Mobile Broadband - connection issues with 2 dongles

[KimS]

Hello

I'm having problems with 2 USB mobile broadband sticks, both have exactly the same issue, explained below. The devices are used on two different laptops, and both devices were getting decent speeds in another area around 6 months ago. Thus I renewed my contract and found last week that I was unable to use the service in this area due to an unknown reason.

I can connect to Vodafone EDGE, but once connected the download speed stays at 0 bytes. When it's not 0 bytes, it fluctuates between 1kb/s and 20kb/s, but if I open my browser nothing ever loads, even with this supposed download speed, leading me to believe that the download speed Mobile Connect is telling me is false.

Occasionally I can connect to Windows Live Messenger, but never for more than 1 minute - the most I've been able to download in the past few days is around 100kb. With which I can do nothing.

I was wondering first of all if there are any faults in the area I am trying to use the mobile broadband in - the postcode is ST5 2RN.

Secondly I was wondering what can be done to improve the situation if there are no faults in the area, and finally if nothing can be done to resolve the issue, how would I go about cancelling my contract - as the service is useless in this state and has not been usable for the past few months.

Any advice appreciated.

[Retired-James]

Hi Kim S,

Welcome to the Vodafone eforum From all of the team.

Its always nice to see a new face as well as a local one on the eForum

I have takena look at your postcode in particular and can see that although there is currently no issues with your local site, you are on the edge of indoor 3G coverage which could be causing the fluctuation of connection issues that you are experiencing due to something called cell breathing, this is when the signal area is redced due to a high number of traffic on the cell site at that time, when this happens if you are on the edge of the signal area it may cause a drop inn connection.

However, there are also improvements planned in the area within the next couple of months which will increase the signal strength and bandwidth available in the area so this should get better in the coming months for you.

If you did wish to cancel you would need to give 30 days notice and pay off any line rental left on the agreement before VAT with a 2% discount.

James
eForum Team

[KimS]

Ok, thank you for the information, James.

I guess I'll just hope the planned improvements you mentioned solve the problem, and look for an alternative in the meantime. Hopefully the improvements will come around sooner rather than later.

Thanks again.