Could it also be 800mhz-related I wonder?

Yes, it could well be - but I think there's more to it than that. I am expecting they're going to be adding more 4G+ and increased backhaul. 800 is all very good, but this is town/city centre work.

I've had problems in rural areas.

Forget 150 ---- email the CEO of EE direct with a BRIEF explanation of the problem .
Regards

Ah, thanks Graham. Again, it takes a fellow user to confirm that it's not just me having the problem. Surely that's not how it should be?

150 claim the mast is being 'upgraded because of the bad service it's given of late'

They also claim it will be back up by 6pm tonight, but I'll believe that when it comes up and stays up. Supposedly the status checker doesn't reflect reality because it's being 'upgraded rather than fixed'...

One day, a mobile operator will get the balance between network brilliance and customer communications right, and I'll be a very happy man. That day seems a very long way off though!


Good point this - if the anticipated CTIL upgrade to 4G down the road had been completed and I wasn't mid contract, I'd have given notice yesterday and switched. I can see it happening in the future, or at least having a fallback contract with both operators.

Just got a status update to say there's no problem with the mast...

https://1drv.ms/i/s!Ahjj61QCjK5mhtRwkKvKzNtfHUTBlg

That mast getting 800 do you know?

May not be material in this case, but that postcode is for the centre of Ellesmere, which now has closer 4G coverage from the recently-enabled mast at the edge of Lakelands Academy playing field. Try SY12 9HW, which is the postcode for Brow Farm where "our" mast is sited.

Mind you, both postcodes show "We recently fixed a problem" on the status checker, so what do I know?

I try not to go to the top for every enquiry. I called 150 and spoke to two VERY helpful, keen and knowledgeable people (Darlington I would guess first, then later someone in Ireland). I got my issue resolved and had a long chat with the Irish lady, who would have probably been happy to keep talking to me now about local sites had I wanted to!

I'm not sure to be honest - GrahamSL might... It would seem a good candidate being in a small rural town.


That's actually a really good point - I quote that postcode to them because it's central Ellesmere and if I give them mine they can't understand why or how I'm connecting to it from such a distance away. I hadn't realised there was now more than one 4G mast covering the area. It might also explain why I got yet another conflicting message a few minutes ago from the EE forum mod telling me that they had now got access rights to the faulty mast and were waiting for a rigging team...

I'm accusing EE of giving a raft of conflicting messages, when to be fair I'm probably feeding them duff information in the first place!

Is the CEO email easy to find.

For most companies you can guess it.
E.G. firstname.lastname@company.co.uk
That nearly always works.

Just a reminder to all here though, please don't post the actual email addresses on DS.
It's happened a few times and it's strictly against the rules for obvious reasons

http://eecomplaints.co.uk/make-a-complaint

There is a website callled ceoemail that has records for most U.K. companies.

We're back! My local mast has 4G once more!

Download speeds are virtually the same as 3G - anywhere between 10 and 15 Mbit/s - this is likely due to microwave backhaul resulting in the mast being "single speed". Upload is good though at 25Mbit/s - that's 5x faster than Virgin Media broadband (and VM Broadband caps your speed after a while...)

I have had close to 30Mbit/s on my mast (on 4G) before but that must have been when no one was on it as the micro backhaul is the limiting factor (and is probably why 3G is also a bit slower than before 4G was launched, by about 5Mbit/s).
When this gets fiber to it, it'll be doing good strong 4G and 3G - plus hopefully 800MHz (certainly towards Chelveston, if they don't put 800MHz on the old Orange telegraph pole).

All Orange telegraph poles should have 800MHz.
It should be the law!

I've seen quite a few Orange poles upgraded to 4G, without replacing the pole with one of those giant lollipops (think Pedro said they're Alifabs). The old poles obviously have very compact antenna, and many were originally Omnidirectional GSM. I assume they fit compact tri-sector antenna into the top of the pole for 4G.

I get the impression that further upgrades to EE's coverage in a lot of areas will need new panels fitting and in many cases a new monopole entirely. 800 MHz can fit into a Hutchison Jupiter pole, VO2 style.

Given most of the older Orange and T-Mobile sites had 1800mhz for 2G, and 2100mhz for 3G, then adding 4G at 1800 doesn't require any panel or pole changes.

For the big macro sites covering a large area then it may make sense to replace panels (especially if they are worn out, rusty etc) to increase the footprint - but if you have a lot of smaller sites, then it may not make sense.

In some areas Orange fitted a lot of smaller sites due to the terrain, and so there is likely no need for 800 on these, if they all get 1800mhz 4G and new backhaul then very fast (80mbps) speeds can be achieved.

For example this is near a mate of mine, at the start of Oct this site was upgraded to 4G, and the pole and antenna are the same:

Google streetview has the 2G/3G cabinets and pole:
https://goo.gl/maps/UYC8gLwGaED2

my pic of replaced cabinets:
http://i.imgur.com/2gBqkXB.jpg

Most of the Orange telegraph poles are 2G 1800MHz only, so they will have single input panels in them. (I don't think they are omni's.) If that is the case then they can leave the single input panels in and do 2G/3G/4G through them, or they can replace the top with more modern single input panels. 800MHz would require a dual band antenna, likewise with 3 1800MHz.

Jupiters are good because they can have triple input panels in a reasonably compact mast - in VO2's case, usually lo, lo, high (for 800, 900, 2100) and in EE's case they are lo, hi, hi (for 800MHz, 1800/2100MHz and 1800/2100/2600MHz). Though I am sure that most of them will be 800/1800/2100.

My local Orange mast remains a telegraph pole (and I think that's how it is staying) so 1800MHz and 2100MHz only is my guess?

I know there's been a few posts since, but I'm continuing to have periodic issues with a local legacy OUK site where the 3G element periodically locks up and goes to sleep - beefs out full signal but 100% call and data failures. And EE/MBNL don't seem to notice as the site doesn't fail as such.

Trouble is, trying to convince EE-CS via 150 or the forum that I know the site reference of the faulty cell etc, it's like talking to a brick wall. I'm extremely fortunate to have resolved the problem through unofficial channels several times, but I'd far rather official routes work - or better still, the site is swapped out for MBNL and the (clearly knackered) kit put in the nearest skip.

When you call up 150 ask to be put through to networks and ask them to look into the 3G uptime at a date when those problems happened and if everything still looks fine tell them to look at the data throughput on the cell at that time and hopefully they'll notice something and open a fault.

Evening.

Orange used GSM omni monopoles, and sectored monopoles.

The GSM Omni monopoles have a very narrow top section. You can see them in Peter C's very informative YouTube video about Orange masts.

I've seen that type of upgrade too. You essentially just notice the appearance of a new cabinet.

Those cabinets are similar to what is with my local Orange telegraph pole mast - though instead of the white cabinet, there's another green one (I think).

Will be interesting to see what this mast will provide at the end of it all.

Possibility of some new EE SIMO deals this week. I heard perhaps 20GB unlimited/unlimited for 21.99 ...... Anyone else heard of potential offers?