UKC

somewhat pissed off that the mobile networks are gradually reducing their g3 masts so that what was good coverage when I renewed the contract is now extremely poor. Apparently this is a result of g3 masts being reduced as network companies shift to g4, and my supplier, which used to be t mobile but became EE when they merged with orange is a particular sinner. Extremely pissed off to have signed up to receive a service that they have no apparent obligation to maintain at the level it was when I signed up - the only solution apparently is to pay them a 50% increase on the existing monthly contract to upgrade to g4. Now is it cynical of me to speculate that part of the motivation for turning g3 masts off is to force existing customers to upgrade to the higher cost g4 contracts?

In reply to pebbles:
EE aren't reducing the number of 3G installations they have on their mobile masts.

More likely what you are experiencing is greater 3G congestion. This is where there are more customers using 3G which due to the specific features of the technology means the cell size shrinks and coverage worsens ~ as well as the capacity (e.g. speed) decreasing due to the volume of people trying to access the internet.

One thing that is happening though is that operators are not expanding 3G coverage (e.g. building new sites) nor upgrading the service (e.g. turning on more advanced capacity and coverage features) to cope with this additional traffic. As you point out their investment focus is on 4G ~ the issue is the majority of their subscribers remain on 3G.

In reply to jonfun21: I think you will find they are. They said that was the issue when I spoke to them, and its been covered elsewhere
http://www.postdesk.com/ee-signal-problems-iphone-5-poor-3g
http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/dec/17/mobile-phone-coverage-4g-3g-si...

and others

the tail off has not been gradual, as you would expect when congestion grows, it has been noticeably sudden, as when something is turned off

In reply to jonfun21:

just found a fb group for others having problems. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Poor-EE-signal-orange-and-T-mobile-merge-/14...

and apparently BBC watchdog picked up on it too...havnt watched this yet but will certainly be doing so, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0124f9r

In reply to pebbles:

Hm, I'm not sure why exactly but since the beginning of the year what used to be pretty decent phone reception on Orange, became abysmal on EE for me too. I now get a lot of 'no service' featuring on my phone, sometimes for very long periods so obviously I'm not happy about that whatsoever. Also sometimes no internet which never used to be an issue...

In reply to pebbles:

Your right I had forgotten that they haven't finished the integrating/consolidation of Orange sites into the EE network (which originally was a share between T-Mobile and Three).

However the shift in coverage isn't due to 4G; both articles are wrong in this respect.

When Orange and T-Mobile merged to become EE (before any 4G was deployed or even planned) they announced they would rationalise the two separate site footprints of c.13,000 orange sites and c.16,000 EE sites into a single rid of 18,000 - 20,000 sites; this process is nearing completion now.

Overall the amount of 3G coverage increases but there are winners and loses in the process (the same will happen as Vodafone and O2 consolidate their two separate portfolios down to c.18,500 shared locations ~ though in the process the number of 3G locations each operate has will increase from c. 10,000 to 18,500).

EE deployment of 4G is hapenning across the consolidated sites (e.g. 18,000 - 20,000) and does not affect the 3G network as its a different frequency and different base station equipment.

In reply to jonfun21:
looking at the guardian site mapping there are overwhelmingly more losers than winners, signal in many areas has now become very poor indeed, I'm unlikely to stay with EE.

In reply to pebbles:

Just be aware that O2/Vodafone coverage will also shift around over the next 36 months.

In reply to jonfun21:

groan.