Broadband and mobile coverage in "hard-to-reach" places

Suegrimsby

I recently changed from O2 to Virgin mobile who use EE signal. The mobile signal with O2 wasn't great but the EE coverage is virtually non-existent despite being advertised otherwise. I live in the BR6 area. My broadband reception with Virgin is great! Apparently the poor signal is because there are too many trees!

flora_colville

really bad internet and mobile phone coverage in the AB53 area, mobile phones require a booster and internet is really slow and no competition as only BT supply in that area.

corsa57

Until the BT Openreach monopoly is broken up broadband will never reach its full potential in the UK and with BT pulling all the strings it will never be a competitively priced product either.

Kathy000

I live just 5 miles from Cardiff CF5 but the mobile phone signal O2 is very poor. I have tried 3, EE and vodka phone and they are no better.
I can see the top of a huge mast at Culverhouse Cross from my kitchen window, but it's no help.
My Broadband, Plusnet, is a snails pace and it's impossible to download movies etc.
I hope the minister is really looking into these things.
The same also applies to our home in Newport Pembs SA42, where I have to pay an extortionate amount for Broadband because neither Sky nor BT will include it in my package.
ACTION NEEDED

Lesley741

We live in South Wales, only 20 miles from Cardiff but have no mobile signal at all! Not just our house but nearly the whole village. Broadband is slow and goodness knows when we will get the super fast speeds promised!
Our local MP says he's on it but nothing has happened in the 5 years we have been here.

[Deleted User]

Live in Milton Keynes and in the house, the 3G signal from 3 will vanish if you are downstairs. Also bad for 3G from O2.

bermondse1

I live in Bermondsey in Central London, within sight of Tower Bridge and until recently broadband service has been appalling, and the mobile signal is just as bad.

Ultimately we don't have a truly competitive market in the UK. BT still has too much of a hold - even my old MP apparently struggled to deal with them.

My observations on Broadband:
1) My ADSL line only ever got a speed of 3mb/s - so why do I have to pay the same price for that service as someone who's getting the top speeds of 17mb/s?

It doesn't seem fair to me - and providing deep discounts for people still on slow connections would encourage new entrants and existing companies to upgrade the network.

2) BT may no longer have a national monopoly, but in many areas it has an effective local monopoly in infrastructure (cable is not in every area), the presence of multiple "retailers" (e.g. PlusNet, TalkTalk) notwithstanding.

This means there isn't really much variation in service and charges as there would be in a truly liberalised market - e.g. all the retailers will charge you the £30 they get charged if you want to disconnect your ADSL service, as I recently discovered.

3) I see no evidence of OFCOM regulating the industry to the benefit of consumers. e.g. BT can get away with not rolling out fibre to an area as "it's not commercially viable", yet switch to a competitor who clearly believes it is viable (e.g. Virgin) and it'll charge you for the privilege of disconnecting your ADSL service no matter how poor the speed (they don't charge for disconnecting your phone service though). Disconnection fees should be banned as they are a disincentive to switching to new services.

4) BT applies "commercial viability" tests to the rollout of fibre. However in some instances the issues preventing rollout are as a result of decisions BT have made historically - e.g. in my area most of the properties are directly connected to the local exchange (there's no street cabinet). Why are BT allowed to apply commercial viability tests to avoid rolling out fibre, when they are responsible for the decision of how to wire up the network in my area in the first place?

My observations on mobile signal:
1) Again in central London it's appalling that I can only use my mobile at home if I'm standing in a specific corner, and even then I only get 1 bar signal, and no 4G data. This is true of all the networks.

2) Networks will provide local hotspots, and are starting to provide wifi calling apps. These are helpful but still flakey (unreliable connections, apparently missed calls that you were never notified you of). Critically they require you to have a decent internet connection - and in hard to reach areas that's the one thing you often don't have!

3) OFCOM has just released it's own mobile signal map. Yet these maps have been in existence on other sites, for years (I used one when trying to decide which network to go with).

How does this useless regulator get away with being so far behind the curve in serving customers?

John_Kayla

I live in Derbyshire, 15 miles from derby city centre. We have an exchange enabled for high speed broadband, and a local cabinet installed. However, this has been in situ for 1 year now, and requires power before it can be put into operation. We still only get 256mb of bandwidth, and many internet services cannot operate at such speeds. This is unbelievably frustrating, the equipment is there, it just needs the last bit of work completed. There is no drive from anyone to get work completed, no responsibility or accountability, and nobody to appeal to. What I know for certain, is if a member of parliament lived in the area, it would soon be upgraded.

AMB2230

We live in rural area of North Wales, have had to get Satellite which is very expensive. Tried to get BT but after they took weeks of promising us super speed broadband they finally admitted the line was not fit for purpose. The have installed fibre broadband to the village but we are too far from the exchange apparently

michaela8888

we live in rural Wiltshire, bt broadband is terrible - are told that we are too far from exchange and that the cables are not even copper but aluminium (was told by BT engineer - sounds improbable, but the reception is so bad I can believe it!) Worse when it rains.....What galls me is I pay as much as people who get super fast broadband - I am subsidising their fabulous connection! Told there are no plans to upgrade. We are in sn9 6hb. Many people in the village are professionals who work from home, all of us generally hacked off.