Pay a fortune for a phone but can't make a bloody call.

[Neverenoughbiscuits]

I don't seem to be able to reliably make a phone call anymore unless I am stationary. It's utterly ridiculous and seems to have gotten significantly worse in recent years. My husband works on an industrial estate but I can't speak to him when he is there as he gets no signal, it's a bloody business park! We do live relatively rurally but no matter what direction I drive, I can't make any kind of call (obviously through my car). I used to be able to use my commute time to catch up with people but it is too painful now and I don't bother.

Apparently this is down to the switch off from 2G but why are we paying more when it's so unreliable?

I was gonna say, at home you can use WiFi calling

But that doesn't help so much when you're out and about. Signal in general is just getting worse

I don't ever get 5g anymore

I agree. Plus the quality of calls is crap. So often it cuts in and out.

I’m dreading the switch off here because 4g is patchy, 5g non existent and there’s not spots already

Have you checked with other networks? You can see which ones have best coverage in the places you go.

I'm sure, generally the signal is getting worse and it surely must be the amount of people trying to use it, it's certainly terrible in crowded places. Sometimes I go to places and get 3G, what happens when that is switched off, will 4g take its place.

Phone signal is getting worse and worse. I can only assume it’s because once upon a time we factored in a maximum of 1 device per person and now we have smart watches, payment systems etc relying on them.

Our town centre is moving to app-only parking payment and it’s a fucking nightmare as there are some proper black spots near the car parks.

Fairly sure city/town centre data was better 10 years ago when I was using a much less sophisticated phone, difference is my expectations were lower.

I think it is in part the amount of mobiles sharing masts. We are rural, I can can see the transmitter from the house with a direct line of sight, yet the phone frequently jumps off the network. I have to go to the front door, prod the phone a bit, sometimes do a fake call trigger just to receive text messages. Most people say they can't get through. I thought it was a hardware issue with the transmitter, I talked to the network provider, they failed to correct or acknowledge any issues. The phone is old, but was a flagship.

It uses a lot of battery if the signal is bad, I have noticed this particularly when we go away in the caravan and stay on different sites, the signal is invariably bad and the poor phone skips between E, 3g and 4g, valiantly trying to get a signal, getting hotter in the process and using more battery.

It’s not just rural areas either. York city centre is a nightmare and notorious for this. Apparently it is to do with too many people, there’s only so many “spaces”.

I would get him to ask his colleagues what the coverage is like on other networks.

Or have a look at this ...

I have noticed it down our retail park, in the week when there is not so many people, signal is good but on a busy Saturday, lots of people shopping and a huge queue of cars to park, passengers probably all on their phones, signal is terrible