You say that, but this is one of my biggest issues in the area I live. I live very close to an Ex-Orange mast (-69dbm 3G so a very strong signal)

It's backhaul was so slow that data was useless, even for background tasks. Calls worked, sometimes, whilst text messages usually worked when I was in this area using 3G or 2G my text messages would frequently come 20-30 minutes late, or out of order. I'm one of those people that will use SMS in place of an instant messenger, so having text messages out of order is quite a big annoyance to me.

I spent months complaining to EE CS about this, and eventually upgraded the site to 4G. I can get 60mbps download on 4G, but 3G/2G is still transmitting on the Orange code (from the same site as 4G) - 3G is still absolutely useless here, and since i'm usually in a phone call when at home, I rarely saw this 4G signal meaning my SMS's would arrive so slowly, out of order or sometimes never at all.

I live in a small village, very near to a large town, this mast covers only the small village, since at either edge of this village I receive a 4G signal from a neighbouring mast, making me confident that this is not a number of users issue.

Now that 4G calling is here, I can SMS and use Voice calls as I please, and should my phone ever drop down to 3G (both have good coverage here so i'm not sure why it does this) during a call I know that I can just recall. But i'd love to know why this site, which clearly now has sufficient backhaul, has seen no speed or capacity improvements on 3G or 2G since the 4G upgrade (which happened about 5 months ago)

Day one in LTE/GSM mode. Success! Calls work again! Hurrah. 2G really is the future of calls, because it actually fudging works. I had no missed call texts, phone rang every time, and I could dial out every time AND no dropped calls. Such luxury! Jumped back to 4G very quickly when avaliable too, no waiting for the data connection to end on 3G before moving back. Battery life also noticeably better. Perhaps 10% more left at the end of the day (I didn't have to have a late afternoon recharge, put it that way!). Happy days.

Shame you can't VoLTE then. 2G voice calls are okay, but HD voice still wins

For me, I only use HD Voice via 3G, and data via 3G/4G.

Funnily enough, in the 2 years of having the S4 jammed onto WCDMA only mode, I haven't actually had any issues with regards to making/receiving phone calls. So maybe it might just be the area that Minardi is in, that is having overloaded 3G calling...

HD Voice is brilliant, but I'd rather the call lasted over 30 seconds!

Yes, it is the area I'm in. I've had problems before back when it was Orange and they have returned. I've got EE tech support looking into it but for now, this solution works rather well!

I don't think tech support will be able to do anything until the mast site is upgraded, unless it's a true fault rather than crushing congestion.

It's the latter problem here - despite having an excellent 3G signal in dB terms, the call quality is terrible and most calls fail or have to be aborted. EE can't / won't do anything about it until the site is upgraded this time next year.

I wish my phone could be set to 2G, but annoyingly it can't.

A surprising solution is presenting itself for August - with O2 of all people fibre-ing and upgrading the tiny little rural 2G mast down the lane from me...

How have you found out when your mast is being upgraded?

So I'm back and recovered (nearly) from Glastonbury; here are some of the results of the speed tests I did.

Location and Time: Near Pedestrian Gate D, Weds 9.40am - D/L 50Mbps U/L 29Mbps
Location and Time: Near Pedestrian Gate D, Weds 10.30am - D/L 75Mbps U/L 27Mbps
Location and Time: Near Pedestrian Gate D, Weds 11am - D/L 94Mbps U/L 42Mbps
Location and Time: Near Pedestrian Gate D, Weds 12pm - D/L 0mbps U/L 18Mbps
Location and Time: Pyramid Stage, Friday 2pm - D/L 3.5mbps U/L 6.7mbps
Location and Time: Silver Hayes, Friday 9pm - D/L 12mbps U/L 29mbps
Location and Time: Silver Hayes, Saturday 5.30pm - D/L 0.9mbps U/L 7.7mbps
Location and Time: Pyramid Stage, Sunday 4.30pm - D/L 2.9mbps U/L 9.3mbps
Location and Time: Silver Hayes (Sonic Stage), Sunday 7pm - D/L 4.2mbps U/L 14mbps
Location and Time: Silver Hayes (Sonic Stage - Full), Sunday 8pm - D/L 0.2mbps U/L 0.6mbps
Location and Time: Pyramid Stage, Sunday 9.20pm (Just before Coldplay) - D/L 0.1mbps U/L 0mbps
Location and Time: Near Pedestrian Gate D, Monday 1.30am - D/L 25mbps U/L 24Mbps

Performance this year was 100x better than last with very usable data speeds through the vast majority of the festival. The only time data wouldn't work was during the Coldplay performance (I was expecting this). What I wasn't expecting however is VoLTE calls to work everytime I tried during the performance even though data was 'dead' so the prioritisation is really working in that sense. Data worked for about 20% of the Coldplay performance.

Still wasn't able to get 4G in some parts of the SE Corner although unlike last year, I was able to get signal there. Infact I never saw No Service at all at the festival which is also an improvement.

