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St Pancras station - can’t move data

jthjthjthjth
4: Newbie

Just been to St Pancras station both at national rail and Eurostar sections. Decent signal strength showing on my iPhone SE but can hardly move data. The only speed test that completed gave 0.1 Mb/sec download. I have a secondary eSIM that uses the EE network . That managed 40 Mbit/sec download. 

submitted a complaint on the Vodafone website, selected please contact me by email. What do they do? They try to phone me. 

9 REPLIES 9

japitts
10: Established
10: Established

What you've described is data congestion. Is this consistent across different days/times?

No idea I’m afraid. I don’t spend much time at St P. It’s the sort of place where I’d expect them to have congestion sorted. Obviously not an impossibility as EE manage it. Just had the normal pointless text from VF suggesting I reset all my network connections and crediting me £5. Since getting a Spusu eSIM (EE network) I’m starting to appreciate how much better the EE network is. 


@jthjthjthjth wrote:

I don’t spend much time at St P. It’s the sort of place where I’d expect them to have congestion sorted. Obviously not an impossibility as EE manage it.


EE do have small-cells in St Pancras. EE & VF have them in Kings Cross, via DAS.

Racal-Yodafone
4: Newbie

Hmmm, your experience was unfortunate but also interesting. I was working in London, a few months ago and one day I had to travel from the city centre to Croydon as I had an appointment at Stephenson House. I got on a train at London Bridge and data was working. If I recall correctly, by the time the train got to Brockley, I encountered data congestion and was confounded by it. I had a very good to full signal all the way from Brockley to Norwood Junction yet could not get anything that required data to work properly. I did some research later and discovered the joys of data congestion. Ironically, a few days later, I was waiting at London St. Pancras, as I was travelling to Derby. Many years ago I was a regular traveller out of St. Pancras and always listened to the album "Wild & Lonely" by The Associates. I'd been thinking about this album that morning and, with ten minutes before train departure, remembered about it. For nostalgia's sake, I stood at the ticket barriers and managed to download the whole album which completed just as the platform was announced. If locations such as St. Pancras are now suffering from data congestion, I can imagine that a lot of people who are there every day of the week will get super frustrated and switch networks.

@Racal-Yodafone A good signal between Brockley and Norwood Jct is lucky considering the line runs in a cutting (former canal), goes under a few bridges and a tunnel. 😁

😄

Racal-Yodafone
4: Newbie

Love your avatar BTW, awesome! Is that the Vodafone 340 handset? Ha, remember when MNOs branded handsets?!? 😄

Not sure where my avatar came from. Nothing  to do with me!

Looks like VF can’t manage the very basics of a cellular network - providing decent throughput in a major transport hub. EE can, so it’s not a technical impossibility. I’m passing back through again on Monday so will try again. 
Got another text from VF wanting me to reset all my network connections. Funny that my phone works fine elsewhere. I can’t foresee any network setting that stops my phone working at St P but allows it to work elsewhere. However I’m willing to be corrected. 


@jthjthjthjth wrote:

I can’t foresee any network setting that stops my phone working at St P but allows it to work elsewhere. However I’m willing to be corrected. 


There is none. Some data slowdown at major events can sometimes be expected, but it still comes back to the correct amount of spectrum being deployed in the right places.

Networks don't want excess capacity sitting there unused, equally you don't want insufficient for regular usage. It can be a balancing act - some are better at it than others.