Recently moved to O2 - very patchy signal, even in London

[WheresWardy]

Hi all,

I recently moved from EE to O2 after having been on EE for a few years and have now been O2 for about a month. My experience of O2 has been that data availability is incredibly patchy, to the point of only being usable about 50% of the time.

I was expecting to not have quite the coverage that EE had given that it's likely they have the best 4G network in the UK, but I thought this would mostly be down to speed - O2's claims in various places that they have the best network, but so far my experience has been that it's substantially worse. My phone frequently drops onto 3G, and when it does you basically can't use it for data - you have to wait for it to find 4G again, and only then it needs at least a couple of bars to get any data at all.

This is on an iPhone 13 mini, and the experience is mostly related to central London where I work where I'd expect the coverage to be pretty uniform. I can see massive changes in usable signal just from walking a few hundred yards, which is something I never experienced on EE.

At home (outside London) I basically cannot use my phone for data at all despite the coverage checker saying that it is has good 4G signal indoors and outdoors (again I'll have at best 1 bar of 4G inside the house, and the rest of the time it says 3G, and neither will be usable for doing anything data related).

My question is more around whether this is an expected experience in comparison with EE - is this just the best you can hope for from O2? Does something actually sound wrong here and most people have excellent 4G coverage in central London? Did I just make a mistake switching to O2? I've restarted my phone several times since switching so seems unlikely to be device related given it was fine on EE, and I can sometimes fix the problem by going onto airplane mode for 10s+ when it's really bad, but don't really want to have to micromanage my phone signal like this.

Any tips greatly appreciated as I've still got 10+ months on my contract!

[madasaf1sh]

@WheresWardy 

My first point is never trust coverage maps, as they are best guess using a computer simulation, based on perfect conditions. 

I travel to London for work, and find in some areas o2 works a lot better than EE, and in some EE works better than o2, this is in central London to be fair... The same for Voda and Three. 

You dont say which part of London, you are having issues.  

But I know o2 had to take some masts out for work on Crossrail, and from what I remember they will be replaced, but when is another question, as some roads cant be dug up 😞 

[WheresWardy]

I work around the Tower Hill area, although travel all across London so the experience I was reflecting on wasn't necessarily specifically at work (where I have Wi-Fi) but more moving around London - whilst EE could also be variable, I would say my experience with EE was that it was always baseline good and then would be very good about 50% of the time. In comparison, my experience with O2 appears to be that it's unusable up to 50% of the time, and OK the rest.

So I guess it was more a question of whether this sounds substantially below expectations and I should troubleshoot with O2 themselves further, or whether people are often on 3G in central London and when they are they can't meaningfully use their phone for data.

[ari5t0tle405632]

What phone do you have as O2 uses some additional frequencies to EE so it could be that your phone doesn't support the frequency where O2's 4G is stronger?

[WheresWardy]

I have an iPhone 13 mini (A2628) which does support the 2300 Mhz 4G band (which is LTE band 30). Fairly sure the recent iPhones have support for pretty much the full LTE band spectrum.

[madasaf1sh]

It isnt your phone at fault.. 

It is probably saturation on the network at certain pinch points in London. 

Best thing to do is use the My Network App, and report when you have an issue.  

I use something similiar for work through EE and the o2 App for o2,.

[Peterkin1010]

Hmmmm... yes sadly O2 isn't the best network overall for either coverage or data speeds and in most places it struggles in comparison to EE. This is due toca number of reasons not least underinvestment by its previous owners. This is now starting to change with Liberty Global sudden reemphasis on the network and is now making moves to correct that. However, network expansion and coverage improvements can be a lengthy process involving many stages not least objections from stupid, selfish NIMBYS who think they're 'entitled to a view" outside their windows. So whilst O2 will eventually get there,in the meantime we have a situation where underinvestment is now biting both them and their customers in the rear end. And whilst O2 like all other UK  networks are now investing, demand for the network has since COVID-19 outstripped the ability to deliver.

[WheresWardy]

Thanks for the details Peterkin1010, the history to it as well is very interesting. I wouldn’t mind so much but it’s amazing that O2 make claims about being the best network (and therefore comparable with EE) when it’s quite evidently not the case even beyond subjective areas. 

Interestingly after using it for a bit longer and repeatedly using the My Network app the same pattern crops up - the app shows full 4G coverage for the area I’m in, despite the fact that there’s never a 4G signal on my phone in that area, and some excuse always pops up along the line of “high contention in your area” or “a mast is currently not functioning where you are”. 

I wonder if the basically unusable signal at home is enough to terminate my contract without penalty as I can’t see how O2 are upholding their side of things here. Failing that I guess I’ll just have to wait it out and jump ship back to EE as soon as possible. 

Thanks for everyone’s help, it’s a shame this appears to just be a general issue. And I warn anyone else reading this to think twice before joining O2 if you’re at least a mild but considerate data user.