T-Mobile coverage. Thought they share with EE.. not so?

Got T-Mobile SIM card few days ago. I was in assumption they share masts with EE and Orange so must be pretty good coverage.. Was working fine at home (same as my old O2)..

went to a movie at westfield - got my phone disconnected just outside my home (very good O2 reception though). had troubles to connect it while on A40, no signal in the cinema...

Am I being had? Shall I sell it on ebay (its 12 mo contract) and beg O2 to take me back?? Whats going on with T-Mob anyway?

In reply to a post by maxima120:

Got T-Mobile SIM card few days ago. I was in assumption they share masts with EE and Orange so must be pretty good coverage.. Was working fine at home (same as my old O2)..

EE *is* Orange and T-mobile, they're one company. Its quite likely the EE mast is nowhere near the O2 mast, so you get coverage holes in different places. Where O2 didn't have signal you quite likely will find EE has signal.

Have you used their coverage map (set to 3G or 2G modes, as T-Mobile doesn't have 4G) here to check:
https://explore.ee.co.uk/coverage-checker

Sorry but your guess is wrong. apparently it is known issue. I am an idiot I haven't looked on the google before I bought it..

I was talking London mate.. what holes?

EE is complete screw up.. obviously they stripped half of 3g masts to beef up the 4g coverage and claim it as the biggest network (on expense of 3g users),,,

I am going to try and rid off this contract! geez and ppl swearing at the bankers.. everyone tries to screw more money than they can chew..

here is one example (but I've seen more): http://www.postdesk.com/ee-signal-problems-iphone-5-...

I get literally full 4g signal around most of both westfield shopping centres.

The signal goes a little in the stratford westfield cinema agreed, that's just because the cinema is made from metalic materials, you're basically sat in a metal and concrete box. The O2 signals ok here as the mast is closer by probably. That said O2 often goes to gprs in London for me.

A40 I have no issues.

The frequency O2 use means their 3G can penetrate concrete better as it can travel further but EE have kind of counteracted this by having much more masts than O2.

Overall they're both very similar in my experience. Due to mast layout some areas have black spots where others don't.

Edit: can honestly say I only don't get signal in central in one or two locations. Often a switch of airplane mode off and on makes the phone switch from a weak t mobile signal to a very strong orange one. Once EE integrate everything into tmobile standards this will go away.

Edited by ukhardy07 (Sun 02-Feb-14 15:37:54)

The problem is i have 3Gcard and apparently they sacrificed 3g for 4g. Thats the point..

I still disagree as to save battery I turn my LTE off and I have no issues. I do this most days. What I do see is that sometimes it goes to E signal in areas and enabling LTE gives me full 4G.
The reasoning for the E is that the 4g upgrades also have the old 2g equipment upgraded, so the signal goes from gprs to E on the 2G side and the output power is cranked up. So the basic 2g signal should go further once 4g is added. So yes people will suddenly start seeing E more but it's likely they would have seen gprs before. In some areas where upgrades happen clearly 3G has been affected but that's rectified in time & other networks have these issues too.

I sometimes find in Westfield shepherds bush when it's really busy I cannot make calls even with full service. That's literally due to the sheer amount of people there on one cell site. With t mobile orange and ee having the larger customer base. I also had this issue on 3 and vodafone though. It's only happened in westfield shepherds bush for me though ever.

I guess find what works for you but I drive along the a40 a fair amount and will literally stream radio along the journey without a buffer. iPhone 5 here.

EE have dismantled some old orange sites but that should only be in areas where t mobile coverage was already there.
The T mobile 3G service was chosen over the orange one as the orange masts often only maxed out at basic 3Mbps speeds whereas the T mobile ones had better speeds often upto 21 Mbps.

The tallest and best range orange sites were kept but their equipment was / is changed to meet t mobile standards.

Obviously whilst this work occurs there could be a black spot but it's temporary. I definitely think give it a better chance but you may just be unlucky in that the areas you go to are black spots although in central London I highly doubt that.

There's a lot of complaints that O2 signal suffers since the 4g upgrades too. Swings and roundabouts. I do agree though vue cinema westfield isn't great service. I usually get 1 or 2 bars of E and sometimes lose it all together. That said I don't make calls in the cinema so it's fine for me. As soon as I leave the building it's back to full service.

In reply to a post by maxima120:

The problem is i have 3Gcard and apparently they sacrificed 3g for 4g. Thats the point..

Not that simple, but all 4 main networks are making massive changes from 2013 through to 2016, and until the end of these big works, you could find coverage changing a lot. Even in London

O2 worked very well everythere

Yep all networks are having issues from the 4G rollouts as it often means equipment changes at the masts. To be frank EE are the furthest through so the disruptions likely to end soonest.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/dec/17/mobile-... gives a good idea of issues on all networks. Ultimately I think 4G will cause some issues.

Should really be noted that o2 is removing thousands of masts, the figures around 2560, this is exactly like EE has done with the orange t-mobile merger. There's around 10% of masts expected to go. So the effects should be pretty similar. o2 and vodafone are doing some mast-sharing type agreement. So it's one set of masts with 2 different operators... O2 are behind EE significantly with the overall plans for 4G (as are most networks) so EE really is the best idea we have right now of what's to come for the other networks engaging in similar work.

So the 4G works likely to cause issues on o2 / Voda, as is the cornerstone agreement (which is the dismantling of masts between o2 and vodafone so it's 1 network grid with 2 operators - as this happens expect downtime in some areas).

There were substantial issues with forums of 100s of pages long when o2 upgraded the Harrow area of London to 4G with people having no service for significant periods. Swings and roundabouts you've just been lucky but ultimately all are similar during this 4G transitional time and as sites are reduced.

http://www.o2.co.uk/network/future

Edited by ukhardy07 (Sun 02-Feb-14 18:27:34)