topic Re: 2G coverage in HG5 (Knaresborough) off for several days in Mobile Network discussions

2G coverage in HG5 (Knaresborough) off for several days

YorkshireMidge — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 20:39:23 GMT

I have an old Nokia 2G phone for emergencies and it is with 1pMobile who use the EE network. There has been no service on it for several days that I know of, but as the phone is a spare, it could have been much longer. Took the phone with me when I drove north of the town into the countryside the other day and picked up service again so I assume this is one tower affected.

As I only take broadband/digital voice from EE, I can't see the status of the EE mobile network to find out what on earth is going on, and 1pMobile can only tell me there is a fault with the EE network and no idea when it wil be fixed.

Can anyone from EE explain?

Thanks!

Re: 2G coverage in HG5 (Knaresborough) off for several days

bristolian — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 22:17:07 GMT

If your service is provided by 1p-mobile, you should contact them for all enquiries.

EE certainly do provide 1p's radio coverage, but you are a customer of 1p not EE. If they're not resolving a query to your satisfaction, you should take it up with them.

Re: 2G coverage in HG5 (Knaresborough) off for several days

YorkshireMidge — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:16:11 GMT

Contractually, you are of course correct. Morally, it is clear that EE are at fault in three areas:

The failure itself
The long delay in fixing it
Not keeping their MVNO(s) adequately informed so they can manage expectations with their customers

So having gone through the correct channel initially, I make no apology for raising the issue on here because it is likely EE's own mobile consumers in this area are similarly affected and might want to know what is going on too. You also need to bear in mind that a percentage of 2G users are elderly, blind, disabled etc. who have Doro and other simple to use phones, so it isn't defendable to be treating 2G with low priority (if that is what EE are doing) just because it will be switching off in a few more years, so my question is being raised on their behalf too.

Re: 2G coverage in HG5 (Knaresborough) off for several days

bristolian — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:33:49 GMT

If there is any question of the relationship between EE& 1p, it is for 1p to take up with EE directly, not you on their behalf.

EE are of course responsible to their customers for their network service, but you are an MVNO customer and therefore your relationship is with 1p, not EE. Perhaps you should query 1p on these points.

If you were an EE-direct customer, you would be quite entitled to query with EE-CS on any network issue, but you've chosen to use a budget MVNO and that comes with certain implications which you need to accept.

2G equipment is still being installed & actively maintained, but carries a minority of network traffic compared with much newer technologies.

Edited to add that 2G & 4G technologies use the same radio equipment on 1800Mhz

Re: 2G coverage in HG5 (Knaresborough) off for several days

YorkshireMidge — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 08:57:58 GMT

Thanks for your response - but I'm not aware that one of the implications of choosing a budget MVNO means that EE can leave a service off for umpteen days and not apparently communicate the position to the MVNO. I'm also struggling with why EE's network status is such a closely guarded secret that I'm not permitted to see it, even though I am an EE customer for other services.

The phone I normally use is on O2 via Tesco MVNO, and anyone can go to the O2 status checker and see if there are any faults in their area without even logging on to anything. It's in the public domain and that is just good business practice and communication.

Re: 2G coverage in HG5 (Knaresborough) off for several days

ee_user14 — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 14:26:33 GMT

@YorkshireMidge wrote:
Thanks for your response - but I'm not aware that one of the implications of choosing a budget MVNO means that EE can leave a service off for umpteen days and not apparently communicate the position to the MVNO.

Where did @bristolian say this? I read their post as reinforcing the point that your enquiry point of contact is 1p-mobile, and if their CS is not much good (as wouldn't surprise) then that's one of the reasons they're so cheap... and you need to accept that.

If you're not happy with the level of service you're getting from penny-mobile, then you should absolutely follow their complaints process - https://www.1pmobile.com/contact-us . Your other option is to get an EE PAYG SIM, and if you're able to replicate the lack of coverage in that location, complain accordingly.

Re: 2G coverage in HG5 (Knaresborough) off for several days

bristolian — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 15:25:35 GMT

@YorkshireMidge wrote:
The phone I normally use is on O2 via Tesco MVNO, and anyone can go to the O2 status checker and see if there are any faults in their area without even logging on to anything.

Many of the EE MVNOs have a link to the EE "check coverage" tool on their site, but it's been several years since EE chose to restrict their status checking & reporting to direct customers only - a commercial decision. There are also some scenarios where localised radio issues can impact MVNO users differently from direct customers.

If this presents a problem to an individual users, then it needs to be factored into decisions on choice of provider.

Re: 2G coverage in HG5 (Knaresborough) off for several days

YorkshireMidge — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 18:16:52 GMT

The point doesn't need re-inforcing further thankyou. I am very well aware of what the commericial/contractual relationship is - but after several DAYS of outage, this has gone past normal process and niceties, and the focus should be on fixing a fault that has been there way too long don't you think?

As for 1pMobile's Customer Service, the implication in your comment is that I can expect them to be below standard in some way. I was actually pleasantly surprised to find a provider who answered the phone in around 30 seconds without me being stuck in a queue or shunted through layers of IVR, were pleasant and courteous and quickly looked up the issue to confirm the fault and apologised for it. My only criticism is they were unable when pressed to tell me how long this would be off for - so I have raised a complaint with them now it has been off for another three days.

