Virgin Mobile

Edited by deleted (Tue 20-May-14 11:56:50)

I had been with O2 and moved to 3. Unfortunately the 3 network here was rubbish so actually then jumped to GiffGaff (back on the O2 network). 3G is not good but at least I can make a phone call and get some data occasionally.

Mobile networks seem to entirely depend on the exact places you want them most often. I have not found one yet that works well everywhere I want to be.

I'm on Three's One Plan with my 5S and they are a decent network. Lightyears ahead of Vodafone who I was with for years. Vodafone, considering they are a MASSIVE network compared to 3 have terrible 3G coverage.

If EE had a decent plan I would for a reasonable price then I would consider them as there are some pubs, clubs etc where I get No Service due to 3's poor building penetration. EE still have 2G and very good 4G coverage compared to 3.

Can't grumble though for £15 a month.

Edited by wolvesmad (Tue 20-May-14 16:59:45)

In reply to a post by pcoventry76:

NO that's true. I've just been and had a look at the Kestrel and it was okay but nothing special. Still unable to get anything above 8mbps so I assume the whole of my area is messed up.

Odd. 4G on my 5s here is averaging 10mbps but in evenings I've seen 25mbps. I suspect it's been popular since the April price cuts. A friend of mine bought a new 5c on two year deal with 2gb data for £23 a month including 4g - that surprised me.

Edited by deleted (Tue 20-May-14 20:14:41)

In reply to a post by pcoventry76:

I guess it's just my area. Anyway I am going back to 3 as on Thursday. Just got my pac from Virgin. I am honestly getting 0.25mbps down and I have already gone into the next month.

I think EE has not activated enough cell sites per town yet, we still only seem to have two here, and in my mates garden (long way from the closest mast) you can get 2 bars of LTE with about 6mbps, but interactive responses are much faster than 3G - despite their being a 3G mast just around the corner. EE need to upgrade more masts in towns they've already "done" to keep people happy next

Sucks.. yes I used 0845/0870 calls but I would get 300 on three to use the weq4u app so that's not a problem.

I saw your sig "19/5/2014 - just ordered PlusNet Unlimited Fibre - awaiting activation date"

Mine is 13 working days from order. Just letting you know. (10th ordered - 28th install)

Thanks, that's useful, the website reckons "we will let you know"

In reply to a post by pcoventry76:

I updated my post so you might want to refresh for a laughable screenshot lol

They forgot mine. I did it online but turns out it never even when through. I only noticed as I put my dad down as the referrer and in the status on his account it was mine was in "Pre signup" so I called them and they put it through

I am glad I did.

Oh dear :-/ I just tried a speedtest on my EE 4G 5s, and got 24.36 download and 13.33 upload on the Maidenhead/XILO server.

was your speed test Virgin or 3, I have just emailed Virgin to cancel my sim only, their customer service department [ooops my bad] me off, I always get someone that I can't understand or don't understand what I'm talking about.

Also not using it and no point in paying £7 for nothing really and they wanted £5-10 for a micro sim upgrade so ... Bye Bye

Edited by mlmclaren (Tue 20-May-14 21:02:56)

Those speeds seem typical for EE's 3G network. I'd frequently be with my mate who would give up using his phone and ask me to do a search (on three uk)

Seems like they've gone for full investment on 4G, stripped out a lot of 3G. Virgin Mobile only have 4G plans for business customers to make matters worse.

Well I don't know about other locations but EE's 3G in my area is pretty good

I've hit 21mbps download on Virgin Mobile before and 3.8mbps up but I think there's been some major investment on EE's network in my area as they used to be terrible.

Edited by deleted (Tue 20-May-14 22:05:36)

in my area above 5mbit/sec is fast for 3G.

just now 23:30

O2 - 5.1mbit/sec
giffgaff 1.9mbit/sec
Three 0.12mbit/sec (test timed out first 7 times)

In cromer small seaside town.

O2/giffgaff no 3g connectivity
Three - no speedtest done but fast enough to watch netflix/iplayer.

My sister on EE 3G gets very good speeds and it works well in cromer, so I am ceriously considering EE at the moment.

The problem is I am not interested in 4G, and most 3G packages have been nerfed to make 4G more attractive.

Amazing the worst network in the UK for 3G speed in my tests is the best by you and the best across the UK in my tests (3) is the worst....

