3Mobile & EE signal issues

[nineteenseventyeight]

Anyone else experiencing poor signal issues for the past several months on either EE or 3? 3 and EE share many masts now up here and the signal anywhere between Dunbeath up the A99 to Wick I find has been horrendous when it previously was quite good in places on this stretch. I have complained numerous times and nothing is yet to be done eventhough they are aware there is a problem and I keep getting texts that there is "work going on in the Latheron area". Anyone else?

[Netters]

We are on 3 and in the last month or so, we have periods where we lose signal completely and only have emergency calls. We used to have a consistently good signal here in Occumster. What makes it even more frustrating is that we can't get Openreach to get their act together to install our landline/broadband so we rely on our mobile signal and mobile internet. This has made it even more vital that our mobiles work properly so because there's been service issues, it's been bloomin' annoying!

[nineteenseventyeight]

We are on 3 and in the last month or so, we have periods where we lose signal completely and only have emergency calls. We used to have a consistently good signal here in Occumster. What makes it even more frustrating is that we can't get Openreach to get their act together to install our landline/broadband so we rely on our mobile signal and mobile internet. This has made it even more vital that our mobiles work properly so because there's been service issues, it's been bloomin' annoying!

Exact same problem I am having and exact same situation. It is my only internet connection. 3's service has not been back properly since a storm knocked it out for a week or so last November. As 3 and EE are sharing the mast in question (I am just outside Occumster) there is no other provider to turn to for 3G service. If O2 had 3G here I would switch as the service is much better but.. it is only 2G. I have been making complaints here and there since November and although the service came back for a spell it has never been the same again. Would be a good idea if you are in the same area to also make a complaint about the intermittent service issue. The more complaints the better and hopefully the quicker they will resolve the issue.

[Recycle it]

[QUOTE=nineteenseventyeight;1154482]Exact same problem I am having and exact same situation. It is my only internet connection. 3's service has not been back properly since a storm knocked it out for a week or so last November. As 3 and EE are sharing the mast in question (I am just outside Occumster) there is no other provider to turn to for 3G service. If O2 had 3G here I would switch as the service is much better but.. it is only 2G. I have been making complaints here and there since November and although the service came back for a spell it has never been the same again. Would be a good idea if you are in the same area to also make a complaint about the intermittent service issue. The more complaints the better and hopefully the quicker they will resolve the issue.[/QUOTE

tried complaining but it's just a waste of time . They told me I would be better trying another provider, so that's what I'm doing ,just need to get the phone unblocked. I would prefer to get it done local but I'll have to wait and see and if it's not possible here ,it'll be Inverness again . Thanks

[nineteenseventyeight]

[QUOTE=Recycle it;1154485]

Exact same problem I am having and exact same situation. It is my only internet connection. 3's service has not been back properly since a storm knocked it out for a week or so last November. As 3 and EE are sharing the mast in question (I am just outside Occumster) there is no other provider to turn to for 3G service. If O2 had 3G here I would switch as the service is much better but.. it is only 2G. I have been making complaints here and there since November and although the service came back for a spell it has never been the same again. Would be a good idea if you are in the same area to also make a complaint about the intermittent service issue. The more complaints the better and hopefully the quicker they will resolve the issue.[/QUOTE

tried complaining but it's just a waste of time . They told me I would be better trying another provider, so that's what I'm doing ,just need to get the phone unblocked. I would prefer to get it done local but I'll have to wait and see and if it's not possible here ,it'll be Inverness again . Thanks

There is no other provider of 3G besides EE who shares the same broken masts with 3, that's the main issue. If O2 provided 3G in this area, I would change in a heartbeat. 2G is fine if you only use the service for calls but, when using for data it is pretty dire.

Just about nowhere south of Inverness even still has 2G. 10 years ago, I had 3.5G on T-mobile with brilliant signal in the same location I am having problems now. T-mobile merged to EE and started sharing masts with 3 and now the service is terrible because they are refusing to fix the equipment.

[pat]

You have to write to your provider first to state what your problem is and ask them to repair their ongoing fault (they usually have 2 weeks to answer then get in touch with Communications Ombudsman, amazing what they do when threatened with Communication Ombudsman and having to explain to them why things have not been action.

