Coverage maps not working

[Neil201]

I'm not sure if Amy, Faza or anyone else from Vodafone is aware that the network coverage maps appear not to be working. Not sure how long they've been like this but I had a look on Saturday to check coverage in a certain area and noticed the whole of the UK was white and still like that this evening.

[n80user]

all white as in no coverage. Sure thats not the T-Mobile coverage map you loaded there in which case your nearly spot on :D

[Neil201]

all white as in no coverage. Sure thats not the T-Mobile coverage map you loaded there in which case your nearly spot on :D

It could very well have been! Is T-Mobile's coverage still as bad as it used to be? I'd personally never touch them with a bargepole!

[n80user]

StreetCheck says i get Very Good 3G and 2G coverage. However i get full signal on my bed but once i lift the phone about 4 inches into my hand it drops to 0-1 bars within about 5 seconds so i find it VERY hard to use.

Im on 3 and get full signal most of the phone and cant wait to cancel my T-Mobile contract. Annoying thing is the PUBLIC coverage checker says Very Good yet when 150 checks the coverage on their INTERNAL systems it said Poor.

Figure that 1 out

[Neil201]

StreetCheck says i get Very Good 3G and 2G coverage. However i get full signal on my bed but once i lift the phone about 4 inches into my hand it drops to 0-1 bars within about 5 seconds so i find it VERY hard to use.

Im on 3 and get full signal most of the phone and cant wait to cancel my T-Mobile contract. Annoying thing is the PUBLIC coverage checker says Very Good yet when 150 checks the coverage on their INTERNAL systems it said Poor.

Figure that 1 out

Networks generally only quote coverage on maps for outdoor only. In my experience and in the 13yrs I've had mobile phones you can only guarantee indoor coverage in built up areas where the networks have enough cells to cope with capacity issues and thus the field strength is much higher. Orange and T-Mobile's coverage can suffer further than that of Voda and O2 due to them using 1800 MHz rather than the lower 900 MHz frequencies for GSM.

One thing good about 3G is that despite it using even higher frequencies in the range of 2GHz, the technology is good in the sense that base stations can receive a reliable signal from your handset down to something like -150dBm which is very low! You'd never hear a radio station on an FM receiver at a field strength this low!

I used to be on Three and the reliability of 3G inside buildings was always quite impressive. Three's letdown for me, being someone who does a lot of travelling, was the constant switching in rural areas between Three's 3G and Orange GSM, plus the large number of optimisation issues they seemed to have on 3G Node B's, resulting in a fair number of dropped calls when travelling through good 3G areas.

[edwardpeter]

I'm not sure if Amy, Faza or anyone else from Vodafone is aware that the network coverage maps appear not to be working. Not sure how long they've been like this but I had a look on Saturday to check coverage in a certain area and noticed the whole of the UK was white and still like that this evening.

Hi Neil, thanks very much for the heads up! The coverage checker was actually under scheduled maintenance for a few days which is why it was unavailable.

Everything's done now and it's accessible again via this link (http://maps.vodafone.co.uk/coverageviewer/web/default.aspx).

Thanks again!

edwardpeter
Vodafone UK

[Neil201]

Thanks Edward, the 3G looks clearer coloured in red.

One thing I've noticed in some places (and this was also the case before now) is that when you click on 'current' and then 'future' coverage you'll see some areas show being less covered in the future than they are now. Is this some fault with the map overlays? If you do a search for Bollington for example and then look at the area around a place called Pott Shrigley just above the village, you'll see toggling between current and future coverage and the coverage seems to degredate in the future which I can't imagine be the case.

[gembo2609]

Thanks Edward, the 3G looks clearer coloured in red.

One thing I've noticed in some places (and this was also the case before now) is that when you click on 'current' and then 'future' coverage you'll see some areas show being less covered in the future than they are now. Is this some fault with the map overlays? If you do a search for Bollington for example and then look at the area around a place called Pott Shrigley just above the village, you'll see toggling between current and future coverage and the coverage seems to degredate in the future which I can't imagine be the case.

I understand what you mean about having less coverage in 6 months time, this could be due to various reasons. It is possible a new building planned could affect the coverage, the site may be removed due to infrequent use, the lease on that site could run out and is not able to be renewed.

You can provide feedback on the coverage via Vodafones website (http://maps.vodafone.co.uk/coverageviewer/web/default.aspx) here. Bring up the place you want to give feedback on and zoom in to the maximum, on the toolbar the top option when hovered over will be to provide feedback, you then have to give details of you query and submit.

Hope this helps.

[Neil201]

I understand what you mean about having less coverage in 6 months time, this could be due to various reasons. It is possible a new building planned could affect the coverage, the site may be removed due to infrequent use, the lease on that site could run out and is not able to be renewed.

You can provide feedback on the coverage via Vodafones website (http://maps.vodafone.co.uk/coverageviewer/web/default.aspx) here. Bring up the place you want to give feedback on and zoom in to the maximum, on the toolbar the top option when hovered over will be to provide feedback, you then have to give details of you query and submit.

Hope this helps.

I see exactly where your coming from with that but if you look at the UK as a whole and click 'current' and 'future' you'll see there's quite a few areas where coverage reduces, I can't believe that cells would be moved around that infrequently. In terms of infrequent use, as long as VF own the site and surrounding land, there's no reason why sites would be taken out to degrade the service. Look at the highlands of Scotland for example where the population is very sparse, sites have been installed and commissioned for a long period of time and only in some cases only attract very low traffic in terms of call revenue.

[MRGS1]

It could very well have been! Is T-Mobile's coverage still as bad as it used to be? I'd personally never touch them with a bargepole!Im not on T mobile but they are the only network ever to build a 3G mast in my area and properly cover with 2G a small cotswold town!