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

NFH

I wouldn't put it past Orange to block the app from working from a non-UK IP address. I believe they do this with UMA in order to force customers unreasonably and unnecessarily to pay exorbitant roaming charges.

buildinginteriors

Ever since T-Mobile and Orange joined forces as EE i've found that T-Mobile's service has significantly deteriorated. My wife has Orange and is experiencing the same. T-Mobile used to have stellar customer support on Twitter. Now its non existent. That's why i moved to Three last month when my renewal was up (for my sins).

NFH

buildinginteriors wrote: »

My wife has Orange and is experiencing the same. T-Mobile used to have stellar customer support on Twitter. Now its non existent.

True. Likewise the Orange Company Representative suddenly vanished from these forums almost two years ago. Actually their last post was a reply to me.

ZhugeEX

Just to clear up what i said.

I mentioned earlier that EE are decommissioning a total of 9,000 ex Orange masts.
So far EE have decommissioned around ~5,670 in total with around 3,330 left to be decommissioned.

These remaining 3,330 will be decommissioned by the end of 2014. This is EE's 3 year network optimisation plan, at the same time the 6,000 ex Orange masts that are not being switched off should be fully integrated into MBNL and upgraded.

This will give EE a total of over 18,000+ fully upgraded masts in the UK by 2015.

NFH

ZhugeEX wrote: »

So far EE have decommissioned around ~5,670 in total with around 3,330 left to be decommissioned.

These remaining 3,330 will be decommissioned by the end of 2014.

Thanks. So with another 3,330 masts about to disappear, coverage is only going to get worse. It's definitely time to switch then!

ZhugeEX

NFH wrote: »

Thanks. So with another 3,330 masts about to disappear, coverage is only going to get worse. It's definitely time to switch then!

In 2012 EE turned off 2659 ex Orange sites in total.
EE have turned off over 3,011 sites this year between January 1st-October 1st. More will go off this quarter and the rest in the next year.

The 6,000 masts i mentioned are going to be upgraded for capacity and eventually coverage so EE should have a good enough (read best network) by this time next year.

But yeh, it is going to affect a lot of people whilst the optimisation is going on, and even after...

Earthworm

I've always been reluctant with Three, likely based on early bad press, but these days they really don't seem so bad (until you want to cancel). Would it have not made sense to upgrade the 6000 masts first to get an idea of which masts could then be scrapped?

ZhugeEX

Earthworm wrote: »

I've always been reluctant with Three, likely based on early bad press, but these days they really don't seem so bad (until you want to cancel). Would it have not made sense to upgrade the 6000 masts first to get an idea of which masts could then be scrapped?

Well the masts that are/have been scrapped where always going to be scrapped. Basically they aren't needed because they are duplicate sites or cover an area that T-Mo masts already cover. The 6,000 sites that are left are in areas where T-Mo don't cover fully.

Three are certainly doing things right in terms of propositions. Their network is also going to improve as well. They're targeting 99.2% 3G coverage by this time next year and 80% 4G coverage as well. That's the fastest roll out of 4G in the UK meaning they'll over take O2 and Voda's roll out during summer next year.

sulphate

My DH was with Orange (until today) and I am stuck with T-mobile until may next year. DH finally made the amazing choice of going to O2, supposedly they have the best coverage where we live (near Cambridge). It became impossible to call each other due to such bad coverage, although DH's phone was worse and a lot of noise on the line.

I called T-mobile from my phone at work recently about changing to the price plan and the girl kept saying she couldn't hear me and there was bad coverage. I told her that I was calling T-mobile from my T-mobile phone and she didn't know quite what to say...

NFH

ZhugeEX wrote: »

Basically they aren't needed because they are duplicate sites or cover an area that T-Mo masts already cover.

That's what EE claims, but it's not true. By switching off these thousands of transmitters, EE has created coverage blackspots, particularly in London, where there was strong coverage before the merger of Orange and T-Mobile.