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

[davybhoy]

I have just joined O2 from Vodafone and it seems it is absolutely crap by comparison. I'm constantly getting crap seeds around 5Mbps and on Friday I actually struggled to watch the football on iPlayer!

Will this ever get better?

[MI5]

Depends where you are but o2 has never been the fastest network.
Some improvements are rolling out but we don’t know where in advance.

[pgn]

If it is down to congestion, this can help, @davybhoy:

[davybhoy]

@pgn I did that and got about 7.5Mbps which was OK to watch the stream but it's not ideal. I know Belfast isn't the biggest City but the other networks have good speeds. It shouldn't be congested at all as I'm in the City Centre at the minute and it's a Sunday.

[pgn]

---

@davybhoy, Similar problem in Derry, but the improvement from switching to 3G in the afternoons on any weekday are shown below, 3G on the left:

---

[davybhoy]

@pgn It really is pathetic but all they'll say when you complain is that there is no faults in the area. How can they get away with calling it 4G!?

[pgn]

Well, @davybhoy - it is 4G, but when everyone's streaming at the same time, congestion means everyone's throughput drops drastically. The only reason 3G is a bit better is because everyone's phone is set to 4G if it's a recent model.

You are right - the O2 Network Tester app does not take into account the number of simultaneous 4G connections being handled when you are trying to determine how poor the service is... 😳

[davybhoy]

@pgnSo I did a speed test this morning and got the speed as below. This made me wonder what band I was using so I checkee and it seems I was on carrier aggregation of 800Mhz and 1800Mhz. When I checked at the times when I was getting awful speeds in Belfast City Centre as well as North, West and South Belfast, I was only using 800Mhz (haven't been East yet to check it). If I can get carrier aggregation in a small town then why is the city not getting it? 

[davybhoy]

@pgn This is the details of the band I was receiving at the time

[jezza1234]

Hi. I'v posted this response to other forum users that have similar issues. 

There are a combination of reasons that O2 users will not get good 4G coverage in city/town centres and built up areas at certain times of the day(facebook hours!).

The first and main reason is not lack of coverage or faults with masts it is about 4G capacity.

O2 predominately uses 800Mhz(ish) 4G which provides a good coverage footprint (the lower the frequency the further it will travel) but has a smaller capacity bandwidth(fewer users at a single time). Therefore at busy times of the day, when people are on lunches etc and the first thing they do is come out of the office and jump on to social media or check emails etc(go on we all do it ) This puts an incresed load on 4G which at those frequencies is an issue and therefore 4G speeds will slow right down.

Other networks, EE and voda, use a higher frequency which has a smaller coverage footprint but greater capacity(more users at a time) across alomost all of thier 4G estate

Interestingly O2 has recently obtained a chunk of spectrum at the higher frequncies which one would assume they will eventually use to alieviate this issue.

As to what you can do about it the best thing would be to register for the cloud or use O2 Wifi points of which there are many in town/city centres this should get you on line and also save you using your data allowance.

Unfortuantley there is no quick fix to this issue in city centres its just down to O2 4G frequencies and the  amount of people trying to access it at the same time at particular times of the day

Proffesionally I have a great deal of experience re frequencies, radio communications and LTE technology, and feel your pain