Very poor coverage around Shinfield, Spencers Wood area in Reading

[raykau]

I have been based in the Spencers Wood area since 2016 and the general coverage in the areas extending unto Shinfield, Riseley is very poor, getting 5G impossible, even making calls is hard all the time. Inside the home we have to resort to WiFi calling to make calls. Outside the home there is no chance of any connection for an extremely wide area. 

Since this is in Reading and quite a populous area, I wanted to understand if there is any plans for EE to have a look at how to improve connectivity around the area? I do know moving mobile service providers would be an easy option but wanted to give this a final try before doing that.

[raykau]

@bristolian thanks for your thoughts which I agree with.. and I do know that this is not a user specific issue or a random issue.. I will try that app reporting - thanks for that pointer.

[raykau]

@bristolian @Leanne_T @Schockwave 

This is the response I just received and keep getting feedback when reporting this problem,

"Network update: We could not find a problem in RG7XXX. This may have been a one off and we therefore recommend you restart your device. If you are still having problems, please call us on 150. Your Report ID is xxxxxx."

I feel there are not too many options left.

[bristolian]

---

@raykau wrote:

"Network update: We could not find a problem in RG7XXX

---

This is entirely standard when no fault has been identified. Logging of poor coverage in the EE app is via Home menu > Settings > Settings & Permissions > Settings & Permissions > App settings > Share device locations

[raykau]

@bristolian agree absolutely because there is no fault in their system. The problem is in the coverage around the area and I should not be getting 1 or 2 bars on my 4G connection around the whole area; how do I highlight that? A simple check of the diagnostics of the performance of the masts would not highlight coverage issues?

[bristolian]

There's no need to tag me in replies, I get notified as a matter of course!

Planning tools will show predicted coverage to a finer granularity than is shown on the public website, is the prediction on that broadly correct? There's also nothing inherently wrong with "only" 1 or 2 bars (it's the underlying radio parameters that matter) - although it does provide a lot less allowance for indoor degradation.

Site performance metrics wouldn't show the coverage levels at a specified location, they can be used to show the broad distance from antenna, that traffic is being taken - along with call-setup & handover success rates. That can in-turn feed into handover & adjacency parameters.

[raykau]

Ok thanks for your thoughts and apologies for tagging you in.. 

It must be something I am doing wrong then. 

[bristolian]

No drama. As I mentioned previously, if you're getting call failures when coverage & VoLTE is showing, that's not a coverage issue of itself. Something's wrong, but it's not raw coverage. Are you getting calls fail when usable coverage is shown?

Are you using Apple or Android? If Android - and you're minded, there's a few apps you can use to pull the radio parameters and do some basic checks.

Of course, stronger outdoor coverage gives better indoor penetration but there's a lot of user perception that "only one bar" is a problem, when it's one factor among many.

[raykau]

These are some of the feedback from other people in the estate - there are multiple people in the area who has been having problems with EE connectivity around here. A few of them have moved to other providers so it is always an option for me to but I wanted to see if I could get something working around here.. 

"BT & EE are the same company. Neither work in this area."

"Utility Warehouse are EE in disguise, so I wouldn’t bother with them."

"Hello, I am looking to change mobile phone provider. With 3 at the moment and it is hopeless, basically no signal. I believe the same problem with EE. What provider gives best signal around here?"

"I complained to them for the majority of my 2 year contract and they kept saying the same thing, just moved to vodafone and no complaints so far"

"They said the same thing to me for 2 months and now I had to change my network at last as nothing changed. You can ask them to reduce your monthly tariff if by chance they didn’t offered you."

[bristolian]

That's just a social media description of a poor coverage area, which all networks have. I could name estates in my area where both Voda & O2 have zero outdoor coverage, 3UK is very marginal and EE is the only functioning operator - to illustrate the variable nature.

I've had a quick look at some drive-test data for your rough area, and I can see areas where poor indoor coverage could be the case (VoWiFi covers those), but nowhere that zero outdoor coverage should be the case. Which returns back to the previous question - are you reporting calls failing when coverage is displayed? That shouldn't be happening.

[raykau]

Agree again, it is not specific to any MNO; just that our area has limited coverage with EE.  I completely understand that there are other areas where EE are best. 

So, the underlying problems I have are 

1)  Calls are choppy and intermittent when I am walking around the area; and this happens everyday; and very slow data connection. 

2) I have BT internet and Halo connection (which uses EE failover) and since indoor coverage is virtually non-existent I am requesting them to get me off the Halo package as it gives no advantage to me. I had an outage for BT and had to depend on EE connection failover which was of no use.