EE 'best' of the UK mobile network bunch, but how good is that? Mobile network testing company RootMetrics has again hailed EE as the best network for speed, reliability, calls and text. Three comes second in all tests. Vodafone and O2 swapped third and fourth spots in various categories but O2 came out ahead overall. The latest figures cover the second half of 2014, so may well under-rate …
"Only the "major Metro areas" matter"
Except sometimes we ultra-cool metro-folk have to venture out into the sticks and it is so awkward not being able to tweet one's pictures of the local peasantry back to the ranch. And missing out on those re-tweets could ruin your whole day.
"The networks are all getting better, period"
The carriers may be improving their networks all the time, but are they doing it quickly enough to keep up with the increasing demand for both voice and data?
I recently found out that as cells become overloaded, they decrease transmit power to try and keep load under control. So as the networks get busier, the cells actually cover a smaller geographic area.
As long as the companies operating mobile services have shareholders that are more important than customers things will never get better.
Telefonica have sucked O2 revenue for years and put little back in.
I stay beside a very large industrial estate in the Oil Capital of Europe.... with O2 I get GPRS as standard and Edge if it's sunny and the wind is blowing in the right direction. Pathetic!
Yup that's the elephant in the room with EE, customer service. It doesn't take many wasted hours on hold or talking to their f**kwit alleged customer-services people to completely eradicate any advantages of EE.
And yes, I know all phone company customer services is shit, but unless you've experienced EE, you have no idea how bad it can be.
I have an EE phone and a Three phone next to each other: In the kitchen/graden I get the best reception on EE. Move from the kitchen to the lounge or stand on the front door step and Three wins. Useful to know when you want to 'politely' terminate a call...
Rootmetrics could have saved themselves a shitload of cash and simply asked me about Vodafone.... Vodafone don't give a shit if you're not in a LARGE metropolitan area. (ie at least several million)
I struggle to get data signals simply driving up and down the country... I regularly get no signal in my home, I can actually see their mast from my back bedroom window!... 4g in my hometown? forget it never gonna happen. Something they have confirmed tome several times over the phone, of course actually getting a CS rep on the 'phone is a mission in itself.. never less than 45 miutes and they *never* successfully sorted out anything I've ever contacted them about. I always end up doing it myself, where I can of course.
They are an appalling company.
I live in north London and Vodafone's 4G was a bit patchy near me, I often didn't even get a decent 3G signal. However, they seem to have really boosted coverage in the last couple months and I know get a strong 4G signal everywhere in the neighbourhood.
However, the story soon changes when leaving a major city as other posters have commented. When I went to Devon a while ago with my fiance who was with EE att time, she had 3G everywhere whereas I had Edge. As anyone with Vodafone knows, Edge is just a euphemism for "no data signal" in VF's case!
They have gone frustratingly quiet about the 4G rollout on their blog, whereas Three have posted a big list of towns that they intend to enable 4G in this year. I shall definitely look at ditching VF, the amount they spend on their network for such a big company is pitiful.
...and also if you live in one of the officially 4G-launched cities, in my experience, almost always outperforming EE and the rest.
Areas outside of Vodafone's 4G areas are still dominated by 2G only or iffy 3G, which is why I think these 'Rootmetrics' tests favour EE, who have a wider spread of 3G/4G at the moment. However, once Vodafone have finished performing their demonstrated magic in the cities and large towns, and turn their attention to all of the areas in between, I think these results will look very difficult.
Wake me up in about three years' time :)
Three years ago, an organisation I worked for moved 10000 connections from Vodafone to EE.
100s of examples of p*ss-poor c*ckups by EE, 1000s of end-user complaints, and 2 yrs later, the organisation offered staff the opportunity to port back to Vodafone or stick with EE. Only around 15% remained with EE.
'nuff said.
