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.

===========

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.

[highpriest]

So after speaking to the Customer Relations team, I was able to terminate my Vodafone contract early and switch to Sky Mobile (runs on the O2 network).

Just checking in - has speeds on the Vodafone network improved and stabilised in Winchester? People still on Vodafone, kindly report back!

Sky has been alright, but speeds are hugely variable. Surprisingly, I even get 5G in the Winnall area (near Tesco and the industrial estate). But completely unsuitable as a backup for working from home (which I'm doing a lot of these days, as are many others) as it keeps switching to 3G when I tether. 3G is equivalent to having no data coverage.

So... If Vodafone have got their act together, I might consider switching back.

Rant - why is Winchester so poorly covered by all carriers? It really beggars belief. I was able to get 274 Mbps download speeds in Chichester on Vodafone's 4G network. And we are still stuck in single digits (across all carriers) in Winchester. Is there some factor I'm not privy to that might explain why Winchester never gets any upgrades? Is it the local council? Opposition from residents maybe?

[Strowger]

Nope - data on Vodafone in Winchester is as poor and disappointing as ever 😞

Sad to hear that O2 are no better. My Vodafone contract is up shortly, and I was thinking of moving to O2 (not least because they still include free Roaming in their tariffs), but it would also be nice to get reasonable data speeds here - especially as all the advertising is telling people about how mega fast 5G is!

[highpriest]

---

@Strowger wrote:

Nope - data on Vodafone in Winchester is as poor and disappointing as ever 😞

---

Can't say I'm surprised. How they are allowed to get away with such poor service, I will never know. Regulatory bodies like Ofcom are completely toothless and useless.

---

Sad to hear that O2 are no better. My Vodafone contract is up shortly, and I was thinking of moving to O2 (not least because they still include free Roaming in their tariffs), but it would also be nice to get reasonable data speeds here - especially as all the advertising is telling people about how mega fast 5G is!

---

5G is incredible if you can get it. When I ran a speed test in Southampton (I was in the Portswood area), I got 437 Mbps download and 50 Mbps upload! It was screaming fast.

Drove back to Winchester and it was like going back 20 years in terms of connectivity. Sadly, I don't think we'll ever see 5G in Winchester. For some reason, we always seem to get overlooked when it comes to new technology. FTTP is another good example. Pretty much the entire country, including very remote Scottish islands are getting gigabit fibre installed except, you guessed it, Winchester.

Isn't capitalism just great? A subscriber in Southampton pays the exact same as a subscriber in Winchester, but the one in Southampton gets speeds that are 400 times faster.

For companies like Vodafone to say "yeah 1 Mbps is just fine" should be made illegal. Sadly, it will never happen.

[Strowger]

Much to my astonishment, my telephone (Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 3) has been intermittently showing a 5G signal in Winchester this morning.

No idea whether it's just an anomaly of my handset, or if Vodafone are trialling 5G here?

[highpriest]

Interesting. Did you run a speed test? Coverage checker shows no signs of a 5G rollout being planned in Winchester.

O2 is kind of the same. Says no 5G coverage in Winchester but I get a decent 5G signal in Winnall (Tesco and the nearby industrial estates).

[sappercaptain]

There is a new mast at the end of Bereweeke Road. I asked the chaps doing the work if it would be 5G and they said the cabinet had the right racks in to, so probably yes at some point!

[highpriest]

Is that the new mast at the corner of Bereweeke Road and Andover Rd? I think that is O2.

[sappercaptain]

Might be mast share, but defo Vodafone too

[highpriest]

---

@sappercaptain wrote:

Might be mast share, but defo Vodafone too

---

Indeed. Might well be. Are you seeing a 5G signal as well? Any improvements in speed and coverage?

[sappercaptain]

My phone isn’t 5G capable and I’ve refused to upgrade it until Vodafone could give me a date for roll out…it appears that, just for a change, the left hand doesn’t know what the right is doing!

3 and 4G remain miserably slow, to the point of not even being able to run speed tests.