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How bad is your mobile phone signal?

skyscraper101

skyscraper101

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Has yours gotten worse lately?

www.standard.co.uk

Why is the UK’s phone signal so bad? 5G issues explained

A third of mobile phone users have experienced problems with their network provider
www.standard.co.uk www.standard.co.uk

According to a Which? survey, a third of the UK’s mobile phone users have experienced problems with their network provider in the past year, with 17 per cent complaining about their connection – including network dropouts, recurrent outages, and consistently bad phone signals.
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I've just been reading this and it definitely rings true. London has been shocking for me lately for phone signal. Drop outs, dead zones, no noticeable benefit from 5G. Assuming it's even available. No signal at all at a festival the other weekend, irrespective of the network. Major train routes into the capital hit and miss all the way. I don't even bother with train wifi these days. It's worse than the already ropey signal on my phone. This is an an EE premium plan, not even a virtual operator.

Other countries I travel to seem to have excellent signal and fast speeds. Tell me your woes.
 
Train signal is just 4/5G isn't it. I've pretty much given up as well. It's OK for sending email and a bit of light browsing but can't cope with proper work (remote networking into office PC).
 
Hellishly variable over time and place.

What is doubly {at least} annoying is that sometimes it varies in the same place between visits !

Used to a fairly variable - sometimes even down to almost non-existent / crap - signal at home and in the workshop, mainly due to the relative locations of self and masts.
Some buildings around here are steel-framed - ie faraday cages - and that makes things even worse.
 
I don't even care about 5G. I just want a reliable 4G. I was fine with that. But I can't even get this half the time. In central London.

Walk into Tesco, no signal. Go into any shop. No signal. Fire up a google map to get somewhere... painfully slow. It's bollocks.
 
"not upgrading our telecom infrastructure … restrictions on Chinese telecom giant Huawei"

Lack of investment. Not that surprising really. I find service in [near-]central London atrocious at times on some networks. I'm too close to tourist attractions/places where people tend to cluster and toy with their shiny-shiny (drops in performance mirror attendance at those attractions eg hours of business). Have largely 'solved' it by using a multi-SIM handset (am on two of the networks reputed to have best coverage - well they work everywhere I need them to, especially out in the wild back of beyond). The combined plans are actually less than what I was previously paying. Also gives me more flexibility when roaming and they are monthly so I can jump vendor at short notice or pause.
 
I'm on three and yes, feels like it's become considerably worse over the past year or so. Often no signal at all in bits of central london.

Hopeless on trains too. Apparently other countries deliberately install mobile masts along major rail routes but the UK doesn't. And that's why the onboard wifi is also usually hopeless - it's fighting for the same scarce signals.

I tried getting a EE payg sim a couple of months ago, to see if signal was any better. It didn't seem like it was, so didn't bother switching.
 
2hats said:
Have largely 'solved' it by using a multi-SIM handset (am on two of the networks reputed to have best coverage - well they work everywhere I need them to, especially out in the wild back of beyond). The combined plans are actually less than what I was previously paying. Also gives me more flexibility when roaming and they are monthly so I can jump vendor at short notice or pause.
Click to expand...
Is there some way of doing this without having to have two different phone numbers?
 
We have kept our landline because the mobile signal here is hopeless. It's the same around town and at the station. On the other hand I spent last weekend in a field in the middle of nowhere in Gloucestershire and had very good 4G signal. Same thing last month in North Devon.

I once watched a football match live whilst on the train from Leeds to London. I was amazed. Signal on the train on my regular routes is hopeless.

Plus I swear 2 bars of 4G is better than 3 of 5G.
 
I've noticed mobile reception getting worse over past year - especially data connections. It's ok most of the time where I live, but when I go into Leeds for work it's abysmal. No signal at all once you get anywhere vaguely close to the train station. I had assumed it was because I am using Smarty and I'm at the bottom of the queue for data but it sounds like it's affecting lots of networks. It makes finding your way about / buying tickets etc in urban areas a complete pain in the arse. Not to mention being unable to post here while waiting for a train.
 
