RWG coverage?

ProDave

RWG claim they use the EE network.  They even direct you to the EE network coverage checker if you want to check what coverage you will get.

However I don't believe this claim is entirely true.  The  EE network coverage checker tells me I will get a good signal at home, but in fact I get absolutely nothing on my phone with the RWG sim while at home.  I know the phone and sim is working as when I travel away from home to a more populated area everything works.

Also I have another phone with a 1Pmobile sim, that also uses the EE network.  That one works at home so EE does give coverage at our house.

I have met this issue before when I tried to sign up with Plusnet for a mobile contract, only to find no coverage at my home.  It was only when I questioned them, that they admitted they did not use the entire EE network.

I suspect therefore that RWG are also doing the same, not using the entire EE network?

Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

flaneurs_lobster

To be a fair comparison you should try both sims in the same phone. 

savergrant

1pmobile do seem to have privileged access to ee features though. Rwg come through nowmobile. I have done a quick search and been unable to find anything helpful on their site.

alanjones60

On twitter someone asked if 5g and volte was still coming,and they said yes,just waiting for a start date off ee. So i imagine thats when they will have full access,if they have not already. If any use to any one, rwg only connects mainly to band 7,and very rarely band 3, when i check at home

ProDave

I think the issue is because I am down in a valley, I only get a signal on band 20 at home.  If RWG are not using that, it would explain the issue at home.

Larches

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that just because an virtual provider uses EE, O2 or whatever, that doesn't necessarily mean that network performance will be the same as it depends on a range of variables rather than simply 'signal strength' from a mast. I suppose a bit like Plusnet-branded broadband performance not necessarily matching that of BT.

Having said that... I just had a look at the Which website for Plusnet Mobile and when it comes to mobile coverage they simply say to check coverage for EE. And for what it's worth, I seem to get the same coverage (OK but not great in a rural-ish area) with RWG as I did with my previous provider (White Mobile) - both being virtual operators running on EE.

tinker411

ProDave said:

I think the issue is because I am down in a valley, I only get a signal on band 20 at home.  If RWG are not using that, it would explain the issue at home.

That's exactly what it'll be.

RWG do use EE for signal, however as they don't offer VoLTE (4G calling) - yet - they don't have access to EE's band 20 signal. 1p mobile, who also use EE for signal, do offer VoLTE and so have access to EE's band 20 signal.

virgo17

ProDave said:

I think the issue is because I am down in a valley, I only get a signal on band 20 at home.  If RWG are not using that, it would explain the issue at home.

I also think you are could be right. At home I get a good LTE signal from EE/RWG but it is on Band 3. My phone is dual SIM with Band 20 included and I get a very strong LTE signal from a local tower on Band 20 but it is the O2 and Vodafone network.

sully1311

ProDave said:

RWG claim they use the EE network.  They even direct you to the EE network coverage checker if you want to check what coverage you will get.

However I don't believe this claim is entirely true.  The  EE network coverage checker tells me I will get a good signal at home, but in fact I get absolutely nothing on my phone with the RWG sim while at home.  I know the phone and sim is working as when I travel away from home to a more populated area everything works.

Also I have another phone with a 1Pmobile sim, that also uses the EE network.  That one works at home so EE does give coverage at our house.

I have met this issue before when I tried to sign up with Plusnet for a mobile contract, only to find no coverage at my home.  It was only when I questioned them, that they admitted they did not use the entire EE network.

I suspect therefore that RWG are also doing the same, not using the entire EE network?

Has anyone else experienced anything similar?

As mentioned previously in this thread, this is going to be a Band 20 scenario. 

ProDave

I got around to swapping my SIMS over today.  Whichever of my 2 phones I put the RWG sim into, I get no signal at my house.  Whichever of my 2 phones I put the 1P mobile sim into works and gets a good signal at home.

So that is complete confirmation that if you want to get the full coverage that the EE network is capable of, avoid RWG and choose 1P instead.

It will be interesting to see if this improves if / when RWG start to support VOLTE and WiFi calling.

It is just a shame the customer is misled into believing that you will get full coverage of the host network.

Murmansk

I sent RWG a link to this thread of messages and they replied as follows:

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. 

The posts on here are very accurate in that we don't yet have access to Band 20 from EE for VoLTE or VoWiFi (and we have never claimed to have) and we also don't have access to 5G yet. However, we do have full radio access to EE's network with this exception.

We are working with EE to launch these and we are hopeful that 5G will be launching by the end of March. Once 5G is launched the further services for Band 20 will follow.

Best wishes

RWG Mobile Support Team