Are you finding mobile phone service has currently gone terrible in the last few weeks?

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asttocatbunny@reddit

Im technical support to my engineers, as well as managing them. Its driving me NUTS! O2 is crap, EE less do, but sometimes even normal email is affected

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Yes. It’s because there is quite simply, too many phones / ppl trying to connect to the masts and not enough capacity on each of them. This problem may become more obvious to you when you’re at a stadium, extremely busy superstore, etc

Immigration has no doubt played a part

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WoodSteelStone@reddit

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates that the number of people living in the UK will rise to 70 million by 2026. There is a lot of emphasis on the need for housing (we'll need the equivalent of seven new cities the size of Liverpool for that number of extra people in just two years) but everything will need to be scaled up, including phone masts.

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matt3633_@reddit

Scaling up infrastructure to cope with that level is unachievable

Forget the failing to assimilate issue; the country physically cannot cope

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WoodSteelStone@reddit

Unfortunately, that is the case.

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WoodSteelStone@reddit

Yes, and Google Maps is constantly searching for a signal so it's become pretty useless. I have wondered if the satellites have been retasked to assist Ukraine.

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Longjumping-Yak-6378@reddit

I’m ok with this. Bring back phone boxes and teletext. 🤣

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sniper3122@reddit

In 2020 the U.K. government ordered Huawei to remove all 5G technology by 2027 - this has resulted in the whole of the uk having a shit connection.

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Agreeable_Fig_3713@reddit

Yes. Fucking awful. My husband is in emergency services and their ee work devices are the same.

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parrotandcrow@reddit

It's awful. I have two phones on different networks as I live in an area with crap signal anyway. It means if one doesn't work the other hopefully will.

I've been struggling with both though. Getting messages on the screen telling me to connect to the internet or letting me know my connection is poor; as if I can't tell.

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manufan1992@reddit

Funnily enough, just seen this: https://news.sky.com/story/boss-of-mobile-firm-three-hits-out-at-uks-abysmal-signal-coverage-and-speeds-13197390

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manufan1992@reddit

For the last few months I’ve noticed a real degradation in signal strength. And I can’t ever get 5G.

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ImFamousYoghurt@reddit

I'm on ID/three and I'm finding I have barely any signal in areas that I used to have no signal issues in.

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Serberou5@reddit

Agreed. I keep dropping back down to H+ on Three. They are looking to turn off H+ very soon in my area so then I will have no service at all for perhaps 40% of the time. The rest of the time my 4g says it's there but it's a lottery as to if it's really working or not. I'm glad it's not just me.

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knityourownlentils@reddit

Had to call 999 last week for an emergency.

It took me forever to get a connection and then had to stay in one place to make the call as my ID sim contracted phone wouldn’t dial out.

This was in an urban area.

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AWildEnglishman@reddit

Same. I have three and Lebara. At first it stopped working because my phone was old and they took down the 3g tower in my area, but after upgrading I still can't maintain a connection in a dense urban area surrounded by towers.

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c4tfeed@reddit

I got my phone wet, so I'd assumed I'd damaged the antenna. Can hotspot from another phone (vodafone) with no issues which compounded my theory. Was just about to buy a new handset, might hold off now...

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ChemistryQuirky2215@reddit

Same, and certainly found it getting worse over recent months.

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taimur1128@reddit

Same boat as you.. but always had that issue where I live I have 5G but the connection is worse than 3G...

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Kmoodle@reddit

My EE phone seems to be ok as far as I can see - always have signal though did notice 4g was slower when I was out the other day (could have just been the area).

My husband's 3 phone has been awful and has really noticeably gone downhill over the last few months - he's looking to change now but wants to go to O2 which I've also heard isn't great!

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Zanki@reddit

Don't go on O2, I have it and I lose my internet in city/town centers a lot. More than once I've not had data in Manchester until I'm past the takeaway street heading out of the center. It's ridiculous. My phone doesn't even work as a phone where I'm living ATM. If someone what's to call me they have to use WhatsApp or messenger. Even WiFi calling doesn't help. It sucks because sometimes I need to make calls and I can't.