Signal is good most places here apart from the main town. It's basically impossible to get online whenever the big cruise ships are in though, because there's not enough bandwidth or something iirc.
 
This is where we benefit from China's reckless infrastructure investment to keep the economy staggering along. Excellent 5G out here in the sticks and anywhere around town should I go in. Just the odd concrete bunker type building where you struggle.
 
I am lucky to get one bar of 4G here, and often calls go straight to voicemail, which I never had before moving here.

I can see a proper mast with exposed antennas from the back garden, not one of those encased telegraph pole ones, and it's probably only 300-400 metres from me, but I guess o2 doesn't use that one, I need to find out what network(s) do.

On the OFCOM site it shows I should have a good indoor signal from o2, and I've checked all four networks websites and they all show excellent coverage of the whole village, which is total bollocks, as no one in the south of the village has any signal, from any of the four networks.

They are taking us for mugs.
 
cupid_stunt said:
I am lucky to get one bar of 4G here, and often calls go straight to voicemail, which I never had before moving here.

I can see a proper mast with exposed antennas from the back garden, not one of those encased telegraph pole ones, and it's probably only 300-400 metres from me, but I guess o2 doesn't use that one, I need to find out what network(s) do.

On the OFCOM site it shows I should have a good indoor signal from o2, and I've checked all four networks websites and they all show excellent coverage of the whole village, which is total bollocks, as no one in the south of the village has any signal, from any of the four networks.

They are taking us for mugs.
Click to expand...

I'm with O2 in the middle of nowhere and my signal is brilliant.

20 years ago, Vodafone, and that was rubbish.
 
I can't get any network signal at my house any more, stopped on all networks about six months ago. They said a mast was down.

I hop on to next door's WiFi (cheers to them) and roam with Giffgaff on the O2 network I think, but it's an expensive way to just go and walk away from home with me mobile.

Something is going on anyway, that's my deep summise.
 
Huge drop in service at an event over the weekend when it started to get busy.

Went from normal speed to being completely unable to even send a text for about 10 hours.

I'm sure it never used to be this bad. Things would get slower somewhere busy but it was still usable.

I find my network is much better in the rural area I live now than it is in a big city. I don't get anywhere near as many drop outs of service.
 
teuchter said:
Is there some way of doing this without having to have two different phone numbers?
Click to expand...
Not that I know of. But both numbers are active at the same time (incoming SMS arrive on either number and I can pick up voicemail and make calls on either number) and it's essentially irrelevant for the data traffic (various instant messaging platforms just work transparently). At least, for my manner of phone use (I rarely permit or take incoming voice calls so have never tested that).
 
BRISTOL
Giffgaff (O2)
My house is in a 5G hole..
Indoors at the back of the house...
Thankfully my needs are not great...

1724827471575.png
 
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No 5G anywhere locally as far as I’m aware.
Possibly some in Exmouth as I sometimes get it on the bus going through Dawlish Warren. It’s a city thing really isn’t it?

4G is just about adequate at my house, and non existent when at rugby (crowds plus next to M5 so passing grockles I expect). Is quite annoying being out of contact for 4-5 hours when I’m there.
 
Mine's pretty good but I am in the city center yet still a lot of other providers are rubbish. Having said that I speak to customers on the phone all day at work and every other call is a wash out due to customers with bad connections. As for getting a reception on the train - Forget it.
 
Previously EE, now Vodafone - both great 4g and 5g here - semi-rural North West near Cumbria.

We had a mast down near us a while back and it dropped to 4G only for a bit on Voda.

We also use Lebara (Voda) and RWG (EE) SIMS here and they're good too. I do also make use of WiFi calling at work and use WhatsApp and Messages on my laptop because easier sometimes.
 
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