topic Re: London Underground not auto connecting. in Mobile Data

London Underground not auto connecting.

KingR — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 16:45:44 GMT

Since I changed my sim to an esim (and now back again) I have no longer been able to automatically connect to the EE Auto Wifi network on London Underground. Connecting manually is usually fine and I have tried the Virgin network and that automatically connects.

I’ve reset network connections, new phones, spoken with support and no one has figured this out. I was asked to contact support while at a station and spent 30 minutes having to explain everything again. Interestingly WiFi connected after about 15 minutes sitting at the station.

Is there a problem with the network generally which means it’s unreliable, or is it my account. I keep being told there are no problems, but surely something is wrong?

Re: London Underground not auto connecting.

Jon_K — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 18:44:15 GMT

Hi @KingR

There aren't any known issues currently.

If our Tech Team have been unable to resolve this, they should then pass your details to our Tech Gurus to raise an investigation ticket for the issue.

Jon

Re: London Underground not auto connecting.

KingR — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 19:07:24 GMT

Thanks @Jon_K, should someone be contacting me if it’s been escalated? It’s been over three days so I assume that no one is looking at this. How do I get straight through to this team rather than having to repeat everything again (I had to last time despite quoting both reference number and phone)?

Re: London Underground not auto connecting.

Katie_B — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 07:50:29 GMT

Hi @KingR.

If you have had this escalated you should receive an update.

As it has now been over 3 days, I would recommend speaking with our technical care team.

Your account will be noted following previous phone calls.

Katie

Re: London Underground not auto connecting.

chriscatee — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 15:10:10 GMT

I have been in the same case for months. I am on iPhone with an esim

my husband too

Re: London Underground not auto connecting.

Katie_B — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 15:37:25 GMT

Hi @chriscatee.

Welcome to the EE Community.

Have you reported this to our technical care team?

Katie

Re: London Underground not auto connecting.

chriscatee — Thu, 09 Feb 2023 16:19:51 GMT

Hi Katie,

No I didn't report it because we are both impacted, so to me it sounded obvious that it's a global problem that impacts all EE or Apple customers.

I was waiting for EE or Apple to fix it. but it's getting really annoying. It's the main reason why we moved to EE, this wifi in the tube

I suspect it's iOS16 blocking public hotspot from connecting. Maybe when the MAC address changed. And you have as many MAC addresses as wifi access point.... thousands.... but I could not confirm it.

Could be a security "improvement" because it was known that some wifi name like "Starbuck" are used to capture users's traffic without them noticing.

Re: London Underground not auto connecting.

Jamesup — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 13:20:12 GMT

Exactly the same issue and no help so far, including a pointless 30 minutes on the phone to 150 from a tube station.

Re: London Underground not auto connecting.

KingR — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 15:22:12 GMT

Thats disappointing and not surprising from my experience as well. I discovered my partner is having the same problem. She is on an iPhone but never had an esim so I think that bits been eliminated. Seems to me that something is wrong here with either the EE network, or London Underground access points. Either way someone should be either fixing it or stop telling people the service will auto connect if it no longer does.

Re: London Underground not auto connecting.

Jamesup — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 15:28:56 GMT

I've also only had physical sim. I see some references to problems on other networks on twitter, but I think they can all still connect via the virgin SSID, only EE has turned that option off in favour of sim based access.

Re: London Underground not auto connecting.

Najeebster — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 11:06:07 GMT

I have a physical SIM (which worked fine on my iPhone 13 Pro Max) but I stopped auto-connecting to the EE Auto-WiFi SSID as soon as I upgraded to the iPhone 14 Pro Max. Instead I get the little 'hunting for satellite' icon because the device cannot see any cellular signal. I can manually hunt for the EE Auto WiFi SSID and manually connect. However it usually takes ages to get the credentials authorised by AAA Server and get an IP address which means that the train is moving on by the time I actually get connectivity.

My understanding is that EE SIMs have a London Underground WiFi Connectivity profile configured on the SIMs. This profile tells the device to to join EE Auto WiFi SSID in the absence of other connectivity being available.

My guess is that somewhere along the line the profile on EE SIMs has not been updated correctly to auto-join the London Underground WiFi network or the London Underground WiFi network (run my Virgin Media) needs to update it's configuration wrt EE SIMs.

Either way, this is not difficult to solve, it merely requires sufficient motivation by EE/VMO2 to actually look at this, prioritise and implement the appropriate fix.

Re: London Underground not auto connecting.

AMB9989 — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 22:46:07 GMT

Hi Jon

ive had this problem too, for a long time. There are multiple threads about this on here.

please will you explain what EE are doing to solve what is obviously a systemic problem?

Re: London Underground not auto connecting.

Najeebster — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 09:39:30 GMT

I've noticed a significant improvement in attachment times (on the Central Line) at least in the last week or so.

However, throughput is extremely variable but that's not EE's responsibility.

As many will know, there is also 5G connectivity on the Central Line between Queensway and Holland Park.

Last week I noticed that I had cellular connectivity between Bond Street and Tottenham Court Rd, this week it disappeared, so they have been testing it.

I look forward to cellular connectivity across the whole line - although loud phone conversations will be annoying