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Kientha@reddit

EE have the most consistent outdoor coverage of any of the operators but their indoor coverage is poor because they don't have any band 8.

Three is inconsistent. In areas where they're strong, they're likely the best network. In other areas they're awful and likely the worst network.

Vodafone isn't as consistent as EE but is more consistent than Three and VMO2. Some people have had issues since the 3G switch off being able to actually get 4G signal but this appears to be improving in most of those areas.

VMO2 is probably the least reliable operator. Their speeds are lower, coverage isn't great, and if you're able to get a VMO2 signal the majority of the time you'll also have a Vodafone signal due to their cell site sharing which tends to perform better anyways!

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Kmoodle@reddit

This is such a helpful response thank you!

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Trilobite_Tom@reddit

O2 has been terrible for over a year now. I work all over the midlands and south west. Next to no 5G. 4G is patchy and 3G unusable.

More often than not mine seems to be on “edge”

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Zanki@reddit

O2 have had so many issues the last couple of years. A few times I haven't been able to get any connection in Manchester city center. It's dropped in other areas as well, mainly the centers. I'm currently living in a dead zone so I rarely receive phone calls and can't make them either. Even if it says I have a bit of signal, I don't. Sometimes my data won't kick in for a mile or so. Pain in the ass when I want to play Pokémon go, but I'm in a completely dead area anyway, there's no stops/gyms for a mile.

We actually thought my old phone was the issue because it didn't have 5g. I eventually upgraded to a pixel 7 and it persists. It's slightly better but not much.

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glasgowgeg@reddit

O2 has been terrible for over a year now

Same as usual then.

I was with O2 for about 2 months as part of the Virgin-O2 bundle they done for broadband/tv/phone and the signal was unusable no matter where I went in the central belt of Scotland.

I done about 50 speed tests in various locations, exported them to spreadsheet using the speed test app (including the latitude/longitude) and gave it to O2.

The performance was so bad they allowed me to cancel the SIM early with no penalty because it was so bad.

I think the best I ever got was like 0.5Mbps download speeds.

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aloonatronrex@reddit

O2 is just rubbish.

I used to be in O2 for years, then switched to EE and it was way better. Better service when I had a signal, better coverage, better switching between cells when travelling.

I recently moved where O2 are the only option, and I am considering sacrificing having phone signal at home so I’m not plagued with the bad service whenever I’m anywhere else.

As it is, I have to rely on WiFi at home most of the time, anyway, as their signal still isn’t great.

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Mountain_Flamingo759@reddit

I found O2 kept cutting the bandwidth during nights in particular. 20 gig down to 0.5. Couldn't even order deliveroo at night.

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LobbyDizzle@reddit

3G wasn't flat out just turned off over night, but is being turned off in waves through 2024 and is planned to be off by the end of the year.

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Ill_Relief2883@reddit

Was always able to get service & at least 4G on the same regular countryside walk, last couple of weeks absolutely nothing!

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Educational-Angle717@reddit

No but the cost of mine has gone ridiculous with O2 can anyone recomended a good provider for reasonable cost? I only have 10GB with unlimited everything else and it's costing me loads.

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Alster5000@reddit

I'm on three and there are places that used to be fine where I can't use my phone anymore. It's insane. I've not been able to find anything on it though.

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dartiss@reddit

Why would the US ban force British mobile operators to turn off their Huawai infrastructure?

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SomeHSomeE@reddit

If you read the link you posted it explains why this is a result of US sanctions.

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callisstaa@reddit

I wonder what we'll use instead. Does the UK even have a major telecoms equipment supplier?

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SomeHSomeE@reddit

Nokia and Ericsson are the two other main ones that compete with Huawei.

