PO30 - Newport Isle of Wight

[JimJimini]

1) Local, service returns about 1.6miles away

2) Postcode of affected mast is PO30 4EJ

3) Yes

4) No signal, or Emergency calls only

5) All

6) Lunchtime 23/2/2022

7) Permanent

Lost mobile signal at home residence lunchtime 23/2/2022. Now more than 5 days and still no phone service.

Vodafone's network checker initially indicated a fault and said you were "having trouble accessing equipment due to weather", yet weather in area was perfect. Then it changed to say there "was damage that needed major repairs." Then it went back to the weather excuse, and now says major repairs again. When I webchatted a Vodafone operative two days ago they said it was scheduled maintenance. At no time has any estimate been given as to when it would be available again.

Which is the real reason, and please can you estimate when it will be available again?

[Mark]

Hi @JimJimini, I've taken a closer look into this and it appears the mast and compound was severely damaged by storm Eunice. This has meant we've had to wait for the site to be made safe before one of our team could assess the damage and any work to begin. Due to the extent of the damage caused by the high winds, it's taking a little longer than expected to get it back up and running again. Apologies for any inconvenience this delay may cause. Our team are trying to get everything back up and running as soon as possible. You can register for regular updates on our progress with this through our Network Status Checker.

To help keep you connected while we get everything back to normal. You can add Wi-Fi Calling to your plan at no extra cost. This will allow you to make/receive calls and send/receive text messages whenever you're connect to a WiFi service.

[JimJimini]

Thank you for the response Mark.

The "scheduled maintenance" I was told about on the webchat was not true then, and there is still no estimate as to how long this will take to fix? Can you tell me what stage the repairs are at: has the site has been made safe and the damage assessed, or has work not even started yet? Are we talking day(s) or weeks to fix this?

Being in a rural area with no landline this is quite a problem. I have Three coverage on our 4G router so can get internet (thank goodness we don't rely on a Vodafone bundle for internet and phone), but we can't purchase online goods or access banking etc. because 2-factor authentication requires a working mobile. Wi-Fi calling isn't available on my phone (I'm running an old HTC One M7 with Android 10 on Lineage OS and the option just isn't there) and my wife is on TalkMobile which uses the vodafone network but they say they haven't yet rolled out Wi-Fi calling. I will see if I have an adaptor to swap SIMs (mine is micro and my wife's is nano). LOL - what a mess, but seriously, if there is no coherent estimate of how long this will take to fix I will have to ditch vodafone and switch my mobile to another network so we have some resilience in future.

[Mark]

Oh dear @JimJimini, that is quite a mix up of things you have there 😕

The site has been made safe, a risk assessment's been carried out and the site is scheduled to be up and running again by 7 March. We have a team scheduled to be on site tomorrow, so should have a further update for you in after that. As I mentioned in my last message, you can get the latest update on this through our Network Status Checker.

[JimJimini]

Thanks for the update Mark, at least I know it's not imminent and is worth sorting out an alternative. The network checker could be improved by including the estimated fault resolution time for exactly this reason.

Wi-Fi calling was a failure. My wife's Samsung Galaxy A71 should support Wi-Fi calling but it's never been enabled before and the options to turn it on do not appear on the menus (I've been through the vodafone device guides at https://deviceguides.vodafone.co.uk/samsung/galaxy-a71-android-10-0/calls-and-contacts/turn-wi-fi-ca...)

I'm guessing without a mobile network connection it can't be activated, or maybe the version of Android doesn't have the feature enabled? If you think it should just work let me know and I'll post separately in the Android section of the forum as it's getting off topic here.

[Amanda]

Thanks for your feedback about the Network Status Checker - if you've registered for updates on this, we'll let you know as soon as there's any news. 

Yes @JimJimini - I'd recommend popping a post about the Wi-Fi Calling options in the Android board, so that your query sits in the right place 🙂 

[JimJimini]

It's now the 8th March, and still no mobile signal (since lunchtime 23rd February). The network status checker is continuing to display the same banal message it was over a week ago. Pretty poor IMHO. What's the latest guess as to when it will be operational again?

[MarkD]

Hi @JimJimini, we're sorry to hear that the services are still not working in your area. We can see where Mark has previously advised that expect everything to up and running by 7 March 2022. We've checked the network notes for the area and the team are working on this, we now have an estimated completion date of tomorrow, 9 March 2022. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience. 

[JimJimini]

Once again, still no mobile signal. 15 days and counting (and the network status checker is unchanged). For what it's worth I suppose I should ask if there's a revised estimate (although the last two dates have been missed).

Does Vodafone have any sort of Service Level Agreement for residential mobile (all I can find is broadband or corporate)?

[Evie]

Hi @JimJimini - I understand how important it is to have a stable connection, and being told different resolution dates can become frustrating. I've had a look at the ongoing work on your local mast (No. 88225) and we're still waiting for this to complete. I wouldn't want to give an estimated completion date and set expectations incase this changes again since sometimes this type of network maintenance can have different factors that makes it go on a bit longer than hoped.

Rest assured the work will be completed as soon as possible and once it is, please get in touch with us on social media so that we can look into the issues you've had and come to a resolution with you.