Advice needed, sudden loss of coverage

laissez-faire · 23 Jul 2006 at 12:56

Up until 3 weeks ago I used to get full Vodafone signal in my house. Something (god only knows what) has meant that now I get 1 bar if I am very lucky to allow me to send texts, but most of the time no coverage at all. This means making a call is completely impossible as even when there is 1 bar I am not able to understand what people are saying.

Tried the sim in 3 different phones, exactly the same thing happens. (V3, SL45 and K800i). Tried an O2 sim in my phone and still get full signal (so no random 900mhz shrowd generators have popped up!)

Vodafone say that there is nothing wrong with any of their transmitters in the area.

Surely I can cancel my contract early if it is now impossible to use my phone in my own home? They have so far simply refunded the two weeks of line rental that I have been unable to use my phone.

Does anyone have any clues what could cause a sudden problem with coverage?

Gavin · 23 Jul 2006 at 13:09

It can only be two things.............

1.There is something wrong with your nearest cell

2.The handsets faulty in some way.

laissez-faire · 23 Jul 2006 at 13:49

Gavin said:
It can only be two things.............

1.There is something wrong with your nearest cell

2.The handsets faulty in some way.

1. Vodafone deny this
2. 3 faulty handsets? What are the odds?

Absomalutely · 24 Jul 2006 at 17:59

laissez-faire said:
1. Vodafone deny this
2. 3 faulty handsets? What are the odds?

faulty sim perhaps?

Dolph · 24 Jul 2006 at 18:27

Gavin said:
It can only be two things.............

1.There is something wrong with your nearest cell

2.The handsets faulty in some way.

There is a third one.

3. Something is interefering in line of site between you and the transmitter.

It's not normally a major problem, but building work, growing trees and various similar things can interfere in signal in that area that are beyond the control of the network.

Part of the reason no network guarantees 100% coverage and service is that there are many things that can effect service beyond the network's control.

Dolph · 24 Jul 2006 at 18:28

Absomalutely said:
faulty sim perhaps?

Faulty sim can't cause poor/fluctuating signal. A sim card is basically a memory card with specific information on it to tell the phone what it can and can't do and how to do it.

Blaming a sim for flucuating signal is like blaming your memory card in your camera for the pictures being out of focus.

Absomalutely · 24 Jul 2006 at 23:39

my bad

laissez-faire · 25 Jul 2006 at 10:08

Dolph said:
There is a third one.

3. Something is interefering in line of site between you and the transmitter.

It's not normally a major problem, but building work, growing trees and various similar things can interfere in signal in that area that are beyond the control of the network.

Part of the reason no network guarantees 100% coverage and service is that there are many things that can effect service beyond the network's control.

This had occured to me, some work has been done by the forestry commision on power lines that are directly in the line of sight between the transmitter and the house. Nothing new put up but as I understood just routine maintenance. If this is what is causing the issue where would I stand re:my right to cancel?

stoofa · 25 Jul 2006 at 11:43

Maybe I'm missing something here but I don't see how you would be entitled to return the phone nor cancel your contract.

No mobile operator says 100% coverage because there are always things out of control of the mobile operator.
When you first purchased the phone there was no guarantee it was ever going to run at home at all.
You got the phone home and all was well and then things stopped working.
The mobile company in question say everything is OK as far as they can tell - there are no faults in your area.
You've tried numerous handsets and they all exhibit the same problem - so not a handset issue.
It cannot really be the SIM as they are such dumb things, but Vodafone may issue you with a new one for the sake of it.

So as far as Vodafone are concerned the fault is outside of their control.
As they never guaranteed you'd be able to use your phone from your house anyway why would they need to give you the option to terminate your account?
I'll admit I'm not familiar with Vodafones T&C's as I've never been on their network - is there anything in there that matches the position you are currently in?

Verbium · 26 Jul 2006 at 00:09

Actually Dolph it does effect signal, i don't know the technical reasons for it but it can either come join to a routing problem to that specific sim. I had a situation in my store where we had an on going problem, we sent the phone away for repair 3 times and it was fine. The sim used to work fine, but after a number port it never had full signal again. It took some fiddling by our sales staff to start realising it wasn't the phone at all, it was the sim. A phone call to the network finally proved that and they replaced the sim card.

Like most people here, i'm always the one to try and get something free out of the network, vodafone are great for this. Just keep ringing and ringing and you'll get everything for free, they never check a thing if they're new!

Dolph · 26 Jul 2006 at 07:46

Mr Sniper said:
Actually Dolph it does effect signal, i don't know the technical reasons for it but it can either come join to a routing problem to that specific sim. I had a situation in my store where we had an on going problem, we sent the phone away for repair 3 times and it was fine. The sim used to work fine, but after a number port it never had full signal again. It took some fiddling by our sales staff to start realising it wasn't the phone at all, it was the sim. A phone call to the network finally proved that and they replaced the sim card.

You'll forgive me if I'm seriously skeptical, for the technical reasons I outlined above. A sim card either provides the settings for a network connection, or it doesn't, there's no registers available on the sim that could possibly cause partial signal loss.

Picture a sim card like a set of dip switches, along with a couple of longer entries for msisdn (phone number) and IMSI (unique identifier). If the IMSI is wrong or missing, then you'll have no signal at all, likewise if the switches are set wrong, you'll have no signal.

Unless some other network is using some bizarre non standard variation on GSM of course....

Verbium · 26 Jul 2006 at 09:58

Well it was a Three sim card, i'm sure it wasn't directly related to the sim card but it was more of a routing issue that was easier to fix with a new sim card. Suppose thats a lot less hassle for the customer services team then trying to get the networking department to fix it as at least he knows the job is fixed there and then.

laissez-faire · 26 Jul 2006 at 11:32

I too don't think a sim could do anything but they are sending me a new one anyway. They say that if the new sim doesn't improve things I can cancel the contract.

They are being good about it, but rightly so. The sudden loss of coverage is grounds to cancel. It represents a 'significant change in the level of service provided' and thus I can cancel. I will have to move to O2 which will be fine for Southampton but up in Edinburgh it is a bit sketchy!

Sam