To be sick of the piss poor phone signal across UK

[itwasnevermine]

I'm sick of it.

I'm in a place I've been to a million and one times. It's usually got amazing signal but this time I can barely get 3G! I was down in Cornwall the other month and despite having full 5G it wouldn't even send a text!

It's shocking, what am I even paying for with my phone contract at this point

We had a mast, it broke and they never bothered to fix it 😡.

I agree it's awful. It's the same with telly and radio too though, unless you have sky or such. Loads of problems with Freeview. And digital radio is atrocious. They made a big deal about switching off the analogue signal, we all had to upgrade our devices ... and now we get worse reception than we did 30 years ago.

Put the two together (poor phone, poor radio), add in bumpy remote technology and you have the ridiculous situation where the BBC's flagship Today programme sounds like it's being broadcast by radio fucking Caroline, with guests cutting out, disappearing, sounding like ET. It's all very shit.

I'm with Vodafone in a totally none remote area and my reception is terrible now.

I've been in deepest, darkest, remote, sideways blizzard Iceland and had a fine 4G signal (pre 5G days). Lots of places near me in S Yorks/N Notts seem to have no coverage. Experienced this on Vodafone and Sky.

Vodafone have already turned off 3G and three are in the process (rather ironically) of doing so.

I've recently moved from 3 to Giffgaff, partly because I was tired of never having a signal but DH has been OK around the region on O2. My second phone is fine on Asda, which uses Vodafone, but I didn't want to put all my eggs in one basket. I could live with three crapping out in rural areas but it was increasingly impossible to use in town and city centres, particularly on a busy day.

70 quid?! You can get unlimited data plans for less than £20!

@MasterBeth I got the plan last year and then they hiked the price in April, plus a handset

£10 a month with 1p mobile (uses EE) here and my signal is great-and we are rural. I’ve even got signal in my cottage which has ludicrously thick stone walls.

So you're actually paying for your phone ...

I really don't recognise this "shit data" nation you speak of. Travel round England a lot. Use 5G. Never a problem.

Youre not wrong. Something has happened to it. Wven when I have 5G now (2 different networks) I cant do zoom calls anymore.

And thats in London and suburbs of. Seems like maybe there is a capcity issue if its nore usable in rural areas?

I rarely have an issue with phone signal. I’m on Three.

I nearly didn't get into a concert in the M&S Arena because I couldn't get my tickets up. The security staff let me sign in to their staff WIFI.
I screenshot my asda C&C numbers, because there's no chance of getting a bar code up from your email/account.

When I walk through my city centre, I can be listening to something on my phone and then it goes dead if the streets are busy because the signal goes off.

A lot of coffee shops and bars I can't even get a signal to browse the internet half the time, unless there's a working wifi.

When I moved house I had a week without broadband and it was infuriating trying to web-browse on my phone as I could barely get a signal.

I did the Norwegian fjords on a cruise in 2017. Had perfect signal all the time and even up at a glacier. In my house the signal goes in and out! Crazy

O2 in a large town.
5G + 3 bars = no calls, texts or WhatsApp.

We did however have a large event happening in town and I wonder if it was that?

No idea but it’s pissing me off too.

We are just outside the M25 in a big commuter area and more often than not I’m on 3G with Three. I’ve also had EE and 02 which weren’t much better. When I work in Central London my two phones work at a snail’s pace on 4G/5G.

I’m always so surprised at how fast 4/5G is on the Continent.

It’s a combo of over zealous planning regulations (our local council have just refused yet another 5G mast) and a total lack of investment by telcos.

5G masts don’t cover as wide an area as 4G, and the signal doesn’t penetrate buildings as well as 4G (similar applies to 4G vs 3G). This means there are more areas of weak signal with 5G. Many phones will choose 5G in preference to 4G, even if the signal is weaker, which can lead to this frustrating poor 5G experience. It might be worth disabling 5G unless you’re in an area with a strong signal - on my Android phone (Pixel 9) you do this by selecting Network and Internet -> Internet -> settings cog next to network provider name -> Preferred network type.

My work building is a black hole, no phone signal at all
Colleague is on Vodafone and has a nightmare around his drive home, phone calls cut off regularly, line breaks up etc

There’s been endless press articles about how bad it is recently. It’s been acknowledged by telcos, business and the government.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-uks-phone-signal-is-infuriatingly-bad/

https://theweek.com/tech/why-the-uk-phone-signal-is-so-poor

https://www.timeout.com/uk/news/why-is-the-uks-phone-signal-so-bad-right-now-081924

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/tech/uk-phone-signal-bad-reasons-why-wifi-5g-towers-masts-b1177919.html

I find that there's a lot more to it than blaming signal.
Some handsets, even expensive ones, have poor reception.
Buildings can really interfere.
How busy a particular network is in the area.
Different software/apps can have a huge impact - I had a work phone with awful reception - transpired that the Samsung phone app was to blame, and swapping to Google dialer solved the 'reception' problems.
And I also understand that 5g is faster but much less stable, less able to get through walls etc

Vodafone is good wherever I've been in U.K. and I travel a lot.

Yep, 9 miles outside Leeds in a village of around 5 thousand people. I'm sat at home now with no signal at all. Sometimes even my texts won't send. They're built a new outdoor shopping centre about 5 miles away and you can't even get a signal there. So all the Apps like Costa, H&M & Cafe Nero won't even open up enough to use any accumulated points etc.

Yes, on O2 and it's bloody awful and getting worse. I used to go out for a walk and phone my parents on the walk and now I have to phone them from home on the WiFi instead because the signal just keeps cutting out and it's impossible to hold a conversation.

All these advances in phones and now they can't even provide their basic purpose of phoning someone.

I’m off giffgaff which I think is 02. It was fine until about a month ago and now it just doesn’t work. It’s so annoying.