Signal coverage uk

[sharpenemy420]

Iv heard from a few people they get great full signal/coverage in their area and others claiming none or very little so Im guessing when 3 put up more masts everyone should get great coverage.
Anyone got any info on when three uk are gonna be finished building these masts?
i live in north east london, anyone know what 3g coverage is like there?
I heard 3 uk signal bounces off o2 masts so shouldnt anywhere where you can get o2 coverage 3 should also come up standerd?
or does 3uks o2 mast bounce signal a secondary thing so very little of o2s masts goes to 3 as its main resources are reserved for o2 users?
also say if i do get crap signal when i get my 3g is there any box or thing i can plug my phone into, or any mods i can do on my mobile to increase my signal?

[matstrange]

My suburb on the outskirts of a Kent seaside town has 2 '3' masts, one at each end, not bad considering the area is only a mile wide. Thats a benefit to having an 'A Road' running close. Makes me think the reason I sometimes get dropped calls is when it switches between the two?!

As for the O2 issue, basically '3' run their own transmitters and have (afaik) 5000 or so now. In areas where you are unable to get '3' coverage your phone will use the O2 network. Supposedly if you are travelling you will not be able to roam seamlessly onto O2 from '3' as the handset will have to sign on and this takes time, so you will have to redial.

HTH

[A1c]

Interesting points above.

3 now claim to cover 77% of the UK population and whilst stilll building the network will slow when they reach 80% as it takes many more masts to cover the last 20% than it does to cover the rest and they are not obligated to do more than they have for some years to come.

As far as the reception is concerned I also have a 3 mast within a 1/2 mile or so but the signal strength shows as being full one second and none the next! There are quite serious fluctuations throughout the day and moving from one room in my house to another can cause signal loss and call dropping. Similarly the calls drop when they have been made in one location. The network has been like this since I joined in June 2003 and the phenomenon of the dissapearing signal has been present despite the introduction of new masts in my locality.

I'm afraid the dissapearing signal is one of the great 3 mysteries of all time. The suggestion that it drops calls when switching cells is interesting but it shouldnt as that's the whole point of cellular systems. If that is happening (and it might be) its to do with the optimisation of the network. Whatever the cause the effect is poor reliability in terms of both voice and services and its the reason I have returned to another service provider and only use 3 as a back up. I am now awaiting the launch of the other 3G serices to detemine whether this is a 3 problem (down to their implementaion of the technology) or will it be common? Hopefully others will have made some improvements and UMTS will becaome as stable as the GSM networks we have become used to.

[matstrange]

One thing I noticed from a previous post was mentioning the difference in reliability in a North/South divide, interestingly I read the other day that the infrastructure roll out was sub-contracted to two seperate companies - Nokia in the North of the country and NEC in the south!

Thoughts?

[sharpenemy420]

ahhh, weird fluctuations.. maybe the 3 masts are built poorly and react to changes in weather conditions? i havnt reasearched this im only guessing so dont tell me how stupid i am for sayin what i say.
Im not too sure how the masts work, or what factors determine the amont of signal you receive.
is it possible that other frequencys/ calls on other networks or other electronic devices may affect the amount of signal you receive, that maybe why it change so much so often?
i guees this could be as there are always tons of signals on all sorts of frequencys flying around.
or maybe the masts have limited resource and can onyl send out a limited amount of signal and there are too many phones requesting this signal so it trys to allocate its resources to all of them but dosnt have enough resources to give everyone full signal at all time?
i am just guessing i could be talking complete crap but id like to know what you people think about my assumptions and what the truth really is...

[A1c]

Re the above - I suspect that has something to do with it but its only a matter of extremes. People in London and the SE seem to have had similar experience but as you note not to the same extent. Perhaps something to do with the density of coverage? In outlying areas perhaps the signal is too thinly spread although i know there are fairly standard conventions for the transmiter power output of cellular base stations.

Whatever it is (and it exists for sure) 3 should sort it out. If they do it would make them a credible alternative. If/when that is likely to happen no-one can say for sure and its unlikely that 3 UK will issue any information about this to the public. Next chance to see how well they are doing with this and other customer satisfaction issues will be the OFCOM and JD Power 2004 surveys. 3 came bottom of both in 2003 and proportionately had the worst customer satisfaction levels by a very substantial margin. Hopefully that wake-up call has not been ignored and some xserious effort has been made to improve their standing. Reading the same comments here and elsewhere (bearing in mind the increase in the take-up) suggests they still have a lot to do to correct the issues.

[Nemesis]

i live in north east london, anyone know what 3g coverage is like there?

Hackney, Stoke Newington, Dalston? There is good 3g coverage in all those areas and there is an extra mast going up at Dalston overground station by the end of this month. There are situations at the far end of Hackney (wick) where , depending on where you are situated you can get caught between the signals of 3 masts and the signal can fluctuate and even drop completely to 02 but by moving a foot in any direction you will regain 3g signal.
Overall though a very good service in North East London and due to get better!

One thing I noticed from a previous post was mentioning the difference in reliability in a North/South divide, interestingly I read the other day that the infrastructure roll out was sub-contracted to two seperate companies - Nokia in the North of the country and NEC in the south!

