Vodafone is the most frutstrating network i have used.

Data just always worked on Orange for me. When i got E (edge) it was nippy too.

Vodafone, if it jumps onto Edge data becomes useless cannot even get google to load, when at Alton Towers data is again useless dispite having 3G Signal nothing loads, many times i have had it block access to website disbite me not having the restriction turned on. Somebody also needs to tell Vodafone lichfields exists then they might provide coverage, phone was useless when i was visiting there.

So my experience of Vodafone? poor coverage, poor data throughput and a horrable online 'My Vodafone' portal. Cannot wait to leave when my contract up, i am tempted to just bite the bullet and pay early termination fee so i can at least have a usable service with another provider, i am getting very frustrated with there network.

It's not that, It's just that the first few posts here have been about pretty much "vodafone are the worst network for everyone" "they're going to collapse" "No one can get signal" "Vodafone have crashed for everyone in the world..."

What you're talking about is an isolated incident for you and a few other customers. Yes, there are a few of these around the country. I know of someone on Three who has problems in a few areas where he can't get a signal and eveything cuts off all the time. The same for a guy on Orange who has had his local mast decommissioned.

So it's not just you, and it's not everyone who is affected. What i'm trying to say is you went OTT in the first few posts.
There is no major issue with vodafone, like the other networks i've mentioned it is one isolated incident that affects you in a large way because you are in that problem area.

Now under no circumstances am i telling you to accept it. What i'm trying to say is that it depends what network you're on/where you are as to whether you get affected by these incidences (like the guy on orange). What i suggest is emailing their head office/customer support team direct with details on where/when you can get signal/can't in your area. Also give them customer names of people affected. Ask them to state the reason for the poor signal and when it will be fixed. If not tell them they are not providing a service in your area and that allows you to cancel your contract/entitled to rebates every month/free signal booster etc...

I'm also finding it a little frustrating at times, but I also have issues on Orange as well. There is no way that any one network will always give better reception, too many variables.

Whilst out at Paultons Park & Beaulieu, I had practically zero coverage on Orange. it would be interesting to see if I'd now have coverage on Vodafone.

I was considering moving to a Vodafone SIM only deal (staff discount, I'd get any tariff at half price), but have had second thoughts - personal phone on Orange, and works phone on Vodafone, then at any given point I won't be relying on one network.

I had full 3G coverage at Paultons Park with Vodafone when we went in the summer

Hi all,

Whilst it's good to see that some of you are happy with your experience of the network it isn't so great to see the comments from those who aren't.

In order for us to assist anyone who is experiencing difficulties with the network I'd recommend following the guidance on our eForum here to enable the Tech Team to be able to investigate matters further.

Kind regards,

Lee

Web Relations Team

Vodafone UK

Hi Lee, apologies for responding to your post two months on but I just noticed it when searching for something else.

I have used your eForum and as I said both there and earlier in this thread the problems start when there is a network fault at a location which is essential to a specific user. As far as I can see Vodafone almost never fix faults promptly (ie within a day or so) and many widely reported major outages are left for months or even indefinitely. As a member of the web team you must be aware of hundreds of threads on your network forum which demonstrate the reality over and over again.

Superficially the forum looks pretty good, apparently with a team quickly responding to every post which must look pretty good for PR purposes or to OFCOM. However, as I have pointed out before, when you look more closely at the posts about network faults you soon notice the reality. The team very politely make endless unnecessary requests for more information, rarely achieve anything, and give the users little real information about a fix. If you search through your forum you will see that is why I finally gave up on Vodafone.

Sorry to repeat myself yet again but Vodafone's approach seems to be to politely run users round in circles until they give up and go away. Losing the handful of subscribers who use the forum, understand the reality and give up must be negligible compared with the cost of providing a good service. 99.9% of users accept the get out clause that "we cannot provide good coverage to every location" - which is nonsense when a previously good service disappears.

I can't believe that Vodafone engineers are any worse than those on other networks so the problems must arise from the top. It must be tempting to boost profits by cutting support staff to the bone or adopting a policy of not replacing faulty equipment once it has been scheduled for an upgrade (eg for 4G).

