Anyone experiencing coverage issues recently? Been with them a long time and always had great coverage but thinking of switching. Can’t even make calls in me own hoos without dropping signal

Yes my experience as well. My business has 350+ connections but quality and connectivity has become patchy over recent months. Looking to switch as well

Commented on similar threads previously…

Had this for the lest few years – anecdotally, word seems to be that Vodafone have milked their network for long enough and customers’ 3G experiences have been poor. I don’t know the technicalities of this kind of stuff, but it seemed they dropped from having one of the best 3G networks to having one of the poorest over a period of four or five years. I couldn’t believe how bad a 3G signal I was getting, even in towns. However, in the countryside (where my work takes me quite a bit), where I’d most often desperately need Google maps to navigate me around, I never had any more than GPRS – which is rubbish with today’s smartphones. Every app one uses needs decent 3G signal, and not being able to send emails, upload photos to shared work streams or use a maps app was a PITA.

I went over to Three on all-you-can-masturbate-to data, loadsa minutes and teenager quantity of texts. Their coverage has been very good. I’ve been able to listen to internet radio on TuneIn in the middle of nowhere and download speeds have been very good.

Having said that, when 3G drops, you have nothing. Whereas with Vodafone, you could nearly always make a call if you had to on GPRS. Thankfully, this is pretty rare.

Someone mentioned on here that when he’d left Vodafone for the reasons above, the customer services person couldn’t be bothered putting him through to retention. I didn’t believe that until I did the same thing saying “To be honest, I know it’s not personally your fault, but your 3G coverage is rubbish and I can’t really use a smartphone on your network anymore.” She just said fair enough, gave me my PAC and said cheerio.

I guess that if you tell them that their network isn’t up to your minimum requirements, there’s nothing they can do for you – “I can offer you 50% off our unusable service – how’s that ?”

Having similar feelings about vodafone of late.
Our sure signal box (a broadband back haul to fix hole sin their network like my house) has stopped working….AGAIN!

I really must test our home for Three coverage. Fortunately we moved to sim only, monthly contracts on our phones 12m ago just in case we decided to jump ship rather than get stuck in a 24m contract for a new phone.

Pants here too (Northants) Think I am going to Orange when my current contract expires next month.

However, in the countryside (where my work takes me quite a bit), where I’d most often desperately need Google maps to navigate me around

top tip for you DD – download Navfree. not the the bestest satnav in the world but you get all the mapping data with the app, which makes it quite a big app and it takes up a fair chunk of memory,but that means it doesn’t need a data connection to work. I’ve found it useful in the sticks but also in big cities when everyone is browsing Facebook in the traffic jam and clogging up the bandwidth (or more to the point all their satnav apps are competing for the same bandwidth), so there even when the signal is good a satnav app can struggle,

Great for voice still gets coverage where many don’t. That’s where it ends Data is shocking even if you can get some coverage it’s terrible, 3G isn’t too bad if you can find it.

Not worth getting a smartphone with Vodafone a complete waste.

I’ve been with them for about 15 or 16 years but will drop them once my contract is up.

top tip for you DD – download Navfree

I did! But found it a bit of a PITA to use, and it took up a lot of memory on the phone. I’d probably live with it if I had to – but no need these days. 🙂

I’m in the same boat, coverage and signal strength just seems to have become very poor over the last couple of years. Might head off to O2 next.

Oh! I’m just about to move from ee to voda. Inspiring stuff.

Pik n Mix. I’m now eyeing up a move from Voda to EE based on how good my work 4G card is and friends phone signal in my house! Guess it’s very dependent upon where you are tho.

Thanks for the info everyone. Glad I’m not alone.

Vodafone have offered me one of the above mentioned suresignal boxes for free… (well I have to pay £100 then get it back 7 days later). Cheeky as owt and only a solution in my house.

Think I’m just going to try and get out of my contract form minimum coin… Only 3 months left

Might head off to O2 next.

I find the O2 coverage worse than Vodafone. I use O2 and my wife Vodafone, around the Lake District I often get little to no signal with O2, Vodafone signal is available more often /is stronger where we try .

Vodafone RAN share with O2 so there should be little difference between them in terms of coverage.

Was with VF for years and recently switched to Three. Vodafone have underinvested in their core network for years.

I have same – data is shockingly slow. Calls are ok.

Vodafone RAN share with O2 so there should be little difference between them in terms of coverage.

oh that’s shame…my wife manages to get a signal on an old/basic phone with Voda where I don’t with my O2 smartphone. Perhaps I need to turn 3G off or something..thought it was supposed to happen automatically.

Vodafone RAN share with O2 so there should be little difference between them in terms of coverage.

sure about that. I’m sat three feet from someone on vodafone who has barely any coverage and struggles to make/take calls while I have full 3G on 02? same model phone as well.

My data is pretty poor anywhere other than large towns/cities. I really noticed this when I went abroad recently, using another network with my handset the data was superb.

I’ve also got an irritating lack of signal at home, it’s sometimes fine then it dissapears, I moan to vodafone who report no faults, then I really moan and they discover something, then its back for a while and good, then dissapears again. I think our local mast is faulty.

Last couple of months have been rubbish for signal where I live, cuts out for hours then comes back for a few minutes then cuts out for a few hours. Didn’t used to be like this, so I phoned them, told them it was rubbish and I was leaving, they didn’t even try to make me stay and gave me a PAC and started the processes of getting an unlock code (I am just out of contract but been with them for 14 years).

Lots of people must be leaving as when requesting my unlock code I was told that due to the high volume of requests it would take a bit longer to come than normal!

I’ve gone from having both personal and works mobiles on Vodafone, to personal on EE and work on O2. 3G coverage around the place is certainly better on EE but not sure about O2.

Turning off wifi and running speedtest on both gives the win to EE. 2.48d/1.55u on EE vs 1.2d/0.51u on O2

This is central Southampton.

Exactly the same problem with Vodafone. When you get 3G it’s ok, but for the most part i’m on GPRS and “E”. I’m a year into my contract and thinking I should be having a word about the cost of it considering the poor performance.

Was with VF for years and recently switched to Three. Vodafone have underinvested in their core network for years.

I wonder if the money is going into 4G. A little birdy told me to expect 4G coverage more or less everywhere before 3G holes are filled.

I don’t have much of a problem, but then I work in Newbury 🙂

Vodafone has the only signal in my part of the village. They charged a fair price for the SureSignal box which works pretty well (occasionally needs a reboot if the router has been rebooted). I’m happy.

sure about that.

Yup, been working on it for a while now..

They just don’t share on every site.

Yet.

I wonder if the money is going into 4G. A little birdy told me to expect 4G coverage more or less everywhere before 3G holes are filled.

Pretty much this.

I don’t have much of a problem, but then I work in Newbury

Live and work in Newbury and the Vodafone signal at my home is rubbish, and I’m 5 mins walk from the HQ 🙁