Three Mobile the absolute pits

[fourstardan]

Ive been with this lot Sim free for a few years but since the vodafone deal its just been diabolical.

I have rarely more than 3 bars, cuts out, just unreliable.

On thr a34 and m40 today (as a passemger)....how many black holes can honestly exist for a mobile provider.

Is anyone else finding this?

[gus607]

my Three mobile Sim is working fine as usual. Not noticed any difference at all, better or worse.

[Evolved]

I’ll see you and raise you. I’m with Smarty, cheap as chips but absolutely shocking as they use the Three network, so are even further down the pecking order for data packets.

I should really move but as I WFH I’m always on WiFi.

[nordboy]

I've noticed my signal getting worse and have had more drop outs since the merger. Could be a coincidence though?

Also having issues with their customer services being crap and not sorting an issue of not being able to log on to a second phone. All they seem to want to do is upsell me stuff I don't want.

[Jamescrs]

I've found all the mobile networks seem to have issues now,

I was on O2 and that deteriorated with black spots around Leeds, even on main arterial roads 5 miles from the city centre so I then tried Spusu who use EE's network and i'm now on Talk Mobile who use Vodafone and they are much better than Spusu but probably similar to O2 for black spot areas.

I'm tempted to go to EE directly as they are more expensive but seem to get better ratings.

I read somewhere things deteriorated after a decision by the government to take Huawei equipment out of the national networks

[fourstardan]

O2 is the only other option or vodafone.

I did raise a complaint about this but got the usual fob off.

[Actual]

It could be that Three have reduced their service to the normal level of Vodafone.

I have been a Vodafone customer for so long that about 15 years ago they sent me a letter saying "You are one of our longest ever customers". It didn't make any difference.

[DorsetSparky]

Phone signal around the UK, seemingly with any provider, seems absolutely pants. Certainly across the south of the UK. I've worked with colleagues anywhere from Bristol, Newport, Kent and Stevenage, and they've all struggled. In my previous job, we were all mobile, and we could never hold a phone conversation whilst driving without it dropping somewhere.
It's the same with here - I can't drive for more than about 15-20 minutes without the signal dropping in various places. Mega-annoying.

Interestingly, we seem to rank 22nd out of 25th for connectivity across European countries.

[alangla]

With 3G being turned off, maybe 3 need to go back to the agreement they had when they started out that allowed their devices to use a 2G network (Orange I think) if 3 was lost. Personally I’m hoping that this merger allows Vodafone devices on 3 and vice versa, Vodafone’s own coverage has definitely gone downhill since they turned their 3G network off.

[wyson]

Was reading how mobile operators are on the backfoot in the UK from the start because of how the bandwidth is divvied out through auctions, leading to some of the highest startup costs in the world.

The gov sees it as a bit of a cash cow.

Mobile companies then recover these costs through underinvestment. So not much different from any of the other utilities.

[the-norseman]

its not just Three, EE is just as bad.

Driving along, shows 4G or 5G but then apps such as Spotify "no connection or offline"

[Phil.]

Could it be increasing population/increased number of phones? Many have separate work/home phones now.

If I’m at event getting a signal is nigh on impossible due to the number of people in the location.

[abzmike]

Another public service, that used to be decent, now seems to be getting worse, with rising prices and a useless regulator. A tediously familiar theme.

[surveyor]

Evolved said:

I ll see you and raise you. I m with Smarty, cheap as chips but absolutely shocking as they use the Three network, so are even further down the pecking order for data packets.

I should really move but as I WFH I m always on WiFi.

Three own Smarty.

The first step post Vf Three merger is to allow each network roaming rights over the other. Most sites can do this via software - some need a hardware change.

The withdrawal of 3G does seem to have hurt networks - it was a very much a compromised service - but one which patched a lot of coverage holes that now seem to be exposed.

The UK is far down the 5G coverage list. Operators have blamed their landlords, landlords blame the new legislation, in truth operators see no financial benefit in providing 5G coverage and have not been incentivised to splash the cash.

