02 4G signal

[heart-of-wessex]

Hello all,

Anyone on here using 02?

I used to rate it but I've noticed the 4G seems to be a bit dodgy nowadays.

The 2 year contract is up soon, and in that time I've not had any problems with anything else, never had to call them, never had them call me, just the internet data is a bit hit and miss, I used to get a lot of 4G and now I've noticed it being a bit different, even at home (Trowbridge only got uprgraded to 4G last year) it works in the day, but oddly at around 11PM and on into the night, it get's temperamental and switches between '4G' and 'H'..why from 11PM? I have no idea!! It's like the signal is rigged to shut down for the night!

I got 'H' and worst 'G' in Worthing last weekend, used to get 4G, and some parts of London are just as bad, 'G' and sometimes 'H' around Waterloo...really!?!

Is anyone else getting this or is it really just me getting a slow internet connection even in the Capital?

I often find I get 4G and H+ in the back end of nowhere, and next to nothing in some towns and cities

 

[AnonymousUser1]

Hello all,

Anyone on here using 02?

I used to rate it but I've noticed the 4G seems to be a bit dodgy nowadays.

The 2 year contract is up soon, and in that time I've not had any problems with anything else, never had to call them, never had them call me, just the internet data is a bit hit and miss, I used to get a lot of 4G and now I've noticed it being a bit different, even at home (Trowbridge only got uprgraded to 4G last year) it works in the day, but oddly at around 11PM and on into the night, it get's temperamental and switches between '4G' and 'H'..why from 11PM? I have no idea!! It's like the signal is rigged to shut down for the night!

I got 'H' and worst 'G' in Worthing last weekend, used to get 4G, and some parts of London are just as bad, 'G' and sometimes 'H' around Waterloo...really!?!

Is anyone else getting this or is it really just me getting a slow internet connection even in the Capital?

I often find I get 4G and H+ in the back end of nowhere, and next to nothing in some towns and cities

not had any issues with O2 in big cities and the rural coverage is no worse than it has been in the past and is often better as there is 3/4 g coverage where you do have a signal


blame the NIMBYs for poor signal strength and ever increasing contention

 

[backontrack]

I use O2 - the only 4G signal I can get is when I'm not in a town centre for some reason. They are feeble.

 

[TheEdge]

I'm with O2, get 4G+ in Norwich, 4G and H+ in most towns and cities and rural areas are just a lucky dip.

So yea, I've not had any problem with them.

 

[Barn]

I wonder what influence the handset itself has. Certainly with my handset (Nexus 5) in central London, I find that it is reluctant to give up an HSPA signal to search for an LTE signal.

If I force it to use LTE it turns out that there is a good, fast 4G service available. It all depends on which signal it locks on to first when emerging from the Tube.

 

[Tetchytyke]

In London I find it depends where I am. In areas with lots of really tall buildings I struggle for signal, but the rest of the time I have 3G at the very least, with normally H or 4G.

It does sometimes get a bit confused and latches on to G or E when I first come out of tunnels or the tube, for instance, but turning the data off and then turning it back on a few minutes later tends to solve it. My phone is a HTC One M7 and I've been on o2 for about three years now.

The signal is very good up here, at least in urban and semi-urban areas. I usually have a minimum of H, which is good enough for Facebook and BBC News, which is really all I use data for. I save downloading and streaming for the work WiFi.

Compared to Orange/EE, where I couldn't get even a 3G signal for months at a time in London, o2 are brilliant.

 

[AlterEgo]

I am an O2 customer. I find there are certain blackspots, where the phone will show 4G connection but where the browser doesn't respond. There are a couple near Waterloo for example, and I've put it down to tall buildings obscuring signal.

 

[talltim]

My signal is good in my normal places, i.e. home, the journey to work and at work.
However on holiday in Cornwall it was rubbish, and in fact was better in the countryside than in the towns, especially Looe where I strugged for a 3G signal

 

[heart-of-wessex]

My signal is good in my normal places, i.e. home, the journey to work and at work.
However on holiday in Cornwall it was rubbish, and in fact was better in the countryside than in the towns, especially Looe where I strugged for a 3G signal

Went to Penzance on a sunny day, thought I could use Flightradar24 for the overhead planes, got an 'E' signal, if it connected, so the plane was miles away by the time the map showed.

We all seem to get different connections then?
Maybe I need to see what my settings are, I'm using a Samsung Galaxy 5s Mini.

