topic Re: Very Poor Signal in Tech Support

Very Poor Signal

Trees — Thu, 23 May 2024 16:55:02 GMT

Over the past 18-24 months my o2 mobile data and calling signal has been nothing less than appalling both inside and outside. It used to be great inside and out, something has definitely happened in the area. My other half has a Tesco mobile who I believe also use o2 network and he has had the exact same issues. We’re lucky to get 3g and on the occasions phone does 4g or 5g nothing actually loads or works.

Have tried all troubleshooting and nothing helps and reporting multiple times (can’t find that option now) and all I get back is they don’t have any mast issues. Last time the person I spoke to alluded ti having more people using the network now (assume since Virgin can on board) so the increased traffic may be affecting signal.

We’re in the suburbs of a large city (Newcastle Upon Tyne) so I would never expect to have an issue, especially as everything worked perfectly until the past year or so. So so frustrating, especially for elderly lone parents in the area who relies on contacting us and in case of accidents.

Re: Very Poor Signal

Bambino — Thu, 23 May 2024 17:00:17 GMT

@Trees If there are signal issues in your area use WiFi calling, which needs to be enabled by both you and O2:

Wifi and 4G Calling explained | O2

Re: Very Poor Signal

Oxonian — Fri, 24 May 2024 20:30:20 GMT

@Trees

You might wish to review :-

Please also see :-

My Network App - Find Out More About Your Network Coverage | Apps | O2

https://www.o2.co.uk/apps/my-network

Re: Very Poor Signal

japitts — Mon, 27 May 2024 17:07:43 GMT

@Trees wrote:
having more people using the network now (assume since Virgin can on board) so the increased traffic may be affecting signal.

Increased traffic wouldn't affect coverage levels. It would certainly affect mobile data speeds, and in extreme cases voice call reliability. But the indicated coverage would not change.

O2's data service was performing relatively poorly in national benchmarking before several million Virgin Mobile users were migrated across.

Re: Very Poor Signal

Oxonian — Mon, 27 May 2024 17:34:15 GMT

@japitts wrote:
@Trees wrote:
having more people using the network now (assume since Virgin can on board) so the increased traffic may be affecting signal.
Increased traffic wouldn't affect coverage levels. It would certainly affect mobile data speeds, and in extreme cases voice call reliability. But the indicated coverage would not change.

O2's data service was performing relatively poorly in national benchmarking before several million Virgin Mobile users were migrated across.

I think @japitts that you have got two MNOs who regard themselves as telephone businesses and clearly target call quality ; and two MNOs who see themselves more as data companies.

O2 are certainly one of the two in the former category. 👍

Re: Very Poor Signal

japitts — Mon, 27 May 2024 18:29:38 GMT

The same MNO's who regularly perform well in data benchmarking also do so on voice.

Call quality is heavily influenced by the voice codecs used. I'm only aware of one MNO using wideband codecs on 2G, and it's not O2. The newer WB-AMR & EVS codecs are more prevalent on 4G.

O2 is traditionally more reliant on legacy RATs than other MNO's.