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Kientha@reddit

You also have Samsung who provided Three's 4G Network and Vodafone's Open RAN network and Mavenir who have been getting some use in small cells as well as VMO2's and Three's Open RAN networks.

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dartiss@reddit

Well spotted - thank you!

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flyhmstr@reddit

And that work continues, other than local service impacts as radio gear is replaced it won’t be affecting the service. Any core network changes should happen without the public noticing

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Mindless-Credit191@reddit

Apparently they’ve limited the amount of traffic that can go through any Huawei towers, and that’s affecting everyone even today

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Kientha@reddit

This is not wrong but also not the cause of any network slowdowns.

So there is a limit on how much of the traffic can go through Huawei RAN sites as a proportion of all traffic in the UK for each operator but all the operators have been swapping out Huawei sites since the ban was announced so no operator will be anywhere near that limit

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Far-Outcome-8170@reddit (OP)

Because the UK followed suit with the sanctions.

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squidgytree@reddit

I believe Vodafone and 3 have a mast sharing agreement so if your closest mast has gone down, you'll probably get flaky connectivity across both of your SIMs

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Kientha@reddit

Vodafone and VMO2 have a widespread mast sharing agreement that splits the country in two. Vodafone build the sites in the West, VMO2 build the sites in the East.

Three and EE also have a cell site sharing agreement but this is a significantly smaller arrangement than the Vodafone VMO2 deal.

It's worth noting that each operator still have their own radio frequencies they can use which will impact performance (EE for example doesn't have anything in band 8 which is why their indoor coverage is so bad) and the core and transport networks will also have a significant impact on performance.

Vodafone is also trying to merge with Three which is currently going through the CMA. If that goes ahead, there will likely be some form of giving access to current customers to the other network while they build the new core network they keep going on about in the press releases but that will be next year at the earliest

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the_topiary@reddit

Yes. I've has incredibly bad Vodafone signal (cuts in and out all the time, no data, calls dropping off) since the end of May.

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Kientha@reddit

The Huawei ban on core network components has been enforced since the end of last year. On the Radio network side, operators have until 2027 to remove the Huawei kit and this is an ongoing piece of work not a big bang. If the operators were forced to turn off Huawei immediately, you would have no signal at all if in a Huawei area.

If you're in a touristy area, then it's likely just the impact of having a significant number of additional people in your area. The other potential impact is the Olympics if lots of people were streaming it on their phones.

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Signal-Ad2674@reddit

Core RAN equipment has been removed by the operators as of February last year, otherwise there were significant fines. Note that only two of the operators had that vendor in the core.

Fixed networks have to remove UK access leg equipment by December 2025.

Any RAN access is still not defined with a stop serve.

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InquisitorVawn@reddit

If you're in a touristy area, then it's likely just the impact of having a significant number of additional people in your area.

I was about to say that no, I haven't found my mobile phone service to be any worse than normal lately but that's because I do live in a tourist area and our mobile service here has been notoriously terrible and not fit for the load we get for years.

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SoundsVinyl@reddit

Yeah, giff gaff has been terrible!

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North-Village3968@reddit

What do you expect in an overpopulated country where 10s of thousands of people are all trying to connect to the same 5G mast at once. The data transfer speed is set, then divided equally amongst the devices connected. The more devices connected, the slower the speed

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stargrazing123@reddit

Thank you for posting this because the lack of signal has been driving me crazy the past few weeks! I'm on Giffgaff but it's run by O2, so I checked O2's status checker and it says they're conducting "upgrade work" in my area.

So either all Network Providers have decided to carry out works simultaneously (lol no), or there's something wider and fishy going on.

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Theres3ofMe@reddit

Can anyone in tech please explain in layman's terms why, when I live in an area with 2nr 5g masts, it doesn't show 5g on my phone- even though I have manually set it to do so?

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Emotional_Hotel3439@reddit

First off check whether you can get 5g Anywhere. If not it's probably your phone or your sim hasn't been provisioned for 5g.

