[Davetherave70]

For some reason I can no longer get a reception at home(on EE network in Crewe area) and at the same time I've noticed my battery life has severely deteriorated.

Are the 2 things related?

[paulbrock]

while you don't have signal, the phone is constantly scanning for a new signal. This uses up more battery than maintaining an existing signal, so yes.

To check, stick the phone into airplane mode and see what the battery life is like.

[jojo01]

How recently has this become a problem? I'm also on EE and for the past couple of weeks have had a really poor signal, mainly in the afternoons while I'm at work in Shepherds Bush (seems ok in the morning bizarrely).

I've been wondering if some TMobile/Orange masts have been taken down.

I've also been wondering if my phone is just a bit crap (T-Mobile Vivacity).

[The Lord Lucan]

Orange masts for decommissioning were pretty much all taken off line some time ago.. it could be your local cell is on reduced power for a few days or off line for generally a short period whilst upgrades are happening (usually over the weekend) or if a shared site for other networks to upgrade ie Cornerstone.

However there can be faults which kill a cell site. Fibre/power being cut by road diggers, Weather damage to antenna, crash damage etc. These can take time to fix.

[John_Patrick]

Any lack of signal all of a sudden may be worth reporting in. If they have soft decommed a site with a view to permanently switching it off then they may well wait to see how many, if any complaints they get.

If none, they can continue with the decomm and then its too late.

Remember that a 3G signal will expand and contract depending on how busy that, or adjacent sites are..... They 'breath' so that a not so busy site can expand and handle traffic that would normally go through a currently busier site. If the busy site is on the edge of coverage, then there may be a loss in coverage at busy times as the cells coverage shrinks.

In my experience I would say that site upgrades or maintenance due to faults are carried out in normal business hours. It's rare to get sites upgraded at the weekends unless there is a specific reason why the site can't be off air during week days (big customer, access restrictions etc). If sites were mainly or usually upgraded at weekends, what would engineers do the other five days of the week?

[The Lord Lucan]

Engineers fix faults 24-7

Planned upgrades are usually at the weekend with MBNL.

[jojo01]

Thanks all. I'll call EE later to report it and see what they say.

I have wondered if the fact that I am so close to Westfield means that shoppers are using up the bandwidth (or whatever the correct term is!).

[Davetherave70]

I've now called EE and they've confirmed, quite contradictorily, that as part of their Network Optimisation programme they have switched off the local 2G transmitter!

They're adamant the 3G transmitter should give me enough of a signal, but I've let them know I don't get a signal - nor does a work colleague who lives quite locally.

They're going away to investigate....

[John_Patrick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Lord Lucan

Engineers fix faults 24-7

Planned upgrades are usually at the weekend with MBNL.

Ahhh, that clarifies what I thought then, all the guys I know that go to work on upgrades for MBNL don't do **** all work during the week. Wonder why they drive to site, log on, get the the site locked down then? Mibee, they just pretend to go to work to appease the wife.

Oh well.

[McTeagle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jojo01

How recently has this become a problem? I'm also on EE and for the past couple of weeks have had a really poor signal, mainly in the afternoons while I'm at work in Shepherds Bush (seems ok in the morning bizarrely).

I live in that area and it's not been the greatest recently.

Calls seem to be dropping more frequently as well.

[Jimmy Connors]

My signal with EE has become nearly non existent at home over the past few weeks. Frequently my phone displays 'no service' I have to practically hang out of the window to get one bar.

I have told EE, and they are not bothered at all. They are blaming my phone, and tell me to request a new sim card. Complete nonsense. Never had this problem until a few weeks ago.

My contract is only a few months old as well.

[jojo01]

Just an update from me. I finally got around to calling T-Mobile this afternoon. I got put through to a helpful chap in their technical department who tried a couple of different things. In the end, he asked me to change my phone settingto pick up GSM only and I've now got a signal (I don't really use 3G anyway so happy to keep it on 2G though of course this won't be a solution for those of you who do use 3G).

Fingers crossed it'll stay working

[jojo01]

Spoke to soon... just tried calling it from the landline and it went straight to voicemail!

[The Lord Lucan]

Was your phone using data at the time? can't use 2G for voice and data at the same time..

[jojo01]

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Lord Lucan

Was your phone using data at the time? can't use 2G for voice and data at the same time..

No, just voice (I never use data... that i know of!)

[coachtrip_fan99]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jojo01

No, just voice (I never use data... that i know of!)

It may have been background data

[jojo01]

Quote:

Originally Posted by coachtrip_fan99

It may have been background data

Hmmm. I'm charging my old phone at the moment to try out tomorrow - I figure that if i get a signal on that at work all day tomorrow, then it's a fault with my current phone.