Mobile blackspots

Thine WonkThine Wonk Posts: 17,190
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Are there many places now that have no 2G, 3G or 4G or any of the networks? Where do you know where there's absolutely no signal at all?

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  • GigabitGigabit Posts: 8,768
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    I know many areas with no signal when driving.
  • tycho-magtycho-mag Posts: 8,642
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    Gigabit wrote: »
    I know many areas with no signal when driving.

    Many of my friends say this and I note they are holding phones low down where all cell signals are hitting the doors. I have my phone in a holder quite high up and find signals quite good on EE, 3G pretty much everywhere, and Vodafone is vastly better than it was 12 months ago.
  • rasseru16rasseru16 Posts: 752
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    Thine Wonk wrote: »
    Are there many places now that have no 2G, 3G or 4G or any of the networks? Where do you know where there's absolutely no signal at all?

    Many places around here in Norfolk still.... even on roads that are used everyday.
  • Chris1973Chris1973 Posts: 670
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    Are there many places now that have no 2G, 3G or 4G or any of the networks? Where do you know where there's absolutely no signal at all?

    Spent a couple of weeks in Bala, North Wales during the Summer, and noticed several sections of the A4212 has no mobile coverage whatsoever.

    Closer to home, parts of the Staffordshire Moorlands and Derbyshire also have no coverage. Plenty of crappy masts dotted around in Towns which give very poor 3G from EE / 3 too - where I work in Congleton being one example, in this Town Vodafone and O2 Networks are far superior with very good 3G and 4G speeds.
  • ResonanceResonance Posts: 16,634
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    Chris1973 wrote: »
    Spent a couple of weeks in Bala, North Wales during the Summer, and noticed several sections of the A4212 has no mobile coverage whatsoever.

    Closer to home, parts of the Staffordshire Moorlands and Derbyshire also have no coverage. Plenty of crappy masts dotted around in Towns which give very poor 3G from EE / 3 too - where I work in Congleton being one example, in this Town Vodafone and O2 Networks are far superior with very good 3G and 4G speeds.

    In North Wales I've noticed that as soon as you head south and cross into Powys there's a definite improvement in mobile coverage. Less Nimbys maybe, and/or a council that allows more masts?
  • sillssills Posts: 233
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    There's quite a few valleys in the Kent Downs area between the M20 and M2/A2 that have little or no coverage. EE have the best coverage, Vodafone are starting to fill gaps under CTIL where only O2 had coverage before. Oddly, although Vodafone have the worst coverage there, they seem to be popular in the places with no signal as they were the first with their sure signal boxes.

    There's a couple of new masts I've seen on planning under the Mobile Infrastructure Project to fill some of the gaps around Elham and Pett Bottom.
  • d123d123 Posts: 8,591
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    Thine Wonk wrote: »
    Are there many places now that have no 2G, 3G or 4G or any of the networks? Where do you know where there's absolutely no signal at all?

    Last time I took the DFDS ferry from North Shields I had no signal for virtually the entire journey :p
  • bookey_ukbookey_uk Posts: 282
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    Thine Wonk wrote: »
    Are there many places now that have no 2G, 3G or 4G or any of the networks? Where do you know where there's absolutely no signal at all?

    Yep, I have maps showing me where those places are, I spend time trying to come up with solutions to resolve them, but often they just do not cost in. :(
  • sillssills Posts: 233
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    I guess in lot of rural areas the cost of getting power and backhaul to a site that won't serve a huge number of people just isn't worth it.
  • thebennyboythebennyboy Posts: 327
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    Three are doing a lot of infill work around where i live, filling the large blackspot in the valley and replacing a few "terminally limited" sites according to their CS. One is an old orange mast which i guess is being MBNL'd and another is a brand new site, my only guess why they left it so long was insufficient backhaul. The area the new tower is going is covered by FTTP which i presume the mast will be using, the old orange tower will probably be supplied by microwave.

    The area drawn in black pretty much has no 3G coverage, the triangles indicate where they are placing the two new masts, the old orange one to the north being MBNL'd and the other towards the south being the brand new one.

    https://i.gyazo.com/b5cf888fd76015d713c6e7749be79472.png
  • Chris1973Chris1973 Posts: 670
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    I guess in lot of rural areas the cost of getting power and backhaul to a site that won't serve a huge number of people just isn't worth it.

    Not sure about the power aspect, as i've seen Traffic Lights and Fixed Average Speed Cameras in some quite remote and obscure rural locations, and surely grid infrastructure can be shared. Microwave could be used for the backhaul?.