As I also said on your forum, I realise that you have to earn a living like the rest of us so I don't expect you to agree with me.

No the West coast of Scotland. The best signal around here is T-Mobile. I've tried them all, believe me. In the cities and towns there's probably no difference.

It's a similar story in the North-East of Scotland as well.

I can't say definitively that T-Mobile is the best but the difference between it and Vodafone is marked.
I struggle to even get 2G coverage on Vodafone in places like Inverness, Elgin and Inverurie, whereas I can easily get 3G coverage on T-Mobile in those locations.

I've done lots of work around the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and would say that voda and O2 have the best 2g coverage. I worked with a mate who was on tmobile (before the merge) and his coverage was atrocious, driving for 10 or 20 miles with no coverage on tmo but almost constant on voda (who I was with at the time).

I'm sure tmo will be better now as its using oranges signal as well but will be far worse than voda and O2 up there.

Ironically, I'm on tmo now,was on voda but was getting annoyed at getting missed calls with full signal or not been able to establish a call....either or both several times a day. And this was while working in a Vodafone cabin! Embarrassing to say the least.

Possibly integration with the Cable and Wireless network and 3G merge with O2.

To be honest, all the networks seem to be giving bad coverage. Most notably, O2's 3G service and the former T-Mobile 2G service.

EE dismantling T-Mobile 2G masts in favour of 4G ones??? The T-Mobile network in Northern Ireland has gone completely.

The C&WW network should give Vodafone greater capacity, and the O2 network sharing should give improved coverage.

EE are likely *not* dismantling T-Mobile masts of any kind unless they know for sure that its area is covered by another mast.

As for "T-Mobile" network having gone completely, thats purely down to branding, as both T-Mobile and Orange have now been re-branded as EE.

In Northern Ireland the T-Mobile infrastructure was completely turned off in April 2012 and any T-Mobile or Virgin Mobile customers can now only roam on Orange. Nothing to do with branding, you can still sign up to T-Mobile and Virgin there, however only Orange and soon 4G EE masts exist now.

As for the CWW and O2 merge I was refering to the integration process, you won't see the benefits of it until it is complete, when a development is under construction, it is likely to experience disruption.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-17868140
http://www.virginmobile.com/vm/ukCov...k.howdoi.sm235

So clearly getting rid of one or the other is likely to cause problems. In 2010 including Virgin Mobile customers they had 30 million customers, that has dropped to 26-27 million and could get worse. O2 could catch up again. In theory as EE is owned 50/50 by two seperate companies and because of the use of seperate branding, this puts O2 as the largest as it is owned by one corporation using one main brand, T-Mobile has fewer than 13 million customers and Orange just under 17 million which is expected to drop following recent price hikes and in-contract price increases.

The EE home broadband and home phone has fewer than 1 million but is on the increase again, it is a BT Wholesale product in other words a resell of BT.

The claim that EE made about them being bigger than BT is purely exaggeration, they have no fixed line infrastructure, they have less fixed line customers and for a majority of there mobile network, they are heavily dependent on BT.

The disaster that EE will cause is many EE store job losses,call centre job losses and more especially when the penetration level hits 20 million, there will be no need for all those stores nor staff and is a big reason why the merger should have been blocked.

When you have millions of customers a few 1000 of people complaining is a given. Add in a variable and often temperamental always changing technology that can be affected by even how cold the air is... i'm never surprised how many complaints there are. The fact they are so engaging is more likely to get people complaining, not many people will keep complaining to a blank wall.

I have a few friends that live together in the same house, they all had absolutely no service AT ALL for about 3-4 days, Infact it might have been longer.

Would they be intitled to some kind of compensation seeing as they are paying for a service that they could not provide for a short period( well it wasn't really short in my opinion)

If it's vodafone they always brag about having indoor coverage but I think all networks can only guarantee outdoor coverage unless you buy one of they signal booster boxes from vodafone.