Carrier O2 network, UK

[MarkX]

It’s appalling that in such a small island we have such poor network coverage on all networks. EE has the best network coverage in wales along with Vodafone apparently yet all carriers will lie to you just to get you to sign up.

It is shocking indeed.

Back in 2011 I was travelling to work in the arctic circle, en route I stopped off at a small village in North Norway called Hasvik, it was an incredibly remote part of Norway yet the phone signal was excellent - full bars of 3G. Other parts of Norway had 4G then too.

Back home in Scotland at that time I was luck if I could get 3G on Vodafone in the town of 25,000 that I stayed in. In the sticks I had no chance.

I’m now on EE and they are by far the best for coverage and speed in general although there is still room for improvement west of Scotland.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

What’s worse is the fluctuations of signal strength during a 2 year deal.
I took out a deal with 3 around 2 years ago and the signal was amazing everywhere in my area of Yorkshire. After around 18 months there was no longer any reception at my house or my university!
I spent 3 months fault finding with them and eventually moved to O2 after my son had been rushed to hospital and I had no idea for 3 hours as due to the signal issues nobody could contact me.

That happened to a friend of mine and you can actually get out of your contract early if they are failing to deliver the service. I think it was Three he was with and quoted breach of contract and was able to terminate about 6 months early. I find O2 aren’t too bad where I am even though the 4G signal could be stronger. It’s when I go to the Midlands to see family and west wales where it becomes a joke. I’ll be moving to EE in September and won’t even approach O2 to get a deal. After they took the mick out of my wife with shoddy offers, it’s not worth it.

That sounds bad in the case where your son was ill. I’d be furious and rightly looking elsewhere.

 

[Lunfai]

o2 was pretty good for me but for traveling around UK, no one is going to beat EE.

 

[Thoradin]

That happened to a friend of mine and you can actually get out of your contract early if they are failing to deliver the service. I think it was Three he was with and quoted breach of contract and was able to terminate about 6 months early. I find O2 aren’t too bad where I am even though the 4G signal could be stronger. It’s when I go to the Midlands to see family and west wales where it becomes a joke. I’ll be moving to EE in September and won’t even approach O2 to get a deal. After they took the mick out of my wife with shoddy offers, it’s not worth it.

That sounds bad in the case where your son was ill. I’d be furious and rightly looking elsewhere.

I managed to get out easily enough after that. Luckily they could see I’d had months of problems and they could see attempted incoming calls almost constantly from 4 different numbers over the nearly 3 hour period. I was just over 6 months remaining on the contract and paid £12.37 in fees to end it, not bad considering there was nearly £300 if I’d have had to pay all of it.
The move to O2 was simple and I’ve not had one problem with the signal here yet. I’m on a SIM only deal too now, which makes it easier to run should I have any issues.

 

[tann]

Depends where you are of course but I also had issues with O2 Moved to EE and never looked back.

I too have used EE for 10+ years now, but the area I am moving too now has almost no signal which is madness, so think will be forced over to Vodafone.

Other than that EE have been solid for both speed and coverage everywhere else I have been. I would recommend them if you have signal.

 

[tann]

I managed to get out easily enough after that. Luckily they could see I’d had months of problems and they could see attempted incoming calls almost constantly from 4 different numbers over the nearly 3 hour period. I was just over 6 months remaining on the contract and paid £12.37 in fees to end it, not bad considering there was nearly £300 if I’d have had to pay all of it.
The move to O2 was simple and I’ve not had one problem with the signal here yet. I’m on a SIM only deal too now, which makes it easier to run should I have any issues.

How do you approach them to do this? For example where we are moving the reception is 0bars on average (even outside), but their coverage checker says "good" outdoor 4g service.

 

[Thoradin]

How do you approach them to do this? For example where we are moving the reception is 0bars on average (even outside), but their coverage checker says "good" outdoor 4g service.

In my case I hadn’t moved homes or place of study, yet their service had significantly changed and as such had caused a position where I was not contactable in an emergency situation. I think this is why I had the outcome I did, the situation of you moving during your contract is something they may see as not their problem and not be willing to help.
The only way to find out to be honest is to contact them and ask.

 

[hvfsl]

For the people complaining about poor reception at home, do you not have wifi at home? As every network gets poor reception where I am, but doesn't really matter as I just use wifi calling when at home.

Also for those considering EE/BT, just be warned that they block you from using VPN (did this at the start of the virus outbreak), so you won't be able to use them to connect to a work VPN if working from home.

 

[Thoradin]

For the people complaining about poor reception at home, do you not have wifi at home? As every network gets poor reception where I am, but doesn't really matter as I just use wifi calling when at home.

Also for those considering EE/BT, just be warned that they block you from using VPN (did this at the start of the virus outbreak), so you won't be able to use them to connect to a work VPN if working from home.

Whilst I was having issues with 3 I was an Android user and WiFi calling on Android is an awkward mess where networks only support certain phones.
The uniform nature of WiFi calling on iPhone and the fact that every network supports it is a huge part of the reason I left Android.

 

[The-Real-Deal82]

For the people complaining about poor reception at home, do you not have wifi at home? As every network gets poor reception where I am, but doesn't really matter as I just use wifi calling when at home.

Also for those considering EE/BT, just be warned that they block you from using VPN (did this at the start of the virus outbreak), so you won't be able to use them to connect to a work VPN if working from home.

To be fair, if I’m paying O2 a significant amount of money every month, I don’t want to be relying on bandwidth from my WiFi to make calls. You’re paying them to deliver a service to you at the end of the day and the infrastructure for cellular calling in the UK has been developed over the past 35 years. There really shouldn’t be areas of poor signal considering how much profit these companies make.

 

[yui4]

02 flying here today!