    Towns here, aren't much better, the link below is the aforementioned area where I work in Congleton shown on the EE 4G coverage checker, a little island in a vast ocean of Blue 4G. This non 4G section is also the bit of the Town giving poor 3G from both EE and '3' where 3G gives frequent 'connection error' messages and no more than 0.5mbps speeds when it does work, I believe that this mast is in or close to the Town Centre, so not sure why Infrastructure would be an issue, or why its still being overlooked for any improvement.

    http://postimg.org/image/ry3ontfkb/
  • SkieSkie Posts: 65
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    South east of Runcorn is pretty bad.
  • sillssills Posts: 233
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    Chris1973 wrote: »
    Not sure about the power aspect, as i've seen Traffic Lights and Fixed Average Speed Cameras in some quite remote and obscure rural locations, and surely grid infrastructure can be shared. Microwave could be used for the backhaul?.

    Depends on the geography I suppose. Say you need to cover a village in the bottom of a valley. If you put the mast in the village you'll be near power, but won't be able to see over the surrounding hills to use a microwave link. Put the mast on a hill at the side of the valley so you can use a microwave link and then you'll have to run power up to it and possibly build an access road, etc.
  • natbikenatbike Posts: 517
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    The area the new tower is going is covered by FTTP which i presume the mast will be using, the old orange tower will probably be supplied by microwave.
    It almost certainly will not use FTTP. The only likely benefit an area being FTTP'd would bring is cleaned/unblocked ducts. FTTP is not really suitable backhaul for cell sites and would not fall within the current agreements that I've seen for FTTP usage terms.

    They'll be leased lines of one sort or another and likely microwave if that's not economic.
  • thebennyboythebennyboy Posts: 327
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    natbike wrote: »
    It almost certainly will not use FTTP. The only likely benefit an area being FTTP'd would bring is cleaned/unblocked ducts. FTTP is not really suitable backhaul for cell sites and would not fall within the current agreements that I've seen for FTTP usage terms.

    They'll be leased lines of one sort or another and likely microwave if that's not economic.

    That sounds more correct. There is a whole load of new ducting for the FTTP which i guess will make it easier to run a line up to the tower, the new site will be in line of sight of the soon to be MBNL'd orange site so i'm guessing it might relay a microwave signal to it? The existing orange site isn't currently in line of sight of any other microwave relay which i guess is why it wasn't MBNL'd sooner.
  • Zee_BukhariZee_Bukhari Posts: 1,335
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    in and around my work place which is in Watford, just out of London, very busy area.

    My work has installed an O2 booster box, which is pretty massive high up near the ceilings and we're also getting a Three booster box installed shortly as majority of the staff are on Three.

    You get no 3G coverage on O2 or Vodafone inside the building and no 2G coverage on Vodafone inside the building or around the building same goes for 3G. As for O2 you get 2G coverage inside the building but if you go about 20 feet or a little less inside the building you lose all signal.

    On EE and 3 is difficult to get 3G coverage inside the building but this is improving a lot lately, and those who now have 800MHz on 3 have noticed a sharp increase in coverage for 4G inside the building.

    I noticed all this when the O2 boosterbox went down, and has been down for about 3 weeks now.

    Vodafone is by far the worst, very poor 2G and 3G and no sign of 4G at all.
  • MinardiMinardi Posts: 503
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    Loads around the Peak District. North Yorkshire was very poor when I was up there before Christmas. Most of the highlands of Scotland (though that's particularly difficult to cover). Loads of Cornwall. Loads of Wales.....
  • MinardiMinardi Posts: 503
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    bookey_uk wrote: »
    Yep, I have maps showing me where those places are, I spend time trying to come up with solutions to resolve them, but often they just do not cost in. :(

    Is the govt's MIP making any difference to this?
  • bookey_ukbookey_uk Posts: 282
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    Minardi wrote: »
    Is the govt's MIP making any difference to this?

    More to come in 2016 that will reduce the troublesome locations, but not all of them.
  • MinardiMinardi Posts: 503
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    bookey_uk wrote: »
    More to come in 2016 that will reduce the troublesome locations, but not all of them.

    Hopefully I'll notice when I'm out hiking! Assume they usually go all bands 2G1800 3G2100 and 4G1800 from launch?
  • mupet0000mupet0000 Posts: 629
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    I don't think any operator in 2016 would build a new site and then only install 2G equipment. A new site is always going to be built with multiband antennas and 2G+3G+4G equipment.
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