If you can get 5g elsewhere, and you still can't access 5g when close up to the masts, then contact your provider, it's possible they haven't even brought live yet or it's possible the site parameters need checking.

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Begum65@reddit

Yea a few years ago with the 5G conspiracy government ordered the removal of he Huawai technology, so we just starting to feel the removal of equipment now. It's going to get much worse.

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EdmundTheInsulter@reddit

Yes,data slow and drops out even with a signal

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Conscious-Ball8373@reddit

I don't know if it's related to mobile networks, but I've seen significant instability in a couple of tier 1 connectivity providers recently (tier 1s are the people who really run the internet backbone). There have been times when packet loss to major web hosts has been well over 60% before the local ISP re-routes to avoid the broken tier 1. At one point, this was enough to make the entire Google estate (including the nameservers on 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4) effectively inaccessible to client devices.

No idea what's causing it all; if I had to guess, I'd say it's likely to be collateral damage from a DDoS attack.

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NorthernScrub@reddit

I don't think a ddos attack is very likely, google's dns stuff is massively scaled. In theory it could be tangentially related to bgp poisoning, or perhaps an internal issue, but I have no doubt that the likes of google, cloudflare, fastly, akamai etc all have heavy redundancy built in.

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Conscious-Ball8373@reddit

I'm not thinking it's collateral form a DDoS on google, but either on the tier 1 who was showing lots of packet loss or on someone hosted downstream from them. The problem clearly wasn't google; packet loss was on an intermediate network.

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NorthernScrub@reddit

Oh I see what you're driving at, I misread that at first.

Still... that's a lot of traffic, even if you're looking at an area-dependent provider rather than a global one. Although tbf I can also see capacity being at an all time low with the move to fibre and the removal of cheap chinese tat from the infra.

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v60qf@reddit

This guy internets

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FrogBoglin@reddit

For now

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EdmundTheInsulter@reddit

There was no problem at work though. I have no broadband to compare. It could be EE at some point. It's worse on 5g where I live, but on holiday 4g it is better

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Conscious-Ball8373@reddit

It will depend a lot on the network structure between you and whatever you're trying to access. We spent about an hour unable to access Google, but netflix and BBC were fine. Then the ISP's upstream tier 1 switched how they were routing traffic to a different peer and the problem just disappeared. I was watching how traffic was being routed as it happened; very suddenly, the path packets were taking changed and the packet loss disappeared.

"Every packet is a separate miracle" except the ones that never make it.

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Theres3ofMe@reddit

I stood by a 5G mast the other day, and it still showed 4g - but barely.

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FarIntroduction9@reddit

It’s possible the drop in mobile service quality is related to infrastructure changes, like the Huawei ban, as some claim. However, network congestion, maintenance, or other technical issues could also be factors. Many are noticing similar problems, so you're not alone. Hopefully, carriers will address this soon.

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Scary-Try3023@reddit

Signal and regular broadband (ISP is Virgin) has really dropped over the past couple of weeks. I lose signal, my YT videos play in 144p, even at work (I WFH) everything is taking so long to load on my laptop.

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iMac_Hunt@reddit

I arrived back in the UK after several years abroad a while ago and was shocked at the phone signal here. It seems to be the only country I've been to recently that can't give me good data while in a supermarket or on a train. I can't say if it's got noticeably worse.

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4LKqE6nFn7Sz@reddit

I generally have terrible network coverage with o2 in built-up areas, surprisingly, but I did get a message from them recently saying they were planning to do some work to improve that soon.

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hideyourarms@reddit

I got a message about upgrading the network in Stockport, which is funny because I live in Cumbria.

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LegendJG@reddit

I didn’t have any service via EE for about 3-4 days a fortnight ago, however this was not something EE acknowledged. Since the service returned, it is often 4G and not 5G - but coverage seems equivalent.