Compared to friends on o2, Vodafone (hardly saw 4G at all mates VF phones) and 3, EE easily was the best performer (and it should be)

Well they've sent me a text saying it is fixed tonight, so we'll see. Going to restart my phone and see how it performs. Have noticed the 4G signal strength has improved slightly today, wonder if they've turned the wick up just a smidge to keep me quiet?

Unofficial, but verified channels...


Fingers crossed for you - if it is indeed fixed it must have been a genuine fault I guess.

Interesting point about the power level. I think the very distant mast that my 4G mobile broadband comes from might have had a similar boost over the past couple of weeks. Even my phone is picking up a very, very weak signal at times, when previously it was it was only accessible via the external antenna and router.

On the subject of EE fault reporting, how long should it realistically take for "second-line" to properly investigate a problem with ex-Orange 3G failing all calls on, presumably one site/cell since just over a week now. I've had to lock my phone to 2G only to have reliable voice service, got an IM fault reference but I have no confidence in whether anyone will actually callback unless I keep chasing them every couple of days

EE are leaving no mast untouched around my area, not one EE mast that I know of now doesn't have 4G! Seriously, their 3G and 4G is now the exact same right across the board here except obviously the 4G doesn't go as far.

This week they did the final one, on the top of a mountain with absolutely no buildings, only a road, and it covers a tiny area so passengers in cars could use it for about 30 seconds before being on the next one But they 4G'd it!

World would be a better place if 3G just buggered off and died. HD voice is lovely but let's face it, most voice calls are made to say some things to the other person's ear and they say something back to your ear. If you can understand it and your ear doesn't melt or fall off, it's job done. There is totally a place for that. I currently run dual sim with VOD 2G for calls which just works. EVERYWHERE. Then a 3 sim for data which is awesome most places and getting better slowly.

Probably switch to single SIM EE once 800 is out and VoLTE is fully sorted. Missus is on EE at the mo (iPhone 4 so no fancy stuff) and the bloody thing hardly ever rings.

Sat (im)patiently waiting as month after month after month rolls by without any sign of VoLTE coming to Android...

It's already on 2 android phones....

Yes, but not two particularly popular phones. Even the Xperia X isn't likely to sell in huge numbers, thanks to Sony doing such a poor job of marketing these days (and the fact that it is no longer a premium device).

And the Priv? Well, nice as it is, how many did they sell?

When it comes to the S7, G5, HTC 10, P9 and the like, that will be a major turning point as it will be when EE can begin to actually include 4G Calling/VoLTE and maybe 800 in advertising - in a consumer friendly way. Look at the current EE ads to see that it's unlikely you'd see a mention of VoLTE or 800MHz anywhere in any such ad but rather scenarios where the benefits are demonstrated.

Hi Guys, I have my EE contract since the 4th May and ever since it went live I've had to be rather intense with CS, I haven't been able to add Eurodata until today and no one knew why. It's been one hell of a headache but I've finally got it sorted 😀

Has anyone else had the same problem?

We're losing you to the O2 4G Thread then are we? You'll probably get pretty good speeds, being the only data user O2 will have in the area most of the time.

Any chance you can work your magic and check a mast in my area? Or point me in the right direction

Thank you

Ha! Not really - I already use O2 for voice, but use EE for data. That probably won't change until EE upgrade local masts so that voice calls are reliable, and then I'll use them for both. O2 4G will be a useful back-up for when EE data is flaky and potentially for when I'm out of EE contract. At the moment, because I use EE data as my primary broadband connection (plus VOIP) I'm hugely vulnerable if their single accessible 4G mast goes down.


You could try asking Bookey here on the forum, but I haven't seen anything of him for a while so I don't know if he's still around. Sadly, the only other option is to badger 150 until you get through to someone in second line support who might let some info slip.

You could also look for planning applications in your area, or sometimes work is on www.roadworks.org depending on where the mast is

Hi guys done the above, stretchy info from CS, out of the 13 transmitters in the wider area 6 are being worked on and upgraded tells me nothing really. I even gave the post code of my local site and commited to nothing. Bookey does indeed seem to have vanished I've messaged a few times asking for an update on previous info.

Thanks

Hi I've already looked nothing showing for the next 12 months, on roadworks apart virgin are installing 50metre of fibre in the same street, that might be a clue as the street already has fibre to the flats around the mast.

Is anyone else finding the EE status checker is down today?

Went on to see if there was any reason my phone is only picking up GPRS today at home, but no joy.

I'm just curious about today's GPRS coverage - I'd actually be happy for it to stay that way until 4G arrives. At least it doesn't dupe you into thinking you have good 3G coverage, only to find you can't even make a phone call!

Hi, strange hiccup with using ee sig box and vm sims....

just over 2 years ago my son and daughter both took out seperate vmob contracts.
both these worked on my ee sig box as vm is virtual via old tmob.

2 months ago, both upgraded online at same time again....but one wont go via the ee box, just suffers no signal at home(ok out and about). the sons is working fine via it... any ideas?