#*
You will only be able to check the band frequency if you are running on 4G though. Once you have inserted the code above, you will have to follow the instruction below:
LTE > LTE Neighbor Cell Meas > freq_band_ind
Check on the number to the right of freq_band_ind. If you see 20, it means that you are locked to LTE Band 20 and HD Super Voice is available to you. If you see the number 3, it means that HD Super Voice will not be available to you.Please also make sure that Mobile Data is switched on and it involves data and voice. This can done via:
(a) Settings > Mobile Data > Mobile Data (switch it on); and
(b) Settings > Mobile Data > Mobile Data Options > Voice & Data
The trouble is that all iphones that I have tested were locked to LTE Band 3 for most part of the tests, although LTE Band 20 is "widely available" as what 3UK customer services have informed me about it.
Once I am satisfied with the tests that I have done, I turned over to test out Samsung mobile phones. I could have used other Android OS mobile phones but I have managed to acquire these few mobile phones to test. All Samsung mobile phones that I have mentioned above have been tested at the same location as the iphones with wifi switched off.
Once you have done it, please go to the dailer and insert these codes:
*#0011#
Look under the second line within the SERVICEMODE and you will find a word called Band. Look at the number just beside the word Band. If it is 20, it means that HD Super Voice will be available but if it is 3, it means that HD Super Voice is not available on the 3UK network.
Often than not, HD Super Voice is always available on compatible Samsung devices but not iphone. Why would this be the case? I suspect that there are three possibilities:
(a) 3UK's software is not optimised to use on the iphone range;
(b) Iphones's software are not optimised to run on 3UK's masts; and
(c) Both (a) and (b).
In the end, I have to start using Android OS mobile phones to enjoy HD Super Voice offered by 3UK. I think that is the only solution.
No comments:
Post a Comment