Network Queries

[Gavstar68]

First time poster so please be gentle.

I work in the EC3 area of the City of London and am fortunate enough to be able to walk to work, It has been noticeable for at least 6 months now that when I cross over into the City at around the Tower of London area the 3G signal drops off to be almost non existant and a large number of connection errors are occurring, there is a small area inside this zone (noticed when at lunch!) where the signal again becomes stable but in general it is extremely poor or non existant.

I've read of issues in the Fenchurch Street area, are these still in existence?

Since yesterday there is no 3G signal at all, not even the weak/intermittent one that is usual.

I was led to believe that Vodafone had the best 3G infrastructure in London so for a large blackspot in the cities financial district to go unnoticed for so long puzzles me, especially when sitting with colleagues who use 02 and have a consistently strong signal. Is anyone able to offer an explanation for this? is it really a case of it being a blackspot or is your 3G usage in this area so high that you are unable to provide even a poor service?

[Gavstar68]

When I asked you to be gentle I didnt mean ignore me

I guess this isnt the right place to come to for customer service?

[Gavstar68]

Guess I can answer part of it myself now i've stood in a store for 45 mins to see a sales rep. apparently they are in the middle of a massive network fault in this area since yesterday afternoon, 3G becomes available for 5 mins at a time then dies again.

nice to see some notice of it on the faults thread. however that still doesnt answer the initial question of why the supposed best network in london is so terrible the majority of the time??

[Sukhi]

Hi Gavstar68

Welcome to the eForum! We weren't ignoring you promise

So that I can check what the signal coverage is like, can you please provide me with the full post code of the affected area?

If this is happening at lunch times it could be network congestion, as the centre of London can get pretty busy as peak times.

You can also find any sites that are down in your area on our Faults Board.

Thanks

Sukhi

eForum Team

[spring85195]

I am in same area as the original poster and getting very similar issue, here is the post code  EC3A 8EX.

Apart from the 3G connection, I am also having problem with the normal phone call connection, the signal is dropping very often ~5 mins, and sometimes when trying to make a call, it failed and citing network busy.

Please kindly investigate.

[Rexxz]

THERE IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM WITH THE VODAFONE NETWORK IN LONDON, PLEASE CAN YOU STOP SAYING ITS OK AND JUST FIX IT!

Its also dire at EC4V 4QQ

You have to switch off 3G just to send and receive emails.

On the way home I tried testing the 3G signal using speedtest.net app and got the following dismal service at the following locations:

Test Date: 10 February 2011 18:29
Connection Type: Cellular
Server: London
Download: 0.00 Mbps
Upload: 0.07 Mbps
Ping: 342 ms
Latitude: 51.5372
Longitude: 0.0344

Test Date: 10 February 2011 18:34
Connection Type: Cellular
Server: London
Download: 0.00 Mbps
Upload: 0.26 Mbps
Ping: 362 ms
Latitude: 51.5404
Longitude: 0.1271

Test Date: 10 February 2011 18:35
Connection Type: Cellular
Server: London
Download: 0.44 Mbps
Upload: 0.00 Mbps
Ping: 1051 ms
Latitude: 51.5404
Longitude: 0.1271

Test Date: 10 February 2011 18:39
Connection Type: Cellular
Server: London
Download: 0.11 Mbps
Upload: 0.00 Mbps
Ping: 343 ms
Latitude: 51.5605
Longitude: 0.2502

And back home its fine!

Test Date: 10 February 2011 19:33
Connection Type: Cellular
Server: Sittingbourne
Download: 3.79 Mbps
Upload: 2.12 Mbps
Ping: 179 ms
Latitude: 51.5851
Longitude: 0.4161

[Martin]

Hi spring85195

Welcome to the eForum it is always good to see new faces on here.

The local cell sites are working correctly, and this does sound more like a congestion issue.

If you can the phone to GSM / 2G only are you able to get a signal? you can see how to do this in our help centre

I can see that we have several planned 3G cell sites in the area, I don't have a date that these will be active but it does look good with the amount that are in the pipeline.

Martin

eForum Team

[barryjon]

Same issue @ EC2M 3XD.  If it is congestion, it seems to be a problem from very early in the morning till late in the evening.  In the City of London, I think this is pretty dire.  As the OP said, Vodafone is supposed to be the reliable network, that's why I joined.  I am starting to feel like I am getting worse data connectivity than I had with O2 (and that really is saying something).

[Rexxz]

I already said I could only send email by using 2g, so asking me to try 2g is missing the point!

I filled in a report on the Webform service, and they reported that one 3g cells is disfunctional at this location, and a colleague of mine called and was told the same information. They also said they didnt know how long it would take to fix. 

Interesting they know there is a problem, and you dont!

Please can you stop fobbing people off with generic responses and actually do something about the problem! 

Or are you, as I suspect, incapable!

Waiting for the next geeneric response with no futher infromation and still no solution to the problem

Thanks for your help

[Woody]

Hi Rexxz,

We are always looking at improving our network in reception, speed and relaibilty. There will be times where the network will get busier than others and this will cause congestion. We have realised there is an issue in this area and are woking to get this improved.

