Are EE PAYG phones now given a poorer service ?

minorman · ‎15-02-2024

Back in the mists of time when the world was Orange (remember them ?) and phones were analogue before 2G started I got an Orange SIM card and all was well. I do PAYG as quite honestly if I make 2 calls a month, receive 6 and send 10 texts I am doing well so a contract is ridiculous in spite of the best efforts of so called salesmen. When 2G started I went over to this and then I found the service was (and always was) patchy outdoors and almost impossible indoors. We roll forward through 2G, 3G and now I am on 4G on a Samsung smart phone. I don't want data so don't pay for it. I live on the edge of Braintree and can see 1 mobile phone mast out of my windows and am only 1.5 miles away from another but the signal service is c**p. Especially indoors. I am forever getting "EMERGENCY CALLS ONLY" messages on the screen and the 4G indicator and the 4G signal bars are up and down or non existent, I presume I default to a virtually impossibly poor 2G system for calls in this circumstance but even then a couple of calls I have been waiting for today could not get through. So, as per the title, Are EE PAYG phones now given a poorer service ?

Chucklesuk · ‎17-07-2024

Hiya I never use those coverage maps information from the networks as they are so misleading whenever I’ve looked at them. Sad thing is if you was to call your network moaning about coverage, they would look at that information That is completely wrong anyways all good. When I moved back here from the US I scoped out using all the networks Where I would be using my phone and then went with my choice.

minorman · ‎17-07-2024

Chuclesuk I think you have cracked it and reinforced my opinion that the networks are not that good. Cell sites should interlink between cells and invisibly hand over the call seamlessly but looking at my location the braintree cell site signal strengths fizzle out just half a mile away or so down the road from me and from the other direction even worse. i.e. the cells do not appear to overlap or even touch. I realise that getting towers put up is a nightmare in terms of planning but equally well, do operators want the cost of building and setting up more sites together with all the power requirements ? No they don't ! Whatever happened to the proposals for "micro cells" that were supposed to infill any gaps ? Too expensive and too technical probably.

Its a bit like UK terrestrial TV. They went digital to expand the vast amount of c**p they could transmit and at the same time release frequencies to sell off. Transmitter powers were heavily reduced to save power so we wouldn't upset the french and were probably never turned up when they promised to . If you question the TV signal where I live the reply is "youre gonna need a better aerial" even though the aerial rigger I employed has told me that i am as good as it can be. As you might guess I live on the edge of two TV transmitter signals.

When I visit my daughter in Perth WA my 4G mobile works perfectly there and never fails. The whole of the Perth area is basically running wireless on the mobile networks on 4G and 5G.

minorman · ‎17-07-2024

Yes 3G on EE is off but not on O2 . I keep my Aussie sim card parked in an old 3G phone on O2 and it works fine. Optus in Australia is regularly on the wire checking up on me ! It either is working on 3G or 2G .

bristolian · ‎17-07-2024

@minorman wrote:

I realise that getting towers put up is a nightmare in terms of planning but equally well, do operators want the cost of building and setting up more sites together with all the power requirements ? No they don't ! Whatever happened to the proposals for "micro cells" that were supposed to infill any gaps ? Too expensive and too technical probably.

Operators do aim for contiguous coverage, I'm not sure what you're referring to by "power requirements".

What specific proposals are you referring to about microcells? There's a very active rollout of small cells in several major UK cities. In rural locations, cell-edge coverage can often be improved by low-band rollout - especially where sites were originally planned around high-band deployment.

Sorry, I don't follow a few of your other points.