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[Weaver]

I have just put a new SIM in my iPad Pro v1 and there are no ‘bars’ showing on the top line for 3G/4G signal strength, nor is there any 3G/4G symbol nor words ‘no signal’ or similar. There are four grey dots though at the top rhs next to the ‘arcs’ wireless lan signal strength indicator, and I think Apple support staff were saying that the four dots means ‘no signal’ - is that right?

Another iPad right next to this one is showing reasonable 3G so it’s a bit weird.

[Weaver]

Now sorted out. I had screwed up and activated the wrong SIM in the clueless.aa.net.uk website. Then after good staff had sorted me out, I had to wait for ages and ages for the correct SIM to become activated, the servers seemed to be really slow today, and when the status did change to activated on the server, the iPad still wasn’t working. But then I guessed that you have to remove and reinsert the SIM to kick it into life, and that physical reinsertion did the trick.

Reinsertion was a tip Apple support staff mentioned to me.

—
So the four grey dots thing means that you can sort-of see the network, but the mobile network operator-related innards are not happy, or the SIM is not activated or forty things.

—

Anyway, iPad Pro is working on 3G / 4G now.

This is a replacement iPad because I sent mine off to Apple for repair and a completely different new (still v1) iPad Pro 12" came back instead, but Apple stole my SIM which was a real nuisance.
 
Also, I made a stupid mistake. I should not have released the IPv4 address that it was using without first changing the firewall configuration because there was an explicit inbound firewall hole for the iPad, as a trusted device, so it could get access into the main LAN over 3G/4G and not dealing with that meant I was letting that IP address get reassigned to another AA user and thus creating a security flaw. Note to self: do not release IP addresses, ever, never ever, not without hunting down references to them first. Perhaps I should have a spreadsheet or something that contains a list of IP addresses or address ranges and then lists all their dependencies, usage, firewall references, dns etc.

I can’t tell if I am seeing any 4G or not, don’t know how to tell. The 4G is, I suspect, pretty rubbish here where I am, lying in bed because of the thick stone wall which just creates a shadow because the angle of the line of sight to the base station is not quite right here on this side if the room. I get 2 bars though and I am assuming that is only 3G, don’t know what the evidence for this is though.

[chenks]

you should know if you have 4G or 3G or whatever, as the ipad will tell you next to the signal indicator.
you'll only see the indicator if WIFI is turned off though.

[Weaver]

Ah, my wife said that to me, now I come to think about it. It is really odd not seeing the display of network type is the wireless LAN interface is on, annoying.

—
Having tried that, I can see 3G, two bars here in bed. speedtest2.aa.net.uk gives only a mere ~7.5Mbps downstream 0.56Mpbs upstream over 3G.

There should be some 4G here but I would need to get rather nearer the window because of the angle to the base-station’s line of sight. The bedroom window is facing east, which is indeed towards the base station, but I think the base station is a little too far off to the left of the window, as it is situated further north than me, on the far side of the valley.

[chenks]

Ah, my wife said that to me, now I come to think about it. It is really odd not seeing the display of network type is the wireless LAN interface is on, annoying.

it's pretty much default on "most" devices these days.
the assumption being that if you're on WIFI then the type of data connection is irrelevant.

[Samad]

My experience of using EE Mobile Data:-

I live in North Skye and the Scoval mast is some 9 Kms North from me as the crow flies and has 4G transmission. My son has a contract with EE for Mobile Phone and Data and brought his router up last time he visited me so that I could have a play with it.

Everything was connected to my SamKnows white box which took readings throughout a period of 3 days and the download speed varied between 42Mbps and 93.4Mbps.

My fibre connection averages a speed of 24Mbps.

So, I used my mobile phone running Ookla (after switching my WiFi off) to take various readings around the house and found that the best speeds were obtained from the first floor of the house facing the Scoval Mast.

Ookla keeps a summary of the speed tests and differentiates whether WiFi or LTE was used for the test.

Each time the test is run it indicates whether you are using WiFi or your Mobile provider before the test is run

EE will install an outside aerial for £100 so the higher speeds may be better and more consistent, but for the time being I will stick with fibre as the cost is rather high.

[Weaver]

the thing about the mobile data deals is that you have no idea what the future performance will be like. One other heavy user in your cell and the performance is halved, and of course it could be far far worse. You just have to pray that the deal you signed up for remains a secret and no one else signs up for it. :-)

I’m presuming that when you said ‘fibre’ you are referring to FTTC, which is of course the exact same copper line, just shortened a lot. I am not aware of any fibre ie FTTP links in this area, but then I am extremely ill informed as I never get out, so my opinion is completely worthless. :-)