Edited by deleted (Wed 21-May-14 12:08:50)

O2 are shutting the network down in my area late this month to "upgrade" it.

Complete shutdown, got an email and sms to warn me.

So will be interesting to see what this "upgrade" entails.

I still have my three sim as three are sort of like how VM manage their congestion, they find it cheaper to pay customers to stay with them instead of upgrading their network. I effectively have three free now as compensation for the performance.

Three I have so far from bit of testing while travelling found it consistently quite good in any out of city area, but slow in every city I have been in. But never excellent.

Edited by Chrysalis (Wed 21-May-14 20:21:37)

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

So will be interesting to see what this "upgrade" entails.

Probably replacement of mast and cabinets to enable the totally new kit supporting 4G, 3G and 2G, and most likely to be ready for co-working with Voda under Cornerstone.

Three here is about 3megabit at lunchtime today. EE 3G was 8megabit, and 4G was 15megabit. Nothing earth shattering.

will this new kit have extra bandwidth capacity you think?

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

will this new kit have extra bandwidth capacity you think?

If they're installing 4G they should be increasing the backhaul. Its reported the EE sites that have been upgraded to 4G have at least 1Gbps backhaul compared to old MBNL (T-Mobile/3) sites that mostly have 100Mbps links. Old Orange, old Voda might have only had 2 or 8 meg links. O2 seems to be "it depends" on age of the mast and when last upgraded.

Voda has improved around here, so I suspect 4G is planned before end 2014, as 3G used to max out at 7 meg in the town centre, and in housing estates around 3meg. Now I get 9meg in most places, which sounds like the cap for people not on a 4G plan.

All depends on area. I've seen 32mb on my 5S on 3 but I also get 1.2mb at work - out performed by O2 and Vodafone.

Congestion where I work is an issue for 3.

In reply to a post by wolvesmad:

Congestion where I work is an issue for 3.

Since 3 have about 9.5 million customers, and the other three have over 20 million each, and 3 was the only network to offer "all you can eat data" (including tethering) - they've been victims of their own success.

I know people who bought a cheap phone and used it as a WiFi hot spot for 3 months in rented accommodation. Must have used hundreds of gigs of data streaming movies and games via PS3 and XBox. Not a good use of 2100mhz airwaves.

Probably right but I still have no issues streaming music where ever I go from spotify and Google Play with three. As long as I can maintain the speeds for that I'm happy.

Got this speed during rush hour in Manchester today.

In reply to a post by brandscill:

Probably right but I still have no issues streaming music where ever I go from spotify and Google Play with three. As long as I can maintain the speeds for that I'm happy.

Yes, I have a Three MiFi and it still works well to keep me connected to work over our VPN, vastly superior to my work issued mobile on Vodafone which too often is 2G only with not enough data to get WhatsApp or iMessage to work.

Got this speed during rush hour in Manchester today.

Great speed, I assume 4G

Yep 4G. Moving back to the countryside in just under a month where I can scrape 1 bar of 3G outside if I'm lucky.
To make matters worse I can't get anything more than 2-3mb ADSL.

Edited by deleted (Wed 21-May-14 23:03:55)

Completely agree.

I was in Liverpool city centre a few months back listening to music on Spotify and at 5:05PM it just completely stopped working. Data just stopped. Didn't come back until 5:40PM.

A very similar thing happened at New Street station in Birmingham at 5pm. Couldn't make any out going calls, just 'Call Failed'.

I think 3's customer base is still steadily increasing as more and more people are getting fed up of EE decomissioning transmitters.

As a data network I still think 3 are the best. I can only think of one very remote location where I don't get 3G. I do get frustrated at times when I lose 3G in buildings, especially in old pubs and big metal buildings but thats because of 2100Mhz! My work Blackberry on O2 will generally always have a signal - 2G of course

Edited by deleted (Thu 22-May-14 15:34:41)

Perhaps you are connected to a different cell? A congested one.

so you saying mobi-data is much faster than three?

interesting.

Edited by deleted (Thu 22-May-14 15:35:16)

In reply to a post by wolvesmad:

I think 3's customer base is still steadily increasing as more and more people are getting fed up of EE decomissioning transmitters.

