DE22 - Network fail

[Mike80]

1) Does the issue happen in just one location? If so, how far do you have to travel to regain service?

 Across the neighbourhood.  Need to travel to the other side of the mast.

2) What is the full postcode (e.g. ST1 1AA) of where the issue occurs? If you don't want this showing on the Community, add it to your profile here.

DE22 - full postcode added to profile.

3) Does the issue occur if you try your SIM card in a different phone?

 Yes. Also affects other Vodafone users on the street.

4) What errors are seen or heard when the issue occurs?

 No signal or poor signal from a more distant mast. Limited download/upload.

5) Does this happen on 2G, 3G, 4G or all?

    4G only.

6) When did you first notice this issue?

 28th December 2021.

7) Is the issue permanent or intermittent? If intermittent, are there certain times of the day when it occurs?

Permanent.

Additional information:

• Vodafone mast eNB 13793.
• Mast went live last spring and provided good service.
• Started going wrong just before Christmas and permanently went wrong on 28th December.
• Since then cell 24 (Cell ID 3531032) on B1/2100MHz is absent.
• There is no Band 1 LTE signal to the south side of the mast. B1 signal still available to the east and west of the mast via cells 14 and 34.

What happens

• In places, the phones will connect to B20/800MHz from eNB 13794 with a signal strength of -80dBm.  But as soon as they get a whiff of B1, they automatically switch and stay on either eNB 506754 or eNB 505027. They then connect at around -115dBm or less (1 or no bars on the phone). Internet unstable and unreliable. Wi-fi calling triggered.
• I understand SIMs are programmed to offload users of B20 where other bands are available, otherwise it would get crowded very quickly.
• Problem only resolved if you travel around the mast. The mast is actually within 300 metres of the postcode, which is why I was able to do some testing by walking around the block.

Before the fault

• Previously, they would connect to B1 via eNB13793 and carrier aggregate with B20 to provide up to 130mbps download, now less than 10mbps, and negligible upload.

[Amanda]

Hey @Mike80 thank you for providing all of this information - it's really helpful and I understand how important it is to stay connected. We'll need to raise this to our Network Team to be investigated further - please can you pop my team a message so we can get this escalated, you can do this via social media.  

Please can you also include a link to this post so you don't need to repeat yourself and we'll need 3 screenshots of the issues you're experiencing - these will need to be over a 24 hour period, so please include one with your first message, so we can start the ball rolling 🙂

[Mike80]

.@Amanda

So I followed the instructions

...and had to repeat myself

...had to provide my full postcode again, despite the template advising that if you put it in your profile, it can be read

...and ended up with no job raised to the network team

Instead, I was told about mast work at a site miles away, that I actually saw on the network checker when I looked myself before posting here.

Meanwhile, still sat with zero to one bar of signal just a few hundred meters from my local mast. Cell 24 is still offline, meaning I'm either getting intermittent cell 14 or 34 from the site or being jumped to a more distant site.

Vodafone not interested. Poor.

[MarkD]

We're sorry to hear that you haven't had the best experience when speaking to us over social media. If the social media advisor has completed the checks and it shows your connected to a different mast, have we advised of any open incidents in the area? 

[Mike80]

The social media adviser advised of an open incident on the other side of the City, which has in the meantime been resolved.

My reception is still missing. -118dbm signal strength this morning, connecting to mast 2 miles away (using Cellmapper data). Local mast (Vodafone site number 19010 = eNB 13793) is simply not pumping out much signal in my direction. Cell 24 remains off-air. Weak signals from cell 14 and 34 occasionally receivable, but aren't masts supposed to normally have three antennae sending a signal out in all directions?

It would be nice just to have reassurance that my comments have been passed on to the network team and are not blocked by customer service reps.

I don't have much faith in the Vodafone network checker. Recently another local mast had issues; it was showing on the O2 network checker, but took 10 days before the Vodafone checker flagged it up. Both O2 and Vodafone share the mast and both networks were offline until it could get fixed.

[Effie]

Hey @Mike80 Thank you for passing over that update, I'm sorry that your service has yet to resume! Have you spoken to the Social Media to advise them of this at all? They will then be able to ensure your ticket is fully updated and this is still with the engineers if needed. Our priority is ensuring we get you and anyone else affected back up and running as quickly as possible so we will absolutely ensure all updates from you are passed on to the engineers and Network team.