Slow network / bad coverage

[elton95]

For 2 years I loved EE. Had been the fastest network I had always been with. My phone contract finished, I opted in for a SIM Only plan (Full Works iPhone) that according to its terms “our best speed, no max Mbps”.

But the truth is that my signal became 10x worse since my phone contract finished. In all the locations (i.e my house), I was getting fast internet, I used to be able to watch high quality videos without any delay, now at home when I try to open a video, it gets stuck loading, and takes 10s to start playing then stops again.

Places where I used to lget 2 signal bars (5G), now I get no signal at all.

Has this happened to anyone else?

If my new SIM Only plan has no max speed limit and supposed to offer me their highest speed, why my network been so bad since phone contract ended?

l've had phone contracts with others network providers and after they finished, I was still able to get same speed/coverage.

[bristolian]

You've mentioned your "signal getting 10x worse", but described a data speed issue rather than a coverage one.

Can you quantify the data speeds you are currently achieving? The plan you're on has no bearing on which serving site your phone connects to, except in the specific scenario of 5GSA.

[elton95]

Signal you get directly impacts your data speed. Since the day after my phone contract ended and SIM Only one started, everything changed suddenly. Signal and data speed are both really bad. I used my phone many times as a hotspot to my laptop, and i was getting minimum 50mbps download, now i can barely get over 10mbps out of sudden. On my balcony at my place, my 5G signal and data speed were really good as well, now I only get 1-2 bars of 5G signal (sometimes no signal at all) and even to open up a regular facebook post it has to load for seconds. My current SIM Only plan is Full Works iPhone. Just checked my account again and under “What’s included in my plan” the description says “Our best speeds - no Max Mbps” but clearly best speeds isn’t the case anymore. 

[bristolian]

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@elton95 wrote:

Signal you get directly impacts your data speed

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There appears to be some misunderstanding here. The on-screen bars are a very basic guide to the quality of the received signal, with no calculation for the capacity that signal has. It's that capacity - the amount of radio space available - which has a far greater impact on data speeds.

You can have a strong signal with minimal capacity, and get poor speeds, just as much as a weak signal could deliver excellent speeds if it was reporting a high-capacity radio carrier.

It would have been interesting to compare your radio stats "pre & post" change, which would likely have identified potential causes here, but in any case - the speeds you're quoting are substantially outside any other caps which can sometimes be applied. This lends more strength to a theory that the reason here is likely radio network related rather than account.

[Schockwave]

@elton95 , you may need to ask EE customer service to do a network refresh, as changing to a full works plan should make no difference to your signal, although if the weather is bad, then signal can be affected, as was here where I am, yesterday.