Doubt that, as the EE masts being turned off were old Orange ones that 3 didn't use. (they weren't MBNL ones). My mate has been affected by this, and where he lives ALL the networks are now rubbish (which is why Orange put a mast in his road). Hopefully when EE upgrade the closest mast to the newer tech including 4G he will get a better service. He tried 3 and it hangs in longer on 3G before no service as there is no 2G, but in more rural places he got no service where EE gives GPRS.

O2 and Voda have 900mhz 3G so you might get more indoors, but there is less capacity at lower frequencies so you end up with slower speeds as more people sharing them.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by wolvesmad:

O2 and Voda have 900mhz 3G so you might get more indoors, but there is less capacity at lower frequencies so you end up with slower speeds as more people sharing them.

I don't suppose there is anyway to get my phone to use 2100mhz rather than 900mhz on O2 so I can get a less congested connection to the base station.

In reply to a post by mlmclaren:

I don't suppose there is anyway to get my phone to use 2100mhz rather than 900mhz on O2 so I can get a less congested connection to the base station.

Nope, the base station manages it, and you might find there isn't any 2100 signal where you stand right now, etc.

I used to have an Orange contract and before EE was invented everything was great in this office. 4 bars on 3G. Data speeds were about 2/3Mb, not great but acceptable.

EE then decomissioned the transmitter and the phone had no choice but to connect to a T-Mobile mast a mile away. End result was 1 bar of 3G at a push and dropped calls / calls going to voicemail.

Safe to say I left. A couple of my friends have had the same issue. No signal what so ever at home when they used to get decent service.

As you mentioned with your friend, same applies here. All the networks are pretty much rubbish.

Edited by wolvesmad (Fri 23-May-14 10:28:40)

In reply to a post by wolvesmad:

As you mentioned with your friend, same applies here. All the networks are pretty much rubbish.

Yes, EE had a fantastic opportunity to upgrade both masts and give stunning service, outclassing all the competition - but they chose to turn off all the 'duplicate' masts that a survey team decided (using maps) were not required. No wonder they've lost a lot of customers.

I live almost next door to what was a T-mobile mast, and when I moved in I was on orange, got okay 2G, but then I moved to T-mobile for the MDA Vario smart phone. Since then the mast keeps being upgraded, now its the only 4G mast for 3 in my area!. Just lucky I guess

In reply to both your posts

2100mhz 3G on o2 is still available round here and in most places as there's a lot of people with phones still that don't support 900mhz and I was with Orange as well when the merger happened and the when they decommissioned the orange mast very close to my house which was very good with 8mbps speeds on 3G with Note n7000 I ended up with barely any service as the closest mast for T-Mobile was very good signal but couldn't handle everyone at the same time... I left them and now have outstanding debt with them as I tried everything possible to end it fairly with them but in the end got a very abusive CS representative and the network just didn't want to know even though I contacted there CEO on many occasions and was even then told to stop calling and sending letters.

The debt was then sent around a few debt collectors until it ended up in the hands of GPB solicitors who where then shut down by the SRA, since I've heard nothing.

Sounds like you had the same nightmare I did with T-Mobile but instead took the quick way out. I went to CISAS who then ordered T-Mobile to pay me to leave. By the end of it I saw no money but was out of contract, T-Mobile always had a reason that I owed this that and the other and there was also this charge and that charge even though the CISAS decision meant all charges had to be dropped. In the end I just accepted it, they were such a [censored] bag of a company to deal with I was glad to be free. Did not want to fight anymore as their legal department were even more unprofessional than their CEO office and CS teams.

no wonder 3g/4g is so flaky and short on bandwidth if all they doing is removing masts.

But at least EE are nowhere near as bad as three, three is just plain aweful in every city area I have been in. I think on high density areas, every other person is probabky tethering torrents or something.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

no wonder 3g/4g is so flaky and short on bandwidth if all they doing is removing masts.

Round here 3G/4G isn't flaky or short on bandwidth, your experiences are pretty awful though.

What I think EE did was turn off Orange masts that has 2meg or slower connections, and the cost of upgrading the mast to newer equipment and faster link probably wasn't worth the number of people it covered exclusively. My friend is in a housing estate where over 85% wouldn't have noticed a change in service due to the former T-mobile mast, but his place was just further away. When Orange put the mast in, would have been years ago, 2G only.

I reckon EE need to do more analysis work on the areas where they've turned off masts, but I understand the economic reason for doing so.