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Three's Deteriorating Service and Empty Promises.(rant)
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Dean Lambert
03-11-2014
It's the same around here in Sheffield.

Sometimes it is pointless trying to send any data over 3G and especially after 3pm. I have spoken to Three god knows how many times and just keep getting fobbed off.

Thankfully my phone picks up a 4G signal and data does work on that. Could it be congestion? I'm not so sure
toofast
03-11-2014
Originally Posted by Dean Lambert:
“It's the same around here in Sheffield.

Sometimes it is pointless trying to send any data over 3G and especially after 3pm. I have spoken to Three god knows how many times and just keep getting fobbed off.

Thankfully my phone picks up a 4G signal and data does work on that. Could it be congestion? I'm not so sure”

Traffic sense 3pm is activated from 3pm - 12 midnight.. My speed is abysmal all day long!
Currently on 0.15mbps...whoohoo...whereas used to get 3mbps steadily throughout the day. The frustrating thing is I can walk just 300 yards away and get 15mbps on 4G!
jabbamk1
03-11-2014
Originally Posted by Dean Lambert:
“It's the same around here in Sheffield.

Sometimes it is pointless trying to send any data over 3G and especially after 3pm. I have spoken to Three god knows how many times and just keep getting fobbed off.

Thankfully my phone picks up a 4G signal and data does work on that. Could it be congestion? I'm not so sure”

Sounds like heavy congestion in your area which causes traffic sense to kick in.

@toofast- sounds like a mast fault
moox
03-11-2014
Originally Posted by jabbamk1:
“@toofast- sounds like a mast fault”

My experience is the same in Reading - 3G performance is pants, less than 0.5Mbit, 4G is 10Mbit+ (where there actually is 4G signal)
totalhysteria
03-11-2014
Originally Posted by Thine Wonk:
“Sounds like you and the OP of this thread are both in the same local area, so it could be the same issue for both of you.”


Hi,

I work in Brighton, so have experienced the same problems as the OP, but I probably should have made clear that just north of Brighton was about 15 miles north! So different town with no connections to Brighton and some quite large hills in the way.

I did a root metrics test on the way into work, home area was about 5-6mb (Burgess Hill), once I got to Hassocks (A largish village on the north side of the downs en-route to Brighton) I was getting 20mb , these speeds continued down the a23 until I hit Brighton, then i was down to 0mb down with about 2mb up. 4g did kick in at points, and had speeds up to about 22mb with full bars - but the 4g is REALLY patchy, and dropping to 3g led to pants speeds again.

Something is obviously up in these areas, I just hope they sort it out as although you can't expect certain speeds (which is fair enough) you expect enough to get a connection and use data.
jonmorris
03-11-2014
Brighton was very hit and miss for me too, with 4G being good (when available) but many 3G only areas having no data at all.

Most of my problems were also along the sea front, NOT the lanes and places you might have expected.
toofast
03-11-2014
I wonder if Three are prioritising 4G data over 3G. The reports of next to no 3G data speeds in Brighton are becoming common, yet 4G is flying along but very patchy.
Over three weeks of complaining to Three's 2nd line support now is becoming frustrating. Why do they never give out fix times, but instead opt for 'it will be fixed within' 7 days old yarn. How can it take such a huge amount of time for an engineer to change a fuse?!
jabbamk1
03-11-2014
Originally Posted by toofast:
“I wonder if Three are prioritising 4G data over 3G. The reports of next to no 3G data speeds in Brighton are becoming common, yet 4G is flying along but very patchy.
Over three weeks of complaining to Three's 2nd line support now is becoming frustrating. Why do they never give out fix times, but instead opt for 'it will be fixed within' 7 days old yarn. How can it take such a huge amount of time for an engineer to change a fuse?!”

3G is NOT being slowed down on purpose in 4G areas. That's a fact.