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KingKhram@reddit

I'm on 3 and it's always been shit. My contract is coming to an end in a couple of months and will take my business to another provider

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OldBorktonian@reddit

Two 5G phones, one on O2 and other on EE in SW London.
EE gives me stable speeds usually 50 to 150 Mbps down, O2 faster but variable 50 to 250 mostly around 200,
Up speeds on both 15 to 30 Mbps. Indoors or outdoors.
Have tried Vodafone and 3 but they were very slow,
Can see a lot of masts/towers nearby, live near a railway.

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CaptainSeitan@reddit

Vodafone had network issues for the past 25 days in saltdean, I am not sure if it was in Brighton too as I never checked the postcode on their website, bit I definitely had some issues when I was in the city, as of today they are meant to be fixed. I contacted my provider (a Vodafone reseller) who refunded me for the past month

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knight-under-stars@reddit

No I have found no difference in service on EE. And to clarify the service was always very good.

My wife has had no issues on Vodafone either.

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MrAnonymousTheThird@reddit

EE is and has always been excellent for me

Three is cheaper but it's slower. Signal is slightly worse too

Vodafone / talk mobile is horrible. Last had them almost 10 years ago and by far the worst network ever. Always barely had 2g if I even had a signal. Calls and texts were ok but who uses that these days

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Armodeen@reddit

I’m on EE and my signal has been terrible the last week or so. Others in the house on O2 have the same issue.

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jonewer@reddit

Isn't EE entirely 4G? Which might mean a problem with the 5G infrastructure

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knight-under-stars@reddit

Nope, I get 5G.

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bacon_cake@reddit

I've got EE 5G, had shitty signal last week for a couple of days. Then they text to say repair work was finished and it's okay now.

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NorthernNiceGuy@reddit

I've actually been through the Ombudsman following a complaint I had with O2 reasonably recently as the local mast closest to home has been out of action for a long time (like over 18 months now). Unfortunately in O2's terms and conditions, they "cannot guarantee a fault-free service" and thus allowing them to not really do anything about it while continuing to charge me my full contract amount without any offer of a discount. As soon as I leave the area, it works ok - I say ok because 4G works and 5G does not.

I'm also not sure whether there also isn't an issue with iPhone's now too because if my phone moves between masts, I often have to enable flight mode and then disable it again in order to be able to use mobile data. This never used to be the case.

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Ulfgeirr88@reddit

I have not had any problems with GiffGaff, but my Mum and step dad and tesco mobile have had loads of problems. My Nan and Sister are on Vodafone, and it's been a problem for them too.

I've noticed card readers in shops and petrol stations are really hit and miss too

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kittyincaves@reddit

I'm on giffgaff which uses o2 I believe? Signal past couple weeks has been very bad on off.

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cloy23@reddit

In recent months, I’ve visited a few UK cities, the worst spots were Leeds & Birmingham for data and signal, Leeds especially (probably my mobile provider) but I’ve noticed this too. Slow and lagging, unable to connect etc. The best location, however, was Bicester.

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laddervictim@reddit

Vodafone is an absolute rip off. I got a new phone a while back on Vodafone & they wanted £1 a day for texts and calls. That's £30 a month, with Giffgaff I get unlimited everything for a tenner & only had 1 or 2 issues in the last 15 years & that was because the O2 network went down, which GG piggybacks

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NorthernScrub@reddit

I'm on Voxi, and whilst I haven't had much of an issue with data, not that I use it much, calls have been terrible lately. Dropouts, disconnections, you name it. It doesn't help that 5g has next to no signal strength inside a building, but even 4g (which is only marginally better) sucks at the moment.

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majestic_whine@reddit

Same. I even bought EE, 02 and Vodafone sims to compare them and they are all garbage. All would often display 5G (3 different handsets vivo, iPhone and Pixel) while not even capable of chatting on discord and certainly not able to listen to a podcast. 5G in this country is a joke. I could get over 1000 Mbps when I lived in Shanghai 3 years ago and rarely if ever couldn't get a decent signal even on the subway.

