Mobile Phone Coverage Survey

[Tools]

We have been asked by the popular publication cable.co.uk for members experiences of mobile phone coverage after signing a contract.


Have you recently signed up for a mobile phone contract only to find the network had no coverage in your area?

Was the difficulty with 2G, 3G or 4G?

Were you assured that better coverage was coming to your area in the near future?

If so please post up your story and complete our poll to tell us which provider this was with.

We need as many participants as possible so please share with your friends & family.

You can also complete the survey via our Legal Beagles Facebook Group

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Mobile Phone Coverage Survey

Have you recently signed up for a mobile phone contract only to find the network had no coverage in your area?

Not exactly recently but I've stuck with Vodafone because they don't run credit checks on me. Mobile signal here at home ranges from poor to non-existent.

Was the difficulty with 2G, 3G or 4G?

Neither the iPhone nor the iPad usually pick up the 3G signal here.

Were you assured that better coverage was coming to your area in the near future?

Yes, I had a chat with the guys at the Vodafone shop and they told me they would be sharing resources with other networks or something to that effect, "in 6 to 8 months time" This was back in the early part of 2013, there's been no improvement whatsoever.

[Vodafone Company Rep]

Re: Mobile Phone Coverage Survey

Hi FlamingParrot,

For further information on any planned improvements in your area, check the coverage checker on our website.

Kind regards,

Lee

Social Media Comms

Vodafone UK

[Tools]

Re: Mobile Phone Coverage Survey

Sorry Lee but that is one of the main issues, the coverage maps do not represent an accurate reflection of signal strength & functionality in daily practice.

Often when contracts are sold consumers are led to believe coverage is good in their area (particularly for 4G services such as streaming etc) which was one of the main reasons for buying the phone/contract in the 1st place.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Mobile Phone Coverage Survey

Well, this is what I've got after entering my postcode:

Outdoors you can expect a good connection for email and the web, via 3G on a phone, laptop or tablet. File downloads and watching videos may be slower than you might like.

Inside most modern homes, email and web should be fine; file downloads and watching videos online will be slower, and we don't recommend using your laptop, iPad or tablet. (Advice for inside solid stone wall buildings). Vodafone Sure Signal may help indoors.

If your phone's over two years old, it may not connect to every bit of our 3G network. Log in to My Vodafone to see if you can upgrade.

My four year old iPhone works well in larger towns, London, etc. as does my 2 year old iPad so that's no the issue.

This is a modern home less than 20 years old and even outside the signal isn't that brilliant. :ohwell: That includes not just 3G which is what I checked for, also the signal for voice calls and texts, which is notoriously unreliable.

[Vodafone Company Rep]

Re: Mobile Phone Coverage Survey

Hi Tools,

The coverage checker does state that the coverage shown is a computer generated prediction and should be used only as a guide.

As well as showing current coverage, the checker is updated regularly to show when improvements are due to be made in any given area.

A 14 day cooling off period is also provided to all new and upgrading customers if they're not happy with the level of coverage they're getting.

FlamingParrot - If you'd like me to get the sites covering your area checked, email me with your details via the Contact us form here and quote the code WRT135 - FAO Lee in the subject line.

Once sent, you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Post back with this and I’ll check I've received it.

Kind regards,

Lee

Social Media Comms

Vodafone UK

[Carnelian]

Re: Mobile Phone Coverage Survey

My daughter bought a new phone and now she cannot get a good enough signal in our house, yet the rest of the family can with our older phones. Her phone is fine in town so seems to be working well. Do phones react differently to signals?

[Tools]

Re: Mobile Phone Coverage Survey

That all depends on what type of signal she is trying to get.

2G covers calls/texts - normal communications
3G covers (amongst other thinks) - online services such as receiving emails, connection to the internet etc
4G is used as a higher speed data transfer, usually used for streaming high bit rate items such as video.

2G coverage is pretty good anywhere, so if trying to make a call/text there should be no problems as long as her phone automatically switches from 3 or 4 G back to 2G when there is no signal available.

Older phones tend to only be 2 or 3G enabled

Someone else may be able to explain it in more detail, mine is just a laymans view

[Kati]

Re: Mobile Phone Coverage Survey

My daughter bought a new phone and now she cannot get a good enough signal in our house, yet the rest of the family can with our older phones. Her phone is fine in town so seems to be working well. Do phones react differently to signals?

My mobile (android) usually struggles to get a signal in our house while the boys (much older) phones never go below 2 bars :tinysmile_hmm_t2: - we're all on giffgaff (cheaper for us) so you'd assume that the signal strength would be roughly the same, but obviously not

[Carnelian]

Re: Mobile Phone Coverage Survey

Thanks Tools and Kati, I think you both might have led me to the answer, I will ask her when she gets home if her new phone is tuned into 3G or 4G as here our older phones must be still basic and I know the 3G 4G signal is bad round here

Thanks

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Mobile Phone Coverage Survey

2G coverage is pretty good anywhere, so if trying to make a call/text there should be no problems as long as her phone automatically switches from 3 or 4 G back to 2G when there is no signal available.

Older phones tend to only be 2 or 3G enabled

Someone else may be able to explain it in more detail, mine is just a laymans view

I beg to differ, most of the time the signal here isn't good enough to have a proper conversation and texts do arrive, but I have to keep the phone on the window sill in the back room to text and sometimes texts do take hours to arrive. Less than 2 weeks ago, my friends arrived a couple of hours before than the text they sent saying they were on their way! :ohwell:

I shall do as Lee suggested above. Thanks Lee. :yo:

[Mabel]

Re: Mobile Phone Coverage Survey

In Spring 2014 there was limited or no signal for Vodafone in Brighton. 2G, 3G, 4G it didn't appear to make a difference which phone or G
Where signal had always been fine and available,
I was informed by VF that they were transferring to 4G and that VF were getting permission via the local council to get on to the land where the ? transmitter was to make the changes , I know at that time when I entered the local VF store that approximately 700 people that week- had made a complaint about their reception. ( on the VF map it was still showing that we all had good coverage)
This was resolved as VF got access and 4G was put in place. It was pretty frustrating at the time it lasted a few weeks, There haven't been any problems with coverage and signal since.
I'm aware that 4G upgrades are happening around the country and there maybe phone signal problems in the meantime ( based on the evidence of what happened in Brighton)

Although my oldest friends daughter came down to stay at the weekend, she is with 02 and couldn't get any signal in my home

Mabel

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Mobile Phone Coverage Survey

FlamingParrot - If you'd like me to get the sites covering your area checked, email me with your details via the Contact us form here and quote the code WRT135 - FAO Lee in the subject line.

Once sent, you'll receive an automated reply with a reference number. Post back with this and I’ll check I've received it.

@Lee Thanks for the above, have done what you describe above and got automated response #9793198.

[FlamingParrot]

Re: Mobile Phone Coverage Survey

Just want to say thanks to Lee for all his help. :yo:

He rang me back and we discussed the issues regarding coverage, he also said the people in the Vodafone shop shouldn't have made promises of increased service in 6 o 8 months as those improvements may take years and there's no way they'd have known exactly when the service would improve. :grin:

[sean5302]

Re: Mobile Phone Coverage Survey

The poll lists both Orange and EE.
The former is part of the latter, but doesn't exist solely any more.