As Martin has mentioned in a previous post, we already have some new masts planned in that area. A total of seven all within a mile of your postcode. We take all our customers feedback on board and this is how we judge where best to put our new masts and why your area is having new sites.

Woody

eForum Team

[JeremySuiter]

Are their any updates to this problem?  Our company moved to EC3N in September and our 50+ mobiles can only just about send/receive emails and nothing else data wise.  We are talking about being in the center of the BUSINESS district of London where connection is key.  Surely you must have constant volume monittoring on your cell network so you can plan ahead?  I see no reason why you should ever run into congestion problems (exceptional circumstances aside) and deliver the level of service your customers pay for.

This thread has been open for quite a few days now and there's nothing positive from you at all.  I thought this might well been addressed to some level even if it was a timescale to resolution.  Some news is better than no news! 

Bottom line is I have to justify why I spend money with Vodafone and if you can't deliver I'll move away to another provider.

[George]

Hi JeremySuiter,

Firstly, a very warm welcome to the eForum Family, it's always great to see new faces on here .

I can definitely understand your frustration here, so I'd like to help you out. We are always working to maintain and improve our network coverage, however due to the nature of mobile networks, there will always be small blackspots even in the largest of cities. In particular, it's impossible to say exactly what indoor coverage will be like for various structural reasons. Having said that, I do know that there are several planned masts within the business district of London, you'll be able to check on these via our Network Upgrades page.

If you would like me to check your exact location, then please provide your full postcode so I can enter it into our system.

Kind Regards,

George
eForum Team

[Mikewosere]

My office is based in EC3a - all of my user community have SOS instead of signal. Despite repeated requests via our service provider we have not had a fix. It seems that there is a faulty mast that Vodafone cannot switch off or repair. As a result I have 150 phones which are stuck on SOS. While individual people can switch their phones to 2G its not practical to suggest to everyone.

Despite the cost of switching over to new devices I am starting to think that we need to bite the bullet. Vodafone seem unable to come up with a solution and the lack of connection is grossly embarrasing. We aren't in the wilds here - this is one of the biggest financial centres in the world and Vodafone cannot even keep a consistent mobile connection.

[Lee]

Hey Mikewosere,

Thanks for your post.

Can I assume you're referring to the postcode in your profile?

If so, then I've run a check:

Site 4321 covers that postcode area and is situated right by the Southern end of Liverpool Street Station. Call success rates are at 100% for voice, with data rates running at approximately 99% successful connections. No dropped calls or data connections have been reported by the site monitors in the last 30 minutes.

Engineers logs also report no problems. The last case was closed 31/01/11. Is it possible that you can test during off-peak times?

Cheers,

Lee

eForum Team

[matto]

Hello, this is also my first post!

I have mostly very poor reception around my office (E1W 1BA), but two times in the past week there has been no service at all, I could not even make a phone call, the latest occasion was around 7pm yesterday (29 March) at postcode EC3N 1DT. I'm not sure if it's a temporary network problem as I have been working in this area since October 2008 and the signal has always been poor.

I also have a work mobile on O2 and this always has a full signal in this area, is there any chance coverage will improve around these postcodes?

[matto]

Right now at 3:30pm location E1W, no signal at all by the window on the 7th floor of the office, very very poor

[Woody]

Hi matto,

I would firstly like to wish you a very warm welcome to the eForum, from all of the team. 

I have taken a look at all of your local masts and they are all working correctly at present. If you are still experiencing issues, then the best thing to do, would be to follow our Network Troubleshooting guide. This will guide you through step by step what you need to do.

Woody

eForum Team

[planetf1]

I'm concerned about capacity in London - just in a couple of visits it seems it's a big issue for vodafone -- seriously this needs looking at, it totally undermines any image of being a reliable stable network.

I only visit London rarely, but it was a total eye-opener compare to example with three which just worked (I changed due to coverage at

home/work, away from London & have been happy with the service and addons like DT :-) )

I feel we need some openness/honesty about the state of the network and plans - 

[matto]

Thanks for your reply Woody,

I checked the network troubleshooting guide but I'm not sure this will be of much help.

I previously used a blackberry and had the same problems, I'm now using HTC Desire HD and the problems are the same. I lost signal this morning at my home in W2 but it was fine when I got to Bank, then walking through Tower Hill area for about 15 minutes after 2pm today no signal, it has just returned now I am back at my office.

[regnighc]

I have exactly the same issue in the Waterloo area, I have two vodafone sim cards, my mobile sim and my data sim and both have all sorts fo issues across multiple devices. (Iphone4, Nokia 900, Laptop hsdpa+ chip).

Sometimes I have 3g connections and can acheive speeds of around half a Mbps up and down but mostly get stuck with Edge or gprs.

If I move slightly north of the river I get a solid connection and atleast 5Mbps both ways.

I also have this issue at home in the Nw6 area even though im suposedly less than 200ft from the nearest hsdpa+ capable vodafone pylon. I never had this issue last year, what has happened to the Vodafone network? is the capacity maxed out or something?