If I get to the point of obtaining another SIM, I can promise you it won't be on EE's network.

Re: 2G coverage in HG5 (Knaresborough) off for several days

bristolian — Sun, 26 Jul 2026 18:26:37 GMT

Without having full knowledge of the exact reasons for any fault, and individual site access processes, it's impossible to say how long is reasonable or not. I don't see what incentive EE would have for intentionally delaying any individual fix, though.

I agree with you about multiple levels of IVR - that's a big-company thing to an extent but EE have been worse than most for as long as I can remember.

Re: 2G coverage in HG5 (Knaresborough) off for several days

garybs29 — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 07:28:58 GMT

@YorkshireMidge wrote:
The point doesn't need re-inforcing further thankyou. I am very well aware of what the commericial/contractual relationship is - but after several DAYS of outage, this has gone past normal process and niceties, and the focus should be on fixing a fault that has been there way too long don't you think?

And how do you know it's not being worked on? Likely a complicated fix which is taking time, you seem to be implying that EE are not fixing it

Re: 2G coverage in HG5 (Knaresborough) off for several days

YorkshireMidge — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 17:47:12 GMT

"And how do you know it's not being worked on?" - that's the point, I know absolutely nothing and I expect to, after this long a complete outage. I've been a mobile phone user for around 30 years and I've never experienced an outage lasting as long as this, let alone one where there is no information forthcoming either.

If I'd rung up 1pMobile last week and they'd been able to (for example) tell me that that some workmen had dug through an EE fibre backhaul circuit for the tower and Openreach were going to take 1-2 weeks to fix it, I'd be mildly inconvenienced for sure, but I certainly wouldn't be annoyed and on here posting about it, nor would I view that as poor customer service.

"you seem to be implying that EE are not fixing it". No, I am asserting that EE have a service affecting incident which at this point in time, they have neither resolved, worked around even partiallly, nor considered it necessary to communicate to ALL their customers.

I am also asserting an opinion that EE as a mobile network operator with a dominant market position should be presenting information on the status of their network to EVERYONE who has a legimate interest, and that means every single customer whether direct or MVNO. O2 go a step further and present it to the general public. If EE were (for example) to withold such critical information from MVNOs in order to damage the latter's service quality, there is a risk of that being judged as anti-competitive behaviour by OFCOM esp. as it would be difficult and costly for an MVNO to move to one of the other network operators.

I hope that clarifies.

Re: 2G coverage in HG5 (Knaresborough) off for several days

ee_user14 — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 22:02:29 GMT

You make several points that you need to take up with 1p-Mobile and/or Ofcom directly.

EE have chosen to restrict network status info to direct customers, if this presented any legal & regulatory issues then Ofcom - I'm sure - would have stepped in. 1p-Mobile have a legitimate interest in fault reports, and they should be assisting you here.

You need to follow 1p-Mobile's complaints process. And if you end up escalating your complaint to the Ombudsman, you have the perfect opportunity to raise the points you made above. www.1pmobile.com/customer-complaints-code

I would ask why you've chosen to use 1p-Mobile instead of EE-directly, but I rather suspect the answer is predictable. And if the answer is what I think it is, then direct customers would have the right to feel a little hard done by if you were to get your way. You're also free to use another network if you place such importance on fault-status being made freely available in the way that you seem to consider so vital.

Re: 2G coverage in HG5 (Knaresborough) off for several days

YorkshireMidge — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 06:51:46 GMT

Personally, I would never buy a mobile as part of a contract and have been buying unlocked phones and SIM deals for donkeys years. I don't live my life on my phone, so I'm happy to take a basic package of services and yes, save a few quid and have the flexibility to switch around. So I have tended to use MVNOs because I generally find the customer services is as good as, if not better than the mobile carriers themselves. Same with broadband - I was a PlusNet customer until last week and it was only their lack of VoIP and wanting to keep my landline and single provider model for both that brought me to EE, so I won't always do things cheaply.

But as with all services, you only really find out what a provider is like when they have to deal with a fault or complaint. EE have just had a formal complaint from me because I found myself having to waste a day last week chasing a fault that turned out to be a port forwarding bug in their shiny new hub they sent me, and when it updated itself, it was still present in the latest firmware. That fault wasn't on PlusNet's hub - yet both businesses sit under the BT umbrella.

1pMobile have also had a complaint. If they have willingly taken a completely black-box service, then that's poor judgment and I will take my business elsewhere, but it also reflects poorly on EE for offering such a service, and for not fixing the fault in a timely manner. I don't see why EE direct customers would feel hard done by that I expect basic availability of a service, and basic communication when something has gone seriously wrong.

Re: 2G coverage in HG5 (Knaresborough) off for several days

Ali_A — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 08:31:37 GMT

Welcome to the EE Community @YorkshireMidge

Sorry to hear you’re facing a problem in your area.

You've taken the right steps contacting your network directly to report the issue you're experiencing. It's great to hear they have provided you with the latest information available. Any delays or unknown timescales are usually due to factors outside of a networks control.

Rest assured, our engineers will be working hard to restore service as quickly as possible.

We appreciate your feedback, and will take this on board.

Ali