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Osprey-gunner45@reddit

Past few months but yes, complained so much and they say nothing Is wrong lol

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No-Jicama-6523@reddit

Interesting, I have had a few problems in the last few weeks. I’m on giffgaff (O2 iirc).

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Under_Water_Starfish@reddit

Yep, especially if I'm in a crowded place like near a train station or a row of restaurants.

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GogoGadgetTypo@reddit

I never enabled 5G, never had a problem. 4G is fine for all I need and signal has stayed consistent, good in the usual places, ditto with bad.

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WeDoingThisAgainRWe@reddit

With EE and their claims are nonsense and have been for ages. Reception inside house is non existent and in lots of places generally it's down to 1 bar.

One thing I have found is if I switch off wifi (when out) things move faster even on 1 bar than they were.

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yllecko@reddit

I've been with 3 for 10+ years, this last year and half has been the worst service I've had in all that time. Will be looking to swap network providers when my contract is up in a couple of months

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Blessed_Tits@reddit

Yep - I have a suspicion it's going to be convenient in a few months when 6g is suddenly touted as the next big thing...

Really have no idea what they're playing at but I moved networks last year to avoid this artificial throttling of service and it's happening again, even when I have a full 5g signal. Glad it's not just me.

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Kientha@reddit

6G hasn't even got a standard yet. We're at least 5 years from any commercial 6G deployments and half the operators haven't even deployed 5G SA yet!

It's not artificial throttling, it's the networks not keeping up with the demand which is ever increasing. If you notice, every operator is processing record amounts of data and so without increasing capacity, you get worse performance.

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SubstantialFly3316@reddit

Last few months, never mind the last few weeks. On the 3 network for personal phone, O2 for work. Both patchy and unreliable. Voice calls on standard mobile connection just cannot stay connected on either network. Data is very poor on connection and speed. I travel a lot and reliability/quality is generally consistently poor across the East of England. Forget doing anything in a moving vehicle. Car, van, trains, bus, useless.

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MixAway@reddit

But remember the mobile networks keep driving up our bills year after year by referencing their ‘record investment’, yet coverage and reliability keep dropping. It’s absolutely shocking there are still so many parts of this small country with shite or no connection.

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Kientha@reddit

That's because the investment is going to swap out Huawei sites and to Shared Rural Network sites instead of improving coverage where it's needed. Also it's been going into 5G Cores to allow for 5G SA to launch but that only helps if you live in a 5G SA area with a 5G SA phone

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FelisCantabrigiensis@reddit

No.

Don't believe random crap on tiktok.

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Ok_Cow_3431@reddit

Not felt this at all - on EE

Showing full signal but getting a poor connection I did experience on Sunday in London, but that's because I was at Gunnersbury Park with 40,000 other people so the network was predictably overloaded.

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amibothered666@reddit

The biggest problem is the removal of 3G. There just isn’t the 4G or 5G infrastructure, and most modern phones seem to want to keep hunting for 4G signals rather than stay on a basic voice call on 2G. It’s absolutely terrible in rural communities. Forget trying to do a teams call on the move. It’s impossible now.

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Crochet-panther@reddit

Ever since 3G went my phone has mastered imitating a brick. Vodafone claim they have coverage in the area despite many screenshots showing otherwise.

Also get times where it shows 4G or even 5G but won’t load anything

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YetAnotherInterneter@reddit

Switch to EE (or a piggyback network of EE like 1p Mobile) they have the most reliable network in the UK.

I was on 3 for years because they claim to have the ‘fastest 5G in the UK’. But I kept having connectivity issues. I then realised that reliability is more important than speed so switched to EE.

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Crompton201@reddit

Definitely been having issue s in the last month or so

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Gazz1e@reddit

Originally on EE, then switched to Three. Full "4G" and "5G" signal horrendous especially in city centres. I expect it's due to lots of people being on Three as it's cheap.

