Orange, what the hell is going on?

samwilzrhcp

Mobile network has been unavailable for a good few days now, and the signal all of a sudden seems to have gone rubbish.
Is this their way of getting me to upgrade? Even though my phone is fine.

WantToBeSE

Mine started doing this last year, ever since they changed their masts to EE I think (although they haven't confirmed this). Now I always have trouble with signal.

grumbler

samwilzrhcp wrote: »

.. all of a sudden seems to have gone rubbish.
Is this their way of getting me to upgrade?...

Why upgrade? Vote with your feet and switch network maybe?

New_Beginings_2013

I have similar problems with mine since the EE switch, in addition to being charged non DD fees on a DDbill. (end of contract I am walking).

Biggest problem I have being in the highlands is that they dont guantee a signal up here due to the terrian so any additional network drops is put down to the weather/hill/bird in the way. But yeah the last few weeks have been a nightmare to keep a singal (although its not to bad when connected to a wireless internet connection!!??!!)

Anoneemoose

It always makes me chuckle when people say they have had rubbish signal when EE took over. It is true that SOME of the masts were removed (mainly due to duplication when they gained T-Mobiles) however this was staggered and did NOT only coincide with when EE was switched on. I also believe that their switching off of masts is complete.

The masts for calls and texts are all exactly the same regardless of whether you are on Orange, T-Mob or EE. Connection runs through the same set of masts and cells. The ONLY difference for EE customers is that there are additional cells on the masts that allow 4g access for data usage.

I am of course not suggesting that you aren't experiencing problems but have you phoned them to check what is going on? They might be working on your local mast for example.

[Deleted User]

It must be a localised problem as today I have monitored the Orange (EE) 2G signal between Skegness and Louth whilst a passenger in our car. The signal stayed solid for most of the 25 mile journey with only a couple of dropouts in the Lincolnshire Wolds and it compared favourably with O2 which has fewer transmitters in the Wolds.

It is possible that the OP has suffered from EE's mast decommissioning policy and that this policy has not affected Lincolnshire's rural areas as there are fewer transmitters to switch off in the first place.

samwilzrhcp

Don't know what to do for the best, i have a HTC one x, a damned good phone, but obviously its not a 4g enabled phone and i am at the end of my contract. Now i can't justify getting a new phone on a silly priced contract, i have bills to pay and ideally i would like to cut back on what i am currently paying which is £16 a month with unlimited texts, 150 minutes, and 500mb data. I barely use 300 texts a month so unlimited is pointless, but apparently i am on the cheapest tariff.

One option is unlocking my phone and switching to a sim only contract on another network, but i don't know how to go about unlocking it and how long it will take?

grumbler

http://giffgaff.com/unlock/htc-one-x-phone

200m+500Mb cost 12x£6.90 at '3'

J_B

After a lot of grumbling, I eventually spoke to someone who told me that one of our local transmitters was being 'upgraded'. Maybe that's like their 'simplification' of a few years ago!!

Anyway, there were three options.
1) a booster box for in the house - they were out of stock

2) a 50% reduction in fees, *if* I was still in contract

3) a PAC

I chose (3)

samwilzrhcp

grumbler wrote: »

http://giffgaff.com/unlock/htc-one-x-phone

200m+500Mb cost 12x£6.90 at '3'

Wow, easy as that! Thank you very much.