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Terrible signal at STANSTED AIRPORT

Rye1
4: Newbie

Can anyone shed any light on the absolutely awful signal for both data and calls at Stansted Airport?

 

H and 4G signal shows up, as do 3 bars in the phone reception, but calls are almost impossible, and any data usage is either non-existant (usually the case) or so bad that you just have to give up.

 

I'm especially griped as I tested the signal last year before going full time Vodafone (using my 1 month trial period) the signal worked fine so I signed up on a contract. I also got my other half to change from EE only to find that now the signal(s) are so atrocious as to be worthless. I had been on Three with similar problems (signal showing as available but unusable data) and really liked the Vod package, but I may have to go back to EE as it is so bad and I use the airport frequently..  :Sad_face:

 

Any ideas if this is temporary (going on for 6 months now) or simply lack of bandwidth/EU travelers roaming/network blocking?

 

The Stansted official wifi (run by Virgin) is hellish too as browsers won't allow connection and email servers simply block everything...

 

Thanks if anyone has any insights as it's a massive pain!

 

 

 

 

 

 

65 REPLIES 65

Mark
Community Manager
Community Manager

I'm sorry to hear you're struggling to connect when in and around Stansted airport/train station. The materials used in these buildings may be causing some disruption to the signal you're receiving. If you manually change your phone settings down to 2G/3G whilst you're there and you may notice a difference. 

I basically tried all the network settings, 2G, 3G and 4G. None of them worked. It's not happening in a particular area of the airport, it's same everywhere.

Mark
Community Manager
Community Manager

Thanks for  confirming that @taylan👍 I've had a closer look into this and part from a little interference between 2am and 3am on 16 February, the mast serving you (4911), is working as expected and has experienced no recent outages.

So I can take a closer look into this for you please confirm 👉

- 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?

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

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

- 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?

Once I have this information, I'll be able to offer more help with this.

Hi, I can post my experience although if you read all previous posts you will see this has happened for years at the airport. The phone appears to look as though it's working as it can show a full 4G but if you try and use the internet it does not work at all. It's not slow, it just doesn't load. This happens as soon as you enter the close proximity to the terminal. However it does occur outside the building but close to it, for example my plane when it landed the internet was fine, however when the plane stopped at the stand the internet was no longer working. I have tried 2 different iPhones at the airport both have the same problem. I just find it odd it's only Vodafone that has this issue. I did at one point use a different network when I was at the airport as only way to get internet

Mark,

Sorry to say, it is  indeed a bit of meaningless trivia with those questions at this stage of this thread. There is statistics here with atleast 25+ people reporting the same issue over 3+pages  & 2.5 years of suffering poor coverage.

 

It is a fact that Stansted is causing issues to various people on vodafone.

Also,  no one so far as reported "everything was fine for me and signal and vodafone coverage was like a breeze!"...so in my view, it is not a user device/handset issue either given the context of various posts.

.

May I please suggest you liase with your Vodafone core networks team. Tthey used to based in London Paddington about 5-6 years ago and may have moved to York/Newbury HO now due to the office/org shuffling.

 

Here are some technical jargons, which might help you when you talk to them.

- 4G equipment & band configuration -eNB / LTE /QAM constellation setup

- Carrier aggregation tests results - Spectrum sharing stats (TDD/FDD)

 

At stansted, I can categorically say that clearly 95% of people facing issues will be indoors, so it is clearly a case of understanding the root cause of issue with the network setup, signal to wall penetration testing and applying the fix. Simple, yet complex for vodafone as it clearly have taken 30+ months and still understanding the issue?

Tash
Moderator (Retired)
Moderator (Retired)

Hi everyone, we recently completed an upgrade on the 4G site in the airport. If you're still experiencing any issues after restarting your phone, please message us on Facebook or Twitter with the following information and we can raise this to our Engineers:

• Full Name
• Mobile Number
• Full Address including postcode of affected area
• Alternative contact number
• The type of issue being reported (service type, coverage/voice/data/SMS etc)
• What are the symptoms being reported (please give as much information as possible)
• Issue start date and time
• Make and model of phone
• Specific examples of dates and times of failures, from the last 24 hours

 

If you include a link to your post and your Community username we can track down your message to us on Facebook or Twitter :Thumbs_Up:

Interesting news 🤞🏻 .... ive got some travel dates in March so will deffo give feedback. 

Hoorah!

I'm flying out on Wednesday next, and will be all over that connection and report back  🐵

Good timing, I'm chatting with retentions about my contract renewal..

 

:Hmm_Face:

I hope you have a better experience than me. I was there Tuesday evening at 8pm and there was ZERO connection over 4g. Multiple speed tests couldn't even connect to a server. 3G works but is slow. Even for 3G. Sat next to a guy on EE who was getting 55mbps down on a speed test. Very frustrating. 

@IanDaniels

 

... sadly I think you'll be right and the speed will be the same. I was somewhat surprised to hear that things had been 'upgraded' as I've signed up for updates on that postcode and no updates had been notified.

 

I'll still try, and fortunately I'm out of contract now, so EE will get a good look in. I just need more comitment from EE about continuing included EU roaming next year. The chap I spoke to in Vodafone retentions was pretty certain that Vodafone are fully planning to continue next year.

 

I'll report back later in the week...