Decided to pay a lot more money for Vodafone, hoping for a better service. Nope - just as bad.

Back to EE and data transfers are good again. Lesson learnt, cheap (Three) isn't always nasty as expensive (Vodafone) can be nasty too.

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MB_839@reddit

Yes it's quite noticeable. I used to be able to at least stream audio and SD video when out in my village but since getting back from holiday a few weeks ago, even limiting to audio-only it's very patchy.

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turbo_dude@reddit

I think your grammar has 'gone terrible' in the last sentence

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SpezSucksBallz@reddit

Yes!!

I complained to EE a week or two ago that the signal at my house had suddenly gone to shit.

They came back and said, “all looks to be working fine following an investigation”.

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Spottyjamie@reddit

I live in a city yet get edge on o2

In nearby towns my phone will claim 4g yet unusable

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Mistigeblou@reddit

O2 is the same

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Monkeyboogaloo@reddit

On vodafone.

Its pretty bad.

Had better reception and data in a field in dorset than anywhere is london.

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chubzy88@reddit

Solar storms causing problems possibly?

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Tall_Low_1496@reddit

I wondered that, after all the excited social media posts.

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Antenoralol@reddit

I'm on EE and haven't seen any changes in signal / data speed.

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coffeegroundscompost@reddit

I've noticed this for maybe the past year and always thought it was my phone or my network (EE). It only happens when I'm in a larger city though, for example London or Oxford while my local smaller city I never have an issue.

When it happens, my phone shows good signal and 4G but I get no data and even restarting the phone doesn't help - only time or moving areas.

I didn't ever experience this issue in the past that I remember (more than a year ago) whereever I was - always god good data connectivity whereever I went.

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ComradeBirdbrain@reddit

Vodafone has slid down the rankings. 3 has always been shit but Vodafone has been dependable. Shame as now my service is better in Amsterdam than it is in London. I can’t even load basic webpages on 4G.

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bee-sting@reddit

I was in London at the weekend with EE and it was terrible. 5G and no signal

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caspian_sycamore@reddit

Three is unusable in London, and Vodafone is mediocre. I have a global sim and sometimes use it to get EE coverage and even that is not working properly all the time.

I have reliable mobile coverage even in "third world" countries nowadays. Nothing works in the UK it seems, even the mobile phone services...

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mattamz@reddit

Im on O2 and it's fine in popular areas in the middle of nowhere there's no signal which makes sense.

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Breaking-Dad-@reddit

No. But there was an issue around the Crowdstrike/Microsoft issue which seemed to have some knock-on effects (possibly just to do with capacity and the fact that any issue like this causes a lot of of companies to review their situation). It all seems to be back to normal now though.

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Dark_place@reddit

I don't know about sudden but phone networks seem to be getting steadily worse. Presumably another case of our infrastructure struggling with capacity

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Kientha@reddit

It's also because of the slow investment in new kit by the operators. This is due to several factors. The financial markets do not like Telco at the moment so getting capital to invest in the network is difficult.

At the same time, Telcos are forced to spend the money they do have for investing in their networks on replacing Huawei RAN sites which has the double whammy of not getting a good return on the money they initially put into developing those sites (worsening that financial markets piece) and diverting funds that could be spent on expanding network coverage.

The operators also have other money drains at the moment such as Shared Rural Network that the operators have funded the first phase of and their ongoing compliance with the Telecommunications Security Act which also requires significant capital investments to be compliant.

Then on top of that, Ofcom are threatening Telcos with a very expensive battery backup requirement for cell sites which will become a theft target and could drastically increase the amount lost to theft and vandalism on cell sites.

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AngryChickenPlucker@reddit

Yes, its as if 5g is really 3g.