I have Vodafone as they are the only network that works reliably where I live and as that is where I am most of the time, that is where I need my phone to work. However a couple of miles away in the nearest large town, the coverage is dreadful. This survey does not surprise me at all
PS
On no network in Wales, I love it when we go on holiday there as no-one from work can get hold of me.
Interesting to note that the carrier who always markets itself on being the best is now languishing at the bottom of the compost heap.
Personally, I'd be happy if I could walk through my relatively large home town (which isn't up on a hill, at the bottom of a valley or near an MOD installation) and they managed to provide voice calls without interruption.
How long before dual-sim phones begin to become much more popular?
Rather than dual-sim phones, would it not be better if the networks had an easy way to report bad coverage in areas & if they were seen to react to these reports.
Just think - how many people do you know who are on a particular network because that's the only network providing good coverage in a location the user frequents - but they'd be off to a competitor if they could.
Ah, I suppose that'll never happen, will it?
>near an MOD installation<
Hmm. Vodafone coverage of RAF Cranwell, RAF Shawbury, RAF Cosford and RAF St Athan is non-existent and O2 isn't much better. I can think of several civil airfields where there's no Vodafone and very little of anywhere else either. Sleap, Wellesbourne Mountford and Enstone come to mind.
A certain mobile operator's coverage map reckoned it had exceedingly good coverage of large areas in Wiltshire...
... the fact that those were the impact areas for Salisbury Plain Training Area (i.e. safe places for live artillery shells to land and explode!) and thus inaccessible to the public, much less to mobe operators wanting to put a mast up in the middle of nowhere, was seemingly beside the point.
What the survey doesn’t do is give any information on call quality
And presumably not much info on indoor signal strength either. I can get an acceptable signal in my back garden or on my driveway but in my 22 year old house the phone sometimes deregisters from the network and if I don't at least go upstairs there's little to no chance of holding a conversation.
On the plus side my landline continues to give excellent service.
I was doing okay until EE did its little merger dance but I think they must have rearranged their coverage and now I'm in an effective not-spot. Vodaphone's checker suggests it might be a better bet but that would be a deal with the devil.
Two things you could try:
1. Obtain a Voda free pay as you go SIM, pop it in your phone, and have a good wander around the house to see what the signal looks like.
2. If it's no better than EE (and Three/O2 can't help either) then at least Vodafone offer their SureSignal box, which I can attest to works rather well where needed.
However, don't forget to also have a play to see how Voda compares to EE in other places you might need it a lot. Workplace(s), for example.
Voda have virtually no signal in our local village group (approx 4,000) only 6 miles south of Norwich. I was with 3 but got fed up with no signal, so on the 'guarantee'! that they had a better signal than 3 I went to Voda. I can drive round the villages and if lucky I may occasionally pick up a text. Arrive home and my SureSignal box, which I had to pay for, picks up all the missed calls. I thought that is why I have a BT telephone with built in answer-phone.
Found out that the transmitter is 4-5 miles away at Tacalneston.
The whole point of a mobile - in the name ? - is that you can use it away from home. Maybe most important when an accident happens or an emergency in the middle of nowhere.
I've sampled EE's "customer service". I don't care how good their coverage is, how fast the back haul is or how cheap their tariffs, I will NEVER deal with them again.If it was a choice between EE or nothing, I would forgo my phone.
I know other companies have bad customer service, but EE is breathtakingly terrible.
“Consumers deserve reliable mobile experience wherever they are, whether they’re making a call, downloading a video, or texting friends. That’s why, in this third time we tested the UK, we went even further into cities, rural communities and on the road to provide the most comprehensive, scientifically sound, and fiercely independent view of mobile coverage available anywhere.” ®
Reliable mobile experience you say? Yet call quality was not tested at all.
I am based in Leicestershire and i've been challenging EE lately about their discrimination against sim only customers and lack of signal in areas in north west leicestershire. They aren't interested at all, they told me to "find another more suitable network". The customer service at EE is terrible.
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