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

System

Since you appear to be in the know

• Do you know if 3 will be sharing the EE 800Mhz LTE infrastructure?
• Are 3 still considering acquiring and merging O2 UK like they did with O2 Ireland?

Some lower frequency coverage would be beneficial to EE and 3.

ZhugeEX wrote: »

EE are also currently trialling 800Mhz 4G which will allow for better signal range and indoor penetration. Also being trialled is EE's Voice over Wi-Fi solution, VoLTE and LTE-Advanced. We should see these being launched by EE in the next year or so.

ZhugeEX

Heng_Leng wrote: »

Since you appear to be in the know

• Do you know if 3 will be sharing the EE 800Mhz LTE infrastructure?
• Are 3 still considering acquiring and merging O2 UK like they did with O2 Ireland?

Some lower frequency coverage would be beneficial to EE and 3.

Sites and backhaul is shared. But there is no RAN share like on 3G.

Regarding the second question, your guess is as good as mine.

tiredofpoorservice

Hi. I have a question which relates to this. I have no technical no-how at all so sorry if this sounds stupid. I have an ancient phone (a hand-me-down) which I only ever use to make phone-calls or send (very slowly typed) texts. I have no idea what model it is - it doesn't seem to be displayed on it anywhere.

I was in London last week and I found that I could hardly use it at all, in common with many comments on this thread. I am an Orange customer (although they now seem to call themselves EE, although I still get Orange bills) on a very low use contract which I can end any time (my monthly bill is typically less than £1 so I am a really poor customer for them). It seems that I should change provider but which provider should I commit to in order to be able to guarantee reasonable coverage simply to make calls and send texts? Does the fact that my phone is ancient (2G? 1G? I have no idea what this means) make any difference?


Thanks


TOPS

NFH

tiredofpoorservice wrote: »

It seems that I should change provider but which provider should I commit to in order to be able to guarantee reasonable coverage simply to make calls and send texts?

You don't need to commit to a provider. You can change whenever you like, especially on prepaid. My perception is that the networks have coverage quality in the following order:

1. O2 (except for 4G where they only have 800MHz spectrum)
2. Vodafone
3. EE
4. Three (no 2G spectrum at all)

A cheap prepaid provider running on O2 is Toggle Mobile, which is also very good for roaming. Giffgaff isn't suitable for very low users, only those who use a significant amount of data (and minutes and SMS) each month.

ZhugeEX

NFH wrote: »

You don't need to commit to a provider. You can change whenever you like, especially on prepaid. My perception is that the networks have coverage quality in the following order:

1. O2 (except for 4G where they only have 800MHz spectrum)
2. Vodafone
3. EE
4. Three (no 2G spectrum at all)

A cheap prepaid provider running on O2 is Toggle Mobile, which is also very good for roaming. Giffgaff isn't suitable for very low users, only those who use a significant amount of data (and minutes and SMS) each month.

I don't really agree with lists like that.

It really does vary on location and time. In my area I would rank Three top and Vodafone bottom.

It's all about which network works for you in the areas you frequent.
Technically speaking though, EE and Three are the best networks for coverage and data use as backed up by numerous root metrics reports. O2 and Vodafone still have a long way to catch up with the other two networks and it's only recently that I've seen improvements to these two networks to bring them up to bar with EE/Three in certain areas.

NFH

Agreed. It does vary in terms of what you need to use the network for, but in terms of just getting a basic signal for calls and SMS (i.e. tiredofpoorservice's needs), you can't beat O2 and Vodafone, both of which have 900MHz 2G spectrum which, compared to EE's 1800MHz 2G spectrum, travels over longer distances and penetrates buildings better. And my list is not specific to any particular areas, but overall based on the spectrums used by each network as well as the experience of friends, family and colleagues. Lower frequencies give better coverage but have less capacity. Higher frequencies give worse coverage but have higher capacity. Only Vodafone uses every spectrum available.

ZhugeEX

NFH wrote: »

Agreed. It does vary in terms of what you need to use the network for, but in terms of just getting a basic signal for calls and SMS (i.e. tiredofpoorservice's needs), you can't beat O2 and Vodafone, both of which have 900MHz 2G spectrum which, compared to EE's 1800MHz 2G spectrum, travels over longer distances and penetrates buildings better. And my list is not specific to any particular areas, but overall based on the spectrums used by each network as well as the experience of friends, family and colleagues. Lower frequencies give better coverage but have less capacity. Higher frequencies give worse coverage but have higher capacity. Only Vodafone uses every spectrum available.

Whilst that is true you have to remember that network planners do take that into account and thus place cells closer together when using a higher frequency / increase power output. So whilst what you said is true it doesn't mean a network using a higher frequency can't match coverage from a network using a lower frequency. Obviously an advantage of a lower frequency (as you said) is better indoor penetration and a wider coverage area.

When it comes to 2G I agree that Voda and O2 are slightly better. But when it comes to 3G they are behind Three and EE and still have a lot of work to do. Every 3G network uses 2100Mhz and It's only O2 and Voda who have recently started to refarm 900Mhz for use on 3G but this is more for coverage and not for capacity. O2 and Vodafone's 3G speeds have usually been very slow compared to Three and EE and this is due to Three/EE having rolled out DC-HSPA+ to over 90% of the UK with upgraded backhaul etc...

deary65

I bought an EE 4G data sim and I'm lucky if I get 3G mostly 2G. This is what the coverage checker says:

UPGRADED TO DOUBLE SPEED 4G
Great news, the 4G network in this area has been upgraded to double speed 4G. This means everything is even faster than before, like uploading large files or downloading a film from EE's Film Store.

Ilford Essex area.

OneADay

I got t-mobile sim only deal and after many many calls to customer services, dropped calls - only getting 2g not 3g - changed phones from smartphones to basic phones - and even with 2g dropping calls at home, finally after 4 months I get call from customer care who said I can quit contract without having to pay early termination.

Absolute cast iron - no termination fee (mainly as I was on a low tariff).

Fast forward 14 days, I get a paper bill from t-mobile with termination fee. And another call trying to get hold of billing team, waiting endlessly. Spoke to someone who checked call records and said termination fee will not be charged.

Well I wait to see - have to keep an eye on my account.

All in all its been a shambles. I went through multiple calls complaining to customer services. They even had to phone me on landline as when on phone to them, phone would cut out. One person told me whilst they had two masts in the area for 2g, I was probably not getting the signal I should get as there was an issue with one mast down or out of operation.

I kept telling them it was not me dropping calls - they would hardly believe that. They put their tech people on it and trying to tell me the same.

In end I think I finally got the result I wanted - now just need to make sure they keep their word and do not charge termination fee. If they try that, they can look at call records.

Switched to 3 on sim only - get 4g reception in most places. On first use of internet, I did not even realise I was using 4g, thought I was connected to wifi - its that fast.

J_B

Worse everywhere according to the Farming Forum

http://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/mobile-phone-signal-getting-worse.28307/