Network Coverage at HP11

[IAMRV]

Need URGENT ATTENTION PLEASE !!

I will be staying at a house in HP11 for a considerable time this year. However the EE network coverage indoors is "no network at all" and outdoors around the street the network is "very weak", barely "one" bar signal strength. This makes taking and receiving calls very difficult while outdoors, let alone while indoors. Since I take most of my meetings, and calls from the house the poor/no network coverage from EE makes it practically impossible to use the service.

Any idea, how to get EE to fix the coverage issues?

[Mod edit - removed address details]

[IAMRV]

Followed these steps, but the workflow EE has setup could not resolve, neither could report the problem on my behalf. Tried calling 150, and it followed the same steps but via txt message. The process takes the user like me in an endless loop. 

Need URGENT ATTENTION PLEASE !!

I will be staying at a house in HP11 for a considerable time this year. However the EE network coverage indoors is "no network at all" and outdoors around the street the network is "very weak", barely "one" bar signal strength. This makes taking and receiving calls very difficult while outdoors, let alone while indoors. Since I take most of my meetings, and calls from the house the poor/no network coverage from EE makes it practically impossible to use the service.

How could EE possibly support. 

[Mod edit - removed details of address, please don't share any personal information in public]

[Northerner]

Hi @IAMRV 

You can check for local issues here: https://ee.co.uk/help/service-status

EE do not guarantee a signal indoors and this is why WiFi calling is in place to cover when the network is poor. 

Thanks 

[IAMRV]

Thanks. However this is not as simple as checking the service-status !! I have logged complaint with EE. They called me to inform that EE had 3 sites around that postcode, as per EE there is no technical or coverage issue following an investigation carried out by OfCom however a commercial structure elevated in the surrounding area is the potential reason impacting the EE service, subsequently OfCom closed the investigation, but unfortunately no resolve to provide a working service for the residents and others living and working in the postcode who eventually live and work there contributing to the economy !! Such a shame !!

[IAMRV]

@Ofcom See below response to my complaint from the EE Complaints Executive Customer Resolution Team. How can Ofcom help to reopen the investigation for the better of mobile network coverage indoors and outdoors for local residents and communities living in the HP11 area?

The intermittent issue with the 4G service has been investigated and I’ve copied below the information:

As a result of an Ofcom investigation a source of interference was traced to a commercial building close to the affected site. The interference is very intermittent in nature and we have made multiple visits. As the impact is low, we have decided to close the case. If the problem becomes more persistent then please raise a new case with a revised impact statement

 I’ve managed to locate the reference numbers and hope these are of help.: Ofcom Case number ******** OFCOM -********

[Northerner]

Hi @IAMRV 

If you're unhappy why not move to a carrier with better reception.

Thanks 

[Peter_W · Accepted solution]

Welcome to the Community, @IAMRV.

Just as a quick word of advice, please don't share any personal details including your address, or any account / reference numbers on these forums.

All of these discussions are in public and we don't offer account level support here, so we recommend keeping this out of any Community post. 

As far as signal goes, we'll always aim to provide you with the best network coverage we can, but it's not possible to guarantee this in 100% of locations, and especially indoors.

For those places we don't have covered at present, it's definitely worth trying WiFi Calling like @Northerner mentioned in their first post.

This allows you to use any available WiFi network to carry your calls and texts in place of the mobile network, but otherwise you use your phone in the exact same way.

If you were looking to escalate this further, we would always recommend raising a complaint with us first and following our complaints process, which is outlined here.

Only if we can't resolve things at our end would it then be referred to the Communications Ombudsman for independent review. 

Peter

[IAMRV]

Thanks Peter and noted.

[bristolian]

Ultimately no network will ever provide 100% national indoor coverage, and WiFi-calling is always the recommended solution to indoor services issues. This applies whether it's an area of poor coverage, or there's a local outage - none of which can ever be avoided completely.

As regards outdoor coverage, the on-screen bars are a rough guide to service but "only one bar" is still a bar and should be quite usable to make & receive calls. If that's not the case, that would be a separate issue.

It does sound like the service issue in this area is being caused by factors beyond EE's direct control, and Ofcom have been quite open about this. Edited to add that if external RF interference is causing this issue, it will very likely be affecting all of a particular 4G frequency band, and thus quite probably not be only affecting EE.

[IAMRV]

I agree. I have a long standing customer of EE and understand the nuances around indoor/outdoor, fall back on WiFi etc.. and thankfully from a Telecoms background myself I would't waste everyone's time for basic troubleshooting 🙂

I was looking for a specific reason, and I was able to locate it through EE complaints team, who shared the relevant Ofcom references.

The irony if that Ofcom publishes the coverage which based on carrier infrastructure, which one can easily look up on their respective carrier's portal, so a waste of effort on Ofcom page! What would have helped is, if someone put the postcode on Ofcom website to see any open or closed cases related to spectrum, coverage etc, this way consumers can take a much informed decision and Ofcom being a carrier neutral organisation is well within their right per information sharing to disclose such investigations without one having to reinvent the wheel..

Sadly one has to pay the price for every learning, the price I paid was £200 to withdraw from a tenancy agreement just a day after signing... 

Thanks again every one!!