Advise your provider that if nothing done within ten days you are taking it to Ombudsman - often the threat of the Ombudsman is enough to get action.

You are paying for a service and they say usually what speeds etc you can get and they are breaking this agreement.

[pat]

If the company do not do something you have the alternative - contact the MP in charge of Communications and ask why they are pushing to get everyone on line and you are getting stonewalled and you are not alone

[retrodj]

Exactly in the same boat. I am with 3 and the service started becoming temporamental around July last year. I was getting really bad call quality where the call was dropping in and out and i was unable to hear the caller properly, or I was getting weak or no signal in some places. I spent months contacting 3 as it was never being fixed. So many months of free line rental later, a 3 home signal box also, and after speaking to them again in January/February, they reduced my line rental amount as a goodwill gesture. Then lo and behold the signal returned. It has been fine until a few weeks ago and has now returned to its rubbish state of no signal and emergency calls only at the Pennyland end of the town. I have tried calling the complaints team direct as I still had their number from before but there's been queues of 15-30 minutes to wait for someone..

The issue I was told at the beginning of this year was that one of the masts was in need of being upgraded but there was no plan to upgrade it. So, when this went down the other mast was having double the amount of traffic flowing through it, causing call quality issues and/or no or weak signal. All they would do is try and fix it.. I am guessing this is what is happening again now, as the signal will come back and then go again a couple of days later.

Would be nice even if 3g was decent, but even that now is pretty slow. They are all talking about 5g down south and we are still waiting on a decent 3g signal, let alone 4g.

[Kodiak]

They are all talking about 5g down south and we are still waiting on a decent 3g signal, let alone 4g.

You are lucky we an only get 2G where we live in Thurso and in our house no signal at all for 90% of the day.

[nineteenseventyeight]

Problems persist but, I would encourage anyone else having problems in this area to complain again as they have agreed to reduce my bill by about half as they know the issue is congestion at this mast in question near Lybster/Occumster. They claim there is going to be an upgrade at that mast due by December 3, 2016. Not that I believe them but, will continue to complain and demand reduced bill until it improves back to the standard it was at many months ago. I also have reason to believe that if you are on one of 3's so called all-you-can-eat (unlimited) data plans they are throttling your connection on top of the network being congested. Someone else in my household is on a limited data plan from 3 and their connection is nearly twice as fast as mine. I have tried my sim in several different phones and no change. However, when I use a VPN my speeds dramatically improve.

[retrodj]

Problems persist but, I would encourage anyone else having problems in this area to complain again as they have agreed to reduce my bill by about half as they know the issue is congestion at this mast in question near Lybster/Occumster. They claim there is going to be an upgrade at that mast due by December 3, 2016. Not that I believe them but, will continue to complain and demand reduced bill until it improves back to the standard it was at many months ago. I also have reason to believe that if you are on one of 3's so called all-you-can-eat (unlimited) data plans they are throttling your connection on top of the network being congested. Someone else in my household is on a limited data plan from 3 and their connection is nearly twice as fast as mine. I have tried my sim in several different phones and no change. However, when I use a VPN my speeds dramatically improve.

Three reduced my bill back in February. I hadn't even been on my new contract for a 2 months before the issues started last July. I had months where they waived the bill and other months where they reduced it by 50% It got to the stage where I was advised of a reduced fee for ending the contract early as they really didn't have a timeframe for when there would be a fix (basically the remaining cost of the phone itself plus discount) but I thought if I went with another provider, chances are the problems would be the same since it was a mast issue. So, I took the reduced bill knowing that if the issues continued, I could theoretically pay less to get out of the contract at a later date should that be required.

I would agree that you need to keep at them. They will offer you the use of a signal box for your house which you can use via wifi. Great if you're in the house but useless if out and about. And don't bother going through the normal call centre once you've logged an issue. Go straight to customer relations. They have more wiggle room, but it does depend on the person you speak to.

[nineteenseventyeight]

Keep phoning THREE for your waived bill. They told me 2 NOV it would be fixed by today. Today they say fixed Jan 2.Bills waived on two 3 accounts. The more of us that phone and get our bill waived the sooner the issue will be fixed! Hopefully. Lol.