My feelings about O2 reception

[Anonymous]

I have just joined the forum today as I was interested to see what other people think about O2's reception around the country. My own experience is that it's very variable even when I'm in a city when I think 'surely I must get a signal here.'

At least a voice call connects more times than not, but internet access is pretty abysmal most places. This generally doesn't connect. I carry a Three mifi dongle with me and use this to connect to the internet if I'm not able to join to a landline broadband.

What bugs me are the texts telling me about the services I could use. Well I can't if I don't have a signal.

They can supply me with cinema and concert tickets. If I want these I'll go to a cinema or theatre. I don't go to a cinema to buy a phone, I go to a phone provider. Perhaps if they concentrated on their core business a bit more I might actually get a better service for the money I am paying. They are telling me about 4G now. I wont hold my breadth. After all these years of not be able to make 3G work I can't see them getting 4G to work in a few months.

I am unfortunately tied to O2 until December but then I'll be free to leave and then, dare I say it, my smart phone may actually appear to be smart.

[Anonymous]

Hi Contractor.

I myself was in Coventry over Christmas and I was able to connect to awesome 4g on my s4 with no problem. I also had no issue with signal across the Coventry Warwick Leamington area.

Could it be an issue with your phone or sim? Before you rush to jump ship I would check that out first because if Coventry was causing you a problem then I would have to counter that thought.

(Not saying you are wrong though, you were there with your phone and had the issues and I fully appreciate that).

Try a free sim swap first. Easiest to do at your local o2 shop who will do it for you.

[Anonymous]

Always find it funny when folk say "you are free to change supplier as no one is forcing you to stay..." For some reason talking about poor service on a forum equates to this poor generic response from a non reprasentative when in actual fact we are just stating our experience and in no way hoping this comes across as a threat... But guess that's the internet for you!

[Anonymous]

Hi Sherlocked

Thank you for your post. When we say people are free to choose we don't take the post as a threat. Some areas are better served by other operators. That is the same across the country.

If the areas a person uses most are not covered by a good o2 signal but one of the other 4 networks do offer a better signal then the customer must make a choice as to their chosen network.

We know o2 don't cover everywhere but neither do the rest. But no one wants customers to be unhappy either.

Thank you for your post though. Very helpful

[Anonymous]

This is why it pains me a little because my coverage 3G wise was amazing for my time with O2 but I'm miffed as to what has caused the decline in signal in my usual areas I visit (non-rural). I used to praise O2 to the hills but it is a shame to have to leave... Luckily I have opted for sim-free phones recently which means taking a 30 day rolling contract with another provider will be better in case a repeat happens where a switch is called for again. Was just interested to hear other opinions on their signal decline. Cheers again

[Anonymous]

You are very welcome.

[Bambino]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Always find it funny when folk say "you are free to change supplier as no one is forcing you to stay..." For some reason talking about poor service on a forum equates to this poor generic response from a non reprasentative when in actual fact we are just stating our experience and in no way hoping this comes across as a threat... But guess that's the internet for you!

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Really? Is that why you said, and I quote 'Either way... I cannae wait to jump ship'? 

You can state your experience or threaten or not threaten as much as you like here. Most of the time, people who are happy with the service don't come to the forum. This one or any other. 

[Anonymous]

Bambino is correct. Most people go to the forums of they have a problem. Only occasionally do they post on here their good experiences.

Ultimately we all have a choice. There is alot of change happening at the moment especially with EE decommissioning duplicated sites and o2 / Vodafonethrough the Cornerstone project now sharing many masts. There are many more changes still to come but as has been reported elsewhere o2 are the only operator required to reach 98% of the population not just with 4g but with 2g and 3g as well by 2017 although o2 have committed to reach this by 2015 a full 2 years early.

It is up to you if you want to wait or jump ship.

[Anonymous]

That's laughable...lol...

[Anonymous]

I agree 100%, I have 2 personal phones and 1 business phone on O2, all what I get in most of the UK especially big cities is GPRS, shame on you O2.

[a_hcir]

I'm a recent refugee from virgin mobile who use the ee network. The first thing I noticed was that the call quality is so much better on o2, both in the city where I live and in the rural industrial estate where I work - even at home where phone insists the signal is stronger on virgin, the o2 call quality is hugely better. Ee turned off a mast where I work and the only real options for me were the old 900MHz networks.

The data isn't as fast as on virgin/ee, but is a lot more consistent - I can get quick 3g data whilst motoring around the city, whereas on virgin using 3g data on the move was extremely spotty.