[_ben]

I've got a 2G phone on O2. I find GPRS fine for simple web browsing when away from home, but in my home town (which only has one base station) it never connects. Is it possible there are still base stations which don't support GPRS?

[Thine Wonk]

Have you called O2 to ask?

[Everything Goes]

O2 have a service status check page. Put your post code in here:

http://status.o2.co.uk/

[_ben]

Thanks for that. It has actually been working for the last hour or so, but very slowly. I've been getting well below 1kbps, in fact at an average of about 30kB per webpage I estimate it was around 0.3kbps. Maybe its just a capacity issue. I know that voice calls will get priority over GPRS, but maybe contract customers get priority over PAYG and perhaps direct O2 customers get priority over resellers such as Tesco Mobile. If you're at the bottom of the pile I can see how you'd struggle to get a bite of the pie.

[sandman112]

I had a similar problem with 3 the other week, I have and iPad on 3 and at the time had a 3 mobile as well, phone calls from the phone were fine at the house but data was non existent on both devices (both devices showed a 3G signal at the time), but as soon as I moved to another area data was fine. Obviously a problem with data only from one particular mast, so yeah it does happen but good lucy trying to convince them of the fault, took almost a week of daily phone calls to get it sorted.

[_ben]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sandman112

good lucy trying to convince them of the fault, took almost a week of daily phone calls to get it sorted.

Not even going to try, I've had a lifetimes worth of that with BT landlines over the years. Its still not working (90% of the time it won't connect at all, the other 10% it connects but then stalls at 0kB) so I've got another SIM card and asked for an unlocking code. I have a theory, O2 and vodafone don't have any 3G coverage around these parts, but being a tourist area we get a lot of visitors from places where O2 and vodafone do have 3G coverage, I reckon all their smartphones are maxing out GPRS. On the other hand, Orange, T-Mobile and Three do have 3G coverage here, so there should be less pressure on GPRS on those networks. Hopefully changing to T-Mobile will solve the problem.

[beecart]

Quote:

Originally Posted by _ben

Not even going to try, I've had a lifetimes worth of that with BT landlines over the years. Its still not working (90% of the time it won't connect at all, the other 10% it connects but then stalls at 0kB) so I've got another SIM card and asked for an unlocking code. I have a theory, O2 and vodafone don't have any 3G coverage around these parts, but being a tourist area we get a lot of visitors from places where O2 and vodafone do have 3G coverage, I reckon all their smartphones are maxing out GPRS. On the other hand, Orange, T-Mobile and Three do have 3G coverage here, so there should be less pressure on GPRS on those networks. Hopefully changing to T-Mobile will solve the problem.

Ben if you change from o2 to tmob will you let me know whats it like... I'm thinking of doing the same change

Cheers

[_ben]

OK, will do.

When I first started with O2 there was only one base station in the town and O2 and Vodafone faired slightly better than T-Mobile and Orange due to 900MHz having better range over terrain and better building penetration than 1800MHz. There was always a problem with indoor coverage though, you had to be on the right side of the building facing the mast, and in the centre of town where the buildings have thick stone walls there was no indoor coverage at all. Since then, T-Mobile have put up a mast on the other side of town, so I'm expecting more consistent indoor coverage, and Orange have put up a mast in the centre of town which should help with indoor coverage there. They also have 3G coverage, courtesy of Three, which should take some pressure off GPRS. All in all, the T-Mobile/Orange network just seems altogether better planned than O2 and Vodafone's, so I'm expecting good things but I'll let you know how I get on.

[beecart]

Quote:

Originally Posted by _ben

OK, will do.

When I first started with O2 there was only one base station in the town and O2 and Vodafone faired slightly better than T-Mobile and Orange due to 900MHz having better range over terrain and better building penetration than 1800MHz. There was always a problem with indoor coverage though, you had to be on the right side of the building facing the mast, and in the centre of town where the buildings have thick stone walls there was no indoor coverage at all. Since then, T-Mobile have put up a mast on the other side of town, so I'm expecting more consistent indoor coverage, and Orange have put up a mast in the centre of town which should help with indoor coverage there. They also have 3G coverage, courtesy of Three, which should take some pressure off GPRS. All in all, the T-Mobile/Orange network just seems altogether better planned than O2 and Vodafone's, so I'm expecting good things but I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks Ben

Good luck !!!!