So I've been thinking about the lack of 3G/4G in the area where I live - Ely, Cambridgeshire, and trying to figure out what would happen if this were another industry e.g. the fast food business.
Let's imagine we walk into a burger joint and order a Cheese Burger with Fries, hand over our money wait a few minutes, grab our meal nicely packed into a brown paper bag and off we go to enjoy it under a tree.
Now imagine for a minute that on opening the burger packaging, we noticed that the burger had all the ingredients - the beef patty, cheese, relish, onion rings all beautifully laid out, but no bun. We could think it an oversight and return to the store and ask for the bun or for a new Cheeseburger with a bun or we could just ignore it and being hungry, just eat away and never return to the burger joint. Might even tell a few friends of the "bunless" burger we had and warn them to look before they walk out the store.
In a sense, I think most of us would find this unacceptable. The burger joint might have run out of buns for all we know and that's totally ok IF they had let us know that this was the situation and told us before we handed over our cash. They might even have offered us a discount in lieu of the fact there was no bun.
So how does this analogy compare to the lack of 3G/4G in Ely? Glad you asked.
Imagine you are told that Ely has full 3G coverage - indoors and outdoors (or at least in the area where you live) and you make a decision to move to O2 because of that. You sign up a 24 month contract and although you'd really like 4G, the coverage map is very clear that there is no 4G coverage - heartbreaking, but you can live with that. Imagine then that you get home, switch on your phone, plug in your little SIM only to discover that huge swathes of Ely are not in fact covered in 3G and the only "g" you're going to get is the "g" in "gprs" which might as well have been called "u" for "useless"
You pay the same per month as the person who lives in good 3G/4G areas but you don't get a bun. Now, I, the little man, the consumer, is only a tiny tiny dot on the radar of Telefonica / O2 and my £60-odd Quid a month is totally irrelevant to them and means absolutely nothing in the big scheme of things BUT I have a voice and if I refuse to use it and talk about it then I am like the person who will eat a bunless burger and say nothing even though they paid the full price.
I know Ely is not a big city (pop approx 17000), I accept that, but it's a lot bigger than places like Sunningdale, or Sunninghill in Berkshire which in 2011 had a population of about 4800 - three times smaller but with excellent 4G coverage. It also occurs to me that Ely has a huge tourist influx because of the cathedral and the fact that THE famous Mr Cromwell lived down the road and there is a large interest in visiting this historical location of which Sunningdale and Sunninghill have nothing.
I would like to request that the Big People at O2 / Telefonica consider us - the small people - and stop selling us bunless burgers. Stop saying we're rolling out "4G across the country" and using that as an excuse to not deliver 3G into areas where you clearly say you have 3G coverage and clearly you don't.
I, as an O2 customer, have the right to expect 3G coverage in the area in which I live - even more so when you say you have full coverage - I have the right to have a bun with my burger. If you cannot provide me with 3G then I would suggest the following:
- Acknowledge the current situation with 3G coverage in Ely
- Discount my / our monthly tarrif to one where there is no data on it
- Adjust your coverage map to reflect the poor coverage you have in Ely (Map attached - apparently updated on 25-9-2014)
Sincerely
Malaguetas
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I'm guessing still no home cooked meals then....?
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As usual @Anonymous you have hit the nail on the head...with the tale of the bunless burger. 
It seems harsh indeed that you made a decision to move...understanding you would get 3G...and find you only get it..if you leave your house and take a long walk waving your phone aimlessly around...
A sad state of affairs indeed.... 
PS. I see no attached map?
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@Anonymous wrote:
Daughter still snotty though..
So is mine - Nothing to do with lack of 4g though
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Thank you for the map. O2 have a case to answer indeed...
Re your daughter? Sadly snottiness will become a way of life now...until she leaves home probably.
We females can harbour grudges...:smileywink:
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Having studied that map in detail...absolutely nowhere does it show white (NO Coverage at all)
Tsk Tsk...
@Cleoriff wrote:Having studied that map in detail...absolutely nowhere does it show white (NO Coverage at all)
Tsk Tsk...
My point exactly - No Buns...