The new legislation makes hosing a site far less desirable and not very rewarding. Many landlords are no longer interested and will actively look to do something else with their land/roof if an operator looks like it may show any interest.

Vf/Three have signed up to some strong upgrade commitments to get approval for their merger. If they don't spend, it will cost them!

[fourstardan]

Well I've done a Karen AI generated complaint and will see what happens.

If they get enough complaints maybe ofcom will step in.

[fat80b]

I'm in a similar boat - have been with Three for quite a while. I'm on the old contract so have unlimited data and the old feel at home roaming agreement which I like. But it's been getting more and more expensive, and the coverage is pants in places. I keep looking at moving but conclude that it's out of the frying pan and into the fire. They all seem as bad as each other....

For example, Three is fine in some parts of Cambridge with 5G, but near the main station, I get signal but zero throughput. Every single day as I pass through on the train, it is a complete dead zone. Poor throughput seems to correlate with the number of people in a cell. i.e. busy areas it doesn't work for me....

The kids are on 02 (via Giffgaff) and often out perform my data rate tests in town. - I wish there was a real-data coverage map that I could look at - i.e. can I see that a different network would give me (in the places I usually go) better performance than Three does, but this doesn't seem to exist. I don't need to know if there's 5G, I need to know does it actually work in practice.....

[triggerhappy21]

This seems to be coming up more and more in social conversations. I think everyone is suffering. I ended up leaving EE a couple years ago, after 18 months of virtually no working mobile data. Moved to O2 eventually, it's better but still not great.

I've heard a couple of reasons. 5g switch over. 5g bandwidth requires many more transmitters, planning difficulties is making the role out of these much slower than expected. With 3g gradually being switched off its left lots of black spots.

Huawei equipment banned from UK due to security concerns in 2020. Apparently Huawei equipment was all over the UK network, and it's removal has caused major issues.

I'm not in the industry, so no idea what truth there is in the above, I just know from 2020 my mobile network coverage took a serious nosedive and still hasn't recovered. I'd be interested to hear if someone has some knowledge

[surveyor]

triggerhappy21 said:

This seems to be coming up more and more in social conversations. I think everyone is suffering. I ended up leaving EE a couple years ago, after 18 months of virtually no working mobile data. Moved to O2 eventually, it's better but still not great.

I've heard a couple of reasons. 5g switch over. 5g bandwidth requires many more transmitters, planning difficulties is making the role out of these much slower than expected. With 3g gradually being switched off its left lots of black spots.

Huawei equipment banned from UK due to security concerns in 2020. Apparently Huawei equipment was all over the UK network, and it's removal has caused major issues.

I'm not in the industry, so no idea what truth there is in the above, I just know from 2020 my mobile network coverage took a serious nosedive and still hasn't recovered. I'd be interested to hear if someone has some knowledge

5G has a licensed frequency at a high bandwidth which does not travel as far, but is quicker. More transmitters are need for this. But 5G in the country is 99% over the top of 4G, so that's not really an issue. Operators are also refarming lower ex 3G frequencies to 5G - which will have better range - but less speed.

Huawei for me is a distraction. It's an expensive cost and their equipment was market leading - but the alternative vendors have had 2-3 years for their kit to catchup. Other than for a short period while the hardware is being swapped on a specific site, I think this is an excuse.

Planning is an issue, but it comes down to whether the politicians and their voters are happy to allow what can can be visually intrusive equipment on wider terms.

[jurbie]

There have been some changes since the merger, the biggest so far being that Vodafone had a bit of bandwidth on one of their frequencies they weren't really using but Three were. That appears to have been transferred as there are a lot of reports of this extra bandwidth suddenly appearing on Three sites. This might not be noticed by your average user but it does mean that the 'pipe' has got slightly larger allowing a bit more traffic through.

[soad]

Don’t especially like the latest merger myself, meh. Luckily no longer using their broadband.