High on the hills above Derry/Londonderry lies a rare live Vodafone UK Omnidirectional 2G only macro site.

The unusual specimen provides 'umbrella' 2G coverage for the city, with urban sectored solutions underneath it, while also delivering service to some rural outlying areas.

Standalone 5G (SA) realised by Virgin Media O2 and Ericsson with improved latency and multi-layer capability observed on the newly launched architecture step change.

The SA site features Ericsson ERS 8823 for n78 SA/NSA, 2238 n28 SA/NSA with n28+n78 SA aggregation possible.

New BT/EE 1800MHz 5G configuration introduces Ericsson Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) to better manage multi-RAT capacity and performance: 20MHz paired DSS 4G+5G and 20MHz paired pure 4G replaces prior approach of 30MHz paired pure 4G + 10MHz paired pure 5G.

The AIR 3258 offers a max carrier bandwidth of 300 MHz with 320W output power.

2W/MHz power levels is a good baseline for n78 deployments, making this radio perfect for a UK post-merger market.

VF/3 (VHUK below) could run up to 160 MHz n78 (subject to licenses) without issue.

Vodafone UK Ericsson network refresh brings new capability while ripening foundations for proposed network merger with Three UK.

Centre stage is Ericsson's highly capable AIR 3258 that enables potent support for a plethora of possible merger spectral outcomes.

Initial outcome of Emergency Alert testing (Cell Broadcast): all networks except Three received an alert in my household.

*One* person in a large group of us around the UK received the alert on Three, in Cardiff.

Let's go into why.

#EmergencyAlerts