But its still a shambles that Three haven't been able to fix the issue at hand. Wouldn't hold my breath tbh. Sometimes it can take weeks or even month for service to return back to what it was. And that applies to all networks. Ive seen it first hand.
totalhysteria
03-11-2014
Return journey was better with my no data area now giving out about 5mb, but back in my home town I'm getting 0.05mb now. I'm assuming it must be congestion as it was at least useable this morning even if slower than you might expect.
toofast
03-11-2014
Originally Posted by jabbamk1:
“3G is NOT being slowed down on purpose in 4G areas. That's a fact.

But its still a shambles that Three haven't been able to fix the issue at hand. Wouldn't hold my breath tbh. Sometimes it can take weeks or even month for service to return back to what it was. And that applies to all networks. Ive seen it first hand.”

Well it's been 3 weeks now since the issue began with an outage. It was when the service resumed that signal and data had degraded massively.
Here's my experience with Three Customer services. 333 number-1st line Support will just tell you that 'a mast' is at fault and it will be repaired within 48 hours (Never is!).
When I insisted (and I did have to insist) that the problem shoudl be escalated to 2nd Line Support. SLS appear to have real mast location information on their screens, and told me that they will 'personally' look into the case and be in contact with me within 7 days (never have!). They have on three occasions told me three different mast locations were at fault. When I got through to the Glasgow office I was spun a line very similar to another poster on here - that is, mast is sure for an upgrade and normal service will resume in months. Then phoned 2nd line support (india) on Saturday and was told this was not the case and a mast was at fault...and I go around and around in circles.
It's the inconsistency with CS that is very frustrating.
gold fire 201
04-11-2014
I have also noticed within the last few months the speed degrading in the south London area.I actually have switched back to 3G-HSDPA permanently by the handset now.

Due to the 4G signal/speed has become slower around 3-4Mbs sometimes and seems to disappear sometimes then comes back but i can still retain around 10-12Mbs during the day on 3G-HSDPA .

I am happy with the tariff i am on if Three eventually do alter the oneplan £15 tariff either by pushing the price up to much or the tethering option being limited to much i may think of joining EE to benefit from the wider coverage and 2G fall back for calls for when out in the country side.
Dean Lambert
04-11-2014
My situation hasn't improved either (apparently it will be sorted out within 3 days).

I can't switch to 3G as if I do that I get 0.2meg speeds, whereas on 4G I can get a bit faster
Faust
04-11-2014
Fortunately for me I still work and play in a world where my mobile is simply a back up to land line connections i.e. to be used when there's no fixed line. Therefore the loss of a mast would be unlikely to inconvenience me.
toofast
04-11-2014
Originally Posted by Dean Lambert:
“My situation hasn't improved either (apparently it will be sorted out within 3 days).

I can't switch to 3G as if I do that I get 0.2meg speeds, whereas on 4G I can get a bit faster”

It's been over 3 weeks for me. Last communication with Three was on Saturday - given the 7 days line and we will be in communication with you throughout the week via texts and call - Not heard a dickie bird. Speed is now .15mbps and with barely any indoor coverage - And this is in the centre of Brighton!
Dean Lambert
04-11-2014
Originally Posted by toofast:
“It's been over 3 weeks for me. Last communication with Three was on Saturday - given the 7 days line and we will be in communication with you throughout the week via texts and call - Not heard a dickie bird. Speed is now .15mbps and with barely any indoor coverage - And this is in the centre of Brighton!”

It's obvious they have done something but they just don't want to admit it. Try to watch a Youtube clip on 3G after a certain time and you have got no chance.
toofast
04-11-2014
Originally Posted by Dean Lambert:
“It's obvious they have done something but they just don't want to admit it. Try to watch a Youtube clip on 3G after a certain time and you have got no chance.”

Something had definitely happened to the 3G reception in Brighton. Travelled around town today and soart from 4G pockets. 3G is abysmal! Very odd.
totalhysteria
04-11-2014
I was getting 20mbps down and the same up on 4g in Brighton today, but 3g was still poor. A decent speed for 4g but the fact it's still so patchy means you really need 3g to work well.

