For a few years, I've been on an annual lads week out on a narrowboat. Four of us have smartphones which we use for navigation, and finding places to eat and drink. We understand canals are not the highest priority for coverage, but around the Midlands coverage has been reasonable. This year we were in Berkshire and Wiltshire on the Kennet and Avon Canal. We travelled through Newbury, Kintbury, Hungerford, Pewsey, All Cannings, Devizes, and Seend. Of course in in Newbury (Home of Vodafone) coverage of 2G and 3G was excellent on O2, but for the rest of the journey 3 of us with O2 , were looking at 'No Service' or a 2G signal that wouldn't even support a call of more than a minute. I am an ex O2 employee and have been humiliated by the fact that the one of the crew with Three mobile service had an almost consistent 3G data service, with speeds up to 10 MBPS. The 3 of us with O2, had to use Three's phones tethered hotspot just to check emails. We went into a pub in Pewsey where on asking for the WiFi password, got the response of 'Oh you must be O2 users then' that sums up the local peoples attitude to O2. All 3 of us are not in contract with O2, and 2 of us have already decided to swap to Three for a reliable service as they also have problems at there home locations. I will try to stay loyal to see if O2 can up it's game, but it is difficult, when my O2 3G service at home has dropped out and O2 networks say they cannot gain access to the base station to fix. What hope have we for a good network when customers are leaving in quantity for a network that actually delivers. I know about the promises of upgrades in next 3 years, but it is a long while to wait, if it ever happens. can anyone give good reason why we shouldn't jump ship now.