Also between Trowbridge and Westbury I get 4G, apart from a foot crossing in the middle which has the slowest ever, convientely placed so that using Real Time Trains at the crossing is impossible, walk away from the crossing in any direction 4G service resumes

 

[AnonymousUser1]

<snip>
Also between Trowbridge and Westbury I get 4G, apart from a foot crossing in the middle which has the slowest ever, convientely placed so that using Real Time Trains at the crossing is impossible, walk away from the crossing in any direction 4G service resumes

that sounds like a local radio 'blackspot' issue - as after all a mobile phone is just a sophisticated UHF handheld radio , often with a suboptimal antennae placement

 

[ryan125hst]

O2 have recently been rated the worst mobile network according to Rootmetrics and EE the best:
http://www.rootmetrics.com/en-GB/content/mobile-network-performance-in-the-uk

I'm on EE having moved from Three a couple of weeks ago and I have to agree. I did four speed tests yesterday on 4G, all in different locations, and with a full signal, I got a 66-68 Mbps down and around 23 Mbps up. On Three, only one of the four locations would have had 4G, although both Three and EE have a very good 3G network so if you end up somewhere with no 4G signal, a 3G signal normally works well too.

Of the four places I tested near where I live, two locations don't even have 3G on both O2 and Vodafone, never mind 4G, so you'll be looking at 2G only which is useless for data. They have good 4G coverage in cities and they are improving (my parents are on O2 and have been recently text informing them that 4G will come to our area soon. It is already available at the other side of Retford but it isn't yet on the mast serving this side of the town, and Vodafone mast share with O2 now so they are set to get 4G here too), but they really lag behind in some areas of the country, the south west being an area that is particularly bad on those networks.

Don't get me wrong, EE has some not spots too. There's a place not too far away with 4G on O2 and Vodafone and only 3G on EE and Three. There's also places that have a week EE and Three signal yet O2 and Voda have a strong 4G signal. Overall though, EE have the best 4G coverage, and the deployment of 4G on the 800 Mhz band will solve their biggest weakness- indoor coverage*- very soon if you have a handset purchased direct from them that supports VoLTE (4G calling).

If you are thinking of changing networks, always check their coverage maps first. Once you have done that, I would recommend getting a sims from each network and checking signal strengths, and maybe even putting a bit of credit on them and check the data speeds. I say this as I get quite a weak signal when in my room, but turning WiFi off reveals it's a weak 4G signal, and a speed test gives results of between 30 and 40 Mbps download speed normally. You should also check anywhere else that you visit a lot (such as where you work/study etc) before changing networks.

Feel free to ask for more information if you want. I'm studying Electrical and Electronic Engineering at uni and, although we've not had any lectures on communications yet, I'm very interested in it and have been learning about how it all works. It's why I've not been on here much lately, that and the fact I've been out and about with the family a lot over summer!

*Their indoor signal can be very good, but they use higher frequencies than Vodafone and O2 so the signal doesn't travel as far and can't penetrate through the walls of buildings as well, so Vodafone and O2's 2G and 4G (and 3G where they have deployed it on 900 Mhz) will travel a little further than EE's. Don't let that put you off though as there are loads of factors that could effect things.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Just to add, here are the different data icons you will see on your phone:

G- GPRS, a 2G technology. 50 Kbps speed so very slow.
E- EDGE, a 2G technology, 220 Kbps speed so still slow.
3G- Obviously 3G, you won't see this icon often now unless you have an iPhone as it represents the original 3G standard with speeds of about 300 Kbps.
H- HSPDA, a 3G technolgy with speeds up to 14.4 Mbps. Older masts may have speeds of 7.2 Mbps but I don't think many exist now that are this slow.
H+ -HSPDA+, a 3G technology, max speeds of 21 Mbps. Shown as 3G on an iPhone
H+- DC-HSPDA, a 3G technology, phones don't show the difference but this uses two carriers to boost speeds to a maximum of 42 Mbps. Many 3G masts are now using this technology. Shown as 3G on an iPhone
4G- As you might have guessed, this is 4G and will give the fastest speeds.
4G+- Not all phones and networks show this, but this indicated LTE-A or Carrier Aggregation, where carriers and even different frequencies are used together to boost speeds. Sometimes shown as just 4G.

I hope you have found that useful and I haven't gone into too much detail!

 

[TheEdge]

Well with all those definitions I'm on O2 why do I get no ability to use data when I'm on a good H signal?

 

[ryan125hst]

Well with all those definitions I'm on O2 why do I get no ability to use data when I'm on a good H signal?

