EE's degraded service and coverage - time to leave after 15 years?

flossy_splodge

Don't understand most of the techie stuff earlier in this thread but put simply, why oh why am I finding on my new iPhone 5c with 4G and on EE that I struggle to get any signal at all and hence phone is useless?
Orange were bad enough where i live but this seems worse or is it a factor of the weather today?
Help.
I have about 2 days left to cancel!

diamonds

d123 wrote: »

Some more reading for you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VoLTE

WIKI!? Hardly the best place for accuracy.
But LTE we are not even there yet...

diamonds

flossy_splodge wrote: »

Don't understand most of the techie stuff earlier in this thread but put simply, why oh why am I finding on my new iPhone 5c with 4G and on EE that I struggle to get any signal at all and hence phone is useless?
Orange were bad enough where i live but this seems worse or is it a factor of the weather today?
Help.
I have about 2 days left to cancel!

EE has gone to pot, 4 generally is provided by old T-Mobile base stations, the Orange - T-Mobile network known as EE is a mess, I would return, it will take a few more years for the merger to completely sort out the signal issues after shutting down almost 10,000 Orange sites. I would cancel.

flossy_splodge

Thank you for your reply.
Which network would be better?
I use my mobile a LOT for both calls and texting so need a reliable signal.
Thanks.:o

pioneer31

flossy_splodge wrote: »

Thank you for your reply.
Which network would be better?
I use my mobile a LOT for both calls and texting so need a reliable signal.
Thanks.:o

Vodaphone or O2.

They always had an advantage on 2G due to the frequency/wavelength used. Orange did manage to best them (IMO) by having more sites and in my town they were brilliant. Now they've removed lots of sites, they have handed the 2G market on a plate to Voda/O2

d123

diamonds wrote: »

WIKI!? Hardly the best place for accuracy.

But it knows a LOT more than you do...

You don't even understand how voice and text over 4G will work (unless you have read the link since your posts about calls over 4G?).

diamonds wrote: »

But LTE we are not even there yet...

Yes, we are.

ZhugeEX

diamonds wrote: »

EE has gone to pot, 4 generally is provided by old T-Mobile base stations, the Orange - T-Mobile network known as EE is a mess, I would return, it will take a few more years for the merger to completely sort out the signal issues after shutting down almost 10,000 Orange sites. I would cancel.

A lot of people including yourself seem to be missing the point.

Even with the "network optimisation", EE has more masts than Three, O2 and Vodafone. That's how many masts EE had after the merger and hence why they were decommissioning so many after the merger because they provided duplicate coverage.

The side effect of that is very clear though as it has left black spots or areas with weaker signal than before. A 2G refresh along with 4G launch + increased capacity at sites is going some way to fix the above side effects but there are obviously some areas that will still be affected. Also there are a number of old orange sites which are still being integrated fully into the EE network to provide increased coverage on 2G as well as 3G/4G.

At the end of the day, EE still has the best network in the UK as backed up by root metrics and P3, even Ofcom themselves. When looking at the overall UK It's clear to see that EE is still a leader, shortly followed by Three. When looking at specific areas the results will be more varied. It's best to choose the operator that works best in the area you spend most of your time in. Should it mean that you need to switch networks then do it. If you get great signal everywhere on one network but terrible signal at home then EE, Three, O2 and Vodafone all have home signal boxes or Wi-Fi calling as a solution.

There seems to be a huge placebo effect here where someone loses signal for day and blames it on something completely unrelated. I remember when people on here purposefully thought that all UK networks were slowing down 3G speeds so people would upgrade to 4G. No correlation at all.

ZhugeEX

flossy_splodge wrote: »

Thank you for your reply.
Which network would be better?
I use my mobile a LOT for both calls and texting so need a reliable signal.
Thanks.:o

Test them out first. If Orange didn't work for you then EE isn't going to be any better. Vodafone, O2 and Three are worth trying out.

No point signing up to a 24 month contract only to return it. Use a combination of the coverage maps, friends & family testimonials & test a pay as you go SIM yourself to find out which is the best network for yourself.

pioneer31

ZhugeEX wrote: »

A lot of people including yourself seem to be missing the point.

Even with the "network optimisation", EE has more masts than Three, O2 and Vodafone. That's how many masts EE had after the merger and hence why they were decommissioning so many after the merger because they provided duplicate coverage.

The side effect of that is very clear though as it has left black spots or areas with weaker signal than before.

If they only remove masts which provide duplicate coverage then they shouldn't be creating any blackspots?

It's funny how people quickly say EE must be crap when they're still a much better network than any of the others.

"Much better"....

Real life experience is what counts, not stats and PR. A lot of people are finding the EE signal poor compared to their previous Orange/T Mobile. I'm one of them. I don't want to change providers but when I travel down large parts of the M5 without a signal, then arrive at my sister's house and find the signal is not what it was, as well as it being rubbish at my own home address then I decide that it is crap.

In my 15 yrs as a mobile customer with different networks, I have never seen anything as awful as the EE 2G signal. I initially thought my phone was faulty

pioneer31

ZhugeEX wrote: »

Test them out first. If Orange didn't work for you then EE isn't going to be any better. Vodafone, O2 and Three are worth trying out.

No point signing up to a 24 month contract only to return it. Use a combination of the coverage maps, friends & family testimonials & test a pay as you go SIM yourself to find out which is the best network for yourself.

I'm willing to bet any three of those will outperform EE