"There's a problem with our mobile network"

[anrgy_man]

I signed up to receive SMS alerts for network issues for my home postcode back in July and since then, I have received a "Hello. It looks like there's a problem with out mobile network in XXX" no less than 12 times.

It's followed shortly (within a day or two) with a "Great news - we've fixed the problem" SMS and then a week or so later, get the same SMS's again.

I can't say I've noticed any issues in that time. I mean, I think the quality of the network has really gone downhill since the 3G switch-off and my phone seems to stick to Edge rather than switching to 4G (poor 5G coverage in my area) which means I have no data but this isn't limited to my postcode. This happens in lots of places I visit.

I live in a small town so I'm not in the centre of a big city where lots of different cell sites could separately be going down. If I'm not mistaken, there's only two Vodafone cell sites that cover my postcode.

Is it normal to have issues this many network issues linked to my postcode area in 3 or so months?

[Charlotte]

Hello, @anrgy_man. I hope you're well.

Due to the many variables which can impact the network connection, some areas are more susceptible to downtime that others. Having a lower number of masts can also impact this, as a single cell could be supporting a large surface area, especially in more in more rural locations.

If you'd like to discuss the issues which you've been having with the network in more detail, please reach out to us on Social Media and we can take a deeper look into the service you're receiving. 

[japitts]

There's nothing inherent in a rural greenfield site, for example, that makes it more susceptible to downtime than an urban rooftop one, all else being equal.

The issue in rural areas is that there's generally less overlap between sites, so an outage is more likely to cause a loss-of-service - whereas urban LOS will cause a slowdown in data speeds (due to less carrier capacity being available) but otherwise can be mitigated for.