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InternationalRich150@reddit

About a month ago,all My devices lost signal and mobile data. It was absolute chaos. I couldn't use my work phone which basically documents My entire day. I couldn't contact anyone if I had an issue with service users because my phone wouldn't ring out. No one could call me. Mt children's phones were the same. My colleagues phones were the same. All different networks. Apparently "they" were doing some work on masts in my town. Which knocked everything out. Went on for maybe 2 weeks,a little longer.

I'd leave the area and texts and WhatsApp would start flooding through. My work would all sync up and messages flood through. It was a total blackout.

It's still not right now cause there's pockets it just shuts down and I can't do anything with what's essentially a brick in my pocket. There's a mast less than a mile from me and I never once saw anyone work on it. So I'm really dubious what happened.

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HorseyBot3000@reddit

I have left Three due to their crappy signal and data even in busy cities. Explain how I can be in the middle of a city and have 1 bar of 4G that gets me nothing but my OH on EE had full 5G. Since I switched I have way less issues. Also when I was in france and got moved to t-mobile for 2 weeks, I had 2 bars of 4G in the mountains that was faster than the 5G in England ☹️

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RonnCraggs@reddit

where the creator claimed it was something to do with the Huawei ban and sanctions from the US suddenly coming into force, and as a result British operators were forced to turn off Huawei related infrastructure.

Also that is bullshit, They can't just Turn it off. Yes there is a ban but they are giving people years to remove this stuff as it's not just "Turn it off lads before you go home tonight ban is starting tomorrow"

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jamjars222@reddit

I'm on Smarty/three and I've definitely noticed a dip in service recently

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RonnCraggs@reddit

https://www.ismercuryinretrograde.com/

Did I dream it or did someone link to a Twitter thread where they jokingly said that they need Stacey Dooley to investigate and she replied "On it!" or did I just dream that?

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RonnCraggs@reddit

This is so weird, I keep seeing these kinds of posts pop up and yes as I have mentioned myself, Something is going on!

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mm42_uk@reddit

Yep, lots of lost calls, failed to connects etc. On ID/3

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annedroiid@reddit

I thought this was just my phone acting up, good to know it’s not just me

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pooey_canoe@reddit

I'm in Brighton and our internet and data is getting so bad that the PDQ machines are struggling to process payments

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TurbulentWeb1941@reddit

No change whatsoever. Android and on EE

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KeyJunket1175@reddit

Yes. I have switched from 3 to O2 just for this reason, it's still shit! There are so many blindspots in my area that don't have enough signal to be able to make a phone call, I don't even dare to wish for accessing the internet... Even when there is 4g, 5g around its not enough to let google maps load. I was hoping to work on my train and bus journeys. Nope. I am lucky if I can load the app to show my ticket...

This, together with the slow and expensive broadband (1GB for 20€ is the standard back home, available even in the smallest villages), is one of the most annoying little surprises I have been experiencing since moving over to the UK.

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Twiglet91@reddit

No issues on Vodafone at all.

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Kinjenti@reddit

Absolutely.

I’m 02 in NW England and it’s usual bob-on.

Been close to unusable recently.

Like they went home for the school summer holidays.

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Siori777@reddit

Yeah I'm on Three and it's been awful past week.

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what_do_i_know69@reddit

Yes! I had this the other day, 3/4 bars of 5G. Not a single thing would load at all!

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Dry-Communication922@reddit

Yeah, found this when I landed last week. My 3UK signal was rubbish but my 3Ireland sim worked fine most days. Funnily enough it didnt switch to a different carrier for roaming but was still better...

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Ecstatic_Food1982@reddit

I'm with 3 and the signal has dropped from being OK in my house and work (central Manchester) to being poor. It's annoying, especially with the ludicrous above inflation increases of the last few years.

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deanlr90@reddit

My missus reckoned I was making it up

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InformationMaster793@reddit

Yes. I commute by train and routinely work during the journey using my phone as a hotspot and it's getting harder and harder to get any work done. I used to be able to get a solid 45 minutes but lately with slowness, hanging and disconnections I'll be lucky if I get 20 minutes done.

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