I hope they rectify whatever is causing this, but I seem to recall these issues cropping up in the EE thread, but it seems like EE took it seriously and sorted it out quickly. If three want to keep enticing data hungry customers onto their network, they need to have the resources to deal with that extra load.
Icaraa
05-11-2014
I wonder if someone could help with my query? I'm trying to change my tarriff to the SIM only plan for £10 which gives me 600 minutes and 1Gb of data. I'll then be adding an all you can eat add-on. Three seem pretty sure I can't add that AYCE add-on as I'm on a new 2014 tariff and it's not allowed. Does that sound correct?
toofast
05-11-2014
Originally Posted by totalhysteria:
“I was getting 20mbps down and the same up on 4g in Brighton today, but 3g was still poor. A decent speed for 4g but the fact it's still so patchy means you really need 3g to work well.

I hope they rectify whatever is causing this, but I seem to recall these issues cropping up in the EE thread, but it seems like EE took it seriously and sorted it out quickly. If three want to keep enticing data hungry customers onto their network, they need to have the resources to deal with that extra load.”

On the London Road (right next to the new and huge student accommodation complex funnily enough) the speeds were 25mbps down and 20mbps up! But as soon as I travelled towards the Western Road area (near Waitrose) the 3G was was barely registering a single bar on my device.
Three have a store on Western Road and the signal outside the store is very good, but only yards away and it begins to deterioate....funny that!
I wonder what Three have done to 3G mast round here? Are they now too preoccupied with 4G to attend issues with 3G masts?

Footnote: As of 10am this morning. No network coverage at my address at all now. This is taking the piss!
jonmorris
05-11-2014
If I turn off 4G at home, I can still get up to 20Mbps on DC-HSDPA. It still compares extremely well to my 4G service, bar the much slower uplink.

While I might get almost 3Mbps up (but rarely do), even if 4G is slower than usual (15 instead of 25), my uplink is always going to be 10Mbps or more.

Now all the students are back at the nearby university, I haven't seen a massive drop in data speeds so expect Three has got a fair amount of capacity here that is coping well.

I do think Three could have some issues in the future, with limited 4G spectrum at the moment, and being a network that perhaps attracts more customers that want data and will be swayed by the '4G at no extra cost' to get a 4G phone - thus in the year ahead, more people will be using Three's 4G network and the 3G network will be very underused in comparison.

Assuming the congestion isn't with the backhaul, some users might find that turning 4G off will improve their speeds in some locations.
slick1two
05-11-2014
Nevermind 4G speeds what has happened to H+ ?? Now when I lose 4G and falls back on to H+ it barely works! Before 4G kicked in, I was getting very decent speeds on H+. Even with a Nexus 4 I was getting between 10-20mbps download consistently. Ok 4G hasnt rolled out everywhere yet, but how does that explain H+ speeds turning to crap? In some cases i get a signal and H+ appears but I am not receiving any data at all! I'm in North London, but work in the city.

What has happened to three????
jchamier
05-11-2014
Originally Posted by slick1two:
“What has happened to three????”

A few million users who are using 100's of GBs of data a month saturating the network, causing the 3G cell sites to 'breathe in' and reduce footprint resulting in no service for people.

With only around 9.5 million customers, Three has the most amount of mobile data being passed over its network. That doesn't add up.
Gigabit
05-11-2014
Sorry to be pedantic but 100's is incorrect; it should be 100s.
wavejockglw
05-11-2014
Originally Posted by Gigabit:
“Sorry to be pedantic but 100's is incorrect; it should be 100s.”

It's not 100s it's 1000's.

Congestion has caught up with 3 and they are now making moves to address the folly of offering unlimited data in a short term land grab.

What a mess......

One has to wonder how 3 will manage to solve this issue. Their credibility will take a huge hit and all of a sudden 'the network built for the internet' is beginning to look like an embarrassment.
totalhysteria
05-11-2014
Sub 1mbps on 3G tonight at home, upload is almost non existent. This isn't even in Brighton! I'm Going to call three tomorrow as having piss poor data at work and in my home town isn't helpful. I did alot of testing before I signed up to three in 2013, and this is very different to what I saw back then both at home and work.

I can't see congestion being an issue at gone 10pm in this town. No student populous and no night life!
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