Very slow 4G speed

[JD0963]

Hi, I am new to O2 (Switched over from Three, whom I was able to get 20-30mb 4G speed)

I got my new phone (Galaxy S8+) a few days ago, however I have noticed the 4G speed in Manchester (M4 4FB) is painfully slow - 0.9mb to be exact. I couldn't load anything on social media or youtube this morning, and when I tried to download an app it said estimated time 20 mins.

I spoke on live chat for an hour and half, during which I was transferred to the wrong department about 10 times, and asked to confirm security questions the same amount of times which was frustrating. I did everything they told me to do and the issue still remains.

My question is - where do I go from here? Can I just not have 4g on my phone? How long do I get to cancel my contract and return the device to O2?

Many thanks for any help

Jordan

[Anonymous]

Hi Martin,

I moved here from the east coast just over 4 weeks ago and the 4g was running pretty smooth but say the last 14 to 19 days it has gradually slowed and slowed to the point i can't watch a youtube video or do video calling. 

I understand peak times will slow the service down but between 7am and 11pm seems to be the peak, with it only out of those hours getting back up to speed and then it's no where near what you advertise for 4g speeds.

At it's worst it will hit a maxiumum of 270kb/s and at it's best maybe 1.1 -1.4mb/s 

[gmarkj]

I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but have you tried switching back to 3G?
There have been instances where the 3G network has been quicker than the 4G due to the number of connections it is serving...

[dby332]

I have been recently trying speedtests after having just moved to o2 from EE a few days ago and apart from one speed of 75.06DL and 16.44UL this evening, it has been quite slow. This afternoon for example full strength 4g got 1.65DL and 5.64UL, then a few mins later on full signal 4G+ it was 2.36DL and 6.46UL I was quite shocked at this so tried it again on 4g+ and got 2.34DL and 6.64UL. Over the last few days since joining I've tried a test in around a 20 mile radius on 4G & 4G+ have mostly been between 5meg DL and 16meg UL. In comparison the EE was never below 30meg, but generally between 33-100meg DL and14-45meg UL and the top one I got was 143.55meg DL and 45.88UL. However I suppose you pay more for faster speeds as switching to 02 has saved me about £10 a month to what I was on on EE. Saying that I did expect a more regularly high 4g and 4g+ speed from o2 than what it has been and there have been no known issues in the areas where I tried speed tests when I checked the network outages maps. Hopefully they will gradually get better fingers crossed.

[packages]

Manchester is a Vodafone controlled area meaning it’s most likely only got 10mhz of 4G capacity per cell - nowhere near enough for one of the biggest cities. Even if o2 reform their 2100mhz 3G to 4G and add 5mhz of 1800 to 4G, that’s only 25mhz, whereas EE could soon be deploying up to 85mhz in the near future and Vodafone 55mhz.

[jonsie]

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@packages wrote:
Manchester is a Vodafone controlled area meaning it’s most likely only got 10mhz of 4G capacity per cell - nowhere near enough for one of the biggest cities. Even if o2 reform their 2100mhz 3G to 4G and add 5mhz of 1800 to 4G, that’s only 25mhz, whereas EE could soon be deploying up to 85mhz in the near future and Vodafone 55mhz.

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Do you have any link to this information @packages?

Being from and currently stuck in Manchester I would obviously like to learn more. Are you saying that Vodafone has the best 4G in and around Manchester? 

[packages]

@jonsiehere is info of the split of Vodafone and o2 controlled areas (very detailed): https://pedroc.co.uk/vodafone_and_o2_4g_masts_by_beacon.htm

In Vodafone areas, typically o2 will only have their base layer of 10mhz on the 800mhz band (and reverse for Vodafone in o2 controlled areas). As the rollout of 4G matures each operator are going into each other’s areas to add more capacity to these areas. However, o2 don’t have a lot of capacity to play with. In some areas they will have deployed 5mhz of 1800mhz (~37mbit/s). They’ve also started to refarm all of their 2100mhz 3G to 4G that gives an 10mhz of spectrum, however these would only bring up the total downlink spectrum to 25mhz which is completely fine in suburban and rural sites but in a busy city like Manchester, it probably won’t be enough.25mhz would give around 187.5mbit/s of capcity.

I would strongly recommmend getting a PAYG sim from Vodafone (who will have virtually identical coverage to o2 bit with more capacity and less users) or getting a 30 day sim only deal with EE if your phone is compatible with EEs 4G Calling (VoLTE) otherwise a PAYG sim and testing these networks.

Realistically only Vodafone and EE have the required capacity to cope with the demands of data usage in city areas and in some cases even they can struggle.

In comparison:

Vodafone have: 10mhz if 800mhz, 10-15mhz of 2100mhz and 20mhz of 2600mhz. Pretty sure on one site in Manc they also have another 20mhz of 2600 but this is TDD spectrum, so most urban centres in Manc can have a maximum of 45mhz of downlink spectrum. That’s nearly 340mbit/s per cell and that’s not including 4x4 mimo which virtually doubles that and 256qam.

EE have: 20mhz of 1800mhz, 35mhz of 2600mhz spectrum and 5mhz of 800mhz spectrum (I don’t think any 800mhz is deployed in the city centre). They’ve also started refarming more of their 1800mhz meaning they can have 30mhz of 1800mhz giving a total of up to 70mhz of downlink spectrum. That’s around 525mbps of downlink capacity - again not including 4x4 mimo and 256qam which takes it up to Gigabit LTE. EE also have started to deploy another 15mhz of 2600Mhz capacity but this will not be widespread. I would say EE's only disadvantage can be indoor coverage (the reason to test the network first). As they predominantly use high frequency spectrum, this doesn't penetrate through walls as well as Vodafone's and o2 base layer of 800mhz.

Hope that makes sense. Let me know if you don’t understand anything as it probably doesn’t make sense!

[jonsie]

Thank you @packages for that. I find it all fascinating. I can't profess to understand it all but I get the general gist.

I already have an EE sim with adequate but but not brilliant at 4G. Still better than O2 however.

Bear in mind that testing is confined to inside the hospital and in the grounds so not really a fair reflection tbh. A Three sim gives the same speed results as O2. 

Whereas in Bolton, some 12 miles from the centre of Manchester, EE really bea0t the pants off O2. I'm stuck in Manchester for the last 6 months and will be off to Oswaldtwistle in a couple of weeks in theory so I'll order a Vodafone sim and compare all the networks. 

I'll be there for around 9 months before I'm fit enough to get home to Thailand. 12 months ago I got over 100Mb in Oswaldtwistle with my EE sim. O2 was adequate at a decent 18 down and 12 up.

For anyone wondering where the hell Oswaldtwistle is, it's a small village near Accrington, Blackburn. 

All fascinating stuff, thanks again @packages

[Beenherebefore]

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@jonsie wrote:

Accrington, Blackburn. 

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Where ?

[jonsie]

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@Beenherebefore wrote:

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@jonsie wrote:

Accrington, Blackburn. 

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Where ?

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[BigDaddyUK]

Same here. With EE was D/U 20-40 mb/s / 5-15Mb/s, now with O2 it is D/U 4mb/s / 1-2 Mb/s!!

It is acceptable!?