SO23 - Winchester

[highpriest]

Anyone else in SO22/SO23 Winchester experiencing extremely poor 4G speeds? I've been struggling for months with poor 4G speeds in Winchester (in the city centre mainly). Contacted Vodafone via Twitter - no help at all. Contacted CS and I've gone through every single troubleshooting technique (reset network settings, change APN, re-register sim with network, etc. etc.) in the book and nothing has helped.

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

SO22 (home) less affected, SO23 (work) is particularly bad. If I move outside of Winchester City Centre (even just a few miles), 4G data speeds can jump to as much as 50 Mbps down, 20 Mbps up.

2) What is the full postcode (e.g. ST1 1AA) of where the issue occurs?

SO23 8US

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

Yes.

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

Phone shows full 4G signal. Calls are unaffected but data speeds are extremely poor. There's quite a bit of variation, but speeds could be as low as 250 Kbps and sometimes between 1-2 Mbps. Upload speeds are not affected to the same degree. Speed tests show 4 or 5 Mbps upload.

Sometimes it is so bad that the speed test app will fail to even locate a server to run a speed test against and just give up.

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

Not tried 2G or 3G (and don't ask me to). Problem is with 4G.

6) When did you first notice this issue?

A few months ago (Q3 2017).

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

Permanent. Data speeds range from non-existent to ultra-slow. Everything buffers constantly or just times out and gives up.

I use an iPhone 8 Plus.

[sappercaptain]

It seems the Bereweeke Avenue mast has gone live. Coverage limited to a radius of about 100m, but decent speeds, enough to sustain my Virgin Radio streaming habit with ease

[highpriest]

Meanwhile in Badger Farm.

The joys of being on the "reliable" and "award winning" network provided by Vodafone.

I think once 3G is switched off, the sim card will be for decorative purposes only. I wonder why I pay them each month.

[sappercaptain]

🙄 

[Strowger]

It's now over five years (!) since this thread was started, so I'm not holding my breath waiting for any improvement.

My contract is up in a couple of months, and I suspect that I may become an ex-Vodafone customer at that point.

[highpriest]

Indeed, I have no choice but to leave Vodafone and move somewhere else. Will try a Three sim and see if that's any better. I know O2 is utter garbage.

This was yesterday near the Worthy Lane car park (I was trying to buy a ticket using the RingGo app).

Ironically, I had to tether to another phone running on O2 to complete the purchase.

This was today in Badger Farm.

I mean, it's not just an inconvenience at this point. It's downright unfit for purpose. Useless in every way. Even basic calls are impossible sometimes.

If anyone from Vodafone is reading this - do you plan on introducing data services in Winchester at some point? I've heard of things like 4G and 5G and something called the internet.

[highpriest]

That has been my experience too. Speeds had improved last year, but in recent months, they've plummeted again. In some areas in the City Centre (Andover Road, Worthy Lane), data completely stops when indoors. It's that bad.

This was taken on Sussex St in January:

Badger Farm (yesterday and today):

This was back in December last year (Badger Farm and City Centre):

So clearly things had improved massively last year but for some reason, it has all gone south again.

Meanwhile in Southampton:

Sigh. I'm so sick of having to deal with this substandard service in Winchester. How can we get an improved service that stays that way?

[Mark]

As I mentioned in my last message, our 5G service hasn't been rolled out in the Winchester area just yet @highpriest, I'm sure as soon as it is, you'll be able to get the same fantastic speeds there too. So we can investigate this, we'll also need you to confirm the below information and we'll be able to take a closer look and if needed raise a case with our network engineers.

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

- What is the full postcode (e.g. ST1 1AA) of where the issue occurs? (If you'd prefer not to post this publicly, add it to the personal information in your profile where only our moderators and yourself can see it).

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

- What errors are seen or heard when the issue occurs?

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

- When did you first notice this issue?

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

[highpriest]

I've already replied. Thanks.

[highpriest]

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@Mark wrote:

As I mentioned in my last message, our 5G service hasn't been rolled out in the Winchester area just yet @highpriest, I'm sure as soon as it is, you'll be able to get the same fantastic speeds there too.

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Do you have a date for the rollout of 5G in Winchester?

Things the way they are currently (and now that you've confirmed that there are no faults in the network), this data service is unusable, save for the most basic of tasks (even that is not possible in certain locations).

[Strowger]

I have just received a text message from Vodafone to say that 5G Ultra is now available on my Galaxy S22 Ultra. So I checked the network coverage map, and indeed it says that most of Winchester is covered by 5G (if not necessarily 5G Ultra).
Only problem is that my handset is currently showing 2 bars of service on 4G and I have NEVER seen 5G (indoor or outdoor) in central Winchester. Nor has my wife on her iPhone. I frequently have no service.
Frankly it's insulting for Vodafone to send out such garbage text messages when they can't even run a usable 4G network!