You are right that this has been discussed before and I believe that the consensus whilst not conclusive, seemed to be that whether it was build quality or otherwise, there does seem to be a real difference in how many dropped calls and cases of bad reception are reported north of the divide as opposed to subscribers south of the line. Bearing in mind that the perception is that the wealth of the UK is concentrated in the southernmost half of the UK, could it be beyond the realms of possibilty that 3UK knew that there would be a worse service in the north than in the south and decided that it was an acceptable risk to take? ie:*issing off most of the northern customers in favour of their 'perceived' more affluent south living cousins?. However you look at it the divide exists and whilst I dont think that is the only reason for the dropped call/bad reception phenomenon that is more prevalent north of the divide, 3 UK's setup of the phones to grab a 3g signal however poor at the slightest opportunity, even if there is a stronger 2g signal is also a contributing factor together with cell breathing (search the forum for more on that subject) the fact is that more call/reception complaints are received from those north of that nominal divide and it is not fair at all to them, since they pay the same money as those in the south, for seemingly a worse service!! Sort it Out 3 UK! Bad form old chaps, Bad form indeed!

:mad: :cool:

[A1c]

Sopt on Nemesis, its not good for those who travel either! Its supposed to be a Nationally available service after all.

I spoke to a guy today who paid £80 for an NEC e313 )I know what you are thinking!) and he is at his wits end with it having to carry extra batteries to cover his shift and constantly gets dropped calls. I gave the gen on how to use his old Virgin SIM in it as he was making threatning gestures towards it with his hammer after it had decided to switch its'elf off 1/2 way through the day and he had'nt packed the extra battery!

3 UK must think your average mobile phone customer is pretty thick if they think folks will put up with that kind of network/decvice performance for long and as he said at £30 he'd just chuck it and put it down to a bad decision on his part. I suspect there will be many 1000's who will echo his sentiments and do exactly that once the novelty wears off and reality sets in.

[sharpenemy420]

80 quid? you can get the e313 for 30 quid at argos and have enough left for a gram of charlie

[sharpenemy420]

oh by the way im in south woodford which is rite next to hackney, like 10 mins up road so if hackney get good signal coverage i shoul get good in south woodford.

oh yeh no one anserwed my Q about are there any mods 4 ur fone to increase signal power?

[Gunner]

oh by the way im in south woodford which is rite next to hackney, like 10 mins up road so if hackney get good signal coverage i shoul get good in south woodford.

Our local Three UK base station is 5-10 minutes walk away. If I stood on my house roof I'd be able to see it.

Signal here was diabolical, and no transmitters have been built since I left so I assume it still is.

Three UK coverage seems to concern itself with a lot more than how close you are to a base station. Whether ours just has/had too many users I don't know, but you're going to stand a much better chance if you're in a densly covered area.

http://www.sitefinder.radio.gov.uk/ <- check here to see how many 3UK base stations you can find in your locality. You need to be zoomed right in to see them.

[sharpenemy420]

i live on a main road. is there some kind of satellite dish i can build to put on my roof to give my house better signal? that sounds fun.

[A1c]

Nope!!

There have been many signal booster products on the market but I'm not sure how well they perform. Most are just sticky tape with silver paper. The problem with 3 as has been stated is'nt signal strength its the robustness of it. Its variable even when the phone is left in one spot! A weird phenomenon that I have never experienced on any other UK network. :mad:

[Terrierdave]

Originally posted by sharpenemy420
Q about are there any mods 4 ur fone to increase signal power?

Thry this thread on another forum:

http://www.3g.co.uk/3GForum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6575

This guy is selling both signal boosters and 'stubby' aerials that fit the LG8110 - got both , and although the boosters haven't made much difference to me (although others around the UK report a big improvement), the stubby is much more aestheitcally pleasing and practical.

[m5xas]

Cant speak for your local area but if you want to use it to travel the country - forgt it, the coverage is rubbish, the attitude of 3 is the same - you can try it for 2 weeks - if you do, make sure that you try it in all the ares you want to use it. 3 attitude is that once you've past the 14 days they've got you for the rest of the contract with no way out.
I drop approx 60% of my calls on the move - now I usually reset the phone for o2 if I want to make a good call, but the phone resets to 3 automatically when in coverge dropping the call each time...... frustrating or what.

My advice is dont buy unless you want to stand still next to mast to make a call.

Its almost like going back to 1995 with the service levels we had then.

The indian call centre repeats from a script time and time again with no logic, the on hold song has been the same for weeks and this also is very annoying.

[sharpenemy420]

ok why do people keep talking about the indian call centre?
wer in the uk which is far from india.
i assume the indian call centre is located in india rite?
bizzare

[A1c]

India is awash with graduates that now work in contact centres in Bangalore, Munbai etc.

3 are not the only company to use these facilities as BT, MBNA and now even Tesco take advantage of the savings in staff costs.

Overall the staff in India should be able to do a good job in terms of account enquiries etc as they can access the same info that UK call centres get but more technical issues can be a challange. The only way these centres can work properly is if the staff have full training and support so I tend not to blame the people who work in India for lack of knowledge, its more appropriate to look to the company that is using their (sub-contract) service as they are ultimately responsible to their customers.

[sharpenemy420]

this is a terrible idea as they dont speak very good english!
good luck with cs then 3 and all u other co's doin the same

[A1c]

It's generally not their English that is the difficulty, its their accents (in my experience).

You really have to be a little patient when you know you are dealing with someone from an indian call centre.

These young Indian call centre staff work long hours for little cash and have studied hard to get jobs that we have great difficulty getting people to take! They have to learn a new language too! I have great respect for their efforts and imagine they will improve with experience. Just think how hard it would be for a UK citizen to learn Urdu or Punjabi and to sit and take calls!!

[sharpenemy420]

i understand they are working hard to try and make a living (unlike lazy english basterds)
but still they are not suitble for the job, if they want cs to be effieicnt, and effieicny should be the top priority of any company.