About a month ago I noticed a distinct drop in battery life on my phone,
this has happened before with a dodgy firmware update and was fixed by
the next update, so I waited a month before getting worried about it.

In the meantime I noticed that when I was away from home, the battery
life was better, I do use wifi-calling whenever possible.

So yesterday I had a look at the effect of forcing the phone to use
only-GSM, only-3G, only-LTE (can't force only-5G as none here).

I noticed when forced to 3G only, the phone showed voice registration
was "OUT-OF-SERVICE/DENIED", with data service "DISCONNECTED/DENIED" and
looked what base stations were visible, which was one solitary
MCC=234,MNC=20 so Three.

I was surprised that such little 3G was visible, I didn't even think O2
had started yet?

Left to its own decision, between NR/LTE/GSM/WCDMA the phone always
picks 4G at home, so is it a recent lack of 3G signal causing higher
battery use? The phone shows just under 50% battery going on mobile
sub-system.

On Sat 24/02/2024 11:12, Andy Burns wrote:
> About a month ago I noticed a distinct drop in battery life on my phone,
> this has happened before with a dodgy firmware update and was fixed by
> the next update, so I waited a month before getting worried about it.
>
> In the meantime I noticed that when I was away from home, the battery
> life was better, I do use wifi-calling whenever possible.
>
> So yesterday I had a look at the effect of forcing the phone to use
> only-GSM, only-3G, only-LTE (can't force only-5G as none here).
>
> I noticed when forced to 3G only, the phone showed voice registration
> was "OUT-OF-SERVICE/DENIED", with data service "DISCONNECTED/DENIED" and
> looked what base stations were visible, which was one solitary
> MCC=234,MNC=20 so Three.
>
> I was surprised that such little 3G was visible, I didn't even think O2
> had started yet?
>
> Left to its own decision, between NR/LTE/GSM/WCDMA the phone always
> picks 4G at home, so is it a recent lack of 3G signal causing higher
> battery use?  The phone shows just under 50% battery going on mobile
> sub-system.

Could just be that the 3G source has failed for some reason and they
have decided in the coming circumstances not to repair it?

Woody wrote:

> Could just be that the 3G source has failed for some reason and they
> have decided in the coming circumstances not to repair it?

I did consider that, but if a phone has a very strong 4G signal, would
it constantly waste battery hunting for a non-existent 3G signal?

Andy Burns wrote:

> I was surprised that such little 3G was visible, I didn't even think O2
> had started yet?

vodafone coverage map shows they've already turned 3G off here

EE says theirs is also turned off here

three say they'll turn it off here in April this year

O2 coverage map still shows 3G available here, their website says
they're not going to begin turning it off until 2025, though I can't see
any signal here.

>"constantly waste battery hunting for a non-existent 3G signal" ?
>

Do you think the phone has some sort of radar for tracking down stray
base stations ?

Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
> Andy Burns wrote:
>
> > I was surprised that such little 3G was visible, I didn't even think O2
> > had started yet?
>
> vodafone coverage map shows they've already turned 3G off here
>
> EE says theirs is also turned off here
>
> three say they'll turn it off here in April this year

Are you sure you weren't on the EE site via their network sharing deal with
Three? Or is the switch off split between networks (ie EE turned off their
bit of the mast, but Three's is still going)?

Theo

Theo wrote:

> Are you sure you weren't on the EE site via their network sharing deal with
> Three? Or is the switch off split between networks (ie EE turned off their
> bit of the mast, but Three's is still going)?

I don't know how much radio kit is shared between EE/Three rather than
just cabinets/poles? PedroC has done some videos, but they're getting a
bit out of date.

But I was going by coverage maps; voda shows huge areas of 3G wilderness
(looks like roughly speaking they only have 3G if you're south of
manchester and west of coventry?), EE now shows zero 3G coverage
indoors/outdoors around my village.

Turning the phone setting for band selection to 2G/3G only and auto
network selection off, literally only shows

Three(3G) forbidden.
Voda(2G) forbidden
EE(2G) forbidden
O2(2G) allowed/connected

On Sun 25/02/2024 12:47, Andy Burns wrote:
> Theo wrote:
>
>> Are you sure you weren't on the EE site via their network sharing deal
>> with
>> Three?  Or is the switch off split between networks (ie EE turned off
>> their
>> bit of the mast, but Three's is still going)?
>
> I don't know how much radio kit is shared between EE/Three rather than
> just cabinets/poles? PedroC has done some videos, but they're getting a
> bit out of date.
>
> But I was going by coverage maps; voda shows huge areas of 3G wilderness
>  (looks like roughly speaking they only have 3G if you're south of
> manchester and west of coventry?), EE now shows zero 3G coverage
> indoors/outdoors around my village.
>
> Turning the phone setting for band selection to 2G/3G only and auto
> network selection off, literally only shows
>
> Three(3G)   forbidden.
> Voda(2G)    forbidden
> EE(2G)   forbidden
> O2(2G)  allowed/connected

The sharing between EE and 3 is at distribution level and on some sites
with broadcast aerial sharing as well.
In the olden days T-Mobile and 3 set up a distribution company called
MBNL. When Orange and T-Mob merged to become EE they maintained their
operation with 3 in MBNL.
Could that be why BT is trying to buy 3 so that they can ditch MBNL and
distribute everything through the BT network?
Of interest, it does not mean that 3 and EE both use the same bands.
There is a small hilltop site near Frome in E Somerset that is owned by
3 and has both 3 and EE broadcast. EE has 4G and has had for some years,
but 3 only has 3G - presumably they didn't see a market locally for 3G?

Woody wrote:

> In the olden days T-Mobile and 3 set up a distribution company called
> MBNL. When Orange and T-Mob merged to become EE they maintained their
> operation with 3 in MBNL.
> Could that be why BT is trying to buy 3 so that they can ditch MBNL and
> distribute everything through the BT network?

I thought it was Vodafone and Three trying to merge, not EE and Three?

> Of interest, it does not mean that 3 and EE both use the same bands.
> There is a small hilltop site near Frome in E Somerset that is owned by
> 3 and has both 3 and EE broadcast. EE has 4G and has had for some years,
> but 3 only has 3G - presumably they didn't see a market locally for 3G?

Yes, I'm aware of different radios/combiners/aerials from some of the
already mentioned PedroC videos.