Until about three days ago I had an excellent signal with 3 at my house (PA5, near Paisley), a full five bars. Now, however, I'm lucky to get one bar, have absolutely no 3G/internet coverage, and frequently the phone reverts to 'Emergency calls only' mode. I find I can make a call if I trek to the bottom of the garden, but even then it frequently cuts off. I've manually searched for a network but the only ones available to me are 3's own, which aren't much good. Even the 2G coverage is awful.

I popped into my local 3 Store today to see if there were any network faults but they couldn't tell me. Said I should update the software on my phone (SE k800i) to see if that helps. Before I try this or phone customer services, which is going to cost me from a landline, does this seem likely? I can't see how it would be the phone's problem when it works in other areas where the coverage is better?

Anyone else experiencing issues with 3 in the Johnstone//Renfrewshire area?

its network problems i've been having the same issues,it;s because they have ended their partnership with 02 and have set up with orange,hope this helps.

Got some issues here but they have just switched on a Orange phone mast here so should get better

Change the phone the phone as it has issues with roaming see this topic for info

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...d.php?t=863529

You can call 3cs in the three store when its done in store you tend to get a Uk call centre aswell

its network issue as my area WS2 has badly been affected especially when in home/office.

I spoke to 3 technical team and they came up with silly excuse.. WE HAVE RECENTLY UPGRADED OUR SYSTEM so i said, well you didnt do properly.....

Well they came straight out with there a network problem and that my phone as a common issue with roaming so they changed it for me

Sine then i had no problems there the occasional slowness on 3g and hspda

Thanks for the replies. It does seem to have been a network issue as, all of a sudden in the past fortnight or so, the signal has improved and gone back to the 5 full bars. This is without roaming onto Orange, so the 3 mast must have been experiencing issues. Customer service admitted as much and gave me a discount on my bill for the trouble. Still, it took them nearly three months to fix it. I think that it's put me off 3, so come renewal time I'll be looking elsewhere.

Until they offer you an outrageous discount that is.

i managed to cancel my contract yesterday because of the 02 partnership ending,the signal hasn't improved and they said they don't know when it will.My partner is now on the phone trying to cancel his.Its very furstrating especially when the 3 stores knew ages ago what was going on.I will never go with 3 again.The customer service is terrible i must have been passed on to 6 different departments before i eventually got sorted

Have you tried http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk/ to see it there is an orange mast near you? If so find out from Three if it switched on or not they should know, they told me the Orange mast near gets switched on in July, true to there word well what i know, my signal went from 3 bar to 5 bar and has never changed

They soon give you a understandable reason in the end.

I've been having the same problems with my K800i for weeks and weeks now, random disconnections (3 beeps), folks trying to call me and can't, signal 5 bars one min 0 bars next !
Told to do update, battery out/sim card wipe, network search, but all no good.
15 months of perfection with 3 and now it's all gone pear shaped

I would try putting your USIM in another handset. This issue appears to be appearing on SE K800i phones recently. If your phone is found to be at fault - call technical support at 3 and get them to repair it.

Cheers, the sim swap is gonna be my next try.
Not sure about them trying to repair it (if it can be done) as when the phone wouldn't let me access accessories and games (phone fault) I flashed it and it removed all 3 software, not sure if they'll appreciate that

tks! very userful information.=========http://218.64.245.18:8080/1/2008-5-2...5337286997.jpgWow gold,igx4u

There is a message on 333 now saying about disconnections and they have the engineers on the case

I think in my area particularly the worst for signals is 3 Mobile and Orange, also O2 can be quite bad at times and Vodafone can be up and down on 3G. T-Mobile wins best coverage here though.

Well on that basis 3 should be tops as they will soon have exactly the same 3G network as T-Mobile. T-Mobile will have the benefit of seamless switching to GSM 1800 though which is the real advantage the big 4 networks will always have.

3 and T-Mobile will not be sharing a network, only the network infrastructure.

Vodafone and Orange will be sharing transmission sites but 3 + T-Mobile will be sharing their respective networks. Both will be integrated into ONE single network which both will have access to. Coverage on UMTS for both companies will be exactly the same.

The facts are stated below:

T-Mobile and 3 create Britain’s largest 3G network

Agreement makes UK network sharing a reality

Paves the way for national coverage for 3G services in 2009

Creates cost-effective platform for high-speed mobile broadband and internet services

Estimated joint cost saving of £2 billion over 10 years

Reduction of 5,000 masts will benefit the environment

50:50 joint venture company to manage shared access network

Full details: http://www.t-mobilepressoffice.co.uk/

Hmmm and on there I just read:

Although masts and the 3G access networks are being combined, each company’s core network and T-Mobile’s 2G network will not be shared. Both parties will retain responsibility for the delivery of services to their respective customers and use their own frequency spectrum. Nokia Siemens Networks' industry-leading radio access solution will replace most of the two operators’ communications stations across the UK and equipment at the remaining sites is being upgraded and reconfigured for higher quality and capacity. The solution, featuring energy-efficient Flexi base stations from Nokia Siemens Networks, will allow a reduction the number of sites in the network by about 30 percent.


SOURCE

An example of mast sharing here. Although T-mobile customers had no service for a week, while the change was being made.

Indeed but essentially they will both have the same coverage, from the same sites, serviced by one company and only using slightly different bandwidth. Only one set of transponders will be at each location, unlike the Vodafone/Orange deal where both companies will still maintain and operate 100% of their infrastructure.

The two companies themselves describe this: "Agreement makes UK network sharing a reality".

So in a few months both T-Mobile and 3 will have much the same UMTS coverage although T-Mobile will still have the major benefit of their own 2G network which they can seamlessly switch calls to when the UMTS coverage becomes unusable.

Were there not press reports of Hutchison wanting to sell Three? And T-mobile might be the buyer.

I think its great that networks are actually making an effort to use each others masts it should happen with them all to give the customer the best possible service.