More than likely congestion on the mast. O2 (and Vodafone) use two different frequencies for 3G: 2100 Mhz which is the same as EE and Three, and 900 Mhz. 900 Mhz is great for better coverage as it travels further and penetrates the walls of buildings better. Sadly, they only have 2x 5 Mhz of this each compared to at least 2x 10 Mhz at the higher frequency. What does this mean? Lower capacity, half the capacity in fact. It wouldn't really be a problem if they deployed both frequency bands as only those who are further from the mast would be on it and it would give customers an advantage over EE and Three who don't have this spectrum. Unfortunately, they are deploying only the 900 Mhz band on 3G on some masts. The lower capacity plus better coverage means data just doesn't work (no throughput) as the mast is congested. The still display this on the coverage maps as good coverage though!

I was testing out my Mum's phone the other week and I noticed it had full signal on H yet only 0.45 Mbps down. I checked the coverage map when I got home and, sure enough, only 900 Mhz 3G (O2's coverage map used to show it but they have recently changed it so it no longer does).

The 2100 Mhz band can also get congested of course, but the above is the most likely reason, unless you're in a big city or a crowded event perhaps.

 

[Tetchytyke]

I am an O2 customer. I find there are certain blackspots, where the phone will show 4G connection but where the browser doesn't respond. There are a couple near Waterloo for example, and I've put it down to tall buildings obscuring signal.

That's probably mast congestion as much as anything, if it is showing the signal. I find it every so often at Kings Cross and every time at Wembley Stadium once it fills up.

 

[LordCreed]

I've got two phones that are both with O2. I find that the iPhone generally struggles more for signal than the Lumia.

 

[WestCoast]

More than likely congestion on the mast. O2 (and Vodafone) use two different frequencies for 3G: 2100 Mhz which is the same as EE and Three, and 900 Mhz. 900 Mhz is great for better coverage as it travels further and penetrates the walls of buildings better.

This would make sense, three phones in my house are on giffgaff (O2), Three and I recently switched to Vodafone from EE. At home, I actually get the best and most reliable signal now on Vodafone, which I wasn't expecting. I'm not so bothered about securing a 4G signal everywhere or the speed but whether I can actually get 3G and so far Vodafone has exceeded my expectations. I agree that EE is probably the best for speed with Three following, but EE was actually quite poor in rural Cumbria and North Yorkshire for any type of signal, with Three performing much better. The best thing about Vodafone for me is that they give you a generous European data allowance on the Red tariffs which is 4G and not throttled like Three's Feel at Home for around the same price that EE offers its UK-only tariffs.

 

[trainmania100]

I rarely get anything other than 4G
Sometimes I get H+ and lower when im on the train in rural areas but mostly 4G
In my opinion, O2 is the best. It has great bundles for sms data and calls, i use the big data bundle for 1GB, which covers all my train spotting needs

 

[ryan125hst]

This would make sense, three phones in my house are on giffgaff (O2), Three and I recently switched to Vodafone from EE. At home, I actually get the best and most reliable signal now on Vodafone, which I wasn't expecting. I'm not so bothered about securing a 4G signal everywhere or the speed but whether I can actually get 3G and so far Vodafone has exceeded my expectations. I agree that EE is probably the best for speed with Three following, but EE was actually quite poor in rural Cumbria and North Yorkshire for any type of signal, with Three performing much better. The best thing about Vodafone for me is that they give you a generous European data allowance on the Red tariffs which is 4G and not throttled like Three's Feel at Home for around the same price that EE offers its UK-only tariffs.

It will likely be the lower frequencies that work in Vodafone's favour, either that or their mast is closer to your house than EE's.

I'm surprised to hear that you found Three better than EE in Cumbria. EE and Three mast share (It's called MBNL and was between Three and T-Mobile before the merger) which means that 3G coverage on both companies is more or less identical in most cases. As EE also has 2G which has a better coverage than 3G due to the lower frequency used and Three doesn't have 2G, you would normally get a signal on EE more than on Three at least for calls and texts, although 2G isn't great for internet.

 

[WestCoast]

I'm surprised to hear that you found Three better than EE in Cumbria. EE and Three mast share (It's called MBNL and was between Three and T-Mobile before the merger) which means that 3G coverage on both companies is more or less identical in most cases. As EE also has 2G which has a better coverage than 3G due to the lower frequency used and Three doesn't have 2G, you would normally get a signal on EE more than on Three at least for calls and texts, although 2G isn't great for internet.

I often stay at a caravan near Sedbergh, Cumbria in a fairly rural location and Three provides a fairly reliable 3G service while EE struggle to offer 2G. Considering they share masts it's bizarre but true enough..... One phone is an iPhone 6 